Private Lives

by Karen Young

  The phone was already in Lindsay’s hand.

  Jennifer’s attitude hadn’t improved a whole lot on the drive to Elizabeth’s house, but at least she wasn’t openly rebelling. Ryan hoped he was doing the right thing in forcing her to help out with Jesse. He hadn’t exaggerated by telling her that Louie wasn’t up to minding a five-year-old 24/7. It was bound to be a difficult day. Less than twelve hours since the accident and already it seemed like a week.

  After Austin’s surprise visit, Ryan had made two calls to the hospital, one to Lindsay and one to Megan Blackstone. Lindsay was one shrewd cookie. He hadn’t had to dot any i’s or cross any t’s. She got it immediately. If anyone could make an end run around Austin, Lindsay was the gal to set it up. Liz wouldn’t hesitate, given the stakes. Of course, as Austin’s lawyer, Ryan might suffer an ethics charge as a result of that call, but he’d deal with that when it happened. He had a clean conscience, something he’d been neglecting lately.

  What he wasn’t quite sure about in his mind was why he was risking so much for Elizabeth Walker.

  His call to Megan had left him feeling more somber and less noble. Gina’s condition was grim. She wasn’t going to recover, although Megan said she hadn’t yet spoken so frankly to Elizabeth.

  “There’s just something about Liz’s devotion to Gina—and her deep distress—that makes it difficult to destroy hope,” Megan said. “Sometimes we decide to let a patient’s loved one come around to the inevitable in their own way before actually telling them that all is lost. It’s that way with Liz. She’ll face it soon.” He’d sensed a sad smile in her tone then. “I must admit to a personal interest in Gina’s case. I keep trying to think of a way to make it less devastating to Liz, if that’s possible.”

  “But it is hopeless?”

  “We’re doing all the tests, but she appears brain-dead.”

  Now, as he pulled into the driveway at Liz’s house, he wondered if Louie knew. Beside him, Jennifer released her seat belt. “I’m not baking cookies, no matter what you say.”

  Obviously, his daughter wasn’t feeling the same angst over the situation as he was. Ryan reached over and stopped her before she could get out of the car. “This little girl’s mother is dying, Jennifer. If I find out you haven’t done everything in your power today to ease the tragedy of that, then you’d better have a pretty good excuse.”

  Jennifer freed her wrist. “Oh, relax, Dad.” She rolled her eyes and held up a trendy shopping bag. “I brought some old Barbie stuff that I used to play with. She might get a kick out of acting out stuff, you know. I read that somewhere…about traumatized kids.” She pushed her door open and got out.

  Ryan sat stunned into silence and watched her stroll nonchalantly up the walk to the front door. So much for thinking she had no heart. Did the female of the species start confounding men right out of the cradle, he wondered. Then, shaking his head with a mixture of fatherly pride and affection—and, to be honest, relief—he managed to get out and reach the door just as it was opened by Louie. Little Jesse stood almost hidden behind him, her blue eyes big and wary. The old man had a firm hand on the collar of the dog, who strained against his hold and barked with excitement. Ryan tried without success to recall the dog’s name.

  “Hi, Archie,” Jennifer said, putting out her hand.

  “That’s enough, Archie,” Louie said sternly, but the dog was already licking Jennifer’s fingers. Then he smiled down at the wary-eyed child hugging his leg. “Look at this, Jesse-girl, here’s Jennifer and her daddy come to visit you.”

  “Hi, Jesse,” Ryan said gently and felt his heart twist at what she would soon face.

  “Hey, kid.” Jennifer didn’t seem to notice that Jesse remained mute. Nor did she seem put off at being subjected to Jesse’s unblinking stare. “I had some time this weekend and thought maybe we could hang out together. How’d you like that?”

  Jesse didn’t move or speak. She simply stared at Jennifer.

  “I knew you’d like it.” Jennifer held up the trendy bag. “You’re not going to believe what I’ve got in this sack. Uh-uh, it’s not Britney Spears zapped from life-size to Barbie-size. It’s…ta-dah!” She plucked Barbie out of the sack. “Your basic Barbie.”

  There was a tiny flicker of the little girl’s lashes.

