by Meg Cabot
Like when Mrs. Lopez was all happy to see me and offered me a slice of carrot cake from this pan she’d brought along, the T.O.D. gave me the dirtiest look for actually taking it. The cake, I mean. Maybe she was just jealous because Mrs. Lopez didn’t offerher cake. . . . Probably she’ll turn it into a whole big thing about how I’ve let the department down or something by siding with staff instead of management. I bet I’ll be playing trust games from now until the end of time.
I don’t care, though. This cake is heaven. If only I could make something as good for dessert when I go over to Mitch’s. Mrs. L gave me the recipe. And they say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. . . .
He has on a Wonder Woman tie today. I love Wonder Woman. SHE would never let a tyrannical office despot make her feel guilty for eating cake.
What’s really weird is, when he showed up, Mrs. Lopez gave HIM cake, too. Not Stuart. She didn’t offer STUART one. But she did his brother.
Which means Mrs. Lopez’s whole thing about Stuart (whatever it is) isn’t because of a Hertzog FAMILY trait.
Why I should find this so comforting, I hardly know. But for some reason, the fact that Mrs. Lopez likes Mitch makes me not feel so bad about liking him, too.
Oops, here comes his assistant. I guess it’s my turn.
Ida Lopez’s Carrot Cake
Preheat oven to 350° F. Butter and flour two 9-inch cake pans.
Sift together and set aside:
2 cups flour
2 ½ teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
In a separate bowl, combine one cup canola oil and 1 ½ cups sugar. To the oil/sugar mixture add three eggs and the dry ingredients. Then add:
1 cup unsweetened apple sauce
3/4 cups grated California carrots (squeeze out the juice using cheesecloth)
1 cup walnuts
Mix on low speed until just incorporated (do not overmix). Divide batter between the two cake pans. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Give pans a quarter turn every 15 minutes.
To make the frosting, cream together 13 oz. cream cheese (room temperature), 5 oz. butter (room temperature). 1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.
Deposition of Kathleen Mackenzie
in case of Ida D. Lopez/United Staff
Association of NYJ. Local 6884
vs.
The New York Journal
held at the offices of
Hertzog Webber and Doyle
444 Madison Avenue, Suite 1505
New York, NY 10022
Appearances:
Kathleen Mackenzie (KM)
Mitchell Hertzog (MH)
Amy Jenkins (AJ)
Stuart Hertzog (SH)
Ida Lopez (IL)
Jeri Valentine (JV), attorney for the plaintiff
Recorded by Anne Kelly (AK) for later comparison with stenographer’s transcript
Miriam Lowe, Shorthand Reporter and Notary Public within and for the State of New York
MH: Ms. Mackenzie, thank you so much for being here today. Ms. Mackenzie, Mrs. Lopez’s attorney and I have just been discussing the case of Ida Lopez with your supervisor, Ms. Jenkins, and there seems to be a disagreement that I hope you can settle, if you’d be amenable to that.
SH: Objection.
MH: Stuart, you can’t object. This is pretrial discovery, not the courtroom.
SH: Well, you didn’t listen last time I tried to interrupt.
MH: Maybe because you shouldn’t be interrupting.
SH: When it comes to the protection of my client, I most certainly will interrupt, as often as I deem necessary, if doing so will get us to the truth.
JV: Pardon me for interrupting, gentlemen. But don’t you two have the same client?
SH: You’d think so, wouldn’t you? We’re supposed to be working to get at the truth here, Mitch. For ourclient.
MH: But that’s what I’m trying to do. Get to the truth.
SH: By asking Ms. Mackenzie about a letter she can’t possibly remember writing?
MH: I am willing to give Ms. Mackenzie more credit than you are. I believe she is capable of remembering documents that she sent out under her own name. Most people are.
SH: Yes, but most people don’t, as Ms. Mackenzie does, have several hundred employees about whom she writes letters every day.
MH: She doesn’t write several hundred letters a day, however. Do you, Ms. Mackenzie?
KM: No.
JV: Don’t look at me, Stuart.I’mcertainly not going to object.
SH: Mitch—
MH: Ms. Jenkins, do you maintain that Ms. Mackenzie writes several hundred letters a day?
