Love Lift Me (19 page)

“No,
she was talking about the phosphate plant where he husband works. She was scared
that it might get shut down because of the lawsuit and he would be out of a job.
Shane tried to tell her that wasn’t what he wanted to happen, but I don’t know
if she believed him or not.”

“She
ain’t the only one with that on their mind, Mary Katherine. That reminds me –
why’re you sittin’ around here tendin’ to little ol’ me instead of out and
about with Shane or helpin’ your Daddy with the house?”

“Daddy’s
coming by again after Abby gets home from school. You know, she gets out for Christmas
break in another few weeks, so at least there won’t be school to worry with.
Shane is busy with the case and all. No use in bothering him until after the
trial wraps up for the day.”

She
lurched forward and jammed another pillow behind her back. When she looked up
at the screen, she pointed one bony finger at it and exclaimed, “Well, good gracious!
Ain’t that him right there?”

When
I saw what was on the television, my heart skipped a beat. There was Shane, or rather,
a photograph of him that looked like something taken off a government website.
Above his picture was a caption, written in a font designed to invoke public
concern, which read
Phosphate Trial Scandal?
Momma clicked the remote
several times until the news anchor’s voice was loud and clear.

“…We
have just received information that lead prosecutor of the Patterson C. Reid
phosphate trial, Attorney Shane Logan, may have been involved in a secretive
love affair that some say could amount to a serious conflict of interest.”

“What?”
I said aloud.

The
anchor cut away and black and white photos appeared on the screen. They were
grainy and only in black and white, like something that might come from a
security camera. In most of them, I could only see Shane’s car on the inside of
the electronic gate at Reid’s mansion. Then there were more that flashed across
the screen; photos of him walking up to a bright-haired woman that I recognized
instantly as Cindy Reid, the two of them walking up the stairs, hand in hand,
and then, the last one...

A
close up photograph of the two of them kissing.

“N-no,”
I stammered as I watched the story unfold.

“Today,
WNWS received these photos – the man in the suit is Attorney Logan – and our
source confirms that the woman seen with him is Cindy Reid, the daughter of the
defendant in the much publicized case. Logan can be seen greeting her and then
walking away, with the two of them holding hands and kissing. But, is it
really
a conflict of interest? We showed Dr. Wayne Danvers from the UNC Wilmington Law
School these photographs and he had this to say-”

The
older gentleman wearing round spectacles and a bow tie was then shown, who
addressed the camera, “Oh, absolutely. This could easily be seen as a conflict
of interest in such a case. It is highly unorthodox for a prosecuting attorney
to have such…intimate relations with a member of the defendant’s immediate
family like that. And doing so in the course of an ongoing trial? An action
like that might result in a mistrial of the case and disciplinary action for
the offending attorney.”

The
screen popped back to the anchor, who quickly launched into the next part of
the report. “Field reporter Trisha Wu was at the Patterson residence today and
had a chance to interview Miss Reid. Here’s the video.”

I
stood up and had to grit my teeth together when the next thing I saw was the
face of Cindy Reid. A reporter was pointing a microphone at her and Cindy was
doing her best to appear despondent while still maintaining her typical,
conceited aura. In her arms, she held a little dog that kept trying to escape
her clutches.

“Miss
Reid, what do you have to say about these photos?” the reporter questioned.

“Well,
I don’t have no idea how ya’ll got those,” Cindy answered with a pout.

The
reporter pressed further, “Have you been romantically involved with Mr. Logan
during the trial?”

She
sighed, like she didn’t want to say, but then it spilled out of her and I could
tell she enjoyed it. “Shane and I did develop a…
certain relationship
very early on. I didn’t think it was wrong at first. Now I know what he really
wanted.”

“And
what was that?”

Cindy
looked directly at the reporter, and without so much as a single flinch, said,
“To get me to testify against my own father, of course. That man needs to get
his license taken away. Everyone knows my father didn’t do anything wrong,
anyway.”

The
screen cut away from the interview and back to the news studio. “WNWS could not
reach Mr. Reid or Attorney Logan for comment,” the anchor stated, and I turned
away from the television.

Seventeen

Saying
I was caught off guard by the news was an understatement.
Shocked
might
be better, as it felt like I’d just had defibrillator paddles placed on my
heart and cranked up to full charge. I found the chair next to mother’s bed and
sat down in it uneasily. For a while, the best thing to do seemed to be staring
blankly at the floor.

“Somethin’
ain’t right about all that, Mary Katherine,” Momma said hoarsely.

My
answer to her was silence. I didn’t want to even
think
anymore.

She
tapped the guardrail to get my attention. “You jus’ gon’ sit there and believe
everything that little blonde-haired hussy’s got to say on the teevee? I ain’t
never known her kin to be particularly truthful, ‘ceptin’ the old man’s late
wife.”

“I
saw the pictures, Momma. That was Shane, and he was…with her.”

Momma
lifted her nose. “I heard them kinds of things can be faked and made up to look
like anything people want ‘em to with a computer.”

My
phone gave a muffled ring from inside my purse. It was Shane.

“And
now he’s calling me. Probably wants to try and talk his way out of it,” I said
and then shoved the phone back in my purse until the ringing stopped.

“Don’t
you think you’re mixing him up with somebody else, honey? He ain’t never acted
like Hale Ellis, not as far as I seen.”

“Why
do you keep defending him?” I said loudly and then realized where we were and
how sick she really was. Mother twisted up one side of her mouth and closed her
hands together.

