Purple Knot

by Raquel Byrnes

  I tried to look around. A white sedan to my left, its front end crumpled and bent, spewed steam from under its hood. It registered that I was in the middle of an intersection. I’d been driving home from the bookstore. The bag with my books sat in the passenger foot well and I could see the picture of the stork and basinet on the cover.

  Panic pulsed and I tried to move again, to reach my phone and call for help, but my insides tore open with more pain. I screamed, trying to ride out the agony. I forced myself to breath, though every time I inhaled my side flared white hot. I tried to push on the steering wheel. I knew it was already too late. I gasped at the force of the spasm that squeezed me like a spiked belt around my middle. Another pulling pain and I heard the sirens start to fade in the background. Then the sorrow hit me, the wave of darkness that held me down until I didn’t want to come back up.

  “Rain, wake up, ma chér.” Jimmy stroked my hair and spoke softly.

  My eyes fluttered open and I was in his SUV. The afternoon sun lit up his eyes and he smiled at me. “I’m sorry. I fell asleep.” I jerked a hand away from my middle, as if it would give away what I’d been dreaming about.

  “Are you OK? You were groaning.”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Just…” I shrugged. “It’s been a hard week.” I sat up and rubbed my eyes, took a deep breath and forced a smile.

  “We’re at Warren’s house.”

  “Warren?”

  Jimmy got out of the car.

  I undid the seatbelt and followed him out onto the sidewalk. We were in front of a beautiful mission style home. Someone had taken time and money and restored the rambling grandeur of the building with care. I whistled in appreciation.

  “Warren Conrad. He’s my friend from law school. See.”

  Jimmy pointed to the wood shingle suspended over the front door. It read Warren Conrad – Family Law, and had three little bells hanging off the bottom of it. I nodded towards it.

  “The sign says he’s closed on Mondays. You think he’ll mind?”

  “Nope,” Jimmy said with a twinkle in his eye. “But I kind of promised we’d do something while we’re here.”

  I started to ask what he meant, but Jimmy hopped the porch steps ahead of me and rang the doorbell. I heard voices from inside as I climbed up to the porch. Music blared and I smelled barbeque smoke.

  Warren answered the door in faded jeans and a ripped t-shirt. He was Jimmy’s age, but with none of the height or muscle. In fact, Warren was a little on the soft, round side. He smiled broadly and reached out to give Jimmy a bear hug.

  “Jimmy, boy!”

  Jimmy laughed and shook Warren’s hand and then motioned toward me.

  “This must be the beautiful Rain I’d always heard so much about!”

  “Nice to meet you, Warren,” I said and extended my hand.

  “Nice to meet…come here!”

  Warren pulled me into a crushing bear-hug and lifted me off my feet. Then he dragged me by the hand into his living room where six other men stood holding various cans of soda and plates of chips.

  “Guys, its Jimmy! He brought his girlfriend, Rain.”

  “Rain!” They all bellowed at once and lifted their sodas in a toast.

  “Warren is a gamer.” Jimmy leaned in and whispered in my ear.

  “A what?” I saw a giant flat screen television mounted on the wall and noticed that Warren and the rest of the guys had on headsets with microphones. A video game on the screen stood frozen on pause.

  “He has these crazy marathon parties and they play people all around the world.”

  “Not parties, tournaments. Did Jimmy ever tell you about that fourteen hour game we played against the Chinese team?” Warren dropped a soda and a plate of four different kinds of chips in my hand. He motioned for me to sit in a wing chair set off to the right of the room. He started laughing and a few of the other gamers nodded appreciatively.

  “That was a monster,” Jimmy agreed.

  Warren grabbed his controller and sat on the chair facing the screen.

  “Let me just finish off this round and we can go outside.”

  Jimmy nodded and wandered over to talk to a man at the snack table. I put the soda between my knees and nibbled on a chip while I watched Warren play. He and three other guys spoke to each other on their headsets even though they weren’t more than two feet from each other. They all controlled a monster version of themselves on screen in some sort of coordinated attack of other monsters in a nearby ravine. It took me a few minutes to realize that Warren’s army had over twelve monsters and that he was actually talking to people who weren’t even in the room. The action was fast and the others in the room shouted to one another to watch out for flaming rings, and color burst bombs.

