Meg stepped out of the bathroom and into the coolness of her bedroom and walked over to the closet to pick out something to wear. What do you wear to an arrest? She didn’t know. She settled on a black sweater, jeans and a pair of suede casual shoes. As good as anything. After she finished getting dressed, she tidied up the bedroom and threw her dirty clothes into a hamper. She found her cell phone on the dresser and turned it off.
Coming into the kitchen, Meg noticed the clock on the wall and realized that Ben wouldn’t be there for a while. She rinsed off the dishes and placed them into the dishwasher with some Cascade she found under the sink and started the machine before wiping off the counter with a wet sponge. For just an instant, she thought about changing the message on her answering machine before realizing that anyone who wished to speak to her would undoubtedly know that she couldn’t come to the phone and why.
When Meg finished in the kitchen, she pulled the vacuum out of the hall closet and did a quick once-over on the living room carpeting, moved the magazines from the coffee table to a pile on a buffet against the far wall and straightened up the cushions on the sofa. With nothing else left to do, she curled up on the sofa and waited quietly for Ben to arrive, taking in the small details of the room, her fate and her future pressing in on her from all sides.
***
The drive downtown took almost an hour. Ben left his car in valet and pushed through the revolving doors at the entrance to the building. Having been alerted to Ben’s pending arrival, the security guard sent him upstairs with barely a cursory glance.
Ben took the elevator up to the 22nd floor and found Megan’s unit at the end of the corridor on the right-hand side. She opened the door before he even had a chance to knock, the security guard downstairs having called a moment before.
“Hi, come on in,” she said in a soft voice.
Megan led him from a smallish entryway into a good-sized living room. Ben had never been here before, though he wasn’t terribly surprised at what he saw in his first look around. The room was light and airy, very feminine looking, a sole table lamp illuminating the entire room. The carpeting was off-white, as were the walls, and a large, formal Chippendale coffee table stood in the middle of the room flanked by a pale yellow overstuffed sofa and matching wing chairs in a soft chenille fabric. A glass vase with a dried flower arrangement sat on the coffee table, and Ben noticed a similar one on a buffet table against the wall. Inoffensive modern art, mostly geometric shapes in pastel colors, dotted the walls. Although tastefully decorated, the room felt sterile and almost non-lived in. Ben noticed that he could still see the marks the vacuum cleaner had left on the carpeting. He thought he could smell lemon furniture polish.
“Can I take your coat?” Meg asked.
“Sure. Why don’t you just leave it on the chair? We’ll be going in a little while.”
She took the coat from him and rather than drape it over the chair, hung it up in the hall closet. Everything has its place, Ben thought. He walked into the room and sat down in one of the wing chairs. Meg stopped in front of the sofa and said, “What do you think of my arrest outfit?” holding her arms out and posing before taking a seat across from him.
Ben eyed her carefully. He decided to play along. “Very nice,” he replied. “Sweaters are always good. Perhaps you can come out with your own line. I don’t know, maybe add some stripes?”
She laughed a little. “Thanks a lot.”
“I’m always here to help.”
They sat there awkwardly for a few moments, Meg sitting very still, leaning slightly forward, her feet together and her hands folded in her lap.
“So,” she said with a slight smile and a shrug of her shoulders.
Ben fidgeted in his seat and surveyed the room. “This seems very nice,” he said finally. He had never been to Megan’s condo before.
“Thanks. What am I thinking?” she said, “Would you like anything to drink?”
“Water would be fine, thanks.”
“I’ll go get some for you. I’ll be back in a second,” she said rising to her feet.
Ben got up too. “I’ll go with.”
He followed her through a doorway at the back end of the room and into a formal dining room. Next to the dining room and behind the living room was the kitchen. Meg turned on a light as she led him into the kitchen and took a glass from the middle shelf of one of the cupboards over the sink. The room was also light and airy, even at night. Beyond the kitchen and separated by a half-wall was a nicely-sized eating area. The dining room, kitchen and eating area all afforded spectacular views of Lake Michigan between the buildings to the east.