  “I’ve got a few more surprises in this sack, but I need a place to spread ’em all out…like your room, okay?”

  “What do you say to that, Jesse-girl?” Louie bent with a crackle of his aging joints to look into the child’s face. “You want to take Jennifer to your room?”

  Jesse looked at Jennifer and the sack and gave an almost imperceptible nod.

  “Okay!” Jennifer reached for her hand and without another look at the two men, they left the foyer together. Archie trotted beside them.

  Louie and Ryan were silent, watching as they turned into the room that Liz had fixed up for Jesse. “Nice little girl you’ve got there,” Louie said.

  “Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing.”

  “They surprise you sometimes.”

  “I was thinking that, too.”

  Ryan still had not been invited inside. “You heard from the hospital today?” Louie asked, searching his face.

  “Yeah, just before we left to come here. You?”

  “Liz called to check on Jesse, but she didn’t have much to say in the way of progress for Gina. It doesn’t look good, does it?”

  Ryan hesitated, wondering how frank to be with the old man. He didn’t know whether telling Louie exactly how bad Gina was might cause a heart attack or something. Sensing his hesitation, Louie said, “Got time for a cup of coffee?”

  “I wouldn’t say no if it’s already made.”

  Louie turned, gesturing with a jerk of his thumb for Ryan to follow. Once in the kitchen, he took a mug from a hook beneath one of the cabinets and poured coffee from a carafe into it. His own was in the sink. He rinsed it out and refilled it. Clearly, he was at home in Liz’s house. Ryan wondered how much time he actually spent here.

  “You want cream or sugar?”

  Ryan shook his head. “Black’s fine.” He took a sip and made a pained face.

  “I like it strong,” Louie said with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Uh-huh.” Ryan gestured toward the French doors leading to the patio. “Mind if we sit outside? I don’t want the kids to hear this.”

  He followed Louie outside, taking the lawn chair the old man indicated. It was a great backyard. Tall trees cast cooling shade. At the corner of the patio, water trickled over a tasteful formation of stones, then pooled to form an oasis with a variety of water-loving plants. He leaned forward and caught a flash of color. She had it stocked with goldfish. Very nice.

  “What about Gina?” Louie asked after easing himself down on the edge of a comfortable-looking chaise.

  “It’s bad. According to Megan, she’s brain-dead. They’re doing tests, but I got the idea they were simply a formality.”

  Louie gazed at a bird feeder that hung suspended from the limb of the nearest tree. He looked sad and suddenly older. “I’m thinking of that baby girl. She’s already showing signs of trauma. Hasn’t spoken a word since it happened. This is going to be bad.”

  “Yeah. And Liz is going to be crushed, too.”

  Louie got up with some effort and went to the edge of the patio where he tipped his mug and poured out the rest of his coffee. “Get ready for problems,” he said, facing Ryan again.

  “What?”

  “If Gina’s brain-dead, that means there’s a decision to be made. Liz is stubborn. She isn’t going to want to withdraw life support. On the other hand, Austin will.”

  “It’s not appropriate for me to discuss what Austin will or won’t do,” Ryan said. “I’m still his lawyer.” And wishing every day that he wasn’t.

  “He never married Gina. He’s got no power here.”

  “I could make a good case that he does, based on the number of years they were together and the fact that
they have a child.”

  Louie looked at him. “He just wants to be rid of her.”

  Ryan believed the same thing, but he couldn’t admit it to the old man. “Are you a lawyer?” He’d been curious about Louie Christian from day one. Now seemed as good a time as any to find out about him.

  “It doesn’t take a lawyer to know that Austin’s position as Gina’s next of kin is arguable.”

  Ryan smiled. “You talk like a lawyer.”

  “Maybe I was once.” Louie dropped back onto the chaise.

  “Was your practice in Texas?”

  “Yes and no.”

  Stonewalling. “Speaking of Liz…” If he couldn’t find out anything about Louie, maybe the old man would fill in some blanks about Judge Walker. “Do you know anything about her father?”

  Louie stared at him hard. “Why do you ask?”

  “I didn’t make the connection until I read the article about her in the Chronicle. My father was a Superior Court judge, too. Coincidentally, he died at about the same time as Matthew Walker. They both served when Arthur Ramsey was mayor.”

