Dirty Blonde (34 page)

“Was your associate invited?”

“Yes, but she had to work. We have another case going to trial next week and she had to draft some pretrial motions.”

Cate thought back to her confrontation with Micah. It seemed like so long ago, in the
Attorneys@ Law
office. “
Erika wants to keep it small, so it’s only immediate family.
”

“What about the jury consultant with the red hair?”

“Courtney Flavert? What about her?”

“Was she invited?”

“Yes.”

So Micah had been excluded. Why?
“She went?”

“Yes.”

“Did you fly out together?”

“Yes.” George looked away and reached for his coffee, taking two long sips and replacing the cup with a tiny
clink
. “Now, can we change the subject? This is so morbid. Why did you call me?”

“Wait, I’m just curious, was it a big funeral? Did you see any celebrities?”

George brightened. “It was huge, I would say three hundred people, and all the actors from the show, plus the cast of
The Sopranos
, and
Law & Order
, too. It was a real treat. I got Dennis Farina’s autograph. The man reeks of credibility. He was a real detective, did you know that? Before he became an actor? He was great in
Crime Story
. Remember
Crime Story
?” George seemed to get happier, merely thinking of Dennis Farina. “Now, so, what is the representation you came to see me about?”

Cate had gotten all the information he could give her, so she switched gears. “I need you to go to war for me.”

“I’d be honored to represent you.” George smiled. “I did run a conflicts check and we’re not conflicted out. We represent the
Inquirer
, but we don’t represent the
Daily News
. Though they’re owned by the same entity, they divide their legal work among all the top-tier firms.”

“No, I’m not suing a newspaper. It’s not a defamation matter. All of what they printed about me is true.”

“Oh.” George’s eyebrows flew upwards, but at least he didn’t point and laugh.

“As you probably read, the chief judge has effectively relieved me of duty, and I don’t think he has the power to do that. It’s a constitutional question, probably of first impression. Let me frame the issue for you—does the active sex life of an unmarried federal judge qualify as impeachable conduct within the meaning of Article III of the U.S. Constitution?” Cate reconsidered. “Okay, to be fair, you probably have to include that some of my…paramours had criminal records.”

“You want me to sue the chief judge of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania?”

“And the circuit executive, and the clerk of court.” Cate thought a minute. “And the chief judge of the Third Circuit, on a
respondeat superior
theory, since he’s essentially the administrative boss.”

George reddened.

“I want my job back.”

“I can’t do it.”

“Why not? Are you man or mouse?”

“Judge.” George shifted in his comfy chair. “You have to understand.”

“How can I?” Cate asked, angering. “You haven’t explained it.”

“I’ve headed this trial group for seven years. My partners are in front of that bench and those judges, all day long. Furthermore, I’m managing partner now. I represent three hundred and twenty-one lawyers, in this office alone.”

“Good. I need a big gun, that’s why I’m here. It’s a cutting-edge legal question. It could go up to the Supremes. Let’s make some law.”

George shook his head. “I can’t afford the retaliation factor. If I litigate against the chief judge, it’s career suicide.”

“Or it’s protecting my right to my job.”

“I can’t do it.” George sighed heavily and smoothed down his tie. “No big firm could, and none would. You can’t fault me.”

“So you’re a mouse.” Cate rose to her feet, not completely surprised, and walked the few steps to the door. “You’ll beat up on a kid like Marz, but you won’t take on a chief judge.”

George rose, too, spreading open palms. “That’s just reality, Judge.”

“I thought you represented the legal principle.”

“But this is different.”

Cate turned on the threshold. “How?”

George blinked.

“Thought so,” Cate said, and left. She was already feeling more herself, thinking of where to go next. Because as much as she missed her job, she had realized something she could never have known before she got fired, however unconstitutionally.

You don’t need a robe to do justice.

CHAPTER 41

Odd
. Despite the cold, the front door with the stenciled number 388 stood propped wide open with a brick, and Cate slipped through and climbed the stairs, almost banging into Micah as she descended, carrying a huge cardboard box that held papers and files, a chrome gooseneck desk lamp, and her white iBook.

