Trial by Fury (30 page)

“Except it isn’t going to get cleaned up as long as the same bad actors are there. The administrators, the cops…Harwood needs a turnover.”

“And they’ll get it. We passed a unanimous resolution at the faculty senate calling for accountability.”

“What does that even mean, Celia? Can the faculty senate force the police to investigate sexual assault complaints? Are they going to allocate the budget to set up rape crisis centers and hire victims’ advocates to help get these women through the trauma?”

To her credit, Theo seemed to be doing her best to control the tone of her voice so as not to sound as if she were on the attack. Her questions, however, were borderline absurd.

“We can keep the pressure on them, Theo. Believe me, they don’t want us bringing it up over and over. They’ll fix it for no other reason than so we’ll leave them alone.”

Theo followed her back up to the office, where she commandeered the desk chair. “But that doesn’t fix anything for these women. They deserve some kind of personal justice, not only against their rapists but against the system that shut them down. Any one of them could have ended up like Hayley.”

“Come on, Theo. That’s below the belt.”

“It’s not a dig against you. But if you’re taking it personally, maybe you should ask yourself why.”

Celia could feel the pressure, whether Theo admitted to applying it or not. “Are we having another fight about this? It sure feels like it.”

“It’s not a fight. It’s just a discussion. Can’t I talk to you about my work? Or is this particular case off limits? That would be really weird, since it’s the only case I currently have that actually involves both of us.”

She was right about that, a point Celia found frustrating. Even if Theo managed to build a case without using her testimony and audiotape, there was no way she could disentangle herself, since she was the one who brought Theo to Harwood’s doorstep.

“I told you the other night, Celia. I won’t let this come between us. It’s my job to handle it, but I don’t have to talk about it if it bothers you this much.”

And now Theo was being reasonable, which was also frustrating. It made Celia feel like a brat who had to be accommodated lest she throw a tantrum.

* * *

Celia looked stunning sitting across the table in her black dress, the same one Theo had tossed on the floor of her bedroom the night they first made love. Almost too sexy for dinner with friends.

They’d been invited to celebrate the Hendershots’ fortieth anniversary at Aria, the couple’s favorite restaurant in Buckhead. The artistic presentations of each course complemented the modern ambience of the black and white decor.

The early conversation centered around the chore of packing and moving, which Celia announced she was never doing again. “I’m serious. If this doesn’t work out, I’m keeping the penthouse and kicking Theo out.”

“Atta girl!” Gloria clinked her wineglass to Celia’s in a toast. “I’ll help you find a good attorney.”

“I remember when I first asked Gloria to move in with me,” Lewis said. “She was working on her PhD, I was in law school. Who had time to run all over hell and half of Georgia just for a date? But she said no.”

“What I said was ‘Hell, no.’ On account of what happened to Margaret Bower.” Gloria nudged her husband as if to force him to finish the story, but then forged ahead. “She was one of my sorority sisters. A brainiac. She wanted to go for her PhD in chemistry, but ended up getting married and teaching high school chemistry so she could put her husband through law school. Two kids later, he gets his JD and files for divorce.”

“So Gloria wouldn’t move in with me—and she damn sure wouldn’t marry me—not till I finished school.”

“I had to make sure you had your own money.” A prescient attitude, since Lewis had amassed a small fortune from his law practice.

Celia narrowed her eyes and nodded. “Smart. I think Theo was waiting for me to finish my textbook. She’s been watching me work on it since last summer. Those eight rounds of revisions nearly drove me nuts. Add that to my class preps and getting ready for the spring performance.”

“You can’t wait for Theo to get finished with anything,” Gloria said as she carved her lamb shank. “There’s never a day when she doesn’t have half a dozen irons in the fire. Right when she’s juggled all the balls up in the air, some boneheaded celebrity calls because her tenth husband wants her money.”

“Just like the ninth…and the eighth,” Theo added with a chuckle.

“This Harwood mess though,” Gloria went on, “it’s going to be the death of us all. We’ve never taken on a case with so many moving parts. Until the university gets proactive and shuts down its rape culture, we’ll be getting new clients every week.”

