Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) (26 page)

“Samuel,” Oliver called out.  “Will you swing me?”

I was glad he couldn’t hear me groan.  “Sure.” I dragged myself
over to the swings.  What I needed was a cold beer.  Oliver played on the
swings and in the fort for the next half-hour when yet again, the foreman’s
voice sounded.  I wondered if he would ever run out of things to do or if there
was an endless supply.

“Anybody like to roast marshmallows?”

As tired as I was, roasted marshmallows sounded pretty damn
good.  That and a cold beer.  We made our way to the front of the house where
there was a circle of stones with a small fire burning in the middle.  We found
sticks and stuck marshmallows on the end and cooked them until they were golden
on the outside and melted on the inside.  They were as good as I remembered –
maybe even better.

By the time the foreman ran out of things for us to do it was
dark out and by then, even Oliver had run out of steam.  We said goodbye to the
fathers and sons who hadn’t already left and I looked down at Oliver.

“Will you carry me?” I asked.

Oliver laughed.  I picked him up and carried him to the car and
he fell asleep even before we got off the ranch road.  The quiet seemed surreal
after the previous 12 hours of Oliver’s non-stop jabbering.  And when I pulled
into my driveway, it seemed like I’d been away for days.

I tried to get Oliver out of his seat without waking him, but I
still hadn’t figured out the stupid buckle on his seat and I finally had to
wake him up just to ask him how to undo the damn thing.  After the long and
tiring day, I would have expected him to be tired and groggy, but it was just
the opposite.  It was like the power-nap had recharged his batteries and he was
raring to go.

Maddie met us at the door.  “How was it?” she said, squatting
down to give Oliver a hug.

“It was so much fun, Mom.  Wasn’t it Samuel!”

“It was.  It was great.”  I was aware of the stupid smile on my
face, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

“We won the sack race!” Oliver said.

“You did?  That’s great!” Maddie said enthusiastically.  She
looked at me.  “Are you hungry?   You want a beer?” she asked me.

“Yeah, I’ll take a beer.”

Maddie’s mom was in the kitchen with the baby.  “Hi.  How are
you?” I asked.

“I’m fine,” she said, smiling.

I noticed that Oliver got a funny look on his face.  “Grandma,
you’re not fine, you’re fat,” he said.

“Oliver!” Maddie said, horrified.

“But Samuel said,” Oliver started . . .

My face got hot. I was standing in back of Maddie and her mom,
waving my hands and shaking my head no.  Oliver stopped mid-sentence and looked
at me confused, but Maddie and her mom both turned around too.  Oliver continued.

“The girls that Samuel said were fine didn’t look like
Grandma,” he stated.

“Oh, is that right?” Maddie said, giving me a look.

Maddie’s mom picked up Oliver.  “When I said that I was fine,
Oliver, I meant that I was feeling fine.  Not necessarily that I was looking
fine.”

“Oh.”

All three of them looked at me.  “How about that beer?” I said.

I awoke Sunday morning to the realization of what I’d committed
myself to, and somehow, I felt conned. I knew what it was.  It was that damn
dinner that Landra had cooked for me.  In hindsight, what seemed logical at the
time was actually a foolish snap-decision made from a gratified belly full of
good food.   Once again, my stomach had overruled all rational thought and now
I was going to have to pay the price.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want my family to meet Landra and vice
versa, it was just the whole thing of them reading something into the
introduction that wasn’t there.  And they would.  Maybe not Landra, but my
parents definitely would.

Growing up, I’d seen enough sibling break-ups to know how the
family operated in times of couple-crisis, and I wasn’t about make myself the
butt of discussion by bringing in a girlfriend and letting them get attached to
her, then having to put up with their whining when we broke up.  I guess it was
my own fault for not having introduced any of my other girlfriends before.  I
should have realized that it would only make the occasion more momentous when I
finally did.

So rather than making a big deal out of it, I decided to play
the whole thing down.  I called my mom and I merely told her that Landra and I
might stop by that afternoon.  If she was shocked, she didn’t show it.  In
fact, she was rather blasé about the matter.

