Rachel was surprised to see her aunt Eve standing with Wade, Dana, and Shawn Sheely and Misty Tilden. She joined them while Quint went to speak with Chief Spagna.
Eve and Wade stared at her, bewildered. “What are you doing here, Rach?” asked Wade.
Rachel remembered that her aunt and cousin knew nothing of her relationship with Quint. But Misty did. She thought Rachel was Brady’s mother who’d deserted him and who ought to have her reproductive organs altered to prevent further procreation. From the look on her face, the widow looked like a prime candidate to do the job right now.
“You know her?” Misty demanded, turning on Wade.
“She’s my cousin Rachel. One of those Saxon Associates you and Quint mopped up the floor with today.”
“Well, she’s definitely a traitor to you guys because she is so hot for Quint she’s even using his baby to get to him. Playing the role of mommy to that poor little kid who was dumped by his real mother.” Misty shot Rachel a scathing glare, letting her know she was on to her and was not. going to be duped again.
“I’m not using Brady to get to Quint,” Rachel countered. “I don’t have to.”
“Because you already got him?” Misty wanted to know.
“We have each other and we both love Brady,” Rachel corrected gently because she really didn’t want to feud with Quint’s wealthiest client. Indisputable evidence of how much she loved Quint because there had been a time when she would’ve done or said anything to cause harm to the firm of Cormack and Son.
“Rachel and Quint Cormack?” Eve was clearly stunned. “Since when?”
“I might’ve been surprised earlier, but after finding out about Aunt Eve and Chief Spagna, I’m shock-proof,” Wade murmured to Dana.
Quint joined the group, postponing a Saxon inquisition of Rachel. “Nick told me what happened tonight. Frank has really outdone himself this time. He’s headed to jail for a long time. After stealing the pickup and traveling the wrong way on 70, he switched roads and almost made it to Atlantic City. Along the way, he sideswiped cars, both moving and parked ones, including police cars. He clipped a toll booth and ran drivers off the road, he eluded roadblocks and crashed through a chain-link fence.”
“How did they finally catch up to him?” asked Shawn.
“He got boxed in at a cul-de-sac,” Quint continued grimly. “According to Nick, twelve police cars blocked the only way out, but Frank wasn’t finished yet. He got out of the truck and made a run for the woods. Since he was drunk, he wasn’t too agile but he kept fighting until he was Maced. Then he finally became quiet and cooperative and claimed amnesia. Said the last thing he remembered was reading a bedtime story to his little boys and tucking them into bed.”
“As if!” Misty exclaimed indignantly.
“Exactly,” agreed Quint.
“What is he being charged with, Quint?” asked Rachel, moving to stand beside him. She slipped her arm around him. She could feel him wired with tension, his body rigid and taut. When she thought of how relaxed and happy they’d been a few hours earlier, her hatred of Frank Cormack grew stronger.
“The question is, what isn’t he being charged with?” Quint shrugged and shook his head. “He passed through a number of municipalities so local police agencies dropped in and out of the chase as he charged through their districts. That means he’s facing charges all through South Jersey. Nick said so far there have been thirty-six different traffic violations cited, including several with multiple counts. Then there are the criminal charges, twelve counts of aggravated assault, ten counts of simple assault, sixteen counts of reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, and criminal trespass. I won’t go into the misdemeanor charges, but there are plenty of those, too. Reports of cars that were struck are still being called in to various police stations, and that entire group of people over there have come down to file their reports in person.”
“Nick says your father was returned to Lakeview and is in custody downstairs,” said Eve. “Obviously, he needs a lawyer. Are you going to represent him?”
“No.” Quint shook his head. “I’m through cleaning up after him, he’s on his own. Frank is to be arraigned at a preliminary hearing tomorrow morning, and I told Nick he would need a public defender.”
“Good!” exclaimed Misty. “Because Dana and I are going to sue and of course, you’ll be our lawyer. I’d like to have that bar who served the kids and Dana wants a new car. Okay, Quint?”
Rachel watched Quint compose his features into a believable semblance of patience. But she knew him well enough to know it was only a facade. Quint Cormack was feeling anything but patient at this moment.