Ben walked through the kitchen and into the eating area and stood before a large window facing the lake. Light from the kitchen struck him and cast his profile in shadow on the wall to his right. He gazed down at the dark water below, the lights of the City appearing as sparkles on the water lapping against the shore wall. “This is quite a view,” he said, without looking back, as she entered the room behind him. “I’ll bet it’s really something in the morning when the sun’s out.”
“It is, even too bright sometimes, but I like it.”
He turned and she handed him a glass filled with ice water. “Thanks,” he said taking it. An awkward silence fell between them, and Ben turned and took another long look out at the lake. “Well,” he said finally, “why don’t we go back into the living room. We have a couple of things to talk about.”
She nodded and he followed her out another door, past a long corridor and back toward the living room. “I take it the bedrooms and stuff are down that way?” Ben said with a gesture of his head.
She stopped. “Yes,” she said coming back to him and pointing down the hallway. “The master bedroom is down at the end of the hall on the left with a master bath. Next to that, in this direction, is A.J.’s room. There’s a bathroom across the hall from his room and a small family room and another bedroom down at the end of the hall on the right. I use that as a home office.”
“Sounds real nice,” Ben said.
“It’s really very comfortable. It’s not a huge amount of space, but we have a lot of room at the other house, so we don’t need as much space here.”
Ben nodded and said nothing. He led them back into the living room. The place looked like its owner was about to embark on a long sabbatical across the European continent. All it lacked were suitcases sitting by the door. Ben felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. He hoped that Megan’s time away from this place would be short and not extend from days, to weeks, to months or longer.
They resumed their seats in the living room and Ben found that words which often came so easily floated out of reach. He could not summon the necessary detachment to describe the events that lay before them in the clinical fashion they required. His personal relationship with her, forged long ago in the fires of common experience, rendered this impossible. But he was more than simply her friend now, he was her lawyer; he was the man entrusted to do his best to protect her, protect her from the grinding, endless wheels of justice, protect her from those who did not believe in her, and ultimately to protect her from herself if need be. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and looked down at the carpeting to compose his thoughts. Although their relationship had now changed, he nonetheless had to be himself. Looking up into her eyes, he said, “So, I take it you’ve been sitting here alone in the semi-darkness stewing about this?”
She held her hands out at her side, palms up, as though to say, “And what else could I do?”
“Well,” he said, “I can’t blame you, but this isn’t the beginning of the end. This is just the beginning of our fight. It’s just an unfortunate step we have to go through right now.”
“I know,” she said without convincing him.
She seemed disheartened, dispirited. He understood it and didn’t like it. “Look, did you kill him?” He didn’t know where that came from. He hadn’t intended to ask her that. It just sort of came out. Defense lawye
rs didn’t do that because the answer didn’t matter.
“No,” she answered without hesitation.
“No,” he repeated, feeling like a weight had been removed from him. “Of course you didn’t. And we will fight, and fight, and keep on fighting until everyone understands that, especially until a jury of your peers understands that, if we have to.”
“What about my reputation?”
“Don’t worry about your reputation. We’ll start with the jury, and then we’ll worry about your reputation after the jury’s convinced. Look, everyone who knows you, who understands you as I do, will realize and understand that you could never do such a thing. Everybody else, people you don’t know, people you don’t care about, you can’t worry about what they think. You can’t prevent them from thinking whatever they want to think, so why worry about it? Trust me. If you listen to me, do what I say and trust me, we will beat this thing.” He said the words slowly and firmly. He was beginning to feel a little better.
“I believe in you,” she said, “really I do. But you have to believe in me too. You have to understand, really understand, that I didn’t do this.”
“I do. I do understand that. But right now, we have to talk about what’s going to happen in the next twelve to eighteen hours.”
Ben spent the next few minutes explaining what was going to happen next. All the while, she sat quietly, occasionally nodding as he explained something to her. She asked no questions.
