Southern Justice, Part 42
I’m Fixin’ To present part 42 of Southern Justice:
After Chris Adams had asked Patty Osborn to be his lawyer, she had informed him that she wanted to be his girl friend rather than his lawyer.
“Would you consider being both?” Chris asked. But before she could answer he stood and said, “Give me a couple of minutes.” Then he left the room.
He returned with a check made out to Patty for five thousand dollars. As he was handing it to her he said, “I want to retain you as my lawyer right now, okay?”
In almost a stunned state, Patty studied the check for a couple of moments before she managed to say, “If -if you are really in earnest about needing a lawyer, then sure, but if this is some kind of—–”
“No!” Chris cut her off. “Nothing like that. I really need you as my lawyer. I need advice. Right now. Tonight.”
Looking him dead in the eyes, Patty realized the seriousness of his request and consented, “Fine, I’ll take you on as my first client, but there’s no need for this much money. A check for a hundred dollars would make it all legal.”
“No, I insist you take the five thousand,” Chris demanded. “Consider it a retainer for your services.”
“Okay,” Patty once again relented. “Just one more thing, in the bottom left hand corner of the check write in ‘For Legal Services’ and I’ll officially and legally be your advising attorney. And I’ll use these funds to rent an office and get a phone system and then contact the three clients I stole.”
Chris let out a sigh of relief as he asked, “How are you going to explain the change of lawyers to your clients?”
“Easy,” Patty explained, I’ll tell them Hormel is backed up to the extent that no one will be able to work on their cases for a few weeks, which is the truth. Then I’ll tell them I can begin working on them immediately if they are in agreement. In the event they are not, then I suppose I’ll just mail them back to Hormel’s office. But right now you are my number one client! Talk to me!”
Chris walked over to the chair back where he had draped his suit coat over and from an inside pocket he extracted the stolen document, the hand written list of Rick Senior’s assets, including the last item, Pic-Ric Products, that B. Wendell Hormel had forged.
When he presented it to patty he asked, “Have you ever seen this before?”
Patty took the piece of paper, looked at it closely, and let out a small gasp as her hand flew to her mouth. When she recovered from her shock she excitedly said, “I knew it! I knew it! Somehow you broke into the building and stole this from the file! Didn’t you!” she accused.
Chris remained calm as he sat facing her. “Well, I didn’t exactly break into the building, but I suppose you could say I stole that piece of paper. But how could you know for sure that’s what happened?”
Patty had somewhat recovered from the initial shock when she replied, “I even know how you came and went. You went in and out through the law library window. Then you jumped over the hedgerow behind the building just before the security guards caught up with you. They thought you were Superman, or something. That’s how you got those scratches. Also, early this morning I went into the law library just to make sure we hadn’t left any telltale signs. That’s when I discovered the unlocked window, and then later on that this list was missing from the file.
“Just before Hormel fired me he mentioned the report about the prowler on Friday night, so I just put everything together and now I know for sure that’s what happened.”
Chris, with a seriousness of tone said, “Well now, you’re just one smart tail little lawyer, aren’t you?” Then he watched her look of satisfaction disappear when he continued, “There’s just one little detail yourr missing–I did not go into that building Friday night. I was there Friday night, but not inside. I was just checking the place out.
“I surmise that you ex-boss didn’t get around to telling you there was also a security alarm Sunday night. I was inside that building on Saturday night, in the law office, as you probably remember. That’s when I unlocked the window, while you were in the bathroom and then—–”
Patty leapt to he feet, gasping as she said through very tight lips, “Wait a minute! You got me to take you there just so you could unlock that window, didn’t you? Chris, you used me!”
Chris squirmed and felt miserable from the bitter and true accusation coming from Patty. But then he remembered the promise he had made to himself not to lie to her ever again, and knew that now was the time to come completely clean.
“Yes, what you said is true,” he told her, “and I also lied to you about several other little things. But that was all before I knew you. I regret the lies with all my heart. And, as I’m doing now, I promise to never speak anything but the truth to you ever again! Will you please forgive me?”