Sal Gabrini: Just The Way You Are (5 page)

“Referred to
me as a bitch.
 
Bitch Jones-Gabrini.
 
Nonsense like that.”

“And Sal saw
it?”

Gemma
nodded.
 
“He saw it.”

“Is the perp
still alive?”

Gemma
laughed.
 
“Yeah.
 
Barely.
 
But yeah.”

“So who
would hire him to do something that dumb?” Trina asked.

“He either
doesn’t know or won’t say.
 
But we have
no clue at this point.
 
Sal, of course,
has his suspicions about Mark.”

“Mark
Price?
 
Your law partner?” Trina asked.

“Yeah,
believe it or not.”

“I believe
it.”

Gemma was
surprised.
 
“You believe it?”

“Yeah, I
believe it,” Trina said.
 
“Sal can have
fifty good looking women working for him, but you have one good looking man and
he’s jealous.
 
Reno’s the same way, so I
know what I’m talking about.
 
They need
to quit.”

“They sure
do,” Gemma said with a smile.
 
“But
anyway, dear, I’ve got to run.”

“That’s
right.
 
I did call you for a reason,
didn’t I?”

“Did you?”

“Yes.
 
Reno wants us, that is, he and I, to have
lunch with you and Sal.”

“When?
 
Today?”

“If you can
manage it.”

“I should be
able to.
 
Closing arguments in a case
like this usually last only a few hours.
 
And then we’ll go on Verdict Watch.
 
I should be free for lunch.”

“Great!
 
We can meet at Barney’s.
 
I’ll let Reno know.”

“I can’t
promise you that Sal will show up,” Gemma said. “He’s got his own issues at
work.
 
But I’ll certainly ask him.”

“Tell him to
please show up for a change.
 
Reno wants
to give him a few pointers on fatherhood.”

Gemma
smiled.
 
“Oh, he’ll love that.”

“I know,
right?
 
But please try to get him to
come.”

“I’ll try,”
Gemma said.
 
“But like I said, he has
some issues at work.
 
He’ll come if he
can.”

“Good
enough.”

And then
they said their goodbyes, and Gemma hung up the phone.

She hurried
downstairs and made her way outside.
 
But
when she looked up and saw Sal standing beside her car with Big Joe by his side,
she couldn’t believe it.
 
“I thought you
had already gone,” she said.

“That’s what
you get for thinking,” Sal said with a smile.

“Watch it,
buddy,” Gemma responded with her own smile.
 
“Don’t get all cocky around Big Joe.
 
You still aren’t too big for me to put over my knee.”

Sal and Big
Joe laughed.

Gemma was
dressed more conservatively than she usually dressed, Sal thought, as she
headed his way in her black skirt suit and white silk blouse, with her black
and white heels.
 
But it was court day
for her today.
 
Closing arguments.
 
She knew what she was doing.

He remained
leaned against her car when she arrived, and he kissed her on the lips.
 
Just the feeling of her lips on his, and his
lips on hers, reminded them both of their sexual encounters the day
before.
 
It was such a powerful reminder
to Sal that his penis throbbed when he kissed her.

Gemma was
feeling the burn too until Big Joe opened her back passenger side door as if he
was opening it for her.
 
And she quickly
realized that he was.
 
“Oh, Sal,” she
said, “I don’t need this!
 
I can drive
myself.”

“Not right
now,” Sal insisted.
 
“Big Joe will do the
driving.
 
He’ll take you to your office,
to court, to Champagne’s.
 
To anywhere
you need to go.”
   

She looked
at Sal.
 
“You think it’s that serious?”

“Promising
to pay somebody fifty grand to trash your office?”
 
Sal nodded.
 
“Yeah, it’s serious.
 
And until I
find out who’s responsible, I’m taking no chances.
 
And neither are you.
 
Where you go, Big Joe goes with you.
 
And my baby is going to accept his assistance
like the smart, savvy, sensible woman I know her to be.
 
Understand?”

Gemma
trusted Sal’s judgement above any human being’s.
 
That wasn’t always the case, but it was
now.
 
“I understand,” she said.

He kissed
her.
 
She got into the car.
 
“Oh, and Sal,” she said.

He leaned
into the still open door.
 
“Yeah?”

“Tree
called.
 
She and Reno wants us to meet
them at Barney’s for lunch today.
 