As it turned out, my mom must have speed-dialed the entire
family as soon as we’d hung up because Landra and I arrived to find not just my
parents, but all of my brothers, sisters, and in-laws, and what looked like
most of their offspring, as well.  I was horrified and thoroughly pissed off at
my mother’s lack of self-control.

“I thought you said it was just going to be your parents,”
Landra said cheerfully, when we pulled up to what looked like a parking lot in
front of my parent’s house.

“That’s what I thought,” I said, trying to hide my irritation.

I considered backing out, but it was too late.  Landra was
already out of the car.  At least we’d get the thing over with in one fell swoop,
I told myself.  One introduction for the whole family and it would be over and
done with.

My oldest sister greeted us at the door.  “Sammy!  I’m glad you
guys could come,” she said happily. She offered her hand to Landra.  “Hi.  I’m
Sam’s sister, Kristie.”

Glad you could come
?  Something told me these people
were not gathered to meet my girlfriend.  The two women faded into the
background as I racked my brain trying to figure out what family function I’d
stumbled onto.

“Come in,” Kristie was saying.

What timing.  I figured it was someone’s birthday, but I had no
idea whose. There were no balloons, so that ruled out the nieces and nephews.

“Samuel!” my mom called out, and I made my way toward her.

Mom had been a nurse up until she started spitting out kids. 
She’d never gone back to the profession after we were grown, but she never did
shake the habit of wearing nurse’s shoes. When we were little, I always thought
she wore them so she could sneak up on us and catch us doing something bad, but
years after we were gone, the shoes were still there.

“Hi, Mom.”  I leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.  “What’s
going on?” I asked under my breath.

“It’s your brother’s birthday,” she said, sounding surprised
that I didn’t know.  “Don’t you remember?  We talked about it two weeks ago.”

“Oh, yeah,” I lied.  I made a mental note to pay more attention
next time my mom told me something. Never in a million years would I have
chosen my brother’s birthday party to introduce my girlfriend to the family. 
“This is Landra,” I told my mother.

“It’s nice to meet you, Landra,” my mother said.  She turned to
me, “Landra and I had a nice visit on the phone the other day.”

“She told me,” I said.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder and when I turned back around
my sister had dragged Landra off in another direction.  The phrase
divide
and conquer
sprang to mind.  I was visiting with my brother-in-law while I
watched Landra from across the room.  She was talking and laughing with
different members of my family just as naturally as if she’d known them for
years.  And as much as I had dreaded introducing Landra to everyone, I caught
myself feeling jealous that my sister had taken over the role.  She was
stealing my glory.

I watched, only half-listening to my sister’s long-winded
husband, as Kristie introduced Landra to my brother’s best friend.  I’d never
liked the guy but women loved him.  He and Landra shook hands and then all
three of them looked over at me and laughed.  Landra waved and smiled and I
felt a surge of pride that she was there with me. She was so damn pretty; so
damn likable.  No, actually lovable. I excused myself and made my way over to Landra’s
side.  I put my arm around her waist and she gave me that incredible smile.

“Who haven’t you met?” I asked her.

“I’ve met both of your sisters, one of your brothers, that guy
over there,” she pointed, “your mother . . .”  She was looking around for more
people to name but I stopped her before she could continue.

“Excuse me,” I called out several times until everyone stopped
talking and turned around expectantly.  “I want everyone to meet my
girlfriend.  This is Landra Krally.”  I put my hands on her shoulders and moved
her forward a couple of steps like she was my show-and-tell exhibit.  “Landra
this is . . .” and I systematically introduced her to everyone in the room. 
When the introduction was over and the spotlight was off of her, Landra took my
hand and smiled up at me.

“Thanks.  That was very sweet.  I know it was hard for you.”

“It was actually very easy.”  Her lips were beckoning me and I
couldn’t help myself.  I took her face in my hands and planted one on that
seductive mouth of hers, but she started laughing and I kissed teeth.  “Quit
laughing,” I said, holding her still, trying to give it another shot.

