by Leigh James
“What does the Defendant say to this?” the Judge asked, turning his thoughtful gaze our way.
David stood and cleared his throat. “My client is in no way a flight risk,” he said, pacing back in forth in front of our table. The man really couldn’t sit still. “He’s pleading not guilty to all of these charges because he’s innocent, and he will vigorously defend his innocence. Broden Walker wants to clear his name so he can get back to doing what he does best, what he loves — running his company. Innovating and creating security measures that have helped our country for over a decade. My client wants to see this through — not run and hide, Your Honor.”
I bounced my knee up and down as I looked down at my checklist. Hit all the highlights, David, I thought. Get them all. I tapped my pen nervously on my pad.
“I would like to take the government's supporting points one at a time. First of all, your honor, the defense vigorously objects to the government’s citation of my client’s military service as something negative — something that should factor into him being kept behind bars,” David said, sounding righteously indignant. I did a mental fist bump as he glared at Marnie and she frowned back at him.
“Second, my client does have family ties here. His younger sister Adrian lives with him. My client is very close with her. Both of their parents have passed away. Mr. Walker’s sister is the only family he has left. With respect to his wealth, the Defense respectfully submits this financial affidavit,” David said, handing Marnie a copy and also one to the Bailiff, who brought it to Judge Alvarez. They both silently reviewed it while David paced.
Marnie stood up. “Your honor, just because Mr. Walker swears these are his only assets — I’m sorry, but a sworn statement in this case doesn’t constitute dispositive proof,” she said.
I tapped a large stack of supporting paperwork in front of me on the desk. Mandy had prepared it and collated it with colored tabs earlier today. It was Walker's bank statements, his retirement accounts, and his credit card accounts. I tapped it nervously with my pen so David would give copies to Marnie and the judge. David glared at me. Clearly, he’d had enough of the associate trying to herd him through the arraignment.
“Attorney Proctor, do you have exhibits supporting this affidavit?” asked Judge Alvarez, looking past David to where I sat tapping the pile of papers in front of me.
“Yes, your honor, I was just getting to that,” David said, not missing a beat, grabbing the stacks I held up for him. David paced some more while they flipped through the bank statements. “The point of this is that you can see that Mr. Walker’s assets are tied up in his business and in his real estate holdings. His fortune is not liquid, as the government would like you to believe.”
“Thank you,” Judge Alvarez said, effectively dismissing David. He came and sat down. I started bouncing my knee up and down and he did, too. Walker sat, impassive, watching the judge. “I didn't need all of this, but thank you,” the judge said, looking at me. I felt my face flush crimson.
“I’m going to agree to keep Mr. Walker out of jail in advance of the trial,” the judge said. I relaxed my hands from the balled-up fists they were in. “His credit card accounts are going to have to be frozen. He will have to wear GPS monitoring bracelet around his ankle, and he will be confined to his Boston residence. He is permitted out of his home for ten hours a week for professional purposes and for religious services, food shopping and doctors’ appointments.”
He turned to Walker. “You are going to be monitored twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. If you go outside of the parameters I’ve set out here, we will know about it immediately and you will be taken into custody. Do you understand?”
Walker stood. “Yes, your honor,” he said.
The Judge turned to me. “I expect that your firm will also remain in constant contact with your client,” he said, and I nodded and blushed furiously.
Attorney Edmonds stood. “I’m going to appeal this decision,” she said, and the judge turned his smile to her.
“Of course you are,” he said. He looked back up at all of us. “Get going on your discovery. We’re keeping to very strict deadlines — no continuances.” David and Marnie nodded at him and he stood. We all scrambled to stand, too.
“Mr. Walker. Counsel,” he said, and nodded at us. “Looking forward to seeing you soon.”
And with that, he was gone. The bailiff came for Walker, to fit him with the ankle bracelet. David followed them out and I sat there, tapping my pen and waiting for what seemed like an eternity. When they came back Walker pulled up the leg of his suit and showed me the cuff.
