Southern Men: Ballad of a Texas Rose (5 page)

Clara did as she was told. The passions of their union had left her completely wiped out and she had no idea whatsoever about what was happening here.

‘Now listen,’ Moses asked her, eyeing her levelly from his chair, ‘why do you got to go and insult a man like Ace Cooper in front of a whole courtroom like that, huh?’

At the mention of her nemesis’s name, Clara suddenly recalled her earlier fury. ‘Because the man is a monster,’ she said, ‘he’s destroyed hundreds of lives and managed to get rich off it at the same time.’

‘Well God damn it,’ the Judge barked angrily, ‘you think I don’t know that?’

Clara stared at him, her mouth hanging open.

‘But it’s like I told you earlier,’ Moses continued, ‘Ace Cooper has an awful lot of friends and supporters round these parts. You go in there calling him names then you’re not doing much to win them over to your way of thinking.
No matter what the evidence says.’

Clara said
nothing,
she was too shocked by what she was hearing. So that’s why he’d asked her to his chamber.
Because he believed in her mission.

‘Now you’ve got a real good case here girl,’ he said, ‘and I can tell that you’re smart enough to win it too, but you need to cool down on that temper of yours and think about what kind of message you’re sending. This is important here, this case is about more than some legal hokum, real lives are on the line and you’re the one who’s responsible to make that happen, you hear me?’

‘Yes your honor,’ Clara nodded, trying to stifle her smile.

‘Good well then go into my restroom there and clean
yourself
up. And then get the hell out of my chamber. If anybody were to find out what just happened between us we’d both be ruined – and Ace Cooper would be laughing all the way back to the bank to count his fortune.’

‘Duly noted,’ Clara said and stood up. She walked towards the small restroom connected to the Judge’s chamber.

‘And you look after that sweet little ass of yours too,’ the Judge called after her, ‘God damn, it would be a terrible shame to ever let that go to waste.’

Clara shook her head and smiled in disbelief as she stepped into the toilet. Those Texas men – those God damn Texas men.

###

Hot Tycoon

Bedding the Oil Magnate’s Son

It was night time when Clara drove out into the desert. She knew she probably shouldn’t be going alone, but she hadn’t had the time to think of any other way to play it. She was supposed to be at the meet in less than ten minutes now.

On the radio Dusty Springfield was singing a soul ballad with a voice as smooth as velvet. It was hot and the night was dark. The road was completely deserted as Clara drove out towards the
Texxon
plant. She knew it was unwise to go alone, sure, but there wasn’t anybody else in the world she could have asked to go with her anyway.

Clara was a lawyer, having moved south from New York almost a year ago to elope with her new man. The relationship hadn’t worked out so she moved on down to San Antonio and set up a practice. And then the biggest case of her life came along.

It all started in a little town called Prudence in the mid nineteen seventies, where a man named Ace Cooper and the oil empire his family had ruled over for almost a century started a campaign of surreptitious waste dumping on the outskirts of the town. The effects of the pollution on the townspeople were massive, so much so that they would spend the next forty years fighting for justice.

And that was where Clara came in. When she read in the paper that the community of Prudence were running out of money to spend on their case she stepped forward and offered her services for free. She believed in the cause and hell, the publicity would serve as a bonus for the amount of leg work she had to put in anyway. It was exciting.

But after taking an early lead, the case had slowed down in recent months, bogged under by Cooper’s crack team of lawyers and their campaign of underhanded delays and
misdirections
. Suddenly Clara was realizing why the case had taken so long to progress in the first place. Ace had the means to just keep on throwing money at the table while his legal team pulled every trick in the book to stall the case for as long as it took for his opponents to run out of money. That was his game and that was exactly what he’d been doing, for over thirty years now.

Clara wasn’t in it for the money – something Ace would never understand – but that didn’t mean she’d be able to go on indefinitely pleading the case. She needed to make money some way and if she was doing this one for free then she wouldn’t have as much time to do the work that actually paid. And she needed to eat.

But then a breakthrough came. Or at least she believed it would be a breakthrough, because right now she didn’t know for sure just yet.

That night when she’d returned to her office after eating in the diner down the street she’d found a small note wedged in the doorway.

“
Miss Silverman
,” it read, “
Texxon
Refinery, Mann Road, tonight at midnight. There’s an opening in the fence by the south exit. Come alone. I have information for you that will ensure you win this case
.”

That was it. There was no signature.

After reading the note, still standing in the doorway of her office, Clara looked at the pile of paperwork stacked up on her desk that she’d intended for the rest of the night’s consideration. She looked back at the note in her hand. She checked her watch – it was half past eleven pm. Five minutes later she was in her car.

As she hurtled through the darkness of the desert at night, she reflected again that it wasn’t necessarily the safest thing in the world to be going alone to the meet, without any idea whatsoever about who had actually summoned her there in the first place. But there was nobody she could have called (at least not without a lot of awkwardness involved), even just to let somebody know where she would be for the night in case she didn’t come back.

So if the whole thing was a set-up? Well then she’d just have to deal with that when the time came.

Up ahead she saw the huge compound that housed the San Antonio
Texxon
oil refinery, beyond the tall black fence the factory buildings stretched out across the whole valley ahead. It was almost like a small town of its own. She cruised on, the road now running parallel to the fence, as she made her way towards the south entrance.