AJ: No, certainly not. But I do maintain that the document in question might—
MH: Let’s just ask Ms. Mackenzie, shall we? Ms. Mackenzie, I’m going to ask you about a certain document that you allegedly wrote, and I want you to tell me what you can about it.
KM: Well, I’ll try.
MH: Great. The document in question is a letter of written warning that Ms. Jenkins alleges Ida Lopez received before her dismissal last week. Do you remember writing such a letter?
KM: I remember writing arough draft of a warning letter to Mrs. Lopez after an incident that occurred prior to the one for which she was dismissed.
AJ: See? I told you!
JV: Excuse me, Ms. Jenkins. I believe, Ms. Mackenzie, you said youdrafted such a letter?
KM: Yes. But I never finished it.
AJ: That’s a lie!
JV: Please, Ms. Jenkins. Mr. Hertzog, would you please control your client?
MH: Hey there, Amy. Simmer down.
SH: This is ridiculous! Ms. Jenkins is understandably upset. The letter in question was undoubtedly finished and sent, as we have the signed copy right here, initialed by Mrs. Lopez to indicate she received it—
IL: And I tell you, I didn’t sign any such letter!
KM: She’s right. Mrs. Lopez couldn’t have initialed the letter I was writing to her, because I never finished it. I got interrupted, and right after that, the T.O.D—I mean, Amy—called, and said I was to dis—
AJ: I did not!
KM: —miss Mrs. Lopez. Amy, what are you talking about? Yes, you did.
AJ: This is a complete fabrication, a campaign by an incompetent employee to cover her ass because SHE screwed up!
KM: What are you talking about? You told me—
AJ: She’s lying! Stuart, she’s obviously lying. How could she not be, when the very fact that the letter exists AND was initialed by Mrs. Lopez—
IL: I didn’t initial anything! No one ever gave me anything!
MH: There’s an easy way to clear up this disagreement, don’t you think, Jeri? Why don’t you show a copy of the letter in question to Ms. Mackenzie—
AJ: This is an outrage! Stuart, are you going to let him do this to me? Are you going to take the word of someone with a clear grudge against the paper over mine?
JV: Ms. Mackenzie has no reason to harbor a grudge against the paper. Do you, Ms. Mackenzie?
KM: No, of course not.
JV: Fine. Now, if you would just look at this paper here that was found in Mrs. Lopez’s personnel file. . . .
SH: Mitch, could I please see you in the hallway?
MH: Hang on a minute, Stuie. I want to see what Ms. Mackenzie has to say.
SH: Mitch. The hallway. Now.
JV: Mr. Hertzog, could you please be quiet? Ms. Mackenzie is trying to concentrate.
SH: Oh, you have got to be shitting me with this, Jeri.
JV: I beg your pardon, but I’m not. Part of my client’s case against the paper includes the fact that proper procedure for dismissal—in this case as stipulated by her union—was not followed. And yet, miraculously, this piece of paper, which my client says she’s never seen before, has appeared in her file. I just want to verify that Ms. Mackenzie did indeed write and send it. Ms. Mackenzie? Did you indeed write and send the letter of written warn
ing you are holding in your hand right now?
AJ: You can’t ask her to remember every piece of paper that crosses her desk. She’s just a paper pusher, after all—
JV: Again, Mitch, I’d like to ask that you control your client.
MH: Amy. Cool it.
SH: Coolthis, Mitch.
MH: Miriam, could you please let it be noted in the transcript that counsel for the defense just gave his fellow counsel for the defense what is known in the vernacular as “the finger”?
ML: Yes, sir.
SH: Miriam, strike that.
MH: Too late. Isn’t it, Miriam?
ML: Yes, sir.
JV: Ms. Mackenzie.
KM: Yes?
JV: The paper you’re holding. Do you remember writing it?
KM: Um. Well, I remember starting it . . . or one like it.
AJ: See? See, I told you she couldn’t remember. Can I go now?
JV: Please, Ms. Jenkins. Ms. Mackenzie?
KM: But I didn’t write this.
AJ: She’s lying!