She
didn’t deserve that. God, what was wrong with me? I have to leave. It’s just
too much. I can’t sit here and watch her, knowing that…that she’s going to die,
if the only thing I can think about is whether the man that I love…”

The
back of my throat clenched as I fought back the tears.
It was true. I love
him. How had I avoided saying it to him for so long? Did he feel it too or was
this all just a game? Is that why he wouldn’t tell me about the deal he was
brokering…because he was really hiding his relationship with Cindy? I have to
find out the truth.

“I
gotta go Momma,” I said and stood up briskly. I hesitated at the door for a
moment, waiting for her to let me know it was all right to leave her there, but
instead I mumbled, “I’ll be back soon,” and left.

It
didn’t take long for my phone to ring again. When I answered it, my
conversation with Shane was short and to the point. We would meet.

Twenty
minutes later, and I was standing in the doorway of his hotel suite and staring
back at him, wondering if he was still the man of my dreams or just another
liar.

“I
want to know everything,” I demanded. “The deal, Cindy, all of it. Tell me
right now or I’m walking out of this hotel and never talking to you again.”

Shane
rubbed his stubbly beard, sighed, and invited me inside. He took a seat on the
loveseat and I placed myself opposite him so that I could watch his face as he
told me what I came to hear.

“First
of all, calm down, Kat.”

“Calm
down? You don’t get to tell me that, Shane. I have to find out about you…a-and
Cindy…from a damned news report, and you want me to calm down?”

“You’re
right. I never meant for any of this to hurt what we have,” he said. “But I can
see that it has. You think I’ve been sleeping around on you, and I don’t blame
you for thinking it. Half the county most likely feels just as betrayed.”

“So
you did…you slept with her, then.” I said, more of a statement than a question.

Shane
craned his neck tiredly and shook his head. “No, Kat. No. My relationship with
Cindy was purely…of a legal nature.”

“What
the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“The
deal was with her, Kat. I was trying to convince her to get on the stand in
exchange for certain protections.”

I
tried to wrap my mind around it. “What good would that do?”

“She
could have
testified,
Kat.”

“To
what?” I asked, raising one brow. His story didn’t seem very believable.

“Cindy
Reid is employed by her father’s company, although I doubt she does much of
anything in her official capacity except collect a check. She knows plenty
about what her father has been up to, though – the shady way they’ve covered
their tracks with the survey data, and possibly how Miller got paid off to
recant his testimony. Not only that, but she also knows what their family
stands to lose if things go bad for them in this case.”

“So
why offer her a deal? You told me yourself that Patterson had you on the ropes.
She was bound to know that, too. What could she possibly gain by testifying
against the same man that paid for everything she enjoyed so much?”

Shane
shrugged and replied, “Maybe she knew how bad we had it. Maybe not. I had to
try. The deal would have ended her father, but in return for her cooperation we
would’ve agreed not to shut down the plant as long as they paid to clean up the
environmental damage. She still would’ve had plenty of money rolling in while
her old man served a few years in prison.”

“You
expect me to believe that?”

Shane
held out his hands. “It’s the truth.”

“I
couldn’t imagine her helping you,” I said flatly. “Ever. Cindy Reid is as
greedy as they come. You know that. She wouldn’t want to spend a dime on
cleaning anything unless she owned it.”

“I
was counting on her greed. With her, I figured money was thicker than blood,
but either she doesn’t worship the almighty dollar as much as I thought or she
came up with this plan on exposing my visit as something else. Or maybe the old
man found out what I was doing and put her up to it, I don’t know. Maybe it was
a stupid idea from the start.”

I
crossed my arms and said, “What about the photographs? I saw you in them,
holding her hand. Both of you were laughing, smiling. And the kiss…” I grimaced
and turned away from him.

“That
was nothing, I-”

“Nothing?”
I said, my voice growing louder. “It looked like something to me!” I stood up
out of the chair and clenched my fists. “How can you sit here and say that,
Shane?”

He
moved towards me and tried to grab my arm, but I backed away before he could.
Then I stormed to the door and swung it open, surprising another hotel guest
who looked at me with eyes as big as saucers and moved quickly out of my way.

“Kat,
listen. It wasn’t like that-”

“Just
stay away! I think I’m going to be sick,” I muttered, and spun towards the
elevator. Shane jogged behind me, keeping pace.

“Please,
hear me out,” he pleaded, but I tried to drone him out. He didn’t seem nearly
as disturbed by what had happened as I was, and instead he remained intent on
minimizing it. Were all men the same way? When the elevator doors began to
close, Shane stuck one hand in and they popped back open.

“Let
me go,” I said and looked down at the floor. Looking into his eyes would have
been too hard. “I’m done talking to you, Shane.”

“It
was all a set-up, I swear. The cameras…the kiss…everything. She knew what it
would do to the case, she had to. I couldn’t stop her, I tell you.”

I
bit my tongue and continued to look away. He wasn’t going to convince me, not
after keeping something like that from me for so long.

Shane
groaned and whipped his hand through his hair. “Why are you so hard-headed
sometimes, Kat? It’s like…like you think everyone is out to get you or
something. Do you know how damned selfish you’re being right now?” He banged
his fist against the metal panel on the outside of the wall. “Maybe you
should
go. You aren’t willing to listen right now anyway. Your mind was made up before
you even walked through those doors.”

Daring
myself, I looked up at him. His amber eyes were burning and his face was etched
with anger and frustration. I couldn’t tell if he was being honest about what
he’d said or if he just wanted me to believe a lie.

“Goodbye
Shane,” I said bluntly, and pressed the button for the lobby again. In the
blink of an eye, it was over. He didn’t try to stop the doors this time, and
once they closed, I went to my knees and let all the emotion I didn’t want him
to see pour out.