“Misty, we’ll talk about a lawsuit later. Right now I have to see Carla. Nick said she’s hysterical, no surprise there. He told her not to come down here and that I’d be by to explain things to her.” Quint turned to Rachel. “Do you want me to drive you home on the way to Carla’s or can you find a ride?”
Rachel knew he didn’t mean to sound so dismissive, but his abrupt abrasive manner stung.
“I have a Range Rover with plenty of room, I’ll give you a lift,” offered Misty.
A preoccupied Quint merely nodded and left the station.
“His mind is on Carla and the boys, don’t take it personally, Rachel,” Dana tried to be kind.
“Frank Cormack is a human scourge,” Eve put in. “Nick said he and Quint have had many talks about him and the problems he’s caused. Nick advised him to cut Frank off, and it seems like Quint is finally taking his advice.”
Eve seemed pleased by this, though Rachel couldn’t understand why. She wondered if she might possibly be trapped in a weird dream, perhaps induced by a little too much champagne. A dream where strange and subtle alliances had shifted, and everybody knew the new coalitions except her.
Rachel piled into the Range Rover with Wade, the Sheelys, and Misty Tilden while her aunt stayed behind at the police station for reasons Rachel didn’t know and nobody seemed inclined to explain.
Her cousin’s seeming friendship with the young widow amazed her, and the Sheelys were clearly part of the crowd. The accident appeared to have been a bonding experience for the four, although how they’d all ended up in the same car traveling along Route 70 at this hour of the night remained a mystery to her.
Rachel didn’t sleep at all for the rest of the night. She kept hoping Quint would call, but he didn’t, and she couldn’t call his house and risk waking Sarah and little Brady. It was actually a relief to get out of bed and get ready for work in the morning, and Rachel donned a dark green suit, not quite as severe as usual, and an ecru silk blouse with a high collar.
Before she left her apartment, she gave into temptation and called Quint’s home. Sarah was awake and chipper, and Brady could be heard babbling in the background along with a swell of kiddie parade music.
“Quint left early to go up to north Jersey,” Sarah reported. “He’ll be back tonight because it’s my night off. Oh, hey, isn’t it great about Dana and Wade? About time too, huh?”
Before Rachel had a chance to ask her for specifics, Sarah exclaimed, “Uh-oh! Brady just dumped his whole glass of juice all over the sofa. I have to rescue the remote control before he drops it into the—Oh, no! Bye, Rachel.”
Rachel arrived at the office and was greated by a beaming Katie Sheely. “Isn’t it great about Dana and Wade? About time, too, huh?”
Rachel smiled. “I think I just had this conversation.” She heard voices in the conference room and went back to find her aunt and cousin chortling together over the newspaper.
“Two Sheelys have told me it’s great about Dana and Wade. Do you plan to tell me what?”
Wade looked up. “Dana and I are getting married this weekend. You’re coming to the wedding, I hope. It’ll just be family, and then we’re all going out for lunch.”
“Just family is a pretty sizable group when it comes to the Sheelys,” said Aunt Eve. “We’re very happy for you, Wade, but of course, you know that.�
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“You and Nick better be there, Aunt Eve,” said Wade, grinning. “And you can bring Cormack if you must, Rach.”
“Such a gracious invitation, how could she refuse?” Eve teased.
Rachel studied her aunt, whose spirits were almost girlishly buoyant. Nick. “Aunt Eve, are you—uh—seeing the police chief?” She half expected her aunt to admonish her for her foolish speculations.
Eve merely smiled enigmatically. “I suppose you could say so.”
“Now there’s a slippery answer, the kind that gives all of us lawyers a bad name. She’s most definitely seeing the chief, Rach.” Wade laughed. “Here, read this.”
He thrust the New Jersey Metro section of the Philadelphia Inquirier into Rachel’s hand. She saw the article immediately, PROMINENT LAKEVIEW FAMILY FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES.
“The police have reviewed the complaints against the Tildens and decided to file criminal charges.” Rachel glanced up in surprise. “Well, they’ve already hired a criminal attorney, who will surely get the charges reduced to a few misdemeanors.”