SH: Really, Jeri, can’t you see what she’s doing? This young woman has a grudge against her employer because Ms. Jenkins had to reprimand her yesterday for wearing a skirt of an inappropriate length to the office, and she’s just trying to—
JV: Is that true, Ms. Mackenzie?
KM: Well. Yes, about the skirt. I mean, Amy issued me a warning letter about it.
MH: That skirt you had on yesterday? That black suede one you wore to the restaurant?
KM: Um. Yes.
MH: I liked that skirt. What was wrong with that skirt?
SH: Would you PLEASE stick to the topic at hand, Mitchell? We’re talking about forgery here. Because if that girl is saying she didn’t send the letter she’s holding, that is a very serious accusation—
MH: Did you sign this letter, Kate?
KM: That looks like my signature. But I didn’t write—or sign—this letter.
AJ: That’s impossible!
MH: And you didn’t hand that letter to Mrs. Lopez to initial?
KM: At no time did I hand any document of any kind to Mrs. Lopez to sign.
JV: Thank you very much, Ms. Mackenzie. Mr. Hertzog, Ms. Jenkins, looks like I’ll be seeing you both in court. Ida, let’s go.
SH: Hold on just a minute, here! Jeri, put your damned briefcase down. We aren’t done yet.
MH: Really? I think we are.
SH: Excuse me, Ms. Mackenzie. Do you realize the seriousness of what you’re saying?
MH: Do you think we’re done, Jeri?
JV: Very much so, Mitch.
SH: You’re implying, Ms. Mackenzie, that somebody has committed forgery.
KM: Well. I don’t know about that. All I know is, I didn’t write that letter. And I didn’t give it to Mrs. Lopez to sign.
MH: Thank you very much, Ms. Mackenzie. You may go now.
SH: No, she may not fucking go, Mitch.
JV: Well, my client and I are fucking going.
SH: Nobody is going anywhere. Ms. Mackenzie, how long have you worked at theNew York Journal?
JV: Stuart, Ms. Mackenzie has already been deposed. I’m not interested in—
SH: Yes, but you asked that she be brought here today, to help clear some things up—your words, no?
JV: Yes, but—
SH: Well, that’s all I’m trying to do. Help clear things up. Now. Ms. Mackenzie, you’ve been with the paper for a little less than a year, correct?
MH: Stuart, this is my case, I believe, not yours.
KM: Um. Yes?
SH: Right. And I believe you were hired on the strong recommendation of your friend, Ms. Jennifer Sadler. Is that correct?
KM: Jen told me about the opening in her office, yes, and I applied. . . .
MH: I believe your exact words, Stuart, were that you were too personally involved in the case to want to get involved. . . .
SH: And so you were hired, is that correct, Ms. Mackenzie? And you and Jen, as you call her . . . Would you say she is your best friend?
MH: Stuart, where the hell are you going with this?
SH: Excuse me. I ask only to be extended the same courtesy I extended to you, Mitchell. Were you not, Ms. Mackenzie, living with Ms. Sadler until recently?
KM: Well, I . . . I mean, I’ve been having some trouble finding a place, and so I was staying at Jen’s until I could find somewhere I could afford on my own. . . .
SH: And do you and Ms. Sadler—whom I believe you met in college—sometimes gossip in the workplace?
MH: Stuart. Really. What does this—
SH: Oh, that will become apparent. Don’t you two like to pass notes, and Instant Message each other, and e-mail back and forth between your computers on an almost constant basis, Ms. Mackenzie?
KM: Well, Jen and I . . . I mean, we maintain a close working relationship, and she helps me with many work-related projects—
SH: Work-related. Is your commenting on the apparel of your supervisor, Ms. Jenkins, work related?
KM: Well, apparently her commenting on mine is—so, yes.
MH: Touché.
SH: What about referring to Ms. Jenkins as . . . What is it again? Oh, yes. The T.O.D. Is that work related?
KM: How did you—
MH: Stuart. Cut it out.
JV: I agree with Mitch. What does any of this have to do with the fact that your client—or at least someone in her office—forged my client’s initials on a document she never even saw?
SH: I’m getting to that. What does T.O.D. mean, Ms. Mackenzie?
KM: Um. It means . . . It means Tough On Doubters. Because Amy’s always very tough on people who doubt . . . her ability.