“Judge?” Micah started behind the gooseneck lamp. “What are you doing here? I heard you were in the hospital, out of town somewhere.”

“I was, but I’m fine.”

“Detective Russo tried to kill you? That’s so random!”

“Yeah, ain’t it a bitch?” Cate smiled in a way she hoped was casual. “It’s a long story. Meanwhile, what’s going on here? You moving the office?”

“No, just me. I’m just not sure where yet. I’m out of a job.” Micah’s face fell, and the box slipped, but Cate grabbed the bottom.

“What happened?”

“Aw, they let me go.” Micah’s mouth made a flat line, devoid of lipstick, and she wore no eye makeup, either, revealing a clean look to her pretty brown eyes.

“Here, let me help you with the box. I’ll back down slowly.”

“Thanks.” Micah righted the lamp, gathering up its see-through electrical cord, and Cate eased back downstairs. They reached the bottom, waddled through the open door with difficulty, and stutter-stepped onto the cold sidewalk, with the box between them. Micah nodded down the street, from her side of the box. “My car’s the blue one, a few down. I got a great space.”

“You lead.” Cate let her go ahead, holding one side of the heavy box. “So how’d this come about, your being let go?”

“Gaone is cutting costs and he doesn’t think the show needs anyone in Philly anymore.”

“But
Attorneys@Law
has to be one of the most profitable shows on TV,” Cate said as they inched down the street with the stuffed box between them. It wasn’t the hard-hitting interrogation she had imagined, but she could make it work to her advantage. “Why do they need to cut costs?”

“Because he’s a greedy jerk?”

And maybe this’ll be easy.
“But what about the Philly details? They give the show its realistic feel.”

“He’s willing to sacrifice that. He doesn’t care about the quality of the production, only the bottom line.” Micah’s brown ponytail swung left and right as they walked along. She wore a navy down vest over a thick fisherman sweater and jeans, with her red Converse sneakers. “I heard some of the writers are getting fired, too. Isn’t that terrible? Between crap like this and the new reality shows, there’s no work for writers anymore. It’s like all my friends are getting shoved out.”

“That’s a shame. A new broom sweeps clean, huh?”

“What?”

“It’s an expression. It means when a new guy comes in, he brings in his own people and he kicks all the old guys out, even if they’re good at what they do. It sounds like what’s happening.”

“Exactly.” Micah nodded. “Here’s my car. Can you hold the box while I get the keys?”

“Sure.” Cate glanced over at the car, then did a double take, unable to hide her surprise. At the curb glistened a brand-new navy blue Mercedes, the two-door coupe.
Huh
? “This gorgeous creature is your car?”

“Yes.”

“Wow! I’m jealous.” Cate almost buckled under the weight of the box as Micah dug in her pocket, retrieved the keys, and aimed them at the parked car. The trunk lid sprang open on cue, and the women struggled to dump the box inside and position it on the black-carpeted bottom. Cate was already wondering how the child owned a nicer Mercedes than hers, especially since hers was now an accordion. “I thought you said you had a Saturn.”

“No,
you
said I had a Saturn, with two years of payments.” Micah managed a laugh, and so did Cate.

“I’m overruled.”

“I’ll say.” Micah closed the lid and brushed off her hands. “Okay, that’s everything except the plasma TV.”

“That big one on the wall? They’re giving you that?”

“They are now.” Micah smiled bitterly.

“Will it fit in the car?”

“It’ll have to. Can you help me carry it? I’d really appreciate it.”

“I will, if you’ll have coffee with me after. I’ll tell you the story of how I almost got run over.”

“Deal,” Micah answered, her smile lingering unhappily.

“I guess I’m wondering about the night Art Simone was murdered,” Cate said, after they’d both been brought a Niçoise salad that barely fit on the round Tuilleries-type table of greenish tin, at a neighborhood bistro pretending it was located in a chic arrondissement of Paris and not across from an electrical-supplies wholesaler.

“What about it?” Micah asked. She picked up her fork and speared a slice of hard-boiled egg.

Cate flashed on poor Sarah, sitting shiva by herself, at this moment.
We eat round food to symbolize the cycle of life.