“We’re going to be ready to hit the ground running,” Ben said. “Just look at tonight and tomorrow as the first step toward clearing your name.”
“Clearing my name,” she said with a laugh. “It’s funny, nobody knows my name. Nobody knows I’m being charged yet, and now I’m worried about clearing my name. Soon, it’ll be like Cheers, where everybody knows my name.”
Ben knew it wasn’t funny at all. “Don’t worry,” he said, “we’ll get it done. Now, I take it you and Joe made arrangements for A.J. okay?”
“Yes. Joe’s been really good about that. They left an hour and a half or so before you got here. We talked for a long time about what to tell A.J. and we finally figured the best thing to do was just tell him the truth. We told him that I was being wrongfully accused of doing something I didn’t do, but that we hoped to have it sorted out and behind us as soon as we can. He seemed scared, but I think we convinced him that everything would be okay. I just worry about what’s going to happen at school. I hate to think about that. Between that and the TV coverage …” Her voice trailed off.
“I can’t imagine,” Ben whispered. He paused and then forced a smile. “Let’s just assume that A.J. won’t have to be without his mother for long. That’s our goal.”
The phone rang, startling both of them. They looked at each other for a second before Megan started to get up.
Ben held up his hand. “I’ll get it.” She sat back down and Ben walked over and grabbed a portable phone off the side table. He fumbled with it for a second and it continued to ring before he found the button to answer the call. “Hello,” he said.
The security guard was on the other end of the line. “Oh, I was looking for Mrs. Cavallaro.”
“I’ll take a message for her.”
“Oh, right. There’s a Scott Nelson and a couple of other guys down here to see her.”
“Okay,” Ben said, “tell them we’ll be right down.” He hung up, turned and said, “They’re here.” She had already gotten up and was heading toward the closet to get their coats.
A couple of minutes later, they were on the elevator heading downstairs. Ben put his arm on her shoulder and leaned in close to her. “One thing I want you to remember and never forget is that you will not talk about this to anyone. I don’t care who they are or how friendly and supportive they seem. You will not talk about this to anyone. The only people you talk to about this are your lawyers. Not Joe, certainly not A.J., not anyone but your lawyers. You cannot trust anyone but us. Unless Fran files an appearance, you don’t talk to Fran either. Same with Bowden. You have to assume that the prosecution is going to try anything to convict you. We can’t help them out. Do you understand?”
“Yes sir,” she said and gave a mock salute.
“Good. Things are the way they are, but we are looking out for you. We’re not going to let this get to you. And another thing, no matter what, we will always act like nothing bothers us. That includes you. Especially you. You have to assume that from this moment forward, you are on public display at all times, and you want to put your best face forward whenever someone may be watching. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said.
“And when you talk to Joe, make sure he understands that no one talks to the media except me. I’ll tell him too. If we think it’s a good idea, then we’ll suggest something else, but we don’t want anybody saying anything that may hurt the case.”
The bell sounded and the elevator slowed to a halt on the first floor. As the doors opened, he leaned over and whispered in her ear, “You can do this. Knock ‘em dead.” She gave him a curious look and he shrugged. “So to speak,” he said with a slight grin and a twinkle in his eye.
“Thanks a lot,” she said smacking him on the back. They turned the corner and entered the lobby as though on a Sunday stroll. The tension had momentarily eased. At the security desk stood Detectives Nelson and Cole and a third man Ben didn’t recognize. None of them were wearing uniforms. Nelson stepped forward and shook hands with Ben. Detective Cole did likewise.
“Ms. Rand?” Nelson said with a nod. She nodded back. “Why don’t we step outside?” Nelson said. The five of them pushed through the revolving doors.
They gathered under the canopy and a valet approached. “Would you like me to pull up your car, Mrs. Cavallaro?” he said to Megan.
“No thanks,” Ben responded, handing the man his ticket, “but you can get mine.” The young man took off around the corner toward the parking area leaving the five of them alone under the canopy.
