Cassidy's Courtship - Cassidy's Courtship Part 16
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Cassidy's Courtship Part 16

Cole jumped and whirled around to face his secretary.

She offered him a faint smile of apology. "Sorry. I thought you heard me come in. You look about ready

to strangle someone," she murmured, picking up cups from the counter.

"Damn straight."

"Losing your temper won't do either one of you any good. Why don't you take five minutes. Walk around the block or something until you're-"

"Calmer?"

She nodded.

Cole stared at her a moment, remembering that he'd asked her to help him keep his temper in check when she came to work for him. He valued her astute assessment of people, but just now he wasn't all that pleased that she had so accurately read him. Cole nodded, and leaned against the counter folding his arms across his chest. A moment later, he heard Myra talking to Zach.

Pouring another cup of coffee, Cole drank it slowly. After his watch ticked away another four minutes, he returned to his office, carrying the half-empty pot.

Myra sat in the chair next to Zach, and Cole had no doubt that she had been successful in her favorite-aunt routine to temporarily defuse the situation. When Cole appeared in the doorway, she patted Zach's hand and stood up. Cole briefly met her eyes, saw a warning in them, and refilled Zach's coffee cup. Myra took the pot from him and left the office, softly closing the door behind her.

Rummaging around in his desk drawer, Cole found the bottle of aspirin, which he handed to Zach.

Zach opened the childproof cap with more finesse than Cole expected, and poured a couple of tablets into his palm. He swallowed them with a long drink of the hot coffee.

Cole sat down behind the desk and watched his client, dread sinking into his stomach like the lead weight on a fishing line.

"My dad doesn't believe me."

"Another news flash. So what?" Not believing children seemed to be a common failing of fathers everywhere.

"He told me that I'd made my choices, and that I'd just have to live with them. As if I didn't know that." He took a deep breath. "He told me ... that he'd been figuring for years that I'd kill somebody." He met Cole's gaze head-on. "And I did. There's no sugar-coating it."

"That's the kind of talk that could get you convicted. We have to go into court-"

"This isn't about court. This is about..." Zach lifted a hand in frustration. "There's legal. And then, there's right. You know?"

Cole chose to ignore that. "So what drove you to drink last night?"

Zach pulled a ring out of the pocket of his sports coat. He skittered it across the top of the desk, a two-carat diamond flashing. The ring twirled briefly like a top, then fell over.

"Pamela agrees with my father that I'm a no-good worthless bastard." Zach looked up, his eyes old, tired. "I didn't lie about that night."

Cole sensed a "but" coming, and he had a bad feeling about where this was going.

Zach rubbed his hand across the top of his thigh before looking up and meeting Cole's gaze. "That night ... the night of the accident ... after I left Score, I went over to Pamela's. We had a couple of drinks. Hell, I had more than a couple. I'd planned to spend the night, but we had a fight."

He surged out of the chair. "And I left," Zach continued. "I wasn't drunk. I swear I wasn't. Just upset. Driving mad might be legal, bat it's no smarter than driving drunk. I knew I shouldn't be driving, So I went to Denny's, ordered an omelet and pancakes, and drank about two quarts of coffee. I was there over an hour." He turned back around to face Cole. "I swear, I wasn't drunk when I left there."

"Which Denny's?" Cole wanted to know.

Zach named the cross streets.

"I suppose you don't remember the waitress?"

"No."

Cole pulled a pad toward him. "No matter," he said, jotting down a note. "We can find out who worked that night. Show your picture around. Something will show up." Cole glanced up. "How'd you pay for the meal? Cash? Credit card? Check?"

"Hell, I don't know."

"It's important. A credit card leaves a paper trail."

Zach surged to his feet, thrusting his hands into his pockets. "I don't remember, okay? The bill couldn't have been more than ten dollars, so I probably paid cash. What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that this could go a long way toward proving you weren't drunk at the time of the accident. How long from the time you left Denny's until you-"

"Killed someone?" Zach interrupted.

