Chapter 15 #2
The new upstairs bathroom smelled like grout and lemon polish. Hank was on his knees on a folded towel with a notched trowel in one hand and a bucket of mortar at his elbow. He had grout down the front of his T-shirt.
“You’re late,” Hank said by way of a hello.
“I had a meeting.”
“Boone or Cooper?”
“Both.”
“Curtis?” Hank asked.
“Cased Grace again last night.”
Hank set the trowel down. “Did he do anything?”
“Nope. Cooper tailed him the whole time.”
“Grace know?”
“Tonight.”
Hank nodded and went back to work. Reno stood with his weight on his good leg and watched his brother set tile.
“Cooper told me that Curtis’s mother is planning to sue Grace. I’m taking the case. I’m going to defend Grace.”
“Sue her for what?”
“For having a more successful bakery,” Reno answered dryly.
“It’s legal to sue over that?”
“It’s a nuisance lawsuit. The kind somebody with money files when they want somebody without money to go away.”
“What does Grace think about it?”
“She doesn’t know yet. I’ll tell her tonight.”
Hank set another tile. He didn’t say anything for a while, but his mouth did the thing Reno recognized as Hank holding back something he wanted to say.
“Out with it,” Reno finally demanded.
“Took you long enough.”
Reno didn’t say anything to that. He hadn’t had a good enough reason before now to come back to law. But Madison and Grace were family.
“Hank?”
“Mm.”
“I’m being your lawyer right now, and I want you to listen to me. You’re going to win the custody hearing.”
“Madison’s mother didn’t look for her when Madi ran away.
Madi made it all the way from Florida to Montana, by bus, without her mother even bothering to text her and ask her where she was.
You have texts. You have receipts. You have proof of Lorraine’s past and present substance abuse.
You have a tile bill from this very bathroom that establishes a child’s domicile in a home renovated for her.
You’ve established a medical practice and a house.
You have a whole town full of people who will write letters to say you’re a model citizen, a pillar of the community, and an all-around great guy who will be an amazing father. ”
“I know all that.”
“There’s something else I dug up that I wasn’t sure if I should mention to you or not,” Reno said quietly.
Hank looked up sharply.
“I always like to have one piece of evidence I hold in reserve for if the case looks like it’s not going my way. Something high impact to sway the jury, or in this case, the judge.”
Hank’s eyebrows went up. “What did you dig up?”
“The law firm administering Madi’s trust fund sent a letter to Madison at Lorraine’s home in Florida on her 14th birthday, which, as you know, was last month. “
Hank frowned. “Do you know what was in the letter?”
“As Madison’s counsel, I was able to get a copy.”
“And?”
“Per the conditions of the trust that Grandpa Steele set up, at age 14, Madison is to start receiving an annual report on the contents of the trust fund. The letter to Florida was the first report on its current value. It’s worth over two million dollars.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope. It’s had fourteen years to grow, and the trust fund manager invested it very well. It’s projected to be worth close to three million dollars by the time Madison turns eighteen and has access to it.”
“How is that high impact information to sway a judge?” Hank asked astutely.
Reno grinned. “The high impact bit is the fact that Lorraine filed a lawsuit to regain custody of Madison from her parents the day after the letter arrived at her home. The date the letter arrived is also the exact date Lorraine’s texts to Madi abruptly shifted from angry, accusing, and occasionally threatening to sweet as pie, missing her baby, and loving her SO much. ”
Hank stared at him for a long time. “Will something like that really sway a judge?”
“Absolutely. Judges are a lot of things, but they’re rarely na?ve. They’ll see the connection between finding out her kid’s inheriting a big wad of cash and Lorraine’s sudden desire to sweet talk her kid and regain custody.”
“What if Lorraine’s parents take her side in the custody hearing and say Lorraine’s trying to get clean and had an honest change a heart?”
“They haven’t spoken with their own daughter in seven years except for a single phone call to tell Lorraine that Madison had shown up on their doorstep in the middle of the night and was safe with them. I’m not worried about them lying on Lorraine’s behalf.”
Hank looked unconvinced.
“Even if they try, I’ll break down their lies in cross examination.
It’ll help that you and Madi can both testify that Lorraine’s been estranged from her parents for years and had no contact at all with them.
