Ферн Майклз - Truth and Justice

“Son of a bitch!” Dr. Candice Petre seethed. “What did I do to deserve this?”

* * *

Bella stepped out of the cab and onto the curb. The streets were busy for this time of day, but then again, tourists didn’t really care what time it was when they were on vacation. The Quinn Law Firm was just five blocks from the White House, which was all the more reason for the amount of pedestrian traffic as well as road traffic.

Bella recognized the building that housed the Quinn Law Firm immediately. She’d walked by here almost daily when she lived in her old apartment, the same apartment she’d returned to after honeymooning with Andy. Her eyes welled up just as a strong, gusty October wind pushed her forward. Damn, her hair was going to look like a haystack. Like she cared.

Bella entered the pleasant lobby, made her way to the reception area, and asked for directions to Alexis Thorn’s office. A Georgetown University student with three open textbooks in front of her offered up directions along with a smile and a badge on a lanyard. Bella draped it around her neck as she made her way to the elevators. Her insides felt like a quivering mass of Jell-O.

Seven minutes later, Alexis Thorn was guiding Bella to a private suite of offices and introduced her to Nikki Quinn; then they all settled down in the seating area, where a fire was blazing in a real fireplace. Bella loved the space on sight. Everything was earth tones with splashes of color. Comfortable was the key word here. A silver tray with a coffee service appeared as if by magic.

Nikki spoke first after the introductions. “We’re big coffee drinkers here, Bella. Our pot goes all day long. Since opening the firm years ago, we’ve gone through three units, and they’re the big industrial coffeepots. I guess you could say we’re all coffee junkies. You okay now, Bella? I tend to babble with new clients to try to get them to feel at ease. You do look particularly tense right now. It’s just my way of saying you made the right decision to seek help, and you came to the right place to get it. We won’t let you down. When we take on a client and a case, we work it till it is resolved to our, and our client’s, satisfaction.” Nikki’s voice was light and cheerful, a best-friend kind of voice, as she poured coffee into three delicate china cups.

Bella struggled to smile and failed miserably. “Here,” she blurted as she handed her smartphone with the video from the clinic over to Alexis. “They wouldn’t give me the tape. I don’t think the three of them, and by them, I mean the three doctors I spoke with, are deliberately hiding anything. The truth is, I think they were scared out of their wits. If my opinion counts, I think they made a mistake, but it wasn’t anything deliberate. At least that was my initial thought. I hate saying this, but when it comes to doctors, you expect a certain . . . I don’t know, kindness, compassion, something. I had three zombies. There was nothing warm and fuzzy about any one of them. I was expecting a little compassion, for want of a better word . . . something that showed they cared. What I saw . . . what I got . . . was three people who could have worked in the Budweiser lab. It was like they had no feelings. I wasn’t a person to them. I was a file folder.” Bella shrugged. “Maybe you have to be that way in that kind of a business.”

The two lawyers and Bella talked for a full ninety minutes, with Bella doing most of the talking. The lawyers made notes, asked questions, made several copies of the video that Bella had on her phone. And then they had Bella sign a batch of papers. Bella questioned the cost. Both women shook their heads. “Right now, you just give us a dollar bill as a retainer, and that will do it for now. We don’t want you worrying about money. What we are worried about, however, is the fact that you said you are moving to North Carolina. Is it possible for you to delay the move? Do you have a job, an apartment lease there, anything to prevent you from leaving here? Are you on a timetable of any kind? We’re pretty good at taking care of details like that if you are prepared to stay on here a bit longer.”

“Sure. Okay. I can do that. But why?” Bella asked.

Nikki got up and added another log to the fire. Bella noticed it was a white-birch log, the bark peeling. She loved birch logs. Andy had said he loved burning cherrywood. “Do you want to tell her, or should I?” Nikki asked Alexis.

Alexis grinned. “Settle back, Bella, I have a story to tell you. Yes, this is a legal firm. Yes, Nikki and I are lawyers. We fight for our clients in a court of law. But we also fight for them in other ways. Your case as it stands is going to be a tough one to bring to court, but we can go to plan B and incorporate it with plan A, which is going to court and having a full-blown trial. When I finish, all you have to do is say yes or no, and we’ll go from there. Do you understand, and do you agree?”

Bella blinked. “Absolutely.”

Bella listened; then she laughed. Out loud. “I’m in. I knew there was something about you the minute I walked into this building, and the hair went up on the back of my neck when I walked into this room with the two of you. Back in the day I donated twelve dollars to your defense fund. It was all I could afford at the time. I cheered you guys on till I was hoarse and so did my friends. And now here I am actually talking to two of the members of the infamous Vigilantes. This just makes my day. I’ll do my best to pay you something, and if it takes me the rest of my life, I will do it. For now, my thanks is all I have to give. Do we have a deal?”

“We do,” Alexis and Nikki said in unison.

“All right, then, tomorrow is Saturday. We’ll call a special meeting at Pinewood so you can meet the others; then we’ll get down to business. Alexis, text Myra and ask her what is a good time to meet up.”

A minute later, Alexis said, “Ten!” She looked over at Bella.

“I can make ten. Just give me an address. I’ll plug it into my GPS. I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to help me.”

“We live for this,” Alexis said, and giggled. Nikki burst out laughing; then Bella started to laugh herself. She was certain now that she was in good hands.

* * *

Bella wondered how she could feel so breathless when all she’d done was drive here to Pinewood. She sat outside the gates and stared at the awesome, intricate, wrought-iron gates. All she had to do was press a button, look into the magic eye, and the gates would open. And then . . . and then . . .

Better not to think that far ahead. Just press the button and sally forth. “ ‘Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum,’ ” she chortled, then laughed out loud. She was in good hands now. Famous hands. If someone had told her she would be meeting with the famous Vigilantes, she never, not in a million years, would have believed them. And yet, here she was. Suddenly, she wasn’t nervous anymore. She hoped the others were as nice as Alexis and Nikki. She rather thought they would be. Otherwise, how could they have . . . um . . . conducted their . . . um . . . outside activities. She laughed again. And she was part of it now.

Bella parked next to a golf cart and walked toward a back porch. Within seconds, a pack of barking dogs circled her, begging for attention. She dutifully complied because she loved animals. She looked up and saw a group of women waving to her.

Her saviors.

Bella grinned when the dogs scampered off to do whatever they did in this wonderful, magical place called Pinewood.

Alexis and Nikki hugged her as they ushered her into the old-fashioned yet state-of-the-art kitchen, where she was introduced to the others. A monster fire blazed in a fireplace big enough to roast an ox. Bella immediately fell in love with the room and loved the women at first sight as they hugged. None of that handshaking business for these women. A hug meant, “You are now one of us, or at least on our side.” A handshake meant the jury was still out.