Page 33 of Falling for Roxanne

“This girl right here, you better hang on to her. If it wasn’t for her story about how her daddy went to jail for ten years and missed her whole childhood, well, I wouldn’t have come clean about the lies I told. I just figured I done what I had to do to keep my family together, and anybody else can just go to hell. But when Roxie told me about her birthdays without her daddy and how every year she wished on those candles for him to come home, well it tore me up inside. I knew what I had to do. For those twin boys of Daniel Garza’s, and to set right with my own conscience. I been away from my son more than I ever wanted to be, but it was—this ain’t easy to say—it was because of what I done. Not because somebody told lies about me. So, I wanna make this right if I can.”

“Thank you for coming forward with your statement. It’s going to be very helpful in getting Daniel Garza’s verdict overturned,” I said. “If you have anything else you need to tell us, anything you remember, give us a call, day or night.”

“I sure will, but I got all of it off my chest now and it feels lighter already. I’m gonna go take my boy out for a cheeseburger and celebrate,” she said.

When she left, Roxanne flopped down on the couch, her head tipped back on the cushions.

“That was fantastic,” she said, “but it sucked. That poor woman. She made a mistake, and she understands that, but I can’t stop thinking how brave it is that she’s telling the truth. There’s nothing in it for her. Really, she’s been a survivor all this time and looking out for herself, and now she’s recanting her testimony out of pure altruism. It’s the kind of thing my dad is gonna be so proud of. He told me all along, don’t give up on people. They’ll surprise you when you least expect it.” She beamed at me.

“She said time and again that she only came forward because of you, because you told her your story. You opened up to her and it made all the difference,” I said admiringly.

“What about you with your picture of your son? That really took me by surprise. I don’t think I’ve seen more than two pictures of him the whole time I’ve worked here and you showed Pansy Lestrade as soon as she walked in the door. It made her feel more at home and less like you were judging her. It’s why I wore jeans today, too. I mean, I usually dress up to look professional, but my mom told me once that when she went to see the public defender or to legal aid or even for food stamps, they always looked at her like she was dirty and sat there in their skirts or their ties…I didn’t want to look like I was fancy today.”

I looked at her then, not just taking in her jeans and blouse, but seeing the wisdom of that choice, the compassion in it. She swamped me again with how sympathetic and loving she was, her warmth and how disarming she had been with the witness. She was going to do a whole lot of good as an attorney. I felt a swell of pride over that, knowing that she got her start as an intern at my firm, and worked on this case that was going to set an innocent man free. That alone was better than a lot of people did in their whole lives, and she was accomplishing it in one semester.

“That took longer than I expected,” I said. “I’m grateful for her detailed recollection and all the leads it provided to get a paper trail going. But I’m starving. We should get something to eat. You like sushi?” I asked.

As soon as it was out of my mouth, I thought I shouldn’t have said it. After Kyle had warned me not to so much as go for coffee with her, I just invited her to have a meal together. Clearing my throat I said, “I’ll go see if Syd and Damon want to come, too.”

I almost bolted out of the deposition room and asked my secretary to go out for sushi.

“I have dinner plans already, and it’s not fish bait,” Syd laughed, “but thanks. Devon took off about an hour ago with a headache. I think he was pouting because he wasn’t invited to the deposition.”

“It was a delicate situation, this woman recanting her testimony. She was nervous. I had Roxanne in there because that’s who convinced her to be deposed and she’s comfortable with her. Filling the room with strangers wasn’t conducive to getting the lengthy statement from an anxious witness. If he wants to pout, he can. Is he always such a—”

“Giant baby? Yes. I’m afraid so,” Syd said.

“Going forward, if we hire anyone who turns out to be a millstone around your neck, please tell me as soon as they start acting that way. I didn’t bring you on here so you could suffer and do other people’s work and put up with their bad moods. I should have dealt with him sooner.”

“I can handle him just fine. I’m not sure he’s very useful though.”

“I’m inclined to agree with you. Are you sure I can’t interest you in a California roll?”

“I’m positive. Have a good evening,” she said, switching off her computer and picking up her purse to leave.

A surge of excitement jolted me. I was going to dinner with Roxanne. I had invited everyone else in the office and they declined. It was perfectly legitimate. I wasn’t pursuing anything personal with her. I wasn’t going to send Kyle a selfie or anything, but I was relatively blameless here.

She had impressed me with her attentiveness to the witness and her crucial role in persuading Pansy to come forward and give testimony. The office was celebrating a breakthrough, a successful day’s work. If it was just the two of us, that wasn’t going to be a problem. I was taking her to a public place. We could drive separately. There was no harm in it, I told myself. Even if deep down I realized I was full of crap.

I found Roxanne in her office putting on a blazer. “Ready?” I asked.

“Sure,” she said. “I heard Syd leave. I guess she’s not a sushi girl.”

“She’s not,” I said. “We don’t have to go if you’d rather not have dinner just the two of us,” I said, trying to be considerate but inwardly really hoping she didn’t have scruples about it.

“We had a successful deposition with a key witness. It’s not like we’re going to do body shots,” she said with a defiant tilt to her chin. She was daring me to say she was wrong or that it was something inappropriate. Instead, I smiled at her, what I knew was a conspiratorial grin.

“Sushi it is,” I said. “It’s just a couple of blocks down. Do you want to drive?”

“Let’s walk. I wore jeans and boots. If I were in my strappy sandals you’d have to push me there in a wheelie office chair.”

I held the door and we stepped out into the evening air, a fresh breeze lifting her light hair and making everything seem new.

“I think the best part was when she said public defenders were useless. Brock, this guy I used to date, completely dumb as a rock—we only went out twice—guess what he did after graduation?” she said.

“Public defense.”

“You got it in one,” she said, “and I don’t see him setting the world on fire to help anyone out. He was more of the type to do the minimum.”

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