Breach Of Promise

Calling Sandy on her cell phone to fill her in and give her what advice she could about keeping things going at her poor, neglected practice, she drove home to Bob and managed to get a dollop of soup stuffed between his puffy, fevered lips before he conked out again at about seven-thirty.

When the phone rang, she didn’t answer. She was afraid it would be Lindy calling and she just couldn’t reassure her properly at the moment. She couldn’t even reassure herself.

This trial had an edginess she couldn’t remember feeling before. Everyone jumped at the slightest mistake. Every revelation rated frenzied scribbling in a reporter’s notebook.

She put on her nightgown and crawled into bed. Outside the wind blew. She tried to sleep as branches broke off and thumped against the roof, sounding to her groggy mind as heavy and ominous as bodies falling.

20

Over the weekend, Bob’s fever receded enough for him to take up his station at the computer, where he was lovingly creating a website with his cousin Troy based on their mutual loathing of phony people and love of Boogie-boarding. So, late on Saturday morning, Nina went into the office, straight from a glaring May sunshine into the waiting glare of Sandy.

“I can run this place alone,” she said, “but your other fifty-nine clients might not be so sure.”

“Sandy, I’m really sorry. But you know I’ve got trial, and Bob’s been sick…”

“Yeah. He called here while you were at court yesterday.”

“Was he okay?”

“Sounded low.”

“What did he say?”

“Not much. So, I told him about the shaman near Woodfords in my mother’s time. A healer. He used to smoke first, a plant that would help him see what was wrong. Then he had two methods for healing. He would sing. Sometimes that worked.”

“And then?” asked Nina, intrigued. Sandy must get lonely here all day…

“He sucked the sick person’s flesh to get rid of the ’Pain.’ “

“What did Bob think about that?”

“Said maybe he’d try listening to the radio first.” Sandy looked so serious, Nina squelched any desire to giggle.

Genevieve threw open the door to the office. “Hi, Sandy, Nina. Man, it’s been one helluva month, hasn’t it?” Her arms spilling files, she breezed her way through to the conference room. “Vanilla bean coffee! Sandy, you’re the best!”

Sandy and Nina watched as she whirled from here to there, bringing them both fresh cups and watering Sandy’s plants as she passed.

“You would never know she’s got that hearing problem,” said Sandy as the door closed behind her. “Isn’t it great to see a disabled person doing so well?”

Nina, still breathing in the clean air and optimism Genevieve always seemed to carry with her, agreed, wishing she felt half as optimistic. Where would she find the money to get her through this trial? What could she do about her clients?

“You know what I wish?” she asked. “I wish Bob and I could go somewhere right now, tonight, and sleep late every morning and get brown and spend the entire day in the water.”

“If you’re going to wish,” Sandy said, “wish for something useful. Wish for a million bucks, why don’t you?”

Winston showed up later bearing cold, roasted chicken and salad, which they ate while they talked.

For a few minutes, they indulged themselves in a discussion of all the places at Tahoe they hadn’t been and couldn’t wait to go to once they were out of the incarceration they imposed on themselves during any trial. Since they couldn’t actually do anything fun, they had fun imagining themselves having fun. Sandy sat with them through the first part of this discussion, then left to tap away on her computer.

Nina led off with her latest plan: to take Bob and Matt’s family to a picnic on Fa

Genevieve said she hadn’t spent enough time alone with a slot machine lately to claim more than a passing acquaintanceship. The trial was cutting into her gambling time.

“Okay, you’re waiting to hear from me,” she said once they had finished eating, with that charming confidence that a snide person might mistake for arrogance.

“We are?” said Winston, but he was joking.

“Analysis of how we’re doing in one word: fanfuckingtastic.”

“Is that like those bumper stickers people used to put on VW’s, ’fukengruven’?” asked Winston. “Because not too many of those old Bugs were in any shape to brag, you know.”

“I don’t think we have too much to brag about yet, either,” Nina said.

“Well, that’s fine. We don’t want you two getting smug.” Genevieve picked up a yellow sheet and read, then set it down. “So let’s start with the bad stuff. The Gilbert Schaefer thing hurt. Some of the jurors stopped listening to Lindy. Most of them frowned at some point during that testimony. I think we’re losing Kris Schmidt, and probably Ignacio Ybarra.”

“It hurt, all right. I felt like I was having one of those operations in China where they use hypnosis instead of anesthesia, only I wasn’t hypnotized,” Winston said. They all smiled bleakly at that, and Nina for once felt a certain amount of comfort in sharing her woes with her colleagues. No wonder lawyers banded together into firms.

“The good news is that the mountain climber, Diane Miklos, and Mrs. Lim are solid in the Lindy camp. They don’t like Mike; it sticks out all over their faces. Nina, you really got them going in your opening; we’ve already talked some about that,” Genevieve continued. “In terms of the questioning, well, everything I heard about you is true. You’re hard-hitting and effective. Eye contact is the only area you need to work on, although you did a job on Markov, that extended-play staring thing at the end. Very good. And smile more, sugar, pul-lease.

“Now, here’s something else you should know. We’ve got troubles. Before he disappeared on us, Paul turned up some late-breaking information that is going to hurt us. Wright’s been having marital woes. Too late for us to use our peremptory, unfortunately.”

“I heard,” said Winston. “And I have something to say about that.”

“Go ahead,” said Genevieve graciously.

A touch of a

“Oh, Nina doesn’t need my approval like some people. And we can attract him back. Highlight the traditional female role that Lindy played at home. By all reports, other than being a political shark, he likes his women traditional.”

“You can’t ignore the rest of the jury to win over this one guy,” said Winston. “We don’t want to lose them once we’ve got them.”

“Nobody’s saying ignore them. It’s a subtle matter of perspective, which I’m sure Nina can handle, can’t you?”

“Uh,” said Nina. “No. I won’t do that. Besides the bad taste it leaves in my mouth, we’ve all said many times that Lindy’s trump card is that she was an equal partner in the business. Once we get around the Separate Property Agreement, I’ve always intended to clinch our argument with the fact that she’s been vital since the begi

Winston nodded his head. “You know I hate popping your bubble, Genevieve,” he said, “but Nina’s right. I don’t think we should change our strategy to win him over. It won’t help.”

Genevieve said, “What’s the matter with you two? You’re talkin’ like losers! We are not going to let one asshole juror ruin our game! We need nine jurors on our side, and we’re go