This work of adult fiction, loosely based on characters portrayed by Russell Crowe, includes adult language and experiences; you have been warned.  No copyright infringement on the original work is intended.  Copyright Reagan Kavanagh and Diana Walker 2005.

Retrospective

REAGAN

One good thing about small towns is that you don’t have to wait long for a court date.  Bright and early on the Monday morning after that ghastly Saturday when they were arrested, Maximus, Terry, and Dino were at the office by eight and had their computer calendars up as Dee and I hung over their shoulders.  There was no way in Hell we were letting them go back to Palestine without us, so they not only had to schedule it around their jobs but also around my classes and Dee’s trips to DC for Captain Bigelow.  I knew Bobby Presley well enough to know that he would work with us, so that wasn’t really a consideration.  The most he usually had to contend with was a stolen car once a month, and Palestine just doesn’t have that much crime.  There were also three judges to share the load, so I wasn’t worried.  We had the Ambassador’s Ball coming up so we wanted to schedule for sometime after that and after Thanksgiving.  That put us into early December.

We heard the door to the suite open, and Sooze walked down the hall to check in with Terry.  When she got to the door she stopped, looking at the five of us now huddled around Terry’s computer.

“Who died?”  Terry’s eyes cut to Maximus and Dino, then to Dee and me.

“No one yet …but you may be running the office by yourself for a couple of days.” 

Dee looked at him.  “A couple of days?  Try six months!”

Sooze completely abandoned all pretense of professional office speech and decorum.  “What the Hell for?”  Dee was ready for her.

“No wurries, Sooze.  All you need to do is sub out the work to a couple of guys who can manage to stay out of jail.  I’m sure Terry can give you numbers.  And Sooze, the answer to the question of why we can’t take on a job is, 'We have more work than we can handle at the moment.  We’ll be in touch when we have some free time.'”  Dee went back to clicking away on her laptop, making lists as she muttered under her breath.

“Phone cards …refillable phone cards.”  She opened another tab in Excel.   “Tab One – Equipment.  Tab Two – Procedures.  Tab Three – Questions.  Tab Four ….  Hell, I can add that later.”  She moved to Tab Three.  “Visiting Days and Hours …I’m not even going to ask about conjugal visits.”  That last was said as she looked over her laptop at Terry.  Dino patted Terry on the shoulder.

“Buddy, it wasn’t my intention, but I sure dodged a bullet!”  Dee was still adding to the questions tab.

“Power of Attorney signed over to ????  By the way, has anyone called an attorney yet?”  That was my cue.

“Yes.”  Three heads swivelled to look at me.  Terry spoke.

“When did this happen?  Offices just opened, and you’ve been here since seven.”

“Yesterday afternoon.  I called her at home.”

“Her …who?”

“Ellen Hughes.  We went to high school together.  She’s criminal defence.”  Uh oh.  I didn’t like the look on Terry’s face.  Dee obviously wasn’t going to be any help; she was immersed in insuring that the company stayed afloat, and I became the legal defence resource.

“Is she here in Dallas?”  To repeat something Maximus once said to me, I did not care for the tone in Terry’s voice.

“No, Terry.  She lives and practices in Palestine.  Believe me when I tell you that you want a hometown attorney for this.  You three have a conference call scheduled with her at nine.”

“Dallas is my home town.  And when were you going to tell me about the conference call?”  I sighed.

“I was about to tell you when Sooze walked in.”  Sooze took that cue well.

“Okay!  I need to open the office.  You can fill me in later.”  Terry turned back to me.

“Reags, I think we would be well-advised to go with representation from a firm here in Dallas.”

“If you’d been picked up at White Rock Lake, I’d agree with you 100%.  However, you were picked up at Lake Palestine, and your trial will be in Palestine.  You don’t want what will be perceived as a ‘big city lawyer,’ who will be looking down his or her nose at the Palestine bar.  You want local representation.  You want a good old girl.”  I looked at Maximus who just looked back at me.  Fortunately, Dino stepped in to the void.

