Amanda's Blue Marine (38 page)

“You’d better think about it now and figure out how much it will cost you to put the construction plan back on safe terms. Otherwise I will be in Sam’s office on Friday morning with all of this in hand. What do you think, Tom? Fraud endangering the public safety? Bribery, extortion, collusion, abusing the public trust? I’m sure I can come up with a few other counts if I think about it. I have realized from this experience that I really am a good lawyer. Don’t piss me off any further or you will find out exactly how good a lawyer I am. Do you want to toss the dice with me?”

Tom surveyed her wearily, studying her as if further contemplation would