  “A corrupt bastard.”

  “There was plenty of corruption to go around then, and not only in the political arena. The judicial branch had its own share of bad apples.”

  “But your father wasn’t one of them?”

  Ryan’s gaze sharpened at that. “Did you know him?”

  “That wasn’t a statement. It was a question.”

  He wasn’t going to trip up this wily old ex-lawyer. “No, my father wasn’t one of them. In fact, I wish I had shown more interest in his work, especially the cases he was scheduled to preside over in those last few months. Maybe I would have had some warning that he was on the edge of an abyss. But I was a fifteen-year-old kid and full of myself. I didn’t really understand or appreciate Dad’s career. I’ve had a lot of time to regret that.”

  “We all have regrets, son.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Actually, I did know John Paxton,” Louie said, gazing again at the bird feeder where a cardinal was now perched, eating sunflower seeds. “He was a man of impeccable character. Defense attorneys with a guilty client literally quaked at the thought of appearing before Judge Paxton. His death was a great loss to the judicial system and the public.”

  Ryan felt his heartbeat quicken. Louie didn’t seem inclined to talk about himself, but he might be willing to fill in some of the blanks in those months leading up to John Paxton’s death. He hunched forward in his chair, cupping the mug of coffee between both hands. “About that scandal in the judicial system during Mayor Ramsey’s tenure, did you know about it?”

  “Oh, yeah, I knew about it. Everybody knew about it. That’s what makes a scandal—corruption, exposure, media blitz. Judges were on the take from lawyers who wanted verdicts in their favor. Some of the personal injury claims reached into the millions. Out of that came tax fraud, tax evasion, funny numbers from CPAs. You name it, several judges were ready to roll over if you could afford to pay. I don’t mean a few, but twentysomething or more.”

  “The way I understand it,” Ryan said, watching Louie closely, “the IRS stumbled on a large interest-bearing account in the Caymans with sizable withdrawals that seemed to go nowhere.”

  “It was going to judges. Payoffs.” Louie got to his feet, but it seemed to take some effort. Still, his gaze at Ryan was keen. “Been a long time since I talked to anybody who remembered that scandal. It was ugly. Ruined a lot of lives.”

  “Yeah. I’ve spent hundreds of hours researching Dad’s cases at the time. He was not linked in any way to that scandal.”

  Louie was frowning. “I don’t recall anybody ever suggesting that about John Paxton.”

  “He killed himself, I guess you know that.”

  Louie’s face suddenly seemed older. “I’m sorry you had that sadness to cope with.”

  “He was driven to it.”

  Again a dark frown. “Driven to it? What—”

  “It was Liz’s father. Judge Matthew Walker. He was the last person to talk to my father in his chambers the night it happened. They were together, working late. The place was deserted when Walker left. Actually, nobody saw him leave at the time he claimed, so who’s to know what really happened?” Ryan looked down at the bitter near-black coffee and stood up abruptly, walked to the edge of the patio and tossed it out into the grass. Without turning, he said, “I think Walker was in the scandal up to his sorry ass and that he tried to pressure my father into doing something, maybe ruling in a particular way and Dad wouldn’t budge. I think Walker had something in his back pocket to hold over my dad, some mistake on my dad’s part…maybe something personally incriminating. I’ve scoured his records, everything in the house, a safe deposit box, his diaries, correspondence, but I’ve never found anything. Not a hint of something that would have disgraced him or embarrassed him or disbarred him. But whatever it was, it was a threat to his family or his reputation or his career. He killed himself rather than be outed on it.”

  “And you blame Matthew Walker for your dad taking that way out. Is that what you’re saying, son?”

  Ryan turned and looked at him. “Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.”