“She’s right, Terry.  City lawyers don’t play well in small towns.”  Terry frowned before speaking again.

“I’ve scheduled an appointment at four this afternoon for the three of us with Thomas Holloway, of Holloway, Halloran and Finch.”  I sighed.

“Terry, Ellen will be calling in less than five minutes.  Are you going to dismiss her out of hand?”  It was his turn to sigh. 

“I will not dismiss her out of hand, as you say, but I will tell her that we are seeing someone locally, and that I will get back to her with our decision.”  Dino nailed him.

“Your decision, buddy.  I’m going with the good old girl from Palestine.”  Dee popped up.

“Good decision, Dino.”  That got her a look from Terry.  Maximus looked at me.

“If you feel we would be best represented by someone from Palestine, I, too, will allow Ms. Hughes to represent me.”  Thank God.  Terry’s eyes narrowed.

“Am I the only one who thinks we would be best served by a solicitor from Dallas?”  Dino looked at Maximus; Maximus looked at me; Dee looked at all of us; Terry frowned.  “Holloway, Halloran and Finch are our retained solicitors.  We pay them an annual retainer.  They handle all of our legal requirements.  Who else should I look to for representation?”  Dino shook his head.

“Buddy, this isn’t a corporate matter.  This was our very own and highly personal set of individual fuck-ups.”  Yes, well.  I might not have phrased it quite so baldly, but the point was well taken.  Terry was silent for a moment.

“I’ll consider it.  However, as the appointment is scheduled, I do want to speak with Tom.”  Sooze buzzed on the intercom.

“You guys expecting a call from an Ellen Hughes?”  Terry punched the intercom.

“Put her through, Sooze.”  He put the call on the speaker.

“Ms. Hughes.  Terry Thorne here, along with Max Espan and Dean O’Reilly.  I understand you’ve spoken with Reagan Kavanagh about our little indiscretion.”

“Only briefly, Mr. Thorne.  She indicated that you were charged with possession and consumption of alcohol in a State park and require counsel.”

“Correct.  Ms. Hughes, before taking up too much of your time, I should tell you that our firm has solicitors here in Dallas on retainer, and we do wish to speak with them.”

“I fully understand.  Why don’t you meet with them, and then get back to me if you have further questions that I may be able to answer?”

“I’ll do that, Ms. Hughes, and thank you.”  He disconnected and looked at me.  I just smiled.

TERRY

“Ha ha ha ….  Hahahahahahaha!”  Tom is laughing at me. 

“Glad I’m able to provide you with a bit of amusement, Tom.”

“Shit, Terry, I don’t remember the last time I heard anything this funny.  Seriously, though, I’m a tea-sipper, and everyone in Palestine will check to see where I went to law school.  Palestine is in the heart of Aggie Land.  You don’t want me anywhere near that courthouse.”

“What has that to do with it?”

“Man, Texas has two major State schools, University of Texas and Texas A & M University, and they have one hell of a rivalry.  That’s the bone of contention.  Both schools are over 100-years-old.  I went to UT for undergrad and law school.  Everyone from Palestine goes to A & M.  I can’t overcome a hundred years of competition in one court case.  You either need a lawyer from neutral territory – like Green Bay – or you need an Aggie.  I can tell you exactly what the judge will say to me.  'Boyah, why donchu jes sit down and shut up?  If I need to hear from you, I’ll letcha know.'”  Frankly, I don’t need that level of humiliation.”  That was plain enough.

“Do you know Ellen Hughes?”

“Hell, yes.  Good lawyer.  She’s with the DA’s office down in Houston.”

“Not any longer.  Seems she’s moved back to Palestine.  I understand she grew up there.”

“Go with her, Terry.  She’ll do you proud.”

I’d only ever heard precise diction and clipped sentences from Tom.  This was the first time I’d been aware that he had a Texas accent, but today it had been there.