“Don’t do that here,” she whispered, pulling away and looking
around self-consciously.

“No one’s watching,” I told her.  I had no idea if the statement
was true or not since I had my back to the crowd, but I didn’t care any way.
“It’s just a kiss.  It’s not like we’re having sex on the living room floor,” I
said.

“Sex on the living room floor?” someone said.

I turned around and my sister was right behind me.  Landra gave
me an
I told you so
look and thumped me in the chest.

“Did you know that you’re the first girl Sammy has ever brought
to a family function?” Kristie told Landra.  She said it like she was confiding
a secret to her new best friend.

“Yeah, but believe me, it wasn’t on purpose,” Landra said
laughing.

“What do you mean?” Kristie asked.

“He didn’t know all of you were going to be here.”

“Quit talking about me like I’m not here,” I said.  “Besides,
even if I’d remembered about the stupid birthday party, I still would have
brought you,” I asserted.  Whether it was true or not was another matter.  I
couldn’t say with certainty that I would have.

“Well, you should have brought her over sooner,” Kristie said. 
She put her arm around Landra and squeezed her shoulder.  “And you better think
twice about ever breaking up with her because we might decide to disown you and
keep Landra instead.”

Great.  Just what I needed.  Now I was going to have to compete
with my sister and probably the rest of my family for Landra’s attention.  I
should have left things the way they were and kept her all to myself.  Damn
that special dinner she’d cooked for me.

Landra and Kristie had started talking about girl stuff.   Just
like that I had become a third wheel.  I left the two of them and made my way
into the kitchen to find a beer.  My mother made a beeline straight over to me.

“She’s gorgeous!  And sweet!  Oh, I tell you Samuel, she’s just
a charm!”

Typically, my mom’s statements would have totally irked me, but
I found myself delighted, even relieved, that she approved of Landra.

“She’s pretty incredible,” I said, watching Landra from across
the room.  I could feel my mom looking at me, and I took a big swig of my beer
to hide the stupid smile on my face.

My dad joined us in the kitchen to add his two cents worth.  As
an ex-FBI agent, Dad was a man of few words.  I always assumed it was a
lingering effect from his occupation from having to maintain secrecy, kind of
like Mom and her shoes.

“Landra seems like a very nice girl,” he said.

“She is,” I agreed.

“Are you two serious?”

“We got married in Vegas last night,” I said.

In the split second that he fell for it, I could tell that he
was ecstatic, and I almost felt bad when he realized that I was kidding.  He
laughed and clinked his bottle up against mine.  “That’s what I get for
asking.”

“It is,” I agreed.

I left my parents in the kitchen, and went to find Landra.

“Are your ears ringing?” I asked her.

“Why?” she laughed.

“Because I’m certain that my entire family is talking about
you.”

I didn’t want to be the first to leave the party because I knew
how my family operated; as soon as I left, they would start conspiring to marry
me off.  I figured the fewer conspirators, the better, so we ended up staying
late, which would have been fine, except that I had to share Landra the whole
time.

But when it was all said and done, the day had turned out
okay.  I’d survived the introduction unscathed, and I’d actually enjoyed
showing Landra off.  I dropped Landra off at her house on my way home and
walked her to the door.

“You want to come in?” she asked.

“I better not.  I’ve got some work I need to finish up,” I told
her.  I put my arms around her waist.  “Thanks for going with me today.  I was
very proud to introduce you as my girlfriend.”

“Thank you.  I had a nice time.  It was fun.”

She kissed me, then I just held her in my arms, hugging her
close.  I realized instantly that it had been a mistake; I didn’t want to leave
her but I had a shit-load of work to do.

“I wish you didn’t have to go,” Landra said.

“Did I say I had to go?  I don’t know what I was thinking.”  I
put my arm around her and we walked side by side into her house and Landra
locked the door behind us.

The grand jury convened on Monday to hear Landra’s case, and I
couldn’t keep my mind on anything else.  I’d suggested that Landra take the day
off, but she didn’t see the point.

“What good would come from me sitting around doing nothing?”
she asked.