She passed the road leading up to the gates and continued driving for another couple of minutes before pulling into the side of the road and turning off the lights. She killed the engine and looked over her shoulder, making sure the way was still clear behind her. The desert was deader than a ghost town. She stepped out of the car, checked her pocket for her Dictaphone and notepad and then darted towards the fence.

She crept up close to the gates and scrutinized her surroundings. The small booth by the gate was empty, replaced by a buzzer and a sign instructing drivers to press the button and wait for assistance. Inside the compound, huge floodlights lit up the whole area, but there wasn’t a single soul around. Clara looked down the long fence running east and deduced that the opening would likely be along that way somewhere since the fence only lasted another ten yards or so before turning north on the west side. She looked about herself quickly to make sure she hadn’t been spotted and then headed off along the fence.

After following the railing for another five minutes or so, Clara came upon a small opening. It was big enough for a person to fit through, so it seemed likely that it was the one mentioned in the note. But there was nobody else around. She paused for a moment to consider her options and then stepped through.

She took out the note and read it again. Yes, the instructions told her to be at the opening by midnight. It was twelve
am
now on the dot and there was nobody around. She checked her watch and then looked about herself to survey the land.

She was standing in a deserted part of the compound, possibly some kind of storage facility, judging by the huge warehouses ahead of her that loomed darkly, casting long shadows, in the glow of the floodlights. She thought about it for a second and then decided to get a closer look. Making sure she was still safe, Clara set off at a jog towards the shadows between the huge structures.

As she ran into the avenues, she heard a sudden shout. There was no doubt in her mind it was a security guard. She’d been made.

‘Shit,’ Clara muttered and threw herself up against the wall.

A siren sounded out somewhere in the distance and she heard the engine of a security jeep approach. Damn it, she thought
,
if she was discovered trespassing inside a
Texxon
compound the implications for her case could be disastrous. She inched along the wall towards the darkness as the sound of the jeep drew nearer. She needed to find somewhere to hide, she needed to –

Out of nowhere, a strong pair of arm shot out around her, the palm wrapped tight against her mouth. Clara panicked and started kicking and struggling to get free. Close to her ear, a voice spoke. It was deep and stern, slightly shaky from the struggle.

‘God damn it, keep still,’ her accoster said, ‘you know what’ll happen if they find you here?’

Realization suddenly washed over her. It was him, the man who had called her there in the first place.
The source.

She relaxed in his grip to let him know that she understood the situation.

‘You
gonna
keep quiet?’ the mysterious stranger asked.

‘Uh-huh,’ Clara said, her voice muffled by the man’s hand over her mouth.

‘Ok then,’ he said and released her from his hold. He took her hand and began leading her deeper into the shadows, into the small gap between two of the buildings. ‘This way,’ he said, ‘keep quiet.’

The man egged Clara forward and then stopped himself. In the darkness she couldn’t make out who he was, only that he was big and strong. He smelt incredibly masculine in the hot night. They pressed their bodies up against the wall and held their breath. Clara could hear the footfalls of a security guard checking the area right around where they’d just escaped from. She closed her eyes tight and prayed that they wouldn’t be discovered.

Through her closed lids Clara saw the bight white illumination of a flashlight as it shone down the narrow channel. The game was up.

‘Hey!’ the security guard barked, ‘I know there’s somebody down there. This is private property and I am armed and authorized to use force against any trespassers, so come out with your hands up.’

The man beside Clara sighed. ‘Hold on a second,’ he whispered and then turned towards the flashlight. ‘Steve Murphy?’ he called, ‘is that you? Stand down, I’ m coming out.’

‘Oh shit,’ the security guard called, ‘I’m sorry sir,
I
didn’t know you were still here.’

The flashlight clicked off and the stranger leaned over to Clara’s ear again. ‘As I walk away,’ he said, ‘slowly lower
yourself
down into a ball. It’ll make it harder for him to see you over my shoulder.’

Clara nodded silently and then did as he said. The man walked slowly down the channel, his huge form filling out the space completely, and Clara cautiously kneeled down on her knees. She listened as the man joined the security guard, cocking her head in an effort to pick up their conversation. It was no
good,
she could only hear the faint hum of their voices as they spoke. A moment later the security guard left and the guy came back towards her.

‘Hey,’ he called, ‘you still there?’

Clara stood up and dusted herself down. ‘I’m here,’ she whispered, ‘now why don’t you tell me just who the hell you are?’

‘Not now,’ the man said, ‘we need to go somewhere safe. Follow me.’

He began walking back towards the opening again and Clara set off after him. He waited in the darkness, until she was right behind him. She still hadn’t had a chance to look at his face. ‘Come on,’ he said and set off towards the bigger warehouses. Clara glanced over her shoulder and then followed after him.

The man opened a door in the side of the warehouse and held it open for her. She stepped inside. It was impossible to see anything and somewhere in the darkness huge machines churned and rumbled.
 

‘Over here!’ he called from the doorway of a small office against the metal wall. Clara hurried on through and the man closed the door behind her. He switched on the light.

‘Well shit,’ he said, ‘that was close. Didn’t I tell you to wait by the opening in the fence? You know what would have happened if they found you in here?’

Clara stared at the man before her. He was tall and handsome, with grayish-blue eyes and dark brown hair, a shadow of stubble around his thick jawline. She recognized him, but it still took her a second to realize from where exactly. It was the last person she’d expected to see.

‘You know how much my pa would like to catch you on his property? Damn…’

The man’s name was Bobby, Bobby Cooper. He was Ace Cooper’s only son.
The heir to the
Texxon
business empire.