Just Dreams (Brooks Sisters Dreams Series Book 1) (5 page)

Guilt and love for his father warred with Charles’ burning need for revenge.  He didn’t want his father to worry about him, but he had to do what he had to do.  The big man would just have to understand that.  “Look Dad, you know me.  I can’t just walk away from this and I don’t appreciate you asking me to.  Those bastards have to pay for what they took away from me.  A verdict – even a large one – would be nothing more than a drop in the bucket for Peachtree.  Their operative was engaged in illegal operations on behalf of the C.I.A. when he rammed his car into Patti’s.  I’m going to use the lawsuit to expose them for what they really are.”

Charles Morgan, Sr. leaned forward in his seat, reached across the table, and gripped Charles’ hand.  “I know that when you set your mind to something, son, nothing can change it. But have you considered the consequences of putting this plan into action?   If you expose an illegal government operation, you’re not only exposing Peachtree but also the government agency that hired the company.  That means you’ll not only piss off Peachtree but also the C.I.A.  If they even get wind of your intent, they will not hesitate to put your sorry black ass out of commission,” he said

Charles pulled his hand out from under his father’s and sighed.  His father had never understood him and never would.   “I do understand.  You’re just going to have to accept the fact that I have to do this and trust that I have a plan to address that contingency.”

“How exactly do you plan to address it?” 

“Once the information is out in the public domain, the damage will have already been done.  Taking me out then wouldn’t be a smart move as Peachtree and the C.I.A. would be the most obvious suspects.  Plus, they’ll most likely be facing an investigation,” Charles said.

His father sagged back into his chair and stared at him open-mouthed.  “That’s your plan? Are you crazy?  What’s to stop them from waiting a few months when the public forgets about the case and the investigation is over?  Don’t you think they’ll want revenge?  What’s your plan for that?”

Charles shrugged.  “I’ll handle that like I would any threat if and when the time comes.”

Charles Morgan Sr. shook his head.  “No.  I am not going to stand by while you go and get yourself killed thinking you can take on the world.  Do you hear me?  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some plans of my own to make.”  He stood up, threw his napkin onto the table, and walked out of the restaurant.

Charles sighed.  He’d just wanted to spend a little time with his father and maybe pick his brain a little about the case. He hadn’t intended to scare the man half to death. Guilt rose within him as he replayed the conversation in his head.  A small sliver of doubt about his plan began to rise as well.   He hadn’t told his father everything.  He couldn’t be sure who was listening. 

He looked around the large dining room of the restaurant.  It was mostly filled with business men and women wearing expensive suits while they wined and dined clients.  The rest of the clientele was the leisurely set one tends to see in Miami during the day – retirees, tourists and young women who either didn’t have to work or who worked at night.   No-one seemed out of place.  No-one appeared to be watching him either. But a good surveillance team wouldn’t make its presence known unless it wanted to. 

Feeling exposed, he got up, dropped some money onto the table and left the restaurant.

Kathy sat at the conference room table and looked over her outline one last time.  She then picked up her Blackberry and tried to put a dent in the barrage of e-mail she’d received that morning.  They were nowhere near trial yet, but, nonetheless, Charles’ case was consuming the lion’s share of her time. If she wasn’t careful, she’d drop a ball or two.  She couldn’t allow that to happen.   

In response to the court’s ruling, Peachtree Consulting had decided to play hardball.  They set Charles for deposition and tried to bury Kathy in paper.    Fifty-five boxes of documents had come in.  Jim and Kathy had worked for days reviewing them and they still hadn’t made a dent.  Kathy needed to assign an associate to the case.  She hoped Charles would be okay with that.

There was a knock at the conference room door.  Kathy looked up to see Annette leading Charles into the room. His eyes met hers. Her pulse jumped.  What was this?  Whatever it was, it needed to stop.  The last thing she needed was to be this attracted to her client.  It would only serve to distract her from the task at hand.  She couldn’t afford that.

Charles smiled at her.  She smiled back, uncrossed her legs, stood up and held out her hand to shake his.  He clasped it warmly. “Good morning, Counselor.”

“Good morning Charles.  Please have a seat.”  Kathy extracted her hand from his and turned to look at Annette, who stood there, smiling. “Thank you, Annette.  Please hold all of my calls for the next few hours.”

“Okay.  Give me a call if you need anything.  I’ve already arranged for lunch to be brought in.” Annette continued to stand there. 

“Okay.  I will.” Kathy caught Annette’s eye and jerked her head a little toward the door.  Annette cleared her throat and left. 

Kathy turned to Charles who sat at the conference room table with an amused expression on his face.  She raised her eyebrows.  “You’d better watch out for my secretary.  She’s quite taken with you.”

Charles grinned and shrugged.  “I sometimes have that effect on women.”

“I bet,” she said.  “Can I offer you some coffee before we get started?”

