Page 69 of Maddy's Justice

“Why? What happened to them?”

Faye pounded down the rest of her drink then stood up to leave. As she tried to step away from her chair, Maddy grabbed her arm.

“Faye, tell me what happened to them,” Maddy said.

Faye looked at Maddy’s hand, the one holding her arm, and said, “I don’t really know. I know they didn’t just disappear. They wouldn’t do that. Now, let go of me.”

“I want you to meet…” Maddy started to say but she was talking to Faye’s back as she walked away.

“You think she knows something?” Marc asked.

Maddy was back at their table and told Marc how the conversation went.

“No, I mean, maybe, I don’t know. She said she doesn’t know what happened to them. She believes something happened and she doesn’t want it to happen to her. I got the impression she’s scared.”

“And she doesn’t know what to do, but she’s not joining the suit,” Marc said.

“Why, did Lori Quinn contact her?” Maddy asked.

“Fishing?” Marc said.

“Maybe,” Maddy agreed.

“Let me ask you, as a woman, would a woman really be able to keep that to herself; to be date raped and not tell anyone?”

“Sure,” Maddy said. “I’m sure it happens all the time.”

“You?”

“No, but I knew some victims. A couple of friends when I was in high school in Chicago. Good, close friends who were reluctant to talk about it. Ashamed and thought it was their fault. That they had somehow asked for it. What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Marc replied rolling his eyes toward the ceiling and sighing. “Represent my client, I guess.”

TWENTY-THREE

Gavin Blake anxiously looked at the clock on his office wall. He had set a meeting time with Melanie Stewart for 9:00A.M.and was regretting it. The older Gavin got, the less confrontational he became. Dealing with subordinate problems was Melanie’s job. She was good at it and it was something Gavin was delighted not to have to do. Now he had to take charge and confront the person in the firm who was far better at this than he was.

“Come in,” he said unnecessarily when he heard her knock on his door. Before he said it, the door was open.

“Good morning, Melanie,” Gavin said, “Thanks for stopping in.”

For her part, Melanie Stewart was aware of Gavin’s weakness. She knew if she wanted to, she could chew him up and spit him out without breaking a sweat. She also knew he had more upper echelon firm power behind him than she did. This was also the part of being a partner in a large firm she hated the most, the office politics.

It was a rarity that Gavin would summon her to his office for a private meeting. On the few occasions that this occurred, it was always at the behest of the more senior partners. Since Wade MacAlister had been in town, she believed he was the reason she was here. Melanie had also decided to take the initiative.

“Have a seat, please,” Gavin said.

Melanie stood behind one of the client chairs, her hands resting on the top of the back, glared down at Gavin and said, “Why wasn’t I told a settlement offer was given to Kadella to put forth to the women suing us? I was supposed to be solely in charge of this lawsuit.”

“I, ah, I…” Blake began to stammer. “I, ah, assumed, um, you were, you, were told.”

“Whose idea was it?” Melanie asked.

“Um, ah, MacAlister.”

“At a meeting at Brandon’s party. A meeting I was specifically excluded from even though I was there,” she said still glaring at Blake.

“I, ah, I don’t know that you were, um, specifically excluded. It was just an informal thing. MacAlister wanted to meet Kadella,” Blake said finally getting control of himself. “It just came up. You weren’t excluded.”

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