Two unmarked cars stood in the small circle driveway at the front of the building. Both cars were running, and a driver sat in the first one. “We’ll take Ms. Rand in the first car. The second car will follow, and you can follow that car. We’ll wait for them to pull your car up,” Nelson said to Ben. “We’re going to the stationhouse over on North Avenue, just past LaSalle.”
“I know where it is,” Ben said.
“You can park on the side. You shouldn’t have any trouble there.” Detective Cole pulled a set of handcuffs from his coat pocket. Nelson waved him off. “I don’t think we’ll be needing those right now, John.” Somewhat surprised, Cole returned the handcuffs to his pocket. Nelson read Meg her Miranda rights and she said she understood them just as the valet emerged from around the other side of the building with Ben’s car. Nelson nodded and led Meg to the first sedan.
Cole opened the door and Meg got in one side, while Nelson walked around to the driver’s side and got in the other. Cole climbed into the front seat. The third man got into the front seat of the second car, and Ben took three dollars from his pocket and handed it to the valet before climbing behind the wheel of his SUV.
It was only a short five minute drive from Megan’s townhouse to the police station. Ben parked on the west side of the building in a small parking lot and walked inside. Megan was standing inside the front door with Detectives Nelson and Cole and two uniformed officers. When Ben arrived, Nelson led her through a set of metal doors and down a long corridor toward a processing room near the back of the building.
The whole thing took about an hour. Megan was searched, fingerprinted and photographed. Her belongings were inventoried and she was forced to change out of her clothing and into an orange prison jumpsuit and dingy tennis shoes without laces. When they were done, Nelson brought her out to a small corridor where Ben waited.
“Can I have a couple of minutes alone with her?” Ben asked.
“Sure,” Nelson said, “why don’t you go in here. Just knock on the door wh
en you’re done.”
They went into a small conference room with a square table and four metal chairs. They didn’t sit down. Ben faced her and put his hands on her shoulders. “You’re doing a great job,” he said. “I’m very proud of you.”
She laughed a mirthless laugh. “Proud of me the way I’m handling my first arrest? I can hear it now. ‘Gee Mom, you should have been there when I had my fingerprints taken. You would have been proud of me.’”
“Okay, okay,” Ben said. “If you’re going to do something, you may as well do it right.” He smiled and shook a finger at her. “And don’t talk to anyone. Even here. You never know who may be listening.” She nodded. “You can do this. I know you can,” Ben said. “I’ll see you in the morning for Court.”
“Can you call Joe later and check on A.J. for me?” she asked.
“Of course. I was going to call him and let him know how things were going anyway. Don’t worry about that. We’ll take care of everything out here and hopefully by this time tomorrow, you’ll be back at home sitting in your freshly vacuumed house with the lights out.”
She shrugged. “About the only thing worse than getting arrested, I figured, was getting arrested and coming home to a messy house.”
“Well, if it’s any consolation to you,” Ben said, “you’ve probably got the neatest house of anybody who got arrested tonight.” As he said this, he put his arms around her and held her long enough so she would know he really meant it. “All right. Now take care of yourself. Don’t talk to anybody and I’ll see you in the morning,” he whispered in her ear.
Ben knocked on the door, it opened and they stepped out into the hallway. Detective Nelson took Meg by the arm and began to lead her down the hallway toward the back of the building. As he did so, Megan grabbed Ben’s hand and gave it a short squeeze. He nodded and said, “Take care of yourself,” again and turned and headed in the opposite direction toward the front of the building. As Ben emerged from inside, he stood on the front steps and looked at his watch - eight-thirty. A cold gust of wind blew open the front of his coat, and he grabbed it and buttoned it, pulling his gloves from his pockets and putting them on. He looked around. No reporters. True to his word, Nelson had kept a lid on the news. Ben walked around the side of the building to the parking lot, clicked open the locks with his keyless remote and climbed inside. He took his cell phone from its belt clip and punched in Joseph Cavallaro’s home phone number.
Final Exam: A Legal Thriller Page 9