Early December 2005

REAGAN

Terry, Maximus, and Dino had all retained the services of one Ellen Hughes for their court appearance on the charges of illegal possession and consumption of alcohol.  Ellen had worked her ass off to coordinate Terry, Maximus, and Dino’s schedules with Dee’s and mine and Bobby Presley’s docket.  We, the Dallas contingent, had driven down early the morning of Monday, the fifth, in what I was now calling the horse-mobile.  While I fully expected the guys to get off with a slap on the wrist and fines, if they did get tossed into the pokey, at least Dee and I could drive home in the same vehicle.  We’d left Dallas at five-thirty and were in Wills Point at the Lone Star Café for breakfast by a quarter of seven.  Terry was pulling into the car park when Dee spoke.

“I really like the Lone Star, but I hope this is my last breakfast here.”  I had visions of a fresco …on a wall …in a Church …in Italy …and the meal wasn’t breakfast.  Geeze, I hope this wasn’t that prophetic.  We looked like we were going to a funeral as we piled out of the car.  The guys were natty in their dark, three-piece, Sunday-go-to-meeting suits; Dee was in a black business suit, and I was in a navy one.  Both of us had taken our shoes off in the Tahoe on the drive down and had to dig under the seats to find them before we got out of the car.  As spiffy as the men looked, there was no mistaking the reality that their daubers were in the dirt.  I’d never seen them so quiet.  Dino did perk up as he looked at the front of the Lone Star, now brightly decorated with Christmas lights.  He looked at me and grinned.

“Think they serve grits?”

“You can count on it, Dino.”  We trooped inside and got the big corner booth, sliding in as I asked for Molly to serve us.  She walked up to the table a couple of minutes later and looked first at me, then at the sombre looks on the others’ faces.

“Jesus, Reags, I haven’t seen the Palestine paper this morning …did somebody die?”  I laughed.

“Not yet, and hopefully, there won’t be any executions.  We’re on our way down for their court appearance.  Let me introduce you.  Oh, Ellen will be here in a few minutes …she’s driving up to meet us.”  I made introductions around the table, and Molly grinned at Maximus. 

“So, you’re the one who put that ring on Reags’ finger.  Didn’t think I’d see the day she’d be willing to jump the broom again.”  Maximus actually engaged with that last comment.

“It took all my considerable powers of persuasion – not to mention my skills as a negotiator – to get that ring on her finger.”  Molly laughed, and he smiled.  The two of them were trying to break the tension we all felt.  She passed around menus and took off, returning with water.

“Who wants coffee, and who wants tea?”  She looked at Terry, having smiled at his accent when we went around table with introductions. 

“Coffee.”  “Coffee.”  That from Terry and Maximus.  I spoke up. 

“Coffee all around, Molly.  You might just save yourself some running and bring one of those big carafes.”

“I’ll do that.  You folks take your time and I’ll be back in a bit to get your orders.”  Dino was smiling …he’d already found the grits.

DIANA

“Dino, you may want to rethink ordering grits today.  They may be on the menu every morning for the next six months.”  From the stricken look on his face, I surmised that possibility hadn’t occurred to him.  I heard Molly talking to someone, and Reags looked up at the same time I did.

“They’re right over here, Ellie.  How’ve you been?  I didn’t know you’d left Houston.” 

I looked up to see a disarmingly average woman walking toward us …dark brown hair up in a twist, light eyes, tanned skin.  That was where ‘average’ ended.  From the cut of her suit and the authoritative stride, this was a woman who was used to winning.

“Ellen!”  Molly was pulling the table out, and at that, Maximus, Terry, and Dino were on their feet, and Ellen slid into the booth next to Dino.  Reags introduced everyone, and we each shook hands with Ms. Ellen Beverly Hughes, Esq.  Ellen smiled and looked at Molly.