I wasn’t going to argue with her.  After all, who was I to know
what was right for her.  But for me, it was turning out to be impossible to get
anything done.  I’d tried three or four times to get started on a brief, and
each time, I’d ended up staring at my blank computer screen.

It was late in the day when I received a call from the District
Attorney’s Office.

“The grand jury wants to hear from Ms. Krally.  They’re going
to subpoena her to testify tomorrow morning.”

I was psyched.  I wouldn’t be allowed in the room while Landra
gave her testimony, but she could come out and ask me questions if she needed
to.  And she could always invoke the Fifth and not answer any of their
questions if she chose.   But I was glad that she’d get the chance to appear
before them.  As far as I was concerned, all Landra had to do was tell the
truth and the men and women of the grand jury would see that she was innocent. 
I only hoped that I was being objective in my assessment of the case.

I called Landra on her cell phone but got her voice-mail, so I
left a message for her to call me at the office immediately.  It was just after
5:00 o’clock when she called me back.

“What’s up?” she asked.

It seemed like whenever I left her a message, there was always
trepidation in her voice when she returned my call.  I thought back to the last
time I’d given her important information over the phone instead of in person,
and I caught myself before I did it again.

“You want to go have a drink?” I asked instead.

“I’d love to, but is something the matter?”

“Nothing’s the matter,” I said, and I considered it a truthful
response.  “Want to meet at Chuy’s, say in . . . 20 minutes?” I said, looking
at my watch.

“Sure.  I’ll see you there.”

Chuy’s is a trendy Mexican restaurant bar close to the Park
that packs ‘em in for happy hour margaritas and great food. I high-tailed it
over there because I wanted to get there first.  I hated the idea of guys
hitting on my girlfriend when I wasn’t there.   As it turned out, not only did
Landra beat me there, but she was already sitting outside and there was an
extra drink on the table.  I leaned down and kissed her on the cheek and pulled
up the chair next to hers.

“Whose is that?” I asked, pointing to the drink.

“Oh, just some guy I ran into.  He went to the bathroom.”  She
smiled while she sipped her margarita through a straw, then she batted her
eyelashes at me.  She was playing me, but I wasn’t going to take the bait.

“Good thing I’m not the jealous type.”

“Good thing,” she agreed, and I could tell she was trying not
to laugh.  She pulled my head over to hers and kissed me on the lips. “It’s
Niki and his girlfriend.”

“Fiancée,” I corrected, in the same tone of voice Niki had
always used when he said it.

Landra laughed.  “I stand corrected.”

I ran my fingers through her hair but my hand got stuck in a
tangle and it yanked her head to the side.

“Ouch!” she whined.

“Sorry about that,” I said, as I tried to extricate my fingers
from her mane.  “You ever heard of a thing called a brush?”

“Very funny.”  She scrunched up her nose and made a face at me
and for some reason it made me want to jump her bones.

I needed to tell her about her appearance the next day but I
hated to do it and have Niki and Stacy reappear the next minute.  But it wasn’t
something that could wait, so I dove right in, trying my best to put a positive
spin on it.  “I got a call from the DA’s office this afternoon.  You’re going
to get to appear before the grand jury after all.”

“You’re kidding,” she said.  “What made the DA change his
mind?”

“He didn’t.  The grand jury subpoenaed you for tomorrow
morning.”

“Tomorrow morning?”  She sat back in her chair, her big brown
eyes looking at me in disbelief, and I reached over and picked up her hand.

“I know its short notice,” I said.  “But I think it’s a really
good development.  All you have to do is tell the truth.”

“I know,” she said quietly.  “It’s just that . . . I’m going to
have to relive the whole thing over again.  It makes me sick every time I think
of it.  To have to talk about it out loud, to have to tell a bunch of strangers
about it . . .”  She let the sentence hang and I could feel her drift off
somewhere.

“Hey,” I said, squeezing her hand.  She looked at me and forced
a smile.  “You’ll do great,” I assured her.

“Collins!”  Niki clapped me hard on the shoulder.  “You
remember my fiancée, Stacy Trent.”