“Sure, the charges are just an annoyance to them, but having a story printed about the whole affair is nothing less than a catastrophic humiliation,” Wade exclaimed triumphantly. “And read the way the story is written—Misty’s age is never mentioned and neither is the fact that she was Town Senior’s second wife. From that article, you’d think she is a poor old widow being preyed upon by her greedy, sociopathic offspring out to rob and terrorize her.”
Rachel’s eyes swept the article. “You’re right. The Tildens must be chewing nails over this. Rusty ones.”
“Guess whose cousin works the south Jersey beat at the paper?” Wade was gleeful.
Rachel looked at her aunt, whose smile fell unmistakably into the cat-who-swallowed-both-the-canary-and-the-cream category. And planned to keep on doing it. “Chief Spagna?”
“The chief didn’t like the way the Tildens treated Aunt Eve, who is a real lady with brains and a heart of gold,” added Wade.
Eve didn’t deny it. She merely shrugged and finished her coffee. “Nick is the most interesting man I’ve ever met,” she said, setting down her cup. “Meanwhile, we do have some clients left, so let’s end the coffee break and get to work.”
“Brains, a heart of gold and a slave-driver mentality,” amended Wade, but Eve took it good-naturedly, as he’d intended. The three Saxons went to their respective offices, where they remained until midmorning when Katie delivered the mail.
Eve called Rachel and Wade into her office. She held an opened registered letter in her hand. “John Pedersen is informing us that as of today, he’s pulling all his business, personal and the Car Shoppe, from Saxon Associates.”
Rachel chewed her lower lip. “Aunt Eve, it’s all my fault. Pedersen has never forgiven me for losing his case. I am so sorry. Do you think it would help if I went to see him again? Did he mention what firm he intends to use?”
“He doesn’t say,” said Eve. “And don’t even think about begging to represent him, Rachel. It’s over.”
“Pedersen’s new lawyer is Quint Cormack,” Wade said quietly.
Rachel felt her heart plummet. She listened to Wade tell about Pedersen’s defection, first seeking a new pension plan, then finally making the Saxon break. The fact wasn’t lost on her that Quint hadn’t bothered to mention a word about any of it. Wade knew what was brewing from Dana, who worked for Cormack and Son’s firm, but Quint, who was the firm, had chosen to keep silent.
“Rachel, are you all right?” She looked up to find her aunt watching her.
“As well as can be expected, considering our practice is hemorrhaging clients,” Rachel was sardonic. “Not to mention Quint Cormack’s nasty habit of backstabbing which—”
“Rachel, you can’t take this personally,” Wade cut in. “It’s strictly a professional choice. It’s Pedersen’s choice, and he chose Cormack. Which isn’t really backstabbing—and keep in mind that defending Quint Cormack does not come naturally to me, Rach.”
“Wade is right, Rachel,” agreed Eve, looking incredibly composed.
“You’re saying we should just forget all about it?” Rachel’s anger grew in proportion to the others’ lack of it. “Maybe we should send Pedersen a bottle of wine, congratulating him on the move!”
“Rachel,” Eve began.
“Don’t take it personally! Separate the personal from the professional! I’ve been hearing a lot about that lately,” Rachel raged. “But, you know, I don’t think it’s possible. How about Chief Spagna, Aunt Eve? If he wasn’t seeing you, do you think he would’ve bothered to turn Misty’s complaints into criminal charges? Would he have phoned his cousin at the paper, and if the reporter wasn’t a relative, would the article have been published at all? That strikes me as extremely personal, and it’s all mixed up with the professional.”
“You have a valid point, Rachel,” Wade conceded. “But—” He shrugged. “So what?”
“So what?” Rachel repeated. She was flummoxed. What kind of a response was that? And how was she supposed to repond to such a banality?
“Sometimes, the personal and the professional aspects of our lives do intertwine, dear,” Aunt Eve said in the faux-patient tone she often used when talking with Laurel. “But I have to agree with Wade. If it’s not an unethical or illegal conflict of interest, then, well, so what?”
“With a philosophy like that, no wonder Saxon Associates is going down the drain!” Rachel stormed back into her own office, glumly aware that her own failure in the Pedersen case had cost them that particular client.
