Джон Гришэм - The Judge’s List

The lazy Saturday morning was interrupted twice before Lacy made it to the coffee pot. The first call awakened her at three minutes after eight. Caller unknown, potential spam. In other words, don’t answer. But something said do it, and if it happened to be a robocall she could simply hang up, as always.

“Good morning, Lacy,” Jeri said softly.

A flash of anger passed quickly as Lacy controlled herself. “Good morning, Jeri. What’s the occasion?”

“Just thinking about you, a lot, these days. How are you?”

“Well, I was sleeping, Jeri, before you called. It’s Saturday, a day off, and I’m not working today. I thought I had explained this.”

“I’m sorry, Lacy,” Jeri said, in a tone that conveyed anything but remorse. “Why does it have to be considered work? Why can’t we talk as friends?”

“Because we’re not friends yet, Jeri. We are acquaintances who met for the first time about a month ago. We may become friends one day, once the work that brought us together is finished, but we’re not there yet.”

“I see.”

“The word ‘friend’ gets tossed around loosely, don’t you think?”

“I suppose.”

“And whatever the reason for this call, it’s not about friendship. It’s probably on the business side.”

“It is, Lacy. And I’m sorry to bother you.”

“It’s Saturday morning, Jeri, and I was sleeping.”

“Got it. Look, I’ll hang up now, but first let me say what I want. Okay?”

“Sure.”

“There is a good chance that Bannick knows about the complaint and knows that you’re digging through his past. I can’t prove this, but I have come to believe that he has some type of superpower, extrasensory, something. I don’t know. But he is extremely bright and diligent, and well, I guess I might be a bit paranoid. I’ve been living with him for so long I just assume that he’s everywhere. Be careful, Lacy. If he knows you’re on his trail he might do anything.”

“I’ve thought about that, Jeri.”

“Okay. Goodbye.”

She was gone, and Lacy immediately felt lousy for being so abrupt. The poor woman was a wreck and had been for many years, and Lacy should have been more patient.

But it was early Saturday morning.

She closed her eyes and was thinking about more sleep, but the dog was making noises. She was thinking about Allie and how nice it would be to have him beside her. And, wide awake now, she was thinking about Jeri Crosby and the sadness of her life.

What she wasn’t thinking about was her older brother and only sibling. When Gunther called not ten minutes after Jeri, Lacy had a hunch that her carefree day would not go as planned. He said he had a new airplane he wanted to show off, and with the weather perfectly gorgeous on this spring day he had the urge to fly down and take his kid sister to lunch. “I’m on the runway, taking off now, landing in Tallahassee in eighty-four minutes. Meet me at the airport.”

It was so typical of Gunther. The world revolved around him and everyone else was just an extra. She fed and let out the dog, threw on some jeans, brushed her teeth, and headed to the airport, her quiet Saturday shot to hell. But she wasn’t really surprised. Nothing about her brother was surprising. He was an avid pilot who swapped airplanes almost as fast as he bought and sold sports cars. He ran the women hard too, and the bankers and investors. When the markets were up he burned cash, and when things went flat he kept borrowing until he couldn’t. Even when the demand was high for his strip malls and tract housing, he seemed to totter along the edge of financial disaster. Because he was known to embellish and outright fabricate, Lacy had lost count of the times he had filed for bankruptcy. She thought there were three, along with his two divorces, and one near-indictment.

But regardless of his problems, Gunther slept hard every night and attacked each day with enthusiasm and confidence. His zest for life was contagious, and if he found himself in the mood to fly in for lunch there was no way to stop him, regardless of what she had planned.

Waiting in the private terminal, watching the small planes come and go while sipping a cup of bad coffee, she both dreaded and looked forward to seeing Gunther. With both parents gone now, they needed each other. Both were single and childless and it certainly looked as if they would be the family’s last generation. Trudy, their mother’s sister, was trying to become the matriarch and getting too involved. Lacy and Gunther were united in their resistance.

But she wasn’t exactly thrilled to see him, because he had too many opinions about almost everything. Since her car wreck, he’d had far too much to say about her lawsuit, her lawyer, their legal strategies. He thought she was wasting her time at BJC. He wasn’t too keen on Allie Pacheco, though this was a reaction to Lacy’s dislike of every girlfriend he had dared introduce her to. He thought Tallahassee was a hick town and she should move to Atlanta. He disapproved of her current car. And so on.

There he was, crawling out of a sleek little plane, bounding down from the wing with no luggage, no briefcase, a playboy out for a spin and a nice lunch. They hugged in the doorway and left the terminal.

As soon as he buckled up he said, “Still driving this cheap little thing?”

“Look, Gunther, it’s great to see you, as always. But the last thing I want to hear today is a steady stream of bitching about my life. Car included. Got that?”

“Wow, Sis. You wake up on the wrong side?”

“I did.”

“Did you see my airplane? Isn’t it a beauty?”

“I did. It’s lovely as far as airplanes go.”

“Bought it last month from a guy whose wife caught him cheating. Sad.”

Gunther was anything but sad. “What is it?” she asked, but only because she had to.

“A Socata TBM 700 turboprop, all the bells and whistles. Think of a Ferrari with wings. Three hundred miles an hour. Got a real deal.”

A real deal for Gunther meant that he had convinced yet another banker to make a loan. “Sounds exciting. Looks pretty small.”

“Seats four, that’s plenty for me. You wanna go for a spin?”

“I thought we were doing lunch.” Lacy had been his passenger on two occasions and that was enough. Gunther was a serious pilot who didn’t play around and take chances, but he was still Gunther.

“Right,” he said, suddenly checking his phone. When he put it away he asked, “How’s Allie? Still seeing him?”

“I am, hot and heavy. Who’s your new squeeze?”

“Which one? Look, I think it’s time for this guy to either make a move or move on. It’s been, what, two years now?”

“Oh, so you’ve got marriage all figured out?”

Gunther burst out laughing and, after a beat, Lacy did too. The idea of him giving advice on the romantic front was indeed humorous.

“Okay, no more of that. You talked to Aunt Trudy lately? Where are we going?”

“Home, so I can shower and brush my teeth. Didn’t have enough time earlier.”

“How can you dawdle around so on such a gorgeous Saturday morning?”

“No, I have not talked to Trudy. I owe her a phone call. You?”

“No, I’m ducking her too. Poor thing. She’s lost without Mom. They were best friends and now she’s stuck with that husband of hers.”

“Ronald’s okay.”

“He’s a creep and you know it. They really don’t like each other but I guess after fifty years they can’t get out.”

“Let’s talk about something else. How’s business these days?”

“I’d rather talk about Ronald.”

“Pretty bad, huh?”

“No, actually I’m killing it. I need some help, Lacy, and I want you to come to Atlanta and work with me. Bright lights, big city, much more to do. We’ll make a fortune and there are a dozen great guys I could introduce you to.”