Think
you can make it?”

Sal knew he
was putting himself in a bind agreeing to anything other than working overtime
at the office, but he knew Gemma would like it.
 
“I’ll make it,” he said.

Gemma
smiled.
 
“That’s great, Sal.
 
I’ll call Trina and get a time.”

“Let it be a
late lunch.
 
One or two this afternoon.”

“That’ll
work for me too.
 
And is the weekend
still on?”

Sal ran his
hand over his face.
 

“I know it’s
a lot to ask,” Gemma said.

“No, but
we’ve got to do it.
 
You’re be showing
soon.
 
Your parents need to know that
they’ll be grandparents soon.”

“I don’t
know how they’re going to react,” Gemma said.
 
They had the unenviable task of going to Indiana this weekend and
telling her parents that she was with child.
 
Sal’s child.
 
“But I agree.
 
We’ve got to do it.”

Sal nodded,
closed the door, and Big Joe got behind the wheel of the beautiful Aston-Martin
Sal had purchased for her, and drove her away.
  
Sal waved as she left, feeling foolish given the yardmen and security
detail around his home looking at him.
 
But he did it anyway.

When Gemma’s
car drove out of their security gate and out of his sight, he headed for his
own car, pulling out his cell phone as he did.
 
He pressed a number.
 
Spoke to one
of his men.
 
“Any news?” he asked.

“Nothing
yet,” was the response.
 
“We retraced
Crowler’s tracks, but that didn’t turn up a person.”

“Trace his
bank account too.
 
See if you can find
who deposited that fifteen hundred.
 
If
my hunch is correct, he’ll never see the fifty grand.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And give me
more.
 
This is my wife they’re fucking
with.
 
I need more!”

“You’ll get
more, boss.
 
Don’t worry.
 
We’re find out who’s pulling the strings.”

“You’d
better,” Sal said.
 
“Or I’ll be pulling
yours.”

Sal ended
the call, got into his Porsche, and sped off too.

After court,
after all closing arguments were completed and jury instructions were given, Gemma
had nearly three hours to spare before the two o’clock lunch date with Reno and
Trina.
 
Big Joe drove her to her office
and she stepped out.
 
She knew the place
had been spic and span cleaned, and therefore was back in good working order,
but she also knew she had work to do.
 
Her goal was to go into her office, close her door, and work until time
for lunch.
 
But she also knew, given her
busybody staff, such a goal was easier said than done.

And true to
form, her paralegal, Barbara Jiles, and her secretary, Curtis Kane, were
waiting for her as soon as she dawned the door of her office suite.
 
Barbara, older, sharper, and really the
office manager, was standing behind her desk.
 
Curtis, younger, slimmer, and quick-witted, was sitting on the edge of
Barbara’s desk.
 
They’d been with Gemma
almost from the beginning.
 
They were her
rock.

“How did it
go?” Curtis asked as soon as she dawned the door.

“I left it
all on the field,” Gemma said as she headed toward her office.
 
They followed her.

“Good,”
Curtis said.
 
“But not good about
Talbut.”
 
Talbut was another one of their
cases.

Gemma
glanced back at Curtis.
 
“What about
Talbut?”

“The DA’s
office called,” Barbara said.
 
“They’re
going for another continuance.”

Gemma
frowned.
 
“Another one?”

“Another
one,” Barbara said.
 
“After all of those
pre-trial motions they forced us to suffer through, they still asked for a
continuance.”

“How can
they have the nerve to ask for another one when it’s our client that’s rotting
in jail?” Curtis wanted to know.

“I’m going to
object vigorously,” Gemma said, “for that very reason.
 
But the judge is going to grant it
anyway.”
 
She walked behind her
desk.
 
Barbara and Curtis stood in front
of the desk.

“The
prosecution is just playing games with our criminal justice system,” Barbara
said.
 
“Can’t he see that?”

“He sees
what he wants to see,” Gemma said as they entered her office.
 
“He’s a prosecution’s dream judge.
 
I knew that going in.”
 
She let out an exhausted exhale.
 
“I just never expected him to be so obvious
with his bias.”

Both of her
assistants could see the strain in her big, pretty eyes.
 
It had been
a rough couple
days
.
 
“Look on the bright side,
boss,” Barbara said.
 
“He’s giving you
plenty of ammunition for a successful appeal.”