“I’ll get it,” he said.  He got up and headed over to the credenza.  “Do you want some tea while I’m up here?”

Kathy smiled.  His question reminded her of something her father used to say about how it would be nice for her to find a “special friend” to make her a nice cup of tea from time to time.  Well here was a man offering to do just that and he was off limits. 

Why were all the good ones unattainable?  They were either married, about to get married or, in this case, untouchable.  If only they could have met under different circumstances.  It would have been interesting to see just how far it would go.  Of course, he’d probably end up being a liar and a cheat like all the other men in her life.

“Yes, I’d like a cup.  I just need some hot water.  I have my teabag and my sweetener right here,” she said. 

She watched as he put two cups into saucers, poured out his coffee and her hot water and grabbed spoons and napkins.  He placed her cup in front of her and took his seat.  She made her tea.  He took a sip of his coffee. 

“So,” she said, “I asked you to come in this morning for two reasons.  One, defendants have set a date for your deposition and we have to get you ready for that.  Two, defendants have produced documents and interrogatory answers in response to the discovery we served on them.  Unfortunately, -.”

He put down his coffee cup and sat upright in his chair.  “They produced documents and answered the interrogatories?  What did they say?”

She held up a hand to ward him off.  “As I was saying, unfortunately, they’ve designated every single one of the interrogatory answers and the documents they produced as being highly confidential.  That means they’re ‘attorney’s eyes only’ and I can’t show them to you or tell you what they say.”

Charles’ hands balled into fists.  “That’s ridiculous!  You mean to tell me that every single one of those interrogatory answers and every page of those documents contains highly classified information?  Come on.”

Kathy shrugged. “I agree. It’s utterly ridiculous for them to have designated all of the discovery responses as being highly confidential. We intend to challenge that.  I’ve read the interrogatory answers. They’re so vague and evasive that nothing in them could possibly raise national security concerns.  Jim and I have gone through ten of the fifty boxes of documents they produced and, so far, we’ve yet to see a single document raising national security implications.”

“The old bury them in paper trick.”  Charles blew out a breath and slumped back into his chair.  “This would go so much faster if I could help you look through those documents.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Kathy said.  “But look, they’ve played this trick on the wrong law firm.  We’re used to dealing with large volumes of discovery.  We’ve already scanned and loaded the documents into a document database program and made them fully searchable. Jim and I can log onto the system, access the documents on our laptops and review them anytime from anywhere.”

Charles perked up a little.  “Well at least that’s something.  So, how long will it take for you and Jim to finish reviewing those documents and for us to make our next move?”

Kathy grimaced.  “It’s slow going with just the two of us.  It’s going to take us at least another week just to get our arms around what they’ve given us so that we can complain about what they haven’t.  Jim is preparing a chart of the types of documents we have and what we can tell is missing.  But he needs more direction from an attorney and, at my hourly rate, it’s just not feasible. With your permission, I’d like to bring on an associate to help out.  She’d be able to focus on the project and do it at a lower hourly rate.”

He waved a hand.  “I told you money wasn’t a problem.  Do whatever you have to do.”

She smiled.  “Let’s hope you remember this conversation when you get our bill.”

He returned her smile.  “I’m more likely to remember it in the event we win.”

She grimaced.  “No pressure. Oh well, I guess I’d better start earning my fee.”  She picked up a manila folder and extracted an outline from it.  She then folded her hands on the table and gave him a serious look.  

Charles’ smile slowly faded.  A small frown creased his eyebrows. “What?”

“Have you ever been deposed before?”

“No.”

“Your deposition will probably take place in a conference room in Weisman’s office.  I’ll be there, Weisman will be there, a representative of Peachtree and Wilkes might attend, as well as a court reporter and a videographer.  Weisman will ask you questions under oath and the court reporter will take everything down.  When you answer his questions, there are some important things you need to remember.  First, no matter how upsetting or insulting the questions, do not, under any circumstances, go on a rant.  Only answer the question asked.  Nothing more.”

He raised his eyebrows.  “So, based on the fact that I lost my cool during the first press conference, you think I’m likely to go spouting off at the mouth during my deposition.”  He shook his head.  “That’s not going to happen.  I learned my lesson when I saw the replay of that news clip.  I promise not to lose my cool anymore - on camera or off.” 

“Good,” she said.  “Let’s hope you’re a man of your word, because that promise is going to be harder to keep than you can possibly imagine.  I learned that the hard way when I was deposed in my divorce case.  I thought I had it all under control ---.”

“Wait – you’re divorced?” he asked.

“Yes.  Why do you look so shocked by that?  Does my being divorced offend your sensibilities?”

“No.  It’s just that I imagined you as the quintessential career woman – dedicated to the law and duty and all that.  I didn’t see you as the marrying type.  So what happened?  Did working all hours of the day and night put a damper on things?”

