Page 42 of Maddy's Justice

Maddy laughed and said, “Sorry, everyone asks me that.”

She leaned forward, cocked an eyebrow, and asked, “You are expecting Sam Spade’s sister?”

The waitress came and they ordered. When she left Maddy began.

“I know you said over the phone that you didn’t want to talk about the divorce, but it’s very important.”

Maddy had decided to lie a little bit about why she was asking.

“There are two lawyers, women, from Stafford, Hughes. They’re missing and well, please keep this to yourself. The cops think they might be dead.”

“Whoa! Seriously? I mean, I ah, don’t know anything about….”

“I don’t think you do. I’m digging for information about the firm. Something’s not right there.”

“And you want to know what I know about Stafford, Hughes,” he said.

Phillip sat back and silently looked at Maddy. His arms were folded across his chest as if for protection. His head was tilted while he tried to decide what to do and what he could tell her.

Maddy had dealt with this reticent attitude dozens of time and she knew exactly how to melt it. She leaned forward, opened her eyes as wide as possible and stuck out her lower lip just a touch. Men, being the easily manipulated, superficial dolts that they are, always melted. Phillip Hayden was no exception.

“We met in college, Faye and me,” he said as he leaned forward, arms on the table and shoulders slumped.

“A year after graduation, I was starting to make money with Ameriprise and Faye was a legal secretary at Stafford, Hughes. They liked her a lot and offered to pay her tuition for law school. We got married and I kept working while she went to school.

“After she graduated, she was a slave to Stafford, Hughes. Eighty, ninety hours a week. The marriage suffered.

“Anyway, we separated for a while and I started seeing someone. Faye started seeing another lawyer, her current boss, Troy McGovern.

“To make a long story short, I broke it off with this girl I was seeing and asked Faye to try again. Instead, she told me she wanted a divorce. She said something happened, but she wouldn’t say what.

“Faye got one of the firm’s lawyers to file for divorce. I didn’t want it, but she was adamant. So, I didn’t fight it. It was quick and easy. No kids and I didn’t want anything from her, she didn’t want anything from me.

“About the same time, she got a new job with the firm. This mass torts thing. After the divorce was final, I took her out to dinner. A sort of, goodbye, goodwill, no hard feelings gesture.”

“That was nice of you,” Maddy said.

Ignoring Maddy’s comment, Phillip continued by saying, “She barely touched her food. Instead, she was pounding down drinks. Faye must’ve had six or seven. Far more than I had ever known her to have.

“I finally looked her in the eyes and said: tell me what’s wrong!”

“She literally burst into tears. She was sobbing uncontrollably. I got her to calm down enough to tell me what happened. She had foolishly, she said, gone to Troy’s luxury condo after a dinner date. She swore she had not slept with him and wasn’t going to.”

“But…” Maddy said.

“He raped her. She says he drugged her and raped her. The next morning, she woke up in his bed with no memory of what happened. She confronted him about it, but he laughed it off and said she had a little too much to drink, was all over him and it was too late now to try to take it back. She has no proof, but I know Faye. I believe her and she is a psychological wreck because of it.”

FIFTEEN

Rather than use the club’s valet service, Marc pulled his Buick SUV into the parking lot himself. He had been there on a couple of other occasions; dinner and fundraising events with Vivian Donahue’s crowd.

He entered through the front door and the maître d’ did not give him a disapproving frown. In fact, the man smiled and led him to the table where the Stafford, Hughes guys were waiting. There were four of them, including Cliff Spenser. Spenser introduced Marc around the table, names Marc barely caught.

“Nice view,” Marc said after taking his seat.

Their table was in front of a window looking east at Bde Maka Ska. Formerly Lake Calhoun. Originally named by white settlers in honor of a tyrannical South Carolina politician and vice president, John C. Calhoun. Calhoun was also a fanatical defender of slavery. Hence the none-too-soon name change.

“How’s the lawsuit coming, Marc?” one of the men, Marc believed his name was Frank, asked.

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