“I’m wondering why you weren’t at the celebration dinner that night, after you’d won at trial. You were in court every day, and I saw you taking notes.” Cate was treading a careful line between overt flattery and over-the-top flattery. She had no other way to get the information without the proverbial rubber hose. “I figured you were Simone’s right hand, at least as important as a jury consultant, Courtney Whatever.”

“I am. I mean, I was.”

“So why weren’t you there? They were, but you weren’t.”

“I’m not sure, to be honest,” Micah answered, looking down as she ate. Her ponytail curled onto her shoulder. “Art said he thought it would be better if I weren’t, and I accepted that. He asked me to get the files back in order after the trial, which I did, back at the office.”

“All by yourself? Like Cinderella?”

“Exactly.” Micah laughed, hurt.

So, no alibi.
“But why did he ask you to do that then? It seems like it could have waited.”

“Not for Art. He never waited for a thing.” Micah looked up, meeting Cate’s eye directly. “He wanted the decks cleared right away so we could get back to work, full-throttle. The lawsuit interrupted all of us and slowed the show’s production. That’s why I caved so fast when you threatened to sue me, that day in the office. Litigation sucks.”

“I agree, but the cleanup could have waited a night, couldn’t it? Isn’t it possible that you were intentionally excluded from the dinner?”

“By Art?”

Yes
. “Not necessarily. By anyone else who was there?”

“Why do you ask? Why do you even care?”

Cate felt at a momentary loss. “I’m trying to understand everything about that night. Because I’m not sure Richard Marz was the one who killed Art Simone.”

“And you think I did?” Micah’s eyes flared with a shock that looked genuine.

Maybe
. “No. You worked for Simone, and were loyal to him, I can see that. I’m just trying to understand what really happened that night.”

“The police know what really happened. Marz did it. They have him on security video, as if they needed that.” Micah scoffed defensively. “He tried to kill Art right in front of you, in court!”

“Marz’s wife doesn’t think he did it.”

“Of course,
she
wouldn’t.”

“But neither does Russo, who thinks I did it.”

“You? That’s ridiculous!” Micah said, incredulous. “Why would
you
?”

“Because I supposedly wanted to stop you and Simone from making a TV series about me.”

“By
killing
Art? Ha! That wouldn’t have stopped a single thing.” Micah’s eyes remained wide. “Look, Art is dead and they’re making it without him, me, or any of our old writers. If there’s money to be made, Hollywood makes it happen.”

Cate tried not to think of Gina and Warren, on TV, Sunday nights at nine. “But you’d have to be in TV to know that for sure. So, back to this celebration dinner, did someone want you not to be there? Like the jury consultant?” Cate was making it up as she went along, but Micah leaned forward intently.

“How do you mean?”

“Do you think someone, let’s say Courtney Flavert, asked Art not to have you there for some reason, when you rightly should have been?”

“Is that what you think?”

No.
“Maybe. I’m trying to figure out her role. In my experience, jury consultants don’t always stay so involved after the jury is empanelled. But she was there all the time at trial.” Cate pressed ahead, putting her cards on the itsy-bitsy table. Sort of. “And, for example, I know that she was invited to Simone’s funeral, and so was George Hartford.”

Micah set her fork down, her lips parted slightly. “
Courtney
was invited to the funeral? That can’t be right.”

“It is.”

“I can’t believe Erika invited her. Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know?” Micah asked, the question a challenge that Cate was happy to meet.

“George Hartford told me. They flew out together.”

“They
did
?” Micah’s eyes narrowed to streetwise slits, and her forehead knit unhappily, if not downright angrily.

“Yes. You told me it wasn’t supposed to be a big Hollywood funeral, but that’s exactly what it was. All sorts of celebrities were there.”

“I saw that on the news.”

“If there was room for Courtney, there was room for you.”

“That bitch!”

“Absolutely.” Cate couldn’t stop the questions.
What was going on? Was Micah sleeping with Simone? Had he bought her that delicious coupe? Had he dumped her after the trial, when she was no longer useful? Had Erika excluded her from the funeral because she suspected an affair?

Micah was frowning. “Wait a minute. Why were you talking to George?”