She stiffened. “My personal life has no relevance here. What is relevant is that Peachtree is going to dig into your personal life with a vengeance during this deposition.   The point I was trying to make is that, no matter how personal or offensive their questions might seem, you’re going to have to answer them - candidly and without losing your cool.  That is, unless I instruct you not to.  The deposition will be videotaped and they have the right to play the video at trial.  The jury will have the opportunity to see every expression on your face and hear every inflection in your voice,”

“I see.”  He tugged at the knot of his tie as if trying to keep it from choking him. 

“Not really,” she said, “but you will.  I‘ve prepared an outline of potential deposition questions. We’re going to run through them so I can evaluate how you answer them.”

They ran through the list of preliminary background questions about education and employment. Kathy learned a lot about him.  She hadn’t known that he was an ex-Marine, for example, or that he and his wife had met when they were both serving in the armed services.  She was a Navy nurse assigned to a Navy hospital overseas.  They met when he was wounded and she nursed him back to health.  It was a story straight out of a romance novel.  Kathy couldn’t help but feel a little envious. She got over that feeling quickly when he got to the year of Patricia’s death.

“I was on the road all the time doing book tours and, when I was home, I was locked away writing the next book,” he said.  “Patti was complaining about never getting to spend time with me anymore. One morning, we got into a heated argument.” 

He paused, getting up to pour himself a glass of water.  He sat down, set his cup onto the table and closed his eyes.  “That was the last time I ever spoke to her.  I told her to stop whining and that I was too busy to deal with her bullshit.  I didn’t even tell her that I loved her. ”

Kathy knew the story all too well.  It was the tale of many lawyers and other busy professionals whose jobs demanded too much of their time.  She imagined that his arguments with his wife were not so very different from the ones she used to have with her ex-husband when she had killed herself working seventy or more hours a week to make partner at her law firm.  Eventually, he stopped arguing with her and used her work schedule as an excuse to have an affair with his secretary.

Charles was so obviously in pain that Kathy put her hand over his to comfort him.  “Patti knew that you loved her.  You were under a great deal of stress.  I’m sure she understood that.”

He opened his eyes, turned his hand around in hers and gave her hand a gentle squeeze.  “Thank you.  I never told anyone else that.”

She wiggled her eyebrows at him to lighten the mood.  “We have ways of making you talk,” she said, using what she imagined to be a Transylvanian accent. 

He chuckled.  “Let’s hope counsel for Peachtree isn’t as good at making me talk as you are.”

She smiled at him, squeezed his hand lightly and then released it. “Okay. Although it’s hard to imagine a line of questioning more intimate than that, the next set of questions is designed to deal with your claim for loss of consortium.  Here, they get to ask you questions about your sex life with Patti – whether either of you ever had an extra-marital affair, which one of you prepared the meals, did the housework, and so on and so forth.  Would you like to take a short break before we begin?”

He stared at her open-mouthed for a second.  “No.”  The word came out in a croak. 

Kathy smothered a smile and raised an eyebrow. 

Charles cleared his throat and gestured for her to proceed. 

“So, how would you describe your sex life with your wife?” she asked.

When they were done with that line of questions, the room seemed a little warm to Kathy. She got up to adjust the temperature on the thermostat on the wall. She knew it was completely unprofessional for her to be intrigued by her client’s answers, but she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to be married to the man.  According to Charles, despite their arguments, he and his wife made love three to four times a week.  And they were in their fifth year of marriage.  They must have been very much in love and the sex must have been incredible. 

Charles watched her adjust the thermostat.  “I have a request to make.” 

“Yes?”

“Well, it’s just not fair that you get to learn the most intimate details of my life and I don’t get to learn anything about you,” he said.  “So, in the interests of fairness, I propose that we go out for drinks later on and you allow me to get to know you a little better.”

She frowned.  “Charles, are you asking me out on a date?  If so, I need to tell you that GRH has a very strict anti-fraternization policy.  We’re not allowed to date our clients. There are also ethical rules that come into play.”

He shook his head.  “No, I just like to know who I’m dealing with.  It’s not unusual for attorneys and their clients to network and socialize outside of the office.  You and I have never even had lunch together and here we are discussing the most intimate details of my relationship with my wife.  I just thought having a drink together after work might be a more conducive setting in which to get to know you.”

It made perfect sense.  Here she was accusing the man of wanting to take her out on a date when all he wanted to do was to get to know the person with whom he’d just shared his life story. If she were a man, she wouldn’t think twice about the invitation.  In fact, she’d probably relish the opportunity to do a little male bonding with the client over a beer after work.  The fact that she was a woman who was undeniably attracted to him tended to complicate things.  But she’d have to get over that if she wanted to be successful in bringing in business. “In that case, I’d love to have a drink with you after work.  Why don’t we meet at O’Shaughnessy’s Grill on the Beach, at say, eight o’clock?”