Chapter 34
Sunday starts with Cat and I standing at the island in the kitchen, drinking coffee, when my mother joins us and announces that she’s leaving my father, as if she didn’t announce the same thing last night. “But I’m not leaving my job at the university, or my home. I called him and told him to be gone when I get back.”
There’s the part she didn’t give us last night. She told him to leave. She just seemed to need to say it all out loud again. And she never wavers. She is strong about her decision, and there are no more tears. I make a few phone calls and line her up an attorney, and by evening, my siblings have talked to all of us, Cat included, about ten times. Cat and I cut them off when we take my mother out for a nice dinner. The night ends with Cat accepting the book deal and with her in my arms, in our bed.
Come Monday, since I have to be to work, Cat sees my mother off to the airport and then heads to her place to pack up some things, to bring what she needs. I arrive at work, and my secretary, Maria, a forty-something and a smart mouth, is mumbling in Spanish, which she still, after four years, doesn’t know I understand. I enter my office and sit down, and she appears in my doorway, her dress bright red and blinding. Everything about Maria is bright and bold. “You won. You’re a badass. All that stuff. Moving on. The press is calling constantly. Are you doing interviews at all?”
“No. Decline all.”
“I need a recording that says decline all,” she says. “Just so you know. It’s that many calls.”
“And?”
“Just letting you know how hard I’m working.” She turns and leaves, but she’ll be back.
My line buzzes, and I have about ten calls, all from clients and partners trying to catch up, congratulate me, or ask for something. Around ten, Royce Walker calls. “We have a problem.”
“Of course we do,” I say. “Why wouldn’t we have a problem?”
“Let’s start with the good news,” he says. “My insider says Kelli Ward is about ten seconds from confessing. The bad news is that they think your client knew all along and covered the murder up.”
“And they’re going after him for accessory this time.”
“Bingo.”
“Fuck. Thanks for the heads-up.” I end the call and dial Ward.
“Where are you?”
“Vermont,” he says.
“Get on a plane and get back here.”
“Why?”
“Kelli will likely be charged today.”
“Holy shit. She confessed?”
“Yes,” I say. “She confessed.”
“I can’t believe it,” he says, sounding dumbfounded. “I didn’t want to believe it was true.”
“I know, but you knew she did it,” I say, testing him.
“On some level, yes,” he says, “I think I did, but I wouldn’t have admitted that to even myself.”
“They’re going to try to say you did.”
“I was acquitted,” he argues.
“Knowledge of a crime even if you did not commit it is a crime. We’ll make this go away, but it looks better if you’re here, but not with her. Get a hotel room and stay away from her.”
“I don’t know if I have another round in me.”
“If I do, you do. No interviews. Don’t talk to anyone but me. Call me when you get back.”
“Understood.” We disconnect, and I call Cat.
“Hey,” she says. “Your mom’s plane just took off.”
“Kelli Ward is about to confess.”
“Why do you sound so unhappy about this?”
“They’re going to come at Nelson for covering it up. Or so Royce’s insider tells me.”
“Did he?”
“No. I don’t believe he did. I believe he was in love and oblivious, much like my mother for all of these years. Now you know what you’re writing about for tomorrow.”
“And what will be consuming you. Don’t you have that old friend that needs attention?”
“The corporate division is going after the people who got him into the mess he’s in. I need to go. I’ll call you later.” I start to hang up but stop. “Cat.”
“Yes?”
“I talk to you about my work.”
“What about it?”
“I talk to you about my work. I don’t want to stop. I need to have you sign a more extensive consulting agreement than the one you signed for the Ward case. More all-inclusive. Do you have a problem with that?”
“No. Of course not. I was actually going to suggest we do that. To protect everyone involved.”
“I’ll bring it home.”
“Home.” She laughs. “Yes. Bring it home, Reese.”
I smile. “Bye, sweetheart.” I hang up and stand, crossing my office, and passing Maria’s desk. “I’ll be upstairs in corporate.”
I take the stairs, not the elevator, and walk upstairs into the office of the senior partner who heads up that division. I don’t ask his secretary to enter. I just pass her by and enter his office. Kent, who is as good a friend as two workaholics can be, the same age as me, and just as aggressive as me, looks up from his desk. “What’s up, man?”
“That Allen case I have you working. How’s it looking?”
“Just digging in. You said I had two weeks to get your answer. Why?”
“Ward’s wife is confessing and they are going to try to get him for covering it up. I’m going to be buried again.”
“I’ve got this,” he says, running a hand through his dark hair. “I’m going to unbury everyone involved in this firm, and their illegal operations, use it to get your guy an out, and hand that to you to voodoo it away with the Feds.”
“This guy is a good guy,” I say. “I don’t want him fucked. I’m trusting you.”
“This is me you’re talking to,” Kent says. “I’ll get them. I’m a master at digging up dirt that others think can’t be dug up.”
“My guy doesn’t sign a release. Bluff them and sue the fuck out of them for putting him through this. And while you do that, I’m going to hand every dirty secret you find over to the Feds.”
“Now we’re talking. I love when we throw down.”
I exit his office and head back down to mine, passing Maria as she mumbles in Spanish again. I re-enter my office, with another spurt of phone calls driven my way, and it’s not long until I get the one I expect. The police want to question Nelson Ward again. I set the meeting and text Cat, giving her the heads-up. Because Cat has become a part of every inch of my life. I really don’t remember a few weeks ago before she was with me, and I don’t want to try.