Theo tensed, bracing for a possible eruption from Celia.

Instead, she calmly asked, “Did Theo tell you about our faculty senate resolution? We voted last week to hold the administration accountable for fixing all the issues having to do with sexual assault on campus. Starting with transparency. There’s now an official faculty task force responsible for coming up with recommendations.”

Gloria rolled her eyes. “Ha! Good luck with that. We did the same thing for admissions, scholarships and housing. It took a Title IX action to finally get the women’s dorms renovated.”

Celia said testily, “We’re proposing a comprehensive overhaul.”

“I’ll be surprised if the trustees sign off on it. That would be like admitting they have a problem and they’re all too stubborn to do that. I used to think Earl Gupton was a decent guy, somebody who’d put the interests of the students and faculty first. But his management style…when push comes to shove, he’s just a puppet.”

“How’s the New York strip, Lewis?” Theo asked, eager to change the subject.

“Juicy. And it’s got a good rub. Salt and pepper—that’s it.”

“Theo said the same thing today,” Celia went on, not taking advantage of the out. “That the senate wouldn’t have any teeth. I think we will. There’s talk of implementing an orientation seminar on sexual consent so everyone’s on the same page about what constitutes assault. And we have to improve the police response, and of course counseling services for victims.”

By her frequent glances toward Theo, it was clear Celia was talking to her. And saying in a calm, rational way all the things she’d refused to talk about while they were packing up her office. The irony was that Theo didn’t have to push back—Gloria was doing it for her.

“Here’s what I think.” Gloria waved her serrated knife as she talked. “Gupton, Tuttle, that police chief, Egan…somebody needs to make an example of them. Right now that’s us. Nobody else is coming after them. If they get away with what they’ve done, there’s no disincentive not to try it again.”

“What’s going on with the criminal case?” Lewis asked.

Theo had spoken with Shane Satterfield the day before. “Unless they get a continuance, they’re proceeding to trial two weeks from Monday. The DA offered all of them a plea for five years and got no takers.”

“You didn’t tell me this,” Celia said.

“I was going to.”
If she’d shown any interest in talking about it
. Lowering her voice as she leaned forward, she added, “Right now the four of them are sticking to their story that Hayley consented, but Shane’s considering sweetening the offer for one of them to roll on the others.”

“Not Ruben Vargas, I hope. He’s the one who started it by giving Hayley a drink that knocked her out.”

“Apparently that was part of a hazing ritual for freshmen. Shane says Vargas didn’t take part in the actual rape, but if they choose to go to trial and a jury finds them guilty, they all could get fifteen years.”

Lewis leaned in as well, understanding that Theo was sharing sensitive information. “If the DA’s office knows that level of detail about the assault already, they probably have enough evidence to convict all four of them without making any deals.”

“That’s what I told him,” Theo said. “But if he makes a deal with Vargas in state court, there’s no guarantee the feds won’t jump all over it once the trial’s over. Drug-facilitated rape gets you twenty years. Nobody’s going to walk, not with that video out there.”

Celia had stopped eating. By her sullen expression, she was none too pleased at Gloria’s pessimism about the faculty senate’s lofty goals. Clearly she’d hoped for an ally. “No matter what else happens, it’ll be a happy day when the bars close behind those bastards.”

* * *

Celia keyed in the elevator code to access the building’s upper floors and leaned into Theo as they started up. Her shoulders and thighs were sore from carrying heavy boxes to and from the car. A hot shower before bed would feel great.

“Welcome home, Dr. Perone. Does it feel different this time?” Theo pulled her into a hug and planted a kiss on her forehead.

She wouldn’t feel completely at home until Monday when her furniture was delivered, but there was closure in knowing she wouldn’t be returning to her townhouse. She’d already found a tenant through an executive rental agency.

“Does what feel different? Me coming home to your penthouse or your hands on my butt?”

“Definitely the latter. In case I forgot to tell you, I absolutely love you in this dress…almost as much as I love you out of it.”

“How about we trade back rubs when I pull it off? I probably won’t be able to get out of bed tomorrow.”