“Coffee, Molly …bottom of the pot, if you have it.  You know I’m used to courthouse crap.”  Molly laughed.

“You’re out of luck, Ellie.  We just made a new pot.  You want breakfast?”

“Hell, yes.  Eggs over easy, ham, biscuit, and grits.”  Dino grinned.  The rest of us ordered, and Molly took off.  Ellen sipped her coffee and then looked at the guys.

“Okay, Gentlemen.  Here’s the deal.  I can’t talk about your case with Reagan and Diana here unless you waive attorney-client privilege and allow me to include them.  I’m thinking you’ve probably told them everything you’ve told me – possibly more – so while legally, privilege applies, realistically, it’s long gone.  Am I right?”  Nods from all of us.

“You waive privilege and allow me to discuss your case with them present?”  Terry spoke.

“We do.”  Maximus and Dino nodded.

“Okay.  Unless you three really do something to piss off Bobby Presley, you’re in the clear.”  She looked at Reags before continuing.  “That little call of yours to your buddy at Quantico got Bobby’s attention.  He’s not anxious to risk disclosure of any information relating to national security,” there was a discrete pause before she continued, “and he’s dropped the charges.  He feels that having even a misdemeanor on your records could cause untold problems down the road.  I didn’t do anything to disabuse him of that notion.  You’re in for a first class ass-chewing, but that’s about it.  The DA won’t be there; he’s already signed off on dropping the charges, so it will just be the six of us and the judge.  He’s not even having the bailiff or court reporters in the courtroom.  He doesn’t want a damned thing on the record that could lay a paper trail back to him.  He’s doing this for himself, not you.”   Terry took a deep breath, looked around the table, then spoke to Reags.

“I thought I had friends in high places …thanks, Love.”  Ellen smiled for the first time.

“Folks, let’s have breakfast and then go to Palestine.”  She turned and nodded to Molly who had our breakfast on the table within two minutes.  As she put Dino’s plate in front of him, he smiled up at her.

“Molly, Honey, could I have a large side order of grits?”

THE HONOURABLE ROBERT JAMES PRESLEY, PRESIDING

There was a knock on the door of my chambers.

“Enter.”  Ellie walked in.

“Your Honor, we’re in the courtroom and ready to proceed at your discretion.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.”  While what I was about to do was highly irregular, these men did work covertly for our country.  As such, they couldn’t afford to have a trail that could lead back to them.  On top of that, I didn’t want anything that could lead back to me, particularly as I’m standing for re-election next year.  Knowing they’d been at The Barracks that weekend, I’d taken a drive up there and talked to the Gunny, George Skipper.  I’d asked what he could tell me about them without violating the confidentiality of their therapy sessions, and he’d been honest with me.  Said they’d done good work in sessions with him, but had to pull out because they’d come close to breaching security.  He’d dismissed them to continue their work down at the lake, and they’d done that.  George had also told me that all three were former military, one of them out of Marine RECON, one a former SAS officer, and the third – Reagan’s fiancé – retired from the Spanish Army’s version of SAS.  He felt they were good men.  His comment to me had been that we needed more men like them fighting on our side.  Reagan’s phone call to Quantico had gotten my attention, but I’d also needed confirmation from someone I knew and trusted.  I got it from George.  George had also told me that the last time he’d seen them that afternoon, they’d had a case of water and were headed toward the picnic area at the lake.  He hadn’t thought to tell them that we don’t allow alcohol in our State parks and felt at least partially responsible for what had happened.  I told George that it wasn’t his fault because you’d think three grown men would be smart enough to have read the warning signs posted in the park.  Guess they were too caught up in their so-called process to have noticed.  We all make mistakes.  I walked down the hall and into the courtroom.  They all stood as I entered.

“Be seated.”  Ellen had her game face on.  Without the DA here, and from that look on her face, I wasn’t sure if she was prosecuting or defending.  She’d been home a while but still had some of the Houston big-city stink on her.  Might be time to rein her in a bit and make her sweat.  Reags and her friend – I recognised her from the day the men were arraigned – were sitting behind Ellen and the men.  I looked at Ellen.