Cole looked up from his notes and set down his pencil. "If that's how you want to put it."

Zach shrugged. "Ten or fifteen minutes, I think. No more than a half hour."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" Cole asked.

"I didn't think you'd believe me."

"You'd be amazed at what I believe." A trace of anger edged Cole's voice.

Zach met his glance squarely. "I haven't lied to you."

"You didn't tell me the whole truth, either." Abruptly Cole pushed himself away from the desk. His temper seared through the edges of his control. Recognizing just how close he was to losing his temper, he grabbed both empty coffee mugs and went to get them another cup of coffee. He stood in front of the coffee maker a moment, irritated with Zach, furious with himself. His belief in a man's guilt or innocence didn't have anything to do with the case. Ensuring the prosecution played by the rules, finding every scrap he could to cast doubt on the evidence-those counted. Somehow, though, Zach's innocence had come to matter. Plain and simple, Cole resented the sense of betrayal that came with this morning's revelations. He swore.

When he returned to his office, Zach was sitting down again, straighter this time, though his attention was still focused on the noisy traffic just beyond the window.

Cole set one of the mugs in front of Zach and went himself to stand in front of the window. The convenience store across the street and the steady stream of rush-hour traffic were a far cry from the view of Cherry Creek Reservoir he'd had at his old office. He turned around and looked at Zach. So were his clients. Bad as things were with Zach, this was still an improvement over Harvey Bates and his ilk.

Zach cleared his throat. "She's testifying for the prosecution."

"Pamela?" So that was what had pushed Zach over the edge, Cole thought.

Zach nodded. "It's bad, isn't it?"

"It's not going to help." Cole took a hefty swallow of his coffee, most of his anger fading. He knew what it was like to be ditched by a woman you cared about.

"There's one more thing," Zach said.

Cole didn't want one more thing. This one was enough to make him sweat bullets.

"I'm checking myself intoMaizer's when I leave here." The hospital Zach named was one of the best in the area for treating alcohol and drug abuse.

Any other time, Cole would have applauded the move. The trial, however, was a scant six weeks off. The timing stunk. If the prosecution got hold of this, they'd use it as another piece to build a solid, if circumstantial, case.

"You're going in for a thirty-day program?" Cole asked.

"Yeah."

"You can't wait until after the trial?"

Zach lifted his head and reached for the coffee cup. "I intended to. But I'm not handling this. I'd promised myself I wouldn't touch a drop until after the trial." He briefly met Cole's glance. "I can't stay away from it."

"This isn't going to look good to a jury. Or the D.A."

Zach gave a short bark of laughter. "Some choice, right? I can pretend like this is all going to be okay, and maybe, just maybe, that's how it'll turn out. That is, if I can get to court without looking like I do this morning, Or, I can dry out and whip this thing." His ironic smile vanished. "Which makes me look guilty."

Cole thought back a moment to all the contacts he had developed at his old firm. A very discreet, albeit expensive, sanitarium was one those. "I know of a place-"

Zach shook his head. "Thanks for the offer, but no."

"What about outpatient?" Cole asked.

"If I'm going to do this, I'm doing it right. Hell, walking out of here and heading for the nearest bar ... nothing sounds better. Nothing."

"But?"

"I just don't want to wake up a homeless filthy drunk one day," he said. "The way my dad sees me. The way Pamela sees me." He picked up the ring and put it back in his pocket. "One more thing."

"Another one more thing?"

Zach smiled. "Yeah, Counselor.Oneone more thing."

Cole shook his head. "With your last two bombshells, I don't even want to guess."

"The bar, Score," Zach said. "Theo told me it's being shut down. He said the insurance company raised the owner's insurance to cover their liability."

"You're sure?"