Without even a second of a pause David turned to me. “About before,” he said, as I looked at him blankly. “I was getting to his sister and his military service, Nicole,” he said, calmly but forcefully. I could tell he was angry. “And I was about to submit the exhibits. I appreciate that you’re invested in this case,” he said, his eyes wandering briefly over to Walker, “but I’ve been doing this a long time. That’s why I’m the first chair, and you’re the second chair. So you need to let me do my job, and I’ll let you do yours. Okay?”
I nodded at him mutely, my previous exuberance morphing into embarrassment. David turned to Walker. “This was the best possible outcome,” he said, and Walker nodded at him.
“Next time,” Walker said, clapping David on the shoulder as we filed out, “you should let Nicole talk. She’d anticipated everything that the government did today. She was prepared. You shouldn’t undermine her like you just did.”
I blushed some more and David sighed. This was not going to be good. “Walker, I told Nicole what points to prepare. She’s doing a very good job — she always does —and I’m not trying to undermine her. I just want her to let me lead. I know what I’m doing. This is part of her training.”
He was calmer, more controlled than I’d expected, but still they were talking about me like I wasn’t even there. “I’m right here,” I said, walking next to them down the loud steps. “You don’t have to talk about me in the third person.”
They both gave me tired smiles. “Sorry,” Walker said. He looked like he meant it.
“Ditto,” David said. He looked like he meant nothing of the sort, and wanted to punish me with hours of ugly, boring document review.
But the throng of reporters were still waiting outside, and they took precedence over our little squabble. David took a deep breath. “Are you ready?” he asked Walker.
“I was born ready,” Walker said.
CHAPTER 9
I, however, was not born ready, and I found myself sweaty, shaking and crumpled back in our lobby a little while later. Between Judge Alvarez and the press, I was feeling so nervous and worn out, I needed a vacation. Or at least a shower.
“Walker, go home,” David said. None of us had spoken on the ride back; I could tell that David was happy with the results of the hearing and that Walker was exhausted and relieved. “I’m going to send Andrew over in a little while. He’ll stay with you — he’s being assigned babysitting duty for now. Nicole, I need you to start working on our discovery request with Mandy and Alexa.”
Walker and I both stopped. I felt a pit of dread in my stomach; I didn’t want to get stuck back in the office. I wanted to stay where I’d been, guarding my secret-secret and trying to get to the bottom of things. Walker stopped and looked at David evenly.
“That’s not gonna work, David,” he said, firmly. My stomach flipped. “I don’t want Andrew to come over. Nicole and I are getting along great. I’m comfortable with her and I trust her. I trust her judgment. I don’t want another stranger in my house. Not now.”
David sighed and started pacing back and forth. “I need Nicole here,” he said. “Like you were saying at the courthouse — she’s a valuable asset. She can manage the other associates and be in charge of research while I start putting together a case that’s going to save your ass. We don’t have a lot of time, Walker. We are on a very tight schedule. We need to work th
is case twenty-four seven in order to be ready for trial.”
“She can work from my house,” Walker said, not budging. I couldn’t bring myself to look at either one of them. “She’s keeping me informed and involved. I need to know what’s going on with my representation at all times. I’m paying you a fortune, David. Nicole has earned my trust and my respect. I want to work directly with her. I think that, given the amount she’s going to be able to bill for your firm, you can honor my request. Otherwise I’ll make it an order,” Walker said. “And if I do remember correctly, you work for me. Not the other way around. Right?”
“You’re only sort of right,” David said, giving him a tight look. “I do work for you. But I also represent your best interests. If I see that being compromised by Nicole not being in the office, then I’ll make another call. I can’t follow your orders if it means you’ll end up in jail. Because then I’m not doing my job. So I work for you unless and until you jeopardize this case. Understood?”
