Southern Justice, Part 41

I’m Fixin’ To present part 41 of Southern Justice:

Patty Osborn was an only child who graduated from a Catholic high school where she had earned a swimming scholarship to the University of Florida. During her junior year she had to endure the tragic death of her mother and father due to a traffic accident. Thus she was left all alone in the world with no kin on either side of her family that she knew of..

The tragedy had happened during her junior year of college. They had left her very little, just enough to survive until she graduated with a degree in pre law, after which she came to Atlanta to find work and ended up in the employ of B. Wendell Hormel, Esq.

It had taken her almost a year to get accepted into the Georgia State University School of Law, and it had been a grind with the work and the classes, leaving her with not much of a life. But now her time had arrived and she was determined not to let it pass her by.

Immediately after being fired by B. Wendell, she drove straight to her apartment and then to the county court house and performed her first official task as an attorney. Afterward, on her way to Chris’s house, she stopped at the supermarket.

And that’s where she was when Chris arrived home from work. When he walked through his front door, not only his tenseness, but also the lingering thoughts of his work were immediately erased from his mind by the unusual delicious aroma filling the room. He followed his nose into the kitchen where he found Patty serving up fresh green beans, mashed potatoes, fried okra and smothered pork chops.

After dinner Chris loosened his tie and sank into the sofa with a contented feeling as Patty served coffee.

“I had no idea you could cook up such a great dinner. It was delicious and just what I needed.”

“I had to learn to cook to survive,” Patty told him as she chuckled and snuggled next to him, “back when I was a poor stepchild, back before I turned into a princess.”

Chris felt her soft fingers lightly tracing the remnants of the scratches on his neck and noticed the look in her eyes, which seemed to indicated she knew exactly how he got them.

He was slightly shocked when she said, “You want to tell me how you really got these?”

During his two business meetings during the day he had had to struggle to keep his mind on the matters at hand. He had kept thinking about what to do with the evidence he had stolen, wondering if he should implicate his partners, or present it to the authorities. But if he did that, how would he explain his being in possession of the partially forged hand written list of Rick Senior’s assets? Finally, he had arrived at a plan and was now ready to proceed.

Ignoring Patty’s seemingly accusing question concerning the scratches on his neck he asked her, “Hey, isn’t there some kind of rule or something between a lawyer and a client that the lawyer can’t rat on the client?”

“Yes,” she replied, “that would be the attorney-client confidentiality rule.”

“Can you elaborate on that rule a little?”

Patty took a deep breath and said, “It means that a lawyer shall not reveal incriminating information relating to his or her client unless the client consents after consultations, however, there are some extenuating rules though.”

Chris took a long sip of the rich coffee and asked, “Like what?”

“Like the lawyer may reveal the information if there is reasonable belief that disclosure is necessary to prevent their client or another person from committing a criminal act which would result in death or bodily harm.”

“Okay,” Chris surmised, “you mean that as my attorney, if I told you I was going to kill your boss—-”

“Ex-boss” Patty interrupted, and gave a brief synopsis of what had happened at her office that morning.

“Now I really do want to kill him!” Chris stated.

“No, no, it’s okay,” Patty reassured him, “It’s what I expected and hoped would happen. And, yes, if I was your attorney and you indicated to me you were going to kill him, or anyone, I would be obligated to reveal the information. Now tell me what this is really all about.”

It didn’t take Chris long to decide that burglary did not fall under the extenuating rule. He wasn’t completely sure that Patty was his soul mate yet, but he did know that he needed a lawyer so he replied, “I need a lawyer and I would like to retain you before I answer your questions about my scratches!”

(tmdunagan@aol.com)