"Theo told me last night. The big boss will be in today to lay off the whole crew. It's not just me I'm hurting anymore. Sure as hell never thought my drinking would cost somebody else their job." Zach pulled out a card and jotted down a phone number. "It'll be a few days before I can talk to you, but if you need to reach me, this is the number." He stood up and extended his hand. "See you in a thirty days, Cole. Clean, sober and clear-eyed as a baby."

After Zach's departure, Cole helped himself to another cup of coffee. The discipline to keep working failed him this morning, and he found himself unable to focus on the other cases that needed his attention.

A part of him was furious with Zach. After Cole thought about it some more, he admitted that another part of him admired and respected the courage Zach's actions required. The man wasn't guilty, but he wasn't innocent, either. In the beginning, Cole had been positive this was a tough case, but one he would win. He was no longer so sure.

Zach's willingness to face problems head-on deserved the best representation Cole could give him. He hoped it was enough.

Zach reminded Cole of Brenna. No blaming someone else for your trouble, no wringing your hands hoping to be rescued. Much as Cole hated the idea of Zach's entering a rehab program so close to his trial date, it was the right thing.

Cole called Brenna, wanting to warn her the bar was closing, but there was no answer. It was late afternoon before he had a chance to call her again. There was still no one home.

Two more appointments with clients kept him at the office until after eight. He headed straight for the apartment Brenna shared with her brother's family. He needed a break, he decided during the drive. Both he and Brenna did. A few days to be lazy, have a change of scenery. Brenna had loved her grandparents' farm, and he knew she'd love the ranch. He hadn't been there all summer. Long weekends and holidays, his car just naturally pointed in that direction. A strong pull to go home swept through him. Home. The ranch wasn't home anymore. Even so, he needed the sense of renewal and acceptance he always found there. A place he had loved visiting and that had become a bone of contention between him and Susan every holiday. She'd grown up spending holidays in exotic locales. The Christmas he'd spent with her in Hawaii ought to have been fun, but he'd been miserable. Paradise instead of a blizzard. A willing, passionate woman in his bed, but no nieces and nephews to tuck in on Christmas Eve.

He'd invite Brenna to the ranch, Cole decided. Over the Fourth. He knew the connotation his parents and grandmother would put on his bringing her. He had never taken anyone before Susan or since.

He parked the Jeep in front of the apartment, got out, and went to the door.

"She's gone for a run," Michael told him after letting him into the house.

"Did she tell you the bar shut down?"

"Yeah," Michael said. "She surprised us when she walked in while Jane, Teddy, and I were having dinner."

"Is she okay?"

"I thought she was doing fine until our dad called. They talked a couple of minutes, and she left right after that." Michael scratched his jaw. "She usually takes off after talking to him. C'mon in and have a seat."

Cole followed Michael into the apartment. "She still doesn't get along with him, does she?"

"She talked to you about that?" Surprise laced Michael's voice.

"Only that she'd left home when she was fourteen. That your mother and grandmother died shortly after."

Deciding there was no point in adding that he knew their father had beat Brenna, Cole asked, "Where does she usually go? Washington Park?"

"Yeah."

"I think I'll head that direction." At the door, Cole turned back to Michael. "If I miss her, tell her I'll be back."

Four blocks from the house he saw her, walking toward him her head down and her shoulders slumped. He recognized the feeling. It was the same one he'd had the day Roger Markham gave him a choice between resigning or being fired. As if sensing she was being watched, Brenna lifted her head, and looked straight at him. He quickened his pace.

"Hi," he said, draping both his arms over the top of her shoulders and pressing his lips against her forehead. "I'm sure glad to see you."

Brenna didn't want to be, but Lord, she was glad to see him, too. Without speaking, she wrapped her arms around his waist, shaken at how relieved she was that he'd come. She wanted-needed-him with an intensity she didn't understand and hadn't realized until he held her within the circle of his arms.

"The bar closed," she said.

He rested his chin on top of her head. "I know. Sometimes, it's just one damn thing after another, isn't it?"