And if her aunt and cousin didn’t seem to mind the loss, well, she minded enough for all three of them.
It was raining when Rachel left the office late that afternoon—hadn’t she heard it was supposed to be sunny all day?—and with no umbrella, she was soaked to the skin when she arrived home.
She changed quickly into jeans and a melon-colored T-shirt and had just finished blowing her hair dry when she heard pounding on the door. The kind of nonstop knocking that made her instantly think of Laurel. Since her car was parked right in front of the building, she couldn’t pretend not to be home. Groaning inwardly, Rachel opened the door.
“Hi, Mommy, hi, hi!” Brady sang as Quint dropped the little boy into Rachel’s arms.
“Just in case you had any ideas of not showing up for dinner tonight, Brady and I came by to get you,” Quint drawled.
Brady was wriggling in her arms, and Rachel looked over his head to meet Quint’s eyes. He raised his dark brows, challenging her to refuse to go.
“Dana said you might be mad at me for not calling to tell you I’d gone up to Sagertown on a case today,” he said. “Sarah told her you’d called the house this morning. Dana also said that Wade told her you were steamed over Pedersen taking his business to me.”
“Dana is a veritable fount of information, isn’t she?”
“The Sheelys are well connected. And if you’ve got a connection to one of them, you’re plugged in to the entire network.” He closed his hand around her upper arm. “Let’s go home and have dinner, Rachel. Brady is hungry.”
“That is really low, Cormack. Using a small child—a hungry small child—to—to—”
“You should know I’ll do whatever it takes, Rachel. And I’m not up to fighting about Pedersen or anything else. Not after last night.”
“And now you drag in your father, who is so horrible that anyone with a heart can’t help but feel sorry for you being stuck with him. Another unfair ploy.”
“Let’s face it, Rachel, I’ve stacked the deck. Next, I’ll play the Carla card. Think of me last night, listening to two solid hours of her screaming.”
Rachel winced, but still didn’t fold. “Don’t forget to mention poor little Dustin and Austin.”
“Who we’re picking up, by the way. They’re having dinner with us and watching a video before we take them back home.”
“Because Carla and her mother need some more
peace and quiet?”
“Because Carla and her mother are going shopping to redecorate the house that burned down. The insurance check is in the mail. Come on, let’s go.”
“Austin, Dustin, Mommy, eat it all up. Mommy and Brady, Daddy eat chicken,” Brady cut in. The little boy was delighted to see her. He talked incessantly, occasionally reaching up to stroke her cheek.
Rachel conceded defeat. She followed Quint to his car, carrying Brady in her arms. Actually, she was glad Quint was taking his little brothers tonight. The news of their father’s latest exploits—and their mother’s reaction—would be tough for both kids to handle. She liked that they had Quint to depend on, Quint’s house as a refuge.
And she knew that Quint would never begrudge the time and effort spent in providing a refuge for Snowy, should she need one. Rachel worried that her little niece was going to need her as much as Quint’s brothers needed him, but she was secure in the knowledge that Quint would help Snowy, too.
Not that she was going to admit to any of this now. Not while Quint’s noticeable lack of penitence over Pedersen was still grating on her. He might not have hijacked Pedersen, but the defection was the next closest thing, and he’d not offered even a token apology.
“This discussion is by no means over, Quint,” she warned him, as they drove off.
“I was under no illusion that it was, Rachel,” he countered calmly.
By the time they’d returned the especially active and fractious Austin and Dustin to their mother, and put Brady to bed, Rachel’s internal monologue about the Pedersen injustice had substituted as a discussion with Quint. She was tired of thinking about Pedersen, she’d wasted too many of her brain cells on that employee-harrassing car salesman already. Quint was welcome to keep the cad as a client!
He poured each of them a glass of wine and sat down with her on the sofa. She noticed how tired he looked, dark circles under his eyes, and she lightly ran her finger along one, frowning.
“You have to go to bed early tonight. You’re exhausted.”
He smiled. “Only if you’ll go with me, Rachel.” He slid his hand slid along the length of her inner thigh.
When Lightning Strikes Twice Page 38