“Of course.” Walker said smoothly, and then turned to me. “Do you need to go to your office?” he asked, effectively dismissing David.
I shook my head, no. “But I need to swing by my house,” I said. I needed to take a shower, be alone for a few minutes after the tumultuous day.
David pointed at Walker. “You have to go directly to your house.” He looked at his watch. “Your car’s here, right?” Walker nodded. “Nicole, I can take you to your apartment to get your things. And then I can take you back to Walker’s.”
“I’ll just take a cab,” I said, hurriedly, not wanting to have to deal with David one on one right now. I wasn’t sure what he would say to me. I wasn’t sure what he thought of Walker’s insistence on my presence, but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to hear it. If David Proctor thought there was a problem, or that I needed a chaperone, was there a possibility that he was right?
I didn’t want to know.
“Let’s have a quick coffee. I’ll walk you through the parameters of home detention,” David said to Walker. My stomach dropped to my feet. Someone was getting a lecture, either way. We hadn’t done anything, and we wouldn’t. But something was between us, a connection that even David Proctor could see.
Don't sleep with your clients, Mimi’s voice said, reciting The Rules in my head. Not even the super-hot ones.
I haven’t, I thought. I won’t.
I nodded goodbye to them, suddenly giddy as a school girl, Rules or no Rules, happy to get away from David and Norris Phaland and Mandy and Alexa. I got to go back to Walkerland, and I wasn’t leaving anytime soon.
I practically skipped outside to get a cab.
CHAPTER 10
“Boy, did I get a lecture,” Walker said, by way of greeting. He was wearing a beat up tee-shirt and some cargo shorts, and he was positively glistening with muscles, tendons, and possibility. I thought I might have a hot flash right then and there. He grabbed my work bag from me and put it on the counter. “Wait till you see how many boxes they already delivered,” he said. I nodded at him, mutely, nervous to hear about what David had to say and nervous and excited to be back in Walker's kitchen.
“So we’ll be plenty busy, which is good,” he continued, “because you’re staying assigned to me until the trial. I pulled rank on David. I made him promise.” He smiled at me and I couldn’t help it, I smiled back. Walker all to myself for the summer. My stomach plummeted in a good way, my heart fluttered and I tried not to squint to check if maybe I could see the outline of his abs through his tee-shirt.
“How’d he take it? The rank-pulling?” I asked, hopping up on a barstool.
“About how you’d expect. He sputtered and ranted and threw his weight around. I ignored him,” he said blithely, and I laughed. “And then I threatened to fire him.” I stopped laughing. Walker looked at me and smiled. “No worries, Nicole. Even if I fired him, I’d still keep you on.”
“Not if I didn’t have a job, you wouldn’t,” I said.
“You’d still be a lawyer.”
I raised my eyebrows at him. “If you fire my firm from your case, I might not be a lawyer for long,” I said
“Don’t worry. I’d give you a job. You could be my wine wench,” he said, and wagged his eyebrows at me.
“I don’t know what that is, but I think it’s below my pay grade,” I sniffed.
“I’d make it worth your while,” he said, and leaned across me to rest his hand on the island. His massive bicep bulged right in front on my eyes.
I jumped up and went over to my bag, putting some distance between me and that bicep. “Where should I put this?” I asked, nervous and trying desperately not to be nervous.
“Living room. We’re going to be surrounded by boxes.”
“Is Adrian here?” I asked. I was curious to meet her.
“She should be home later. Come on, I promised David we’d get through a couple of boxes tonight.” He grabbed my laptop with one hand and I watched his muscles bulge with a mixture of fascination, fear and desire.
“I also promised him you’d text him regularly,” he said. “So he knows you’re working, and not just having fun.”
I gaped at the rows of boxes stacked neatly throughout the living room. “I don’t think he needs to worry about me having too much fun. I don’t think I’ll ever have time for fun again. Who dropped these off, anyway?” I asked. I figured it was probably poor Andrew, sent to do menial labor, while suffering the double-blow of seeing Walker’s gorgeous house that he almost got assigned to.
