Finding Gracie's Rainbow (38 page)

“
Mr. Foster is having it
enlarged.” Addison smiled as she stood up. “He noticed that it was
your favorite thing to look at.”

They both turned around to
the door as they heard a knock and Gracie smiled at their newest
coworker. “Simone, how may I help you this morning?”

“
I have a manuscript that
might interest you.” She looked nervously at Addison before Gracie
motioned for her to come in.

“
I think we've covered
everything, Addison.” Gracie watched as Addison left and sat down
at her desk smiling at Simone. “Have a seat and tell me about the
manuscript.” Gracie listened patiently to Simone and had her stop.
“Are you nervous?”

“
Sort of,” Simone held her
report in her hands as Gracie stood up.

Gracie walked over to the
side of the desk; sitting at the edge as she looked over at Simone.
“Don’t be. That writer is depending on you to help sell his or her
work.” She stood and walked to the window before turning around
towards her. “What I look for is emotion when I'm told about a
story. What I'm hearing is someone reciting a book report in front
of an English class that likes to shoot spit balls.” She turned to
Simone, who was smiling at the image. “Would you like to start
over?”

“
Yes, m'am.” Simone
started talking about the story, and Gracie smiled.

“
And why would I want to
read the story, Simone?” Gracie asked as she sat down beside
her.

“
It's a comedy. It' a
drama. It' a tear jerker, and you won’t be able to lay it down
before the ending.” Simone looked over at Gracie, who was writing
down what Simone had said.

“
That was good,” Gracie
put her pen down. “You may leave your manuscript and give yourself
a pat on the back.”

Simone stood and walked to
the doors of the office. “Thank you, Ms. Cameron.”

“
It's Gracie. We do the
first-name basis here.” Gracie looked over at Addison as she heard
the intercom. “Yes, Addison.”

“
A Detective LaVern and
Ms. Roberts are here to see you.” Addison looked at them puzzled as
she talked to Gracie. “And your nine thirty appointment is also
here.” She watched through the window as Gracie sat back in her
chair and looked at the clock.

Gracie looked down at the
copy of her appointments before pointing to the handset and waited
for Addison to pick it up. “The nine thirty appointment won’t take
but a few minutes, so send him in first, then I’ll talk to the
Detective and Annie.”

“
Yes, m’am.” Addison
motioned for the young man sitting by himself to go into Gracie’s
office before looking over at Christian, who was shooting daggers
her way. “Don’t look at me like that, Christian. I’ll sick Dylan on
you.”

“
Sorry,” Christian looked
over towards Annie and shrugged as she watched with
amusement.

“
Who is Dylan?” Annie
asked as Addison kept an eye on them.

“
Dylan is her husband.
He's also a friend of mine and Jackson’s.” Christian answered as he
started to pace the floor. “He used to pal around with Steven a
long time ago.”

“
Such a small, small world
we live in.” Annie was smiling when Christian finally sat
down.

He looked over at Addison.
“How are your parents, Addison?”

“
They're fine.” She
answered him through narrowed eyes. “Why did you come in as
Detective LaVern?”

“
Because I'm working on
this case.” Christian answered looking directly at her.

“
Tough break,” Addison
frowned at him and turned her attention to Annie. “You have a very
well-mannered little boy.”

“
Thank you. I try.” Annie
smiled back at her. “He talked about coming in here with Gracie
last week.”

Addison watched as the
young man walked out of Gracie’s office smiling. “So when do you
start?”

“
Next week, m’am.” He
hummed while he walked out of the main office doors.

Addison looked over at
Christian. “Do not go in there and upset her. I'm very serious
about that.”

“
I’ll try not to, but I
can't guarantee the outcome.” Christian walked towards Gracie’s
office as Annie followed him.

Gracie stood and looked at
them waving to the seats in front of her desk. “I don't guess you
could've waited until the end of the day to make this
visit.”

Annie looked sideways at
Christian as Gracie talked. She had asked him the same question on
their way there.

“
I talked to your parents
on Saturday right after I talked to you.” Christian informed her as
he watched Gracie turn to look out the window.

“
And why did you feel the
need to involve my parents, Detective?” She turned to him. “Are
they ‘involved’, too?”

Christian felt himself
squirming and couldn't figure out why. “No, but they filled in some
of the holes, and they have a great video.”

Gracie sat down behind her
desk and looked at him straight in the eyes. “Who else are you
going to drag into this before you get your man?”

“
Nobody, I think. We have
Mark on three counts of kidnapping, and the charges are adding up
on Judge Maddox.” Christian noticed that Annie had looked up from
writing on a memo pad. “Mark kidnapped you twice and Bea
once.”

“
He kidnapped me? I
willingly got into his car twice.” Gracie informed him glancing at
the manuscript that was lying on her desk and back at
him.

“
He blackmailed you the
night of your dance and then held you at knifepoint at your waist.”
He watched the expression on Gracie’s face. “That’s on the video.
You just have to look for it.”

Gracie pursed her lips as
she glanced at Annie, who hadn't said a word and back at Christian.
“And the second time?”

“
When he found you at your
parents’ house, your neighbors testified that you had been dragged
out of the house screaming and fighting.” He saw the tears start to
form in Gracie’s eyes. “I'm assuming that is when he threatened you
with Sammie again to quiet you down.”

Gracie nodded her head
before leaving them to walk to the window frowning at the torn
apart duck pond. “Is there anything else?”

“
Your mother has been
keeping in contact with Mark’s parents.” Christian noticed that
Gracie didn't look surprised. “You knew this?”

“
They are Bea’s
grandparents.” Gracie answered.

“
Only biologically
speaking,” He blurted out causing her to look at him sharply.
“Officially you were never married.”