  Jimmy sat down on the floor next to me. He had a headset and was listening in on the commands. I tried to picture him getting into the fray, shouting between mouthfuls of chips, and cheering for his monster.

  “It’s your right flank, Warren. They’re opening up way too soon. The goblins are going to massacre your point men!” Jimmy shouted to Warren.

  “I told you guys!” Warren shouted.

  One of the players in the room muttered under his breath and shot a look at Jimmy. Then everyone, including Jimmy, groaned and shook their heads. Warren let his controller drop and his head hung down for a few seconds. Then he snapped back to happy and pulled off his headset. “Next time guys, next time.”

  The other players wandered over to the snack table and started talking.

  “Those kids were good.” Jimmy took off his headset and smiled.

  “Kids?”

  “Yeah, the other uhm…horde of monsters. They’re a team of twelve-year-olds who are training to compete in the next Global Battle Games.”

  “There’s competitions?”

  “Oh yeah, there’s international meets and prizes and everything.” Jimmy stood up. He put his hand out and helped me to my feet.

  “And Warren does this?”

  I followed Jimmy out onto the back deck.

  “No, Warren doesn’t compete anymore. He sponsors teams from inner cities. Gets them the equipment and practice space they need to be able to compete with the other teams.”

  “Oh…that’s nice.”

  Warren didn’t seem like such a geek to me after hearing that. He was kind of like a big brother, mentor-type, in a non-sport, sedentary way.

  “Hey guys,” Warren said happily. He motioned with the barbecue fork for us to join him at the table under the umbrella. I sat down and he put a plate with a gorgeous steak and roasted baby onions in front of me. I was liking Warren more and more.

  “This looks great, Warren. I’m sorry we crashed your party, though.”

  “Nonsense! We’re always happy to have fresh eyes on the game.” Warren smiled at me.

  “Really, Warren, thanks.” Jimmy accepted a plate from him and sat down next to me.

  Warren made a plate for himself and sat down with us. He took a bite out of his onions and chewed slowly with his eyes closed. When he was finished, he looked back at Jimmy, all business. “So your guy, Parker, he might have a case.”

  “You’re kidding!” My stomach fell despite my lunch’s alluring smell.

  “Well, it does depend on the records.” Warren said.

  Jimmy sliced a piece of his steak, shoved it in his mouth, and shook his head.

  “What records is he talking about?” I decided to try my meal anyway, to be polite. It was awesome.

  “You see, the crux of the problem is this. If Parker can prove that Summer was legally dead before the baby was delivered,” he shot a worried look at Jimmy, but continued. “Well, then depending on the type of judge he gets, he could get the codicil thrown out.” Warren gestured with his fork as he spoke.

  “That’s a long shot, though.” Jimmy leaned back in his chair.

  “I agree,” Warren said and took a pull from his soda bottle. “But it’s still a shot worth taking considering the amount of mon
ey involved. I’d make sure to get a good probate attorney lined up.”

  “Do you know anyone?” Jimmy chopped up his steak with his knife and fork but didn’t eat a bite.

  Warren watched him and I realized that he was probably a very shrewd guy.

  “I can recommend someone, but I’d rather you not contact them just yet.”

  Jimmy nodded, but I didn’t understand.

  “Why not?”

  “Because if you contact a lawyer before Parker even contests the codicil it’ll be obvious you both knew about the codicil, and were anticipating his move. That leaves you open to a lot…considering.”

  “Considering what?”

  I looked at Jimmy and his face was hard. When he spoke it was in a whisper. I’d never seen him look so angry.

  “Considering Summer named you and I co-executors of Autumn’s estate.”

  “What?” I dropped my fork.

  “It was in the report, Rain. The last page listed co-defendants in the challenge. That our names are there means we’re on the codicil.”

