Jo Leigh - Confessions Bundle

It would be the truth—and the best version of it she’d managed to concoct.

Her second best idea had been to look, but not very hard, only enough to say she’d been there and hadn’t seen him, and then get the hell out before he saw her.

Her third and final hope had been that he wouldn’t show.

She saw him as soon as her eyes adjusted from the day’s bright sunshine to the bar’s interior. Sitting in a rather secluded booth for two, he should have been easy to miss. But no, her eyes were drawn right to him.

“Hi.” Juliet slid in across from him, trying not to notice how broad his shoulders looked minus the suit coat he’d been wearing the other day.

“Red, again,” he greeted her with a curious smile. “A brave move for a redhead.”

“My hair’s not—”

“I know, I was teasing,” he admitted. “Your hair is auburn.”

They’d had that conversation nine years before. When she’d been wearing nothing at all and he’d been playing with her hair against her breasts, telling her he’d never seen anything quite like it.

It had been right after they’d made love the second time with the first condom—the time, she’d long ago decided, that she had conceived Mary Jane.

“And the suit looks great,” he said when she didn’t respond. “Beautiful in fact.”

She wished he’d stop catching her off guard. “Thank you.” It had been a long time since she’d felt desirable, and life was much more under control that way.

They ordered drinks, the bar’s specialty, a mixture of rum, vodka and a couple of exotic fruits. Blake added an order of chips and salsa.

“We’re driving,” he explained as the waiter left. “It’s not good to drink on an empty stomach.”

She appreciated the forethought.

“Fine by me,” she told him. “I missed lunch today and I’m starving.” She’d been busy calming Kelly James, who was beginning to panic. That was the worst thing Eaton’s wife could do. This trial was all about character—and proving that neither James nor his family or associates had any doubts about his.

Blake asked about the trial while they waited for their drinks. She felt like a Democrat talking to a Republican. Or a Republican talking to a Democrat. They both wanted justice to be done, wanted what was best for society at large and saw the way to get there on opposite ends of the spectrum.

“It’s obvious the man is guilty,” Blake told her fifteen minutes into the conversation. “If you really want to serve the Constitution, you’d see that and help him get the fairest punishment.”

“He’s not guilty until proven so beyond a shadow of a doubt,” Juliet reminded him. “And until that happens, he deserves to be treated that way. As though he’s not guilty. Meaning, I believe what he tells me and my job is to try to persuade those sitting in judgment to do the same.”

“Regardless of what you think personally.”

“Personally, I know it’s possible that he’s a good man and a rotten businessman who didn’t knowingly defraud anyone.”

“Establishing bogus companies is against the law. Ignorance is no excuse for criminal action.”

“He claims they weren’t bogus but, rather, ventures that never got off the ground.”

“So why are there invoices for goods purchased from vendors that don’t exist?”

“He was told the vendors did exist. He established the companies with the belief that his associates were on the up-and-up and he was helping them all get started.”

“With that theory, you could free up just about anyone for a white-collar crime.”

“The jury has to be convinced,” Juliet told him. “Ultimately, the truth must speak for itself.”

“The truth?” he asked, munching on the chips that she had hardly noticed appear. “Or some twisted bits of fact and fiction that pose as the truth?”

A topic close to her heart. “How do you define fact and fiction?” she asked. “Some people believe in angels. They’d pass a lie detector test claiming that angels exist. That they’ve actually seen an angel. For others, reality is completely devoid of such possibilities. Who’s right?”

“If someone can prove that angels exist, show a picture of ones they’ve seen—” He stopped, smiled. “I’m digging myself in deeper than I care to be at the moment.”

She didn’t know if it was the drink or if there really was something about this man’s presence that affected her, but that strange mixture of anticipation and appeal she’d felt nine years ago was settling over her again.

All these years she’d blamed it on the drinks. She’d had several back then.

Today she’d had three sips. So far.

“Okay, well, think about this,” she said. “You don’t have to buy into it, just try it on long enough to see how it feels.” She helped herself to a chip.

“I’m game.”

“Truth is the means by which human beings try to define reality, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Yes.” His nod was accompanied by a slow smile. “Most of us anyway.”

“So the issue is defining reality.”

“Maybe.” He took another chip, his eyes narrowed.

“But any psychiatrist will tell you that for every single human being there is a different version of reality. Our realities are shaped by the belief systems we were raised with.” She took another sip. “Say, for instance, from the time I’m a little girl, my mother punishes me for saying the word ain’t. So I end up thinking it’s a bad word. Just like damn. Or worse.”

“Okay.” His enjoyment of the conversation was obvious. His eyes lit up, just as his daughter’s did when Juliet debated with her. Much the way they had that long-ago night, when Juliet and Blake had talked until the bar closed and they had to go somewhere else.

Juliet wasn’t sure there’d been another man in her life who’d risen to the challenge without feeling challenged, without feeling a need to assert male superiority or authority, without ego being involved.

“So then I meet a friend whose mother uses the word ain’t regularly. My friend uses the word. I’m absolutely convinced that she swears.”

“A little feeble, but I get where you’re going with that. I still don’t see the application to Eaton James. In his case, reality is clearly defined by irrefutable documents.”

“The documents aren’t on trial. A man’s intentions are on trial. You look at those documents and attach your meaning to them. But just because it’s your version doesn’t mean it’s the real version. How can he be guilty of defrauding people if he didn’t deliberately mislead them?”

“He invoiced mock companies for goods that were never produced. Those invoices were paid.”

“And he was under the understanding that the goods had been shipped.”

“There was no proof of that. No confirmation of sales. No receipts.”

“So he was too trusting. That’s not a crime.”

Blake shook his head. “I didn’t ask you here to debate Eaton James.”

Neither had she accepted for that reason, though she was content to do so if it kept her out of more dangerous territory. “Here’s the thing,” she said, returning to what she’d started to say earlier. “We all have different views of reality—which, as long as we follow society’s rules, is just fine. And when it’s perceived that someone breaks one of those rules, society’s reality is determined by a vote from the majority. That’s justice. In this case, the majority comprises the twelve people sitting in that jury box. Schuster presented the state’s reality, I present James’s, and it’s up to those twelve individuals to determine which version is true.”

“I’ll say this for you,” Blake said, shaking his head. “You sure have a colorful way of looking at it all.”