“
This is just getting
better.” Gracie said in bewilderment. “I was there. I said ‘I
do’.”

“
You were seventeen.”
Christian looked over at Annie, who had stopped writing to listen.
“We need to add another charge; statutory rape.” He paused as Annie
wrote that down. “Your parents never signed their permission. You
were married by Judge Maddox, and these signatures are
forgeries.”

Gracie sat down stunned as
she looked from Annie to Christian. Christian handed her the
certificate from his file, and she looked over the signatures. She
smiled as she glanced back up at Christian. “They misspelled
Chandler and Mom always uses the first initial of her maiden when
she signs anything.” She handed it back to him and looked at the
clock as Addison buzzed the intercom again. “I'm guessing that my
ten o' clock appointment is here. Is there anything
else?”

“
No, I think that we've
pretty much ruined your day.” Annie finally spoke as she tried to
digest everything that Christian had just told Gracie.

“
Well, I wish I could say
that this visit was a pleasure.” She stood and shook Christian’s
hand. “But we all know that it wasn’t.” She looked over at Annie
and noticed the sparks shooting. Gracie smiled as she walked over
to her. “Calm down.” She whispered as they both watched Christian
walk out of the office.

“
Not this time, Gracie,”
Annie was glaring at Christian’s back. “His highness brought me in
here, and I heard everything at the same time you did. Why are you
so calm?”

“
Who said I am?” Gracie
walked back to her desk and buzzed Addison to let her know that she
was ready for her appointment. She looked up as she added. “I'm
just too busy to let everything sink in right now.”

Annie walked out of the
office still glaring as she looked at Christian. “Do not ever do
that to me again.”

“
Do what, Ms. Roberts?”
Christian looked at her from where he stood beside Addison’s
desk.

“
I went in there totally
blind.” Annie had never stopped glaring at him as Addison quickly
escorted Gracie’s appointment into her office and shut the doors
causing Gracie to look up.

Gracie had the young woman
sit down and excused herself as she walked out towards Annie and
Christian, who were still glaring at each other.

“
This isn't the place, and
you should both be ashamed of yourselves. Christian, what exactly
is the problem?” Gracie got his attention when she used his first
name.

“
I don’t have a problem.”
He looked over at Annie. “She’s the one that started
it.”

Gracie started laughing
then. “How old are you?” She paused as she looked at them. “I'm
sorry, but at least take this out to the parking lot. You’re
disturbing everyone who is supposed to be working here.” She waved
her hand around the office where everybody had stopped to watch
them before she took Annie aside. “Why are you so
upset?”

“
I told you.” She was
watching as Christian walked out the main doors. “He is so full of
himself.”

Addison laughed when she
heard Annie talking to Gracie. “And she is so telling the
truth.”

“
I take it that you know
him, too.” Gracie looked at her friend.

“
A friend of Dylan’s,”
Addison looked back down at the work she was doing.

“
Calm down and go back to
work, Annie.” Gracie squeezed her hand. “I can't wait for all of
this to be over.” She turned and walked back into her office
shutting the door behind her before she apologized to the woman
sitting in front of her.

Gracie smiled as she
watched Annie leave the building after Christian. Maybe she wasn't
that far off the mark after all when it came to the two of
them.

Addison walked into her
office at lunchtime when Gracie finally had enough time to think
about what Christian had told her earlier. She turned one of the
monitors over to the news after she had Addison bring their lunches
into the office. They watched the news while they were talking
about the charges that had been brought against Judge Maddox, and
Addison was watching her friend.

Gracie turned towards her
after they watched Christian bring the Judge out of the Court
House. “I was never officially married.” Gracie told her about the
bogus certificate with the forged signatures on it.

“
And I'm going to assume
that Judge Maddox had something to do with that.” Addison was
trying to put the puzzle together.

“
It seems that the good
judge had a lot to do with a lot of things that have happened.”
Gracie informed her. “Two more weeks left of my life being turned
upside down.”

“
Have you told anybody
else about what they've discovered?” Addison asked.

“
I choose what I tell. You
don’t know but a quarter of it.” Gracie turned off the news.
“Everybody is going to know far more than I ever wanted them to
know after this if over.”

~

Gracie looked up from the
game she was playing with Bea and Garrison as Annie stormed into
the house. “Still angry, Annie?”

“
How can one person get on
my nerves so much?” Annie put down her briefcase and tried to calm
down as she looked at her son. “Where is your boyfriend?” She asked
Gracie as she walked into the kitchen to grab a soda.

“
My boyfriend?” Gracie
stood and walked over to her. “You know that Jackson is at the
hospital.” She narrowed her eyes as she studied Annie. “You
probably shouldn't vent to him about his own friend
anyway.”

“
Ya think?” Annie started
to calm down. “I'm sorry about this morning, but I think that
Christian wanted to take the judge into custody today.”

“
I figured that out.”
Gracie sat back down at the game after Bea called her to take her
turn. “I find that getting beat at a child’s game can be very
calming. Why are you so late anyway?”

“
Guess.” Annie started to
fix herself a sandwich. “I've never met anyone so
annoying.”

Gracie stood after Garrison
finally won. “Go feed your puppies.” She watched as Bea left with
Garrison and sat down at the kitchen table with Annie. “Maybe it's
because you're working with him.” She caught herself smiling. “I
remember you said he was tall, good looking, and great with
children.”

“
I also said he was
married to his job. What’s your point?” Annie put down the sandwich
and stared at her.

“
I wasn’t aware that I had
to have a point.” She pushed away from the table. “I think that
after this is all over, you should spend some time with him and
compare your notes. A before and after kind of thing.”