Didn’t you bring Madison up to Bozeman every summer for a visit without Lorraine for a while, there, when you two were still married? ”
“I did. Lorraine’s folks didn’t want to see her, but they did want to know their grandchild.”
“Like I said. Your case is a slam dunk, Hank. I want you to remember this conversation the night before the custody hearing when you’re awake at two AM., convinced you’re going to lose her.”
Hank set another tile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. That’ll be nine-hundred-dollars,” Reno said dry as dust.
Hank burst out laughing. “Sheesh. Good thing I’m getting the family rate.”
“That is the family rate. I charged big corporations fourteen-hundred-dollars per hour.”
“Yowza. I went into the wrong profession!”
“No you didn’t. You’re a healer through and through. You fix everyone you meet.”
Hank sat back on his heels, looking at the row of tiles he’d just set. He nudged one tile slightly. “Madison wants to pick the paint color for her room before I paint it, so that’s one project off my list to finish before she gets here.”
“She won’t care if everything’s not perfect or completely finished. She’ll be pleased as punch that you’ve built her an entire bathroom of her own. Oh, and Grace wanted me to tell you she’s looking forward to meeting Madison.”
“You’ll be here Friday night, then?”
“With Grace and Lily.” Reno confirmed. “Wouldn’t miss it.”
“Madison wants to know what kind of woman landed you.”
Reno smiled. “The best kind of woman landed me.”
Hank shot him a look clocking that Reno considered himself landed. But all he said was, “Pass me the bag of spacers.”
Reno handed over the spacers.
“How’s the knee?”
“Better.”
“How much better?”
“A two most of the time. A four when I’m an idiot.”
“Idiot less.”
“Working on it.”
Hank stood up and stretched his lower back. “Tell Grace about her lawsuit, and don’t do anything stupid that’s going to force me to drive to a hospital.”
“I’m working on that, too, Grandma.”
Hank punched him affectionately on the arm, and they went back to work.
On his way to pick up Lily, he stopped at the drugstore on Main Street.
The kid’s aisle had stickers, and he found a pack with bright pink lettering that said, “I’m AWESOME!
” The girl at the register asked if it was for someone special, and he said yes.
As she put it in a bag, she called him Sweetie, which was a thing women in this town did to him frequently.
He’d never figured out how to respond except to say, thank you, Ma’am, and leave as quickly as possible.
Lily came out the door of the preschool and climbed into her booster seat with great purpose. She reported proudly that she’d been allowed to wash the paintbrushes today, which was a Big Job.
“Wow!” He exclaimed, genuinely tickled. Not at the paintbrushes, but at how proud of herself she was. “Way to go!”
“Joey didn’t get to do it because he’s bad at paintbrushes.”
“What makes a person bad at paintbrushes?”
“He squeezes too hard.”
“Good to know.”
He drove to the back of Buns ’N’ Roses and pulled into the alley. Grace came out the back door with flour on her cheek and her hair coming out of the knot at the back of her head. She looked like a million bucks.
He drove the long way home, taking the road that ran right beside the lakefront until west of town. Schools of tiny fish, each one a flashing sliver of silver, were jumping out of the water today, and Lily squealed with excitement.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her it meant bigger fish were hunting from below and gobbling up members of the schools of fish.
When the road turned away from the lake and they’d rejoined the main road out of town, Lily announced that her stuffed seal had finally decided on its birthday cake. It had chosen carrot cake with a frog on top.
When they pulled into the driveway at the cottage, Lily spontaneously announced that being head paintbrush cleaner had earned her a sticker. She looked at him expectantly.
Grinning, he reached into the bag on the seat beside him and fished out one of the new sticker and handed it back. Lily took it and looked at it as Grace told her what it said.
“Mr. Reno, you’re awesome, too.
He had to look at the steering wheel for a second to manage that one. “Thank you, Sweetheart.”
He ushered Grace and Lily inside, and recruited Lily to tuck Grace into bed for a nap, which tickled Lily to no end to do. He heard Grace laugh in her room, and then Lily emerged, looking triumphant.
He set up Lily on the back lawn with construction paper and safety scissors while he pulled out his laptop and got caught up on Montana statutes listing maximum penalties for filing frivolous lawsuits.
He was delighted to see the state would allow him to file a malicious prosecution counter-lawsuit against Tara Marchand and against her lawyer, as well.
He went to work drafting the preliminary filing on it.