  “But…what do you mean considering? What’s to consider? What are we considering?” I sounded like an idiot but it was all that I had at the moment.

  “It would, how should I put this, tarnish your character if it came out that you signed the papers that effectively kept Summer alive only long enough to deliver the baby.” Warren looked at Jimmy and then back at me.

  “But that’s not what happened!” I yelled.

  “I’m saying, from what Jimmy told me, Parker plans on accusing you of something like that at trial.” Warren’s concerned gaze was scaring me.

  “Trial! I thought I was just giving a deposition tomorrow.”

  My voice cracked my eyes were stinging with tears.

  “Hey, don’t get ahead of things. I just wanted Warren’s worst case scenario prediction. We don’t know what the hospital records say exactly. We don’t know that Parker really has anything.” Jimmy reached out and rubbed my back.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you.” Warren nodded.

  “Warren is kind of like a trouble barometer, Rain. He can tell you the worst possible outcome and then we can strategize against it. That’s it.”

  I glanced at Warren’s placid face. He didn’t seem all that alarmed.

  Jimmy also looked calm.

  “So this was a consultation of possible doom, not actual doom…yet?”

  “That’s exactly right.” Warren laughed. He sounded like he truly found me amusing. He tapped his temple with his forefinger. “Like the enemy, you must think,” he said in a creepy monster voice.

  Purple Knot

  19

  We rode back to the city in silence. I couldn’t wrap my mind around what Warren and Jimmy had said. Something bugged me about the whole scenario but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

  Jimmy didn’t seem to be going anywhere in particular because we passed the donut shop with the metal cow in front of it twice already.

  “Where are we going, Jimmy?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I looked him. He had his brooding face on. I checked my watch. It was almost three in the afternoon. “I need to get ready to meet with Bennet and discuss the deposition.”

  Jimmy didn’t answer me. He pulled down a one way street, crossed over to the one parallel, and then back over to the one we’d just left. We passed the metal cow again.

  I sighed and looked out the window. We were behind a mini-van. The license plate didn’t have any numbers, only letters. It was a vanity plate that read T-A-X-I-M-O-M. Taxi mom. I sat up straight in the seat and yelled. “Hah! I knew it would come back to me!”

  Jimmy looked at me with one eyebrow arched up.

  “I’ve got to call Salem,” I said excitedly.

  I scrounged around in my purse for my phone, but couldn’t find it. Frustrated I growled and dumped the contents on my lap.

  Jimmy reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and handed it to me.

  “Thanks.”

  I dialed Salem and chewed on my pinkie nail while I waited for him to pick up. “Sweet Cheeks!”

  “Uh, honey pie?” Salem answered back.

  “No, Sweet Cheeks. I told you I’d seen that name before!”

  “The name of the cup cake bakery Bower goes to?”

  “Yes, that one.”

  I bounced up and down on the seat with excitement. I caught Jimmy’s smile from the corner of my eye.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Bower’s partner thinks he’s selling information to the competition, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s what we’re trying to prove but there’s no record of calls or emails. We can’t put them together.”

  “Bower has a daughter. I got some basic information on her when we checked him out. She has lunch with him sometimes.”

  “Uhm, yeah. Susan or something. Why?”

  “What’s her last name?”

  I heard Salem type on his keyboard. Jimmy watched me with a bemused look on his face.

  “Her name is Susan Zwietcheks, that’s her married name.”

  “I knew it!”

  I’d taken a picture of her license plate because she’d dropped off lunch to Bower one time. I could see the plates in my mind. They were vanity plates with her last name. Z-W-E-C-H-K-S. Sweet Cheeks. I spelled it out for Salem and he gasped.

  “Oh my gosh, I never would have picked up on that!”

  “Yah, well, I’ll bet if you check out that bakery it’ll belong to Bower’s daughter.”

  “He’s meeting with someone there?”

  “No, he’s too smart for that. My guess is he’s passing notes or documents to someone in the cup cake boxes. He’d have to have help to do that. His daughter probably passes the box to whoever Bower is selling the information to.”

  “Wow.”