I halfway stood up and shook her hand.  “Stacy, nice to see you
again.” It wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t altogether true.  The last time I’d
seen Stacy she’d given me the third degree and chewed me out for fighting with
Niki.  I didn’t easily forgive and I didn’t forget either.  “You met Landra?” I
asked her.

“I did.”  She looked over at Landra and smiled.

Niki and Stacy joined us at the table, but before I started up
another conversation, I had to make sure the old one was retired.  I turned
back to Landra.  “Are you okay with everything then?”

“Yeah.  I’m fine,” she said.  “But I don’t want to stay here
for a long time.”

“Me neither.  Let’s have one more drink then pick up some
Chinese and go to your house,” I suggested.

“That’s perfect,” she said.

“What’s up?” Niki asked.  “Why are you two so serious?”

“Landra has been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury
tomorrow in the Drake Reeds case,” I said.

Stacy piped in.  “I knew Drake Reeds,” she said.  “In fact, I
even went out with him a couple of times, but he turned out to be a creep.  I
can’t believe you were engaged to him,” she told Landra.

“Neither can I,” Landra said.

“I went to a UT game with him up in Austin one time,” Stacy
said.  “He got very physical with me down on 6
^th
Street afterwards. 
All the bouncers came and threw him out of the bar we were in, and I had to
call a girlfriend to come pick me up.  That’s the last time I ever saw him,”
she said.

Her eyes were amazing.  And as hard as I tried to hold a
grudge, I was having a hard time doing so.  She was so . . . something.

“In what way was he physical with you?” I asked.  If Landra’s
case went to trial, maybe I could get Stacy to testify about Drake’s violent
streak.

“He grabbed me by the arm and tossed me around when I refused
to go somewhere with him.  You could clearly make out his fingerprints on my
arm the next day.”

“That pisses me off,” Niki said.

Stacy looked back over at Landra.  “As far as I’m concerned,
they should pin a medal on you, not prosecute you,” she said.

Landra smiled.  “Thanks.  Tell that to the DA.”

Landra and I hung out for another drink then made excuses to
leave.  We stayed up much of the night going over her testimony for the next
day.  She was foggy on what went on between the time Drake went out the window
and when I found her, but that didn’t surprise me, considering the condition in
which I’d found her.  Everything else, she seemed to remember with perfect
clarity.

When it got to be midnight, I called a moratorium on the topic
of Drake Reeds’ demise.  I’d been itching to get my hands on Landra since we’d
been at Chuy’s, but out of respect for her concentrated state of mind, I’d
refrained from anything more than a bare minimum of kisses.   Now, with the
topic banned, all bets were off.

I tackled her on the bed and jumped on top of her and breathed
heavily on her neck, and she squirmed underneath me laughing.

“Stop it!  You’re giving me goose bumps,” she said.

I laid on her more heavily and she poked her fingers into my
side and damned if she didn’t find my Achilles heel.  If my sparring partners
had known how ticklish I was when I was a kid, they could have kicked my ass
every time.  All they would have had to do was to stick their finger in my side
and I would have crumbled like a sissy.  It was by far my worst weakness.  Of
course, as an adult, there are not that many occasions when one is subjected to
tickle torture.  But now that Landra had found my weakness, I knew she would
never fight fair again.

“Oh!  You’re ticklish!” she said, sounding pleased with her new
weapon.

I managed to find her hands even as I curled up laughing and I
pinned her down on the bed.  She was laughing and her hair was splashed out all
over the pillow as I held her down and kissed her, playing with her.  Maybe it
was that I’d waited so long to make a move, or maybe it was something else, but
I couldn’t keep up the pretense of play. I let go of her hands and I kissed her
like I loved her.  Landra wrapped her arms around my neck and it turned into
one of those long, drawn out kisses that we’d gotten so good at.  When I made
love to her, it never even occurred to me that after that night, things might
never be the same.  All I was thinking about was how good and how right it felt
to be with her at that moment.  It was well past 2:00 a.m. when we finally fell
asleep, Landra curled up beside me, hogging my pillow.