“I’ll trade anything you want. I appreciate you saying yes to dinner tonight. I know you were tired. Gloria and Lewis are special friends of mine—I hope they’ll be your friends too. It was nice they asked us to celebrate their anniversary.”

Celia caught herself before saying they could return the favor. She had no idea what day Theo would mark as their anniversary—the day they first made love, the day they moved in…or maybe the “someday” when they got married. It wasn’t something they’d talked about.

She had her key out already and opened the door to what was now her home. “I appreciate you too, sweetheart. Don’t think I didn’t notice when you tried to change the subject during dinner.”

“Oh, that. I figured one steaming pile of discord was enough for one day. I was surprised when you didn’t let it go.”

Truth be told, she was hoping if she said the right thing, Gloria or Lewis would take her side, seeing the wisdom in letting the university clean up its own mess. “I was surprised by Gloria. I really thought she’d be in favor of letting the faculty take care of it internally.”

“I don’t think she was against it.” She beat the same drum as before. “But even if you implement all of the recommendations, these women who’ve been victimized don’t get their justice.”

“You keep saying that. I don’t think what you’re doing gets them justice either. It’s not as if their rapists are going to be arrested. The best they can hope for is a payday from Harwood. You punish the school without punishing the perpetrators. At least Hayley’s rapists are going to trial.” Celia heard the aggravation in her voice and checked her temper before their discussion escalated to another fight. “Neither you nor the faculty can force the university to get rid of the people responsible for this. The most we can hope for is reform. I just happen to think the best chance for that is from the senate, not from outside pressure.”

“Fair enough.”

“Outside agitation’s just going to make it worse.”

For the next twenty minutes, they readied for bed, the subject apparently closed. Though Theo made small talk, there was no mistaking an undercurrent of polite civility as she too tried to avoid confrontation.

Celia tossed her robe aside and climbed into bed nude as usual. When Theo joined her, she expected little more than a perfunctory goodnight kiss. Instead Theo drew back the blanket, straddled her back and began kneading her shoulders.

“You don’t have to do that, Theo. I’m too tired to return the favor.”

“It’s okay. You worked harder than I did today. Besides, one of us lifts weights three times a week. That way, she doesn’t get as sore when she has to do a little physical labor.” She delivered her chide with a kiss on the shoulder.

“Kick me when I’m down.”

“Come on, does this feel like kicking?”

Far from it. If her neck and shoulders could purr, they would. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a grouch today about your case. I know it’s important to you. I’ll try to be more supportive.”

Theo expressed her gratitude by expanding the massage area to the muscles along her spine.

“Can I just say one more thing?” Celia asked at the risk of breaking their truce. “I’ve realized over the past few days how much of my anger had to do not only with Hayley being my student, but with me having so much in common with her. Her being an actress, trusting people around her…and then getting drugged and violated. It made the case personal to me. That’s why I was willing to put myself out there. I was fighting for both of us. What happened to these other women upsets me…but I don’t feel the same sense of personal resentment now that Hayley’s case is pretty much over. At least not enough to put my career on the line again. Can you understand where I’m coming from?”

“I can.” The massage continued in silence for several very long seconds. “And since we’re being totally honest about our feelings, I should tell you I’m disappointed you feel that way. It’s on me to get past that and I will. I love you…and nothing about work is going to come between us—ever.”

The words, though delivered in a calm and loving manner, were devastating. There was nothing Celia could imagine that would be worse than knowing she’d disappointed the woman she loved.

Theo finally stopped her massage and rolled over to her side of the bed on her back. “It’s my own fault, Celia. I project onto others what I want them to feel, and I know it isn’t fair. When you first came to me, there wasn’t even a tiny part of my legal brain that thought we had a case. But I was so taken by your compassion, your outrage…you made me want to put on armor and go to war. That woman you were when you first came into my office? I have to be that woman every day.”

Celia slid her hand beneath the covers and clasped Theo’s hand, her heart breaking with sorrow and bursting with joy. One of those feelings triggered her tears—either the shame of not being the person Theo wanted her to be…or relief at knowing Theo loved her anyway.