“Some big security dude that David sent over. It took him a while.”
“I can’t imagine why,” I said, looking out at the sea of boxes. “You ready to get to work?"
“As long as we can have takeout. You up for Indian?”
“Always,” I said, and he smiled at me.
“Me, too, Nic. Me too. We’re practically an old married couple.”
“Ha-ha,” I said, although I was secretly thrilled by what he said. I grabbed a heavy box and set it on the table while he went into the kitchen to call. “Extra samosas and extra naan, please,” I called, whining. We were going to need them.
* * *
“WE HAVE to have a cohesive narrative,” I said, rifling through the box of Blue Securities’ tax returns. I’d read the tax summaries, but now I was looking at the actual filings, checking for anything that looked out of order.
“I’m going to show a concrete trail from the profit shown for each of the past three years, to what’s been invested back into the company. I’m also going to need to meet with your Board of Directors, to review meeting minutes, anything about shareholder votes. Anything that the Board voted on that might be a contributing factor in the case. I’m going to need to meet with your Chief Financial Officer,” I said. “What’s his name again?”
“Lester Max,” Walker said, and went back to staring out the window at the darkness. It was almost ten, and he’d seemed to lose interest in the files he was reviewing about an hour ago.
“Do you trust him?”
Walker turned to me. “I don’t trust anybody. But Lester likes money more than most people. He’s obsessed with it, and I pay him lots of it. So if my company has to be in someone else’s hands, his greedy ones are probably the best choice. He wants the company to be successful. Blue is how he happens to own a lovely condominium in the Leather District, a house on Nantucket, and can afford child support to five kids from three wives."
“He sounds charming. Can’t wait to meet him.”
“He’s probably going to try to get you to sleep with him,” he said.
“Walker, not everybody finds me attractive.”
“That, Counselor, is where you’re wrong. You’re twenty-five — which is hot in and of itself. You have long, thick brown hair, breasts that I can’t get a close enough look at, but that I suspect are fantastic, perfect skin and beautiful brown eyes. And great legs, I might add.”
“You're incorrigible,” I said. Don’t ever stop talking to me l
ike that, not ever, I thought. “I’ll meet Lester Max for a safe lunch. No Leather District, ‘cause that just sounds naughty. I don’t want him getting any ideas. Now, can we get back to work?”
“Say ‘naughty’ again. I’m begging you,” he said, looking at me playfully.
I handed him a stack of tax returns: the opposite of naughty.
“You drive a hard bargain, Nic.” He paused for a bit, scowling at the documents. “Aren’t you going to beg me to say ‘hard,’ again?” He sounded wounded.
“No, Walker, I’m not. Stop being lewd and get back to work.” I looked up at him and saw him sulking. “Because it’s going to be really hard to keep your naughty ass out of jail. Bahahaha,” I said. He cracked up and I let him laugh for a minute.
Then I gave him a look that shut him up immediately. “Seriously, Walker. Do I have to crack the whip? Bahahaha!” We laughed until our sides hurt, even though it wasn’t that funny. It was overtired, giddy laughter. Too many tax documents make everything else funny.
Once we stopped, I sat up straight and handed him another file. “We have to get through at least half of this set tonight. You can stop if you want to, because I’m going to review everything, anyway. The government is going to do a massive amount of discovery, and they’re going to go through all of these with a fine-toothed comb. If there’s some sort of irregularity, we need to know as soon as possible, so we can prepare.” I looked up to find him staring at me. “Walker, if you’re trying to find some sexual innuendo in something I just said, move on. The words ‘comb’ and ‘irregular’ are hardly sexy.”
He immediately smiled, victorious. “I was thinking more along the lines of the word massive.”
For the hundredth time in a matter of a few short days, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. So I just let myself blush and hid behind my tax returns. For the next three hours.