“Ms. Hughes, I’ve closed this courtroom.  I understand why Dr. Kavanagh’s here, but I don’t know this other lady, much less why she’s here.”  Before Ellen could answer, the man in the middle stood and spoke.

“I’m Terrence Thorne, your Honour.  The lady is Diana Walker.  Depending on how today’s proceedings go, she may be running my company.”

“Sit down, Son.  I’m not talking to you right now.”  Ellie patted Terry on the shoulder and stood.

“Your Honor, Ms. Walker is Mr. Thorne’s Corporate Analyst and ….”

“What the hell is a Corporate Analyst?”  The lady stood.

“Your Honor, I’m the one responsible for putting together their business plan for disaster management …in the event that you choose to incarcerate them for an undetermined period of time.  They have a company to run; I’m the one who would be doing that in their absence.”  All right.  I nodded at her, and she sat.  I let Ellen finish her statement.

“Ms. Walker and Dr. Kavanagh hold 51% of these gentlemen’s voting rights in the event they should be incarcerated, Messrs Thorne, Espan, and O’Reilly having signed said rights over to them last week.  In accordance with the terms of the agreement reached Saturday evening between the prosecutor, me, and your Honor, I have advised the defendants that the charges against them have been dropped.  I have also advised them that they are at the mercy of the Court in this matter and that you have a few words for them.” 

“That I do.  You three stand and tell me who you are.”  They stood, and the man in the middle spoke first.

“My name is Terrence Steven Thorne, your Honour.  I am the CEO of our firm.”  I nodded and looked at the one on his right.

“Max David Espan, your Honour.  I am responsible for all logistics for the operations of Thorne, Espan, and O’Reilly.”  Interesting ….

“Just Max?  That short for anything?”

“My name at birth was Maximillian.  When I applied for British citizenship, I changed my name to Max.  No one – not even my parents – has ever called me Maximillian.”

“Dean Patrick O’Reilly, Judge.  I’m the firm’s financial officer.”

“You can sit down now.”  They sat.

“Ms. Hughes, do these boys allocute to the charges?”

“They do, Judge.”  I smiled.  Now the fun was gonna start.  She was used to having the judge accept her statement of allocution and go on.  Not gonna happen like that today.

“Okay …then which of you boys want to tell me about it?”  Ellen’s eyes snapped wide, and she leaned toward the three of them, and they conferred for a minute.  They got quiet, and the redhead – O’Reilly – stood.

“Looks like I drew the black bean, your Honor.”

ELLEN HUGHES

That son of a bitch!  This is the first damned time he’s ever asked a client of mine to allocute.  I leaned in to them, and Terry spoke first.

“It sucks having your name first on the letterhead.”  I knew Terry would do a good job, but I was also concerned that his accent would make him less than sympathetic in Bobby’s eyes.  Bobby had gone a long way in accommodating us on this, and I didn’t want to piss him off now by having him listen to an accent that – to him – was going to sound like what many Texans consider a ‘snotty Englishman.’  Max kept his mouth shut, those eyes cutting among the three of us in turn.  Dino took a deep breath.

“Tio, we’ve come this far without big city influence …why don’t you let me run with it?  I’ve been in a few more courtrooms than you have, and those courtrooms were in rural North Carolina.”  I nodded.  Good choice.  He stood and spoke.

“Looks like I drew the black bean, your Honor.”  Bobby nodded, the ghost of a smile on his face …he knew exactly why Dino was doing the talking.  This was going to be good-old-boy to good-old-boy.

THE HONOURABLE ROBERT JAMES PRESLEY, PRESIDING

“Well then, Red, why don’t you tell me what happened out there at the lake?”