But when I woke up the next morning, the gravity of the
situation hit me. I’d known all along how serious the allegations lodged
against Landra were.  If she was convicted of murder, she could get from 5 to
99 years, or life.  I guess I’d done a better job of distancing myself than I
thought, but all of a sudden I felt panicked.  Maybe it was a mistake to have
Landra say anything to the grand jury.  Maybe she should take the Fifth and not
say a word.  Damn, damn, damn!

“What’s the matter?  You don’t look so good,” Landra said over
coffee the next morning.

“I’m just preoccupied.”  This was not the time to change
strategy.  I decided to keep my mouth shut and stick with the original game
plan.

I left Landra and went home to shower and change clothes. 
Landra was scheduled to testify at 10:00 o’clock, so she was going to meet me
at my office at 9:30.  That would give me plenty of time to conclude an 8:00
telephone hearing and get some phone calls out of the way before we walked over
to the Justice Center.

I’d given myself enough time with traffic to make it to the
office by 7:50, but when I pulled in to the parking garage, I noticed an old
guy in a wheel chair out in the street.  He was taking up a whole lane of
traffic, moving at a snail’s pace, and there was a huge line of cars stacked up
behind him.

I drove up to the 4
^th
floor of the garage and pulled
into my reserved spot, then I took the elevator down to the street level.  I
was hoping that the man would have pulled up onto a sidewalk, or would have
already made it to his destination, but when I got out to the street, he’d
barely moved 10 feet from where I’d first seen him.

I guessed that the man was probably a retired veteran.  Both of
his legs were missing from the knee down and it looked like he was using
extreme effort to move even at the pace he was going.  I looked at my watch. 
Five minutes to 8:00. Damn, damn, damn!  There was no way I’d make my hearing
if I stopped to help the guy.  I took three steps in the opposite direction
towards my building and stopped and looked at my watch again.  Maybe I’d read
it wrong.

“Shit!” I said out loud.  I turned around and ran over to the
man.  “Can I help you get somewhere?” I asked him.

He looked up at me with glassy, blood-shot eyes, and gave me a
toothless smile.  “I’m going to the church down there,” he pointed.  He was
wearing an old tattered glove and three of four fingers were poking out of
holes in the ends.  His nails were long and filthy.

I looked down the street to where his dirty finger was
pointing.  The closest church I could see was three blocks away.  At the rate
he was going, it would take him half the morning to get there and he’d probably
get struck by a car in the process.  I looked at my watch again.

“Hold my briefcase,” I said, stuffing it into his lap, and I
took off running behind the chair.  I didn’t even bother to roll the damn thing
up onto the sidewalk, so we were still taking up a lane, but at least we were
keeping up with the crawling traffic.  I caught my breath while I stopped at a
red light, and then I took off running again until we made it to the church, up
the ramp and just inside the door.

“That’s as far as I can take you,” I said, puffing hard.

“Thank you, son,” the man said. He was reaching his grubby
hands towards me, and I flashed back to Maddie’s kid reaching at me with those
little shit-covered hands.

“No problem,” I said, dodging before he could touch me.

I stuffed a $20 dollar bill in the man’s shirt pocket, retrieved
my briefcase and sprinted back the way I’d come, all the way to my office.  I
busted through the door, sweating and panting, and Maddie looked at me with big
eyes.

“I’ve got the hearing officer holding,” Maddie said relieved.

“Thanks.”  I went straight to my office and closed the door and
hit the speakerphone.  “Samuel Collins,” I said.  I slumped down in my chair
trying to catch my breath as I listened to the hearing officer give his
obligatory introduction.

Maddie came in a minute later with a cup of coffee and set it
down on my desk.  “What happened?” she mouthed silently.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, then I scribbled on my
legal pad, “You wouldn’t believe it!”

Maddie smiled and turned around and left, closing the door
behind her.

*    *    *    *

“What in the world happened to you?” Maddie asked, when I came
out of my office an hour later.

“I was late and I had to run all the way from the parking
garage,” I said.