  Seventeen

  Thirty minutes later, he was drinking coffee again. This time it was from a machine in the hospital, but it was just as rancid as Louie’s rank brew. Looking down at it, Ryan thought it suited his mood. He felt pretty rank and rancid himself. Which is what always happened when he allowed himself to think about his father. Only rarely did he admit his bitter resentment that John Paxton had taken a way out that seemed cowardly, no matter what the circumstances. He’d left a sick wife. And a son. What the hell was he thinking to just cash it in that way and leave them both hanging out to dry? Ryan believed there wasn’t any situation bad enough to make him kill himself, not because he had more guts than his old man, but because it would hurt Jennifer. He couldn’t do that to Jen. So, what the hell kind of threat had Matthew Walker hung over John Paxton’s head that would make an honorable man turn his back on honor? The most frustrating part was that he couldn’t get to either of them to ask. Not that he’d ask, if he had that opportunity. He’d demand.

  He looked up now as Liz and Lindsay were returning from the brief visit to Gina allowed in the ICU. He’d arrived just as they were admitted. There was no sign of Austin. That puzzled and concerned Ryan. Austin had a lot at stake and from his attitude earlier, he’d seemed obsessed with controlling the events set in motion by Gina’s accident. When Ryan had left Louie, he’d warned him that Austin might show up wanting to take Jesse and that he was to refuse him, no matter what.

  “Do what you have to to stall him,” Ryan had advised Louie, leaving his own cell phone and pager numbers. He’d almost suggested they leave Liz’s house and go to his own condo, but Jesse didn’t need to be in unfamiliar territory right now.

  He stood up as Liz and Lindsay entered the waiting area. Liz looked exhausted. “How is she?” he asked, but in fact, he was more concerned about Liz than Gina, who was beyond help.

  “No change.” Liz pushed her hair back out of her eyes, anchoring it behind one ear. She looked around blankly. “Where’s my coffee? I thought I left it here.”

  “I dumped it,” Ryan said. Reaching out, he tipped up her chin and studied her face. It was an indication of her utter exhaustion that she allowed such an intimacy. “How about taking a walk with me to the cafeteria? I know you’ve got to be hungry.”

  “Great idea,” Lindsay said, settling back on one of the settees. “I’ve eaten, so I’ll stay in case anything happens. Take your cell phone, Liz. I’ll call you.”

  “I had planned just to get something from one of the vending machines,” Elizabeth said, with a move that took her just out of Ryan’s reach. But there was a faint rise of color on her face. She wasn’t totally unaware of him, Ryan noticed, and felt a surge of satisfaction.

  “Go, Liz,” Lindsay urged. She hadn’t missed the small byplay b
etween the two. As Elizabeth turned to go, Lindsay met Ryan’s eyes and gave him a thumbs-up signal and a bright smile.

  “I just left your house,” Ryan told Liz as they waited for the elevator. “Jesse was quiet, but she seemed agreeable to having Jennifer around.” With a hand at her waist, he guided her into the elevator. Most of the space was taken up with an elderly woman in a wheelchair accompanied by two family members. He waited until they reached their destination and got out before adding, “Louie’s holding up.”

  “I talked to him earlier. I don’t know what I would do without him.” She stood uncertainly, looking over the crowd in the cafeteria. “I’m really not very hungry.”

  The place was packed with staff and visitors having lunch, too noisy to talk. And definitely the wrong choice to give Liz a break, Ryan thought, tucking a hand under her elbow. “There’s a restaurant just a short walk from here. Getting outside will probably clear the cobwebs and I bet you’ll be hungry once food is set in front of you. Remember, Lindsay will let you know if you’re needed.”

  To his surprise, she didn’t object, but simply fell into step as if to argue was too much trouble. He didn’t jump to any conclusions about her unusual agreeableness. Fatigue, grief and fear were temporarily taking a toll, but the steel in her spine was still there.

  “Where’s your client?” she asked.

  “Which one? I’ve got a few.”

  “You know which one. Austin hasn’t been back since we argued over pulling life support from Gina.” Her lips twisted with bitterness. “He has no love for her and he isn’t going to be responsible for the expense of keeping her in ICU, so I’ve been wondering what’s so urgent that he wants to end her life.”

  He touched her arm to stop her as they approached a cross street. “I don’t pretend to understand what motivates Austin in anything he does. You may not believe this, but I don’t know him very well. I agreed to represent him when asked by his father, who’s one of the senior partners in the firm.” The light changed and they started walking again. “I haven’t dumped him because of Jesse. I hope you believe that. Maybe I can do some good for her.”