“Your Honor, we had been dismissed from our afternoon session by the Gunny – Gunnery Sergeant Skipper – because some of the things we needed to cover couldn’t be discussed around people without security clearances.  There had been some issues come up in our firm over the summer that came close to causing an implosion, and those things dealt with security.  We got a case of bottled water and headed to the lake and set up shop at one of the picnic tables.”  I nodded.  O’Reilly took a breath and kept going.

“By the time we’d hashed things through and cleaned up the mess, it was chow time.  We thought about going back into camp to the mess hall, but we wanted barbeque, and Max remembered that Dr. Kavanagh had told him about a great barbeque place in Palestine.  He’d driven past it with her the one time he’d been down here before and remembered where it was, so we got Dr. Kavanagh’s Jeep and drove into town.  Terry and Max dropped me off at Shep’s and headed into town for beer.  You just can’t have good barbeque without beer, or that was our reasoning at the time.  I got the food and was waiting at the side of the road when they got back with the beer iced down in the cooler.  We drove back up to the lake and had a couple of beers then ate and kept talking.  Didn’t think a thing about it until we saw the deputies drive up and get out of the car …it still didn’t snap until they asked what we were doing, and then the penny dropped.  Your Honor, if anyone is at fault here, it’s me.  I was a deputy sheriff back in North Carolina, and I know better than to have alcohol in a State park.  It’s just been a long time, and I wasn’t thinking about that.  I was thinking that we’d finally gotten down to what our problems were and had come pretty damned close to solving them.”  I nodded and thought for a minute.  What he said made sense, and hell, we all have a lapse in judgment now and then.

“How drunk were you boys?”

“Sir, we weren’t drunk.”

“According to the police report, there were quite a few empties on the table and in the garbage can.  Did you resist the officers in any way?”

“Your Honour, we’d each had maybe a six-pack over about a six hour period, and we’d eaten pretty damned well during that time.  We may have been feeling good, but we weren’t drunk.  And no, Sir, we didn’t offer any resistance.”

“Can you think of anything you left out that you need to tell me about?”

“Not that I can think of, Sir.”

“Anything either of you other two gentlemen want to add?”

“No, Sir.”  “No, Your Honour.”

“Ms. Hughes?”

“I’ve nothing further, your Honor, unless you have questions for me.”

“Then we’re in recess for 45 minutes.  I’ll give you my decision when we reconvene.” 

*

“Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it.  You are grown men, and you all know how to read.  That being said, I will not deny that on any given Friday or Saturday night you won’t find citizens of Anderson County up at the lake drinking beer and doing so with the express intention of getting drunk.  This county has a long history of citizens going to the lake for precisely that purpose.”  I stopped and looked at Reagan, who squirmed.  “Some of those people have gone on to lead fine upstanding lives and serve their country admirably.  You gentlemen have come into my courtroom with a clean record.  I see no reason to impair your abilities to earn a living; therefore, the charges are hereby dropped.  I would advise you to be a mite more careful about reading any and all signs posted for your benefit in the future.  We’re dismissed.”  I brought down my gavel and stood, walking out of the courtroom as they got to their feet.

TERRY

I looked at Ellen and Dino.

“Good job, both of you.  Ellen, thank you for brokering the deal.  Dino, thanks for your silver tongue.”  I looked round at Max, Diana, and Reags.  Diana leaned over the railing to hug Dino as Reags hugged Ellen.  Max was shaking Dino’s hand, then Ellen’s, and I leaned over to hug Reags.  After all, she was the one who’d called Ellen in the first place.  Max and I walked around the railing to Reags and Diana, and as the six of us stood there, Diana grinned.

“So …anyone up for barbque and beer for lunch?  I ‘ve heard of a great little place ….”

“NO!”

ELLEN HUGHES

My secretary brought in the mail and put it on the corner of my desk.  Like always, she’d sorted it into personal and professional and at the top of the personal stack was a light gray envelope, hand-addressed in dark blue ink.

The End 

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