  “You need to stake out that bakery. See who shows up immediately before and after Bower leaves.”

  “I will.”

  Salem got all atwitter when we solved a case.

  I needed photographic evidence. “Take pictures.” I reminded Salem.

  “Oh, I will.”

  Salem hung up and I turned to Jimmy with a big smile.

  “Sucker thought he could pull one over on me.”

  Jimmy laughed and grabbed my hand to kiss it. He shook his head when he spoke.

  “He had no idea who he was up against.”

  “Now will you just stop and get a donut already? I’m getting sick of that dumb cow.”

  Jimmy ate his donut while he drove. It amazed me that he could eat so much and still look so Adonis-like. He licked his fingers. He seemed to be in better sprits. “So, Bennet.”

  “I guess I should get it over with.” I groaned and did a fake shudder.

  “It’ll be you and Bennet, and a video camera.”

  “Sounds cozy.” I was cranky again.

  “I’ll be right outside the door. I’ll wait in the lobby.”

  “Will you run in and clobber Bennet if I call?”

  “In a heartbeat,” Jimmy promised.

  Inside the law offices I shivered in my light clothes. The air conditioning made the Himalayas seem like a sauna. I adjusted my blouse a third time and fidgeted in the seat.

  Jimmy reached over and held my hand. He rubbed his thumb on my inner wrist and although my heart paced up under his touch, I did feel calmer about the meeting.

  Bennet arrived a few minutes later.

  “OK, Ms. Cruz, we’ll just have a run through of the questions we anticipate and then you can get out of here and enjoy your evening.” He smiled in a plastic, professional way that didn’t reach his eyes. His perfectly styled hair shone like a hard helmet. A hand stitched suit hung over his skinny frame with elegance. He seemed very lawyerly.

  I took one last look at Jimmy and followed Bennet down the hall into the conference room. He motioned for me to take a seat and walked to the camera on the tripod on the opposite side of the conference
table. He turned it on and smiled. He patted the camera. “OK, this is so we can go back and see if there are any points we need to fine tune.”

  “OK.”

  We ran through the sequence of events starting with Jimmy’s phone call and my arrival at the hospital. I recounted my conversation with the nurse and how I found out about the medical power of attorney.

  “So until you received the paperwork you had no idea that Summer had appointed you to make any medical decisions for her, is that right?” Bennet stopped me and leafed through his notes while he asked questions.

  “No. It was a surprise to me. She’d never mentioned anything to me.”

  “OK. Go on.”

  I told him about the doctor’s assessment of Summer’s condition and the condition of the baby.

  He stopped me again. “Did Dr. Banfield, at any time, use the words dead, death, or brain death, to you during his explanation?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Try to recall his exact words.”

  I tried to remember the exact words he’d used but the whole thing happened so fast that I wasn’t sure. I hadn’t registered a lot of what was going on. I told this to Bennet.

  “When Banfield told you about the apnea and the other brain function tests the neurologist had performed, what was your understanding of Summer’s condition at that time?”

  “I understood that she was in grave condition. That she would not likely recover, and that her organs were failing. Dr. Banfield told me that the baby’s life was in danger and that Summer needed an emergency cesarean section to save it.” My stomach twisted

  Bennet nodded and wrote some more. Then he looked at me, his eyes intense. “Did you understand, at that time, that Summer was at risk of not surviving the surgery?”

  I nodded.

  Bennet frowned and looked at the camera.

  “Oh, uh, Dr. Banfield said that if she did not have the C-section then both of them would likely die. I was told that there was risk to Summer, but that I should abide by her wishes. I told him to do the C-section.”

  Bennet reached up and stopped the recording. He stood up and paced the space between the conference table and the wall. “Mr. Evan’s lawyers will push you on that point, I think.” Bennet spoke softly, almost to himself. “You need to keep your answers short and unemotional. Yes you knew that the baby might die. No you did not know that you’d be put in the position of making these decisions. You need to make sure that you appear as if you made the best decisions you could, with the information you had. That you made good faith decisions based on what you knew Summer would want.”