SH: Tough on Doubters.
KM: Uh-huh.
SH: You realize you’re supposed to be telling the truth here, don’t you, Ms. Mackenzie?
KM: (inaudible)
SH: What was that, Ms. Mackenzie?
KM: Nothing.
SH: Isn’t it true that you and Ms. Sadler dislike Ms. Jenkins, and spend most of your time at the office every day making fun of her?
KM: No. That’s not true at all.
SH: Isn’t it also true that you are friendly with a number ofNew York Journal employees who’d like nothing better than to see Mrs. Lopez reinstated?
KM: Well, yes. I mean, everybody loves Mrs. Lopez, and we all miss her very much—
SH: That is an inaccurate statement right there. Not everyone at theNew York Journal loves Mrs. Lopez. Not everyone believes she is entitled to get her job back. Not everyone agrees she even MAKES the best key lime pie in the city—
MH: Stuart. Come on. This is getting personal now, and I don’t think—
SH: YOUR friends are the only ones who feel that way, isn’t that so, Ms. Mackenzie? Including the woman you are now living with, Ms. Dolly Vargas. Who happens to be involved—and I mean in the romantic sense—with the owner of theNew York Journal, Peter Hargrave, who ALSO expressed regret at the loss of Mrs. Lopez’s baked goods. Isn’t that so, Ms. Mackenzie?
KM: Isn’t what so? That I’m living with Dolly, or that Peter likes Mrs. Lopez’s cinnamon buns?
SH: Isn’t it true, Ms. Mackenzie, that you and the entire staff of theNew York Journal are so addicted to this woman’s baking that you are lying about not having written that letter of warning in order to afford her a loophole with which she might win back her post?
KM: No!
MH: Stuart. Come on.
SH: Isn’t it true that your dislike of Amy Jenkins is so strong that you would do anything to get her into trouble with her superiors—such as deny having written a document that has what even you stated appears to be your signature on it?
KM: No! I mean, yes, it looks like my signature, but it’s not. I never even got a chance to finish writing it. Amy e-mailed me and said—
SH: That’s all. No more questions.
KM: But it’s not true. About the letter. I mean—
SH: I said no more questions, Ms. Mackenzie.
SH: Better than you will, when Dad hears about this. Come on, Amy. We’re done here.
Journal of Kate Mackenzie
I’m in trouble. BIG trouble.
Oh my God. Oh my God, I don’t understand any of this. Mitch says it’s nothing, but I think he’s just saying that to make me feel better. It’s not nothing. It’s clearly not nothing. I mean, my boss just accused me of being a liar. How can that be nothing?
And I can see how from her point of view it would be more beneficial forme to be perceived as a liar than, you know, her. Which is basically what she is. I mean, ONE of us is lying, and if it’s not me, it has to be her. Because I certainly never wrote that letter, and I certainly never had Mrs. Lopez sign it.
So who did?
At least I have Mrs. Lopez to back me up. She says she didn’t sign it either.
Except . . .
I’m sorry, Mrs. Lopez is very sweet, but she’s not the most reliable witness. I mean, she definitely has an agenda, which is getting her job back. Mine is apparently that I want to get back at AMY, but for what? I mean, it’s true I think she’s a big, shallow loser and it’s true we call her the T.O.D., but how did she find out? Jen’s going to freak when she hears Amy knows, and the last thing I want is to freak out Jen, she’s got enough problems as it is with the fertility thing and—
OH!!! I’ve got to get control of myself. Think about something other than Stuart Hertzog. Think about kittens and rainbows. Oh yuck, that won’t work. Think about the Travel Channel. Yes, the Travel Channel, teal blue seas and yawning blue sky overhead, little huts on stilts above the water, like in Bali . . .
Oh my God, I can’t believe my boss basically accused me of being a liar in front of Mitch Hertzog, the one person in the world I wanted to impress with my cool professionalism. So far I’ve blathered about chicken and garlic sauce to him, had my ex-boyfriend THROW chicken in garlic sauce on him, nearly gotten sick in front of him, had my ex sing ballads in front of him, and now my boss is calling me a liar in front of him. . . .