“You’re right
about that,” Gemma agreed, “but you have to lose in order to appeal.
 
My client does not want to lose.
 
And why should he?
 
The state has no evidence.
 
Just a lot of supposition and
conjecture.
 
Any other judge would have
given us a summary judgement long before now.”

 
“Miss G?”

It was a
sudden voice behind them, and all three quickly turned to the sound.
 
After their vandalism episode, all of them
were hypersensitive.
 
When Gemma saw that
it was Shaun Merriment, a young African-American male and one of her former
clients, she relaxed.
 
Barbara and
Curtis, however, didn’t.

“May I help
you?” Curtis asked with serious attitude in his voice.
 
“You can’t just barge in here like this.
 
Wait in the waiting room.
 
That’s what it’s there for.
 
For you to wait.
 
Somebody will be with you shortly.”

“I didn’t
mean to barge in,” Shaun said.
 
“I just
need to talk to you, Miss G.”

“What did I
just say?” Curtis asked.

“It’s
alright,” Gemma said.
 
She knew, for
Shaun to come all the way to her office, meant he was in trouble.
 
Again.
 
“Come on in, Shaun.”

Shaun
glanced at Curtis first, as if he needed his permission, and then walked on in.

“Give us a
minute,” Gemma said to her staff.

“Are you
sure, boss?” Curtis asked.
 
“Because he
knows better than this.”

“I’m sure,”
Gemma said.
 
“Give us a minute.”

“Okay,”
Barbara said and had to elbow Curtis to follow her.
 
But when Curtis moved to close the office
door behind them, Barbara stopped him.
 
The door remained open.

“I’m beyond
busy, Shaun,” Gemma said, “so you’ll have to make it quick.
 
What’s wrong?”

Shaun moved
from side to side.
 
Like Gemma herself,
he was a tall, darker-skinned African-American.
 
But unlike Gemma, he had been in so much trouble that he’d spent more of
his life in prison than he’d spent on the outside.
 
But the last time, when they tried to pin a
rape charge on him, Gemma believed in his innocence, and fought for his
innocence.
 
No DNA.
 
No hair, fiber, or any other impartial
evidence to link him to the crime scene.
 
It was a winnable case.
 
But the
victim claimed he looked like her assailant, and that was enough for the
jurors.
 
They convicted him anyway.
 
Now tears were appearing in his eyes, and
that look of
here we go again
fright
was all over his face.
 
“They’re trying
to pin a murder rap on me this time, Miss G,” he said.

Gemma’s
heart dropped.
 
“Murder?”

“I didn’t
kill nobody.
 
I don’t go down like
that.
 
I ain’t never killed nobody in my
life before, Miss G.
 
But they trying to
claim I killed some girl, and it’s not true!”

He wiped the
snot from his nose with the back of his hand.
 
And then he finally looked his small, red eyes straight into Gemma’s
big, brown eyes.
 
“They have a warrant
out for my arrest.
 
But I didn’t do
it.
 
They locked me up already for
something I didn’t do.
 
I spent five
years in prison on another man’s crime.
 
Now they want to imprison me again?
 
You’ve got to help me, Miss G.”

Gemma
couldn’t believe it.
 
Not again!
 
But just like before, she believed him.
 
God help her, but she believed him!
 
“What do you want from me?”

“I want you
to go with me to the jail, so I can turn myself in.
 
I need you to be my lawyer.”

“We lost the
case before, Shaun.”

“But not
because of anything you did or didn’t do.
 
You worked your butt off for me.
 
It was the crooked system that convicted me.
 
I need you, Miss G.
 
You’re the only person in this world who ever
believed in me.”

Gemma
exhaled.
 
She knew he was going to have
an even steeper hill to climb after that rape conviction.
 
Jurors were going to deem him guilty of
something, why not this murder?
 
It
seemed impossible that he could beat this rap.
 
And she also knew, if she agreed to handle a messy murder case during
her pregnancy, Sal was going to beat her ass.

But a man’s
freedom was at stake.
 
A good, decent kid
who turned wrong and never had the chance to turn right again.
 
She didn’t see where she had a choice.

“Sit down,
Shaun,” she said, pulling out a legal pad.
 
“Give me the details and I’ll see what I can do to negotiate your
surrender.

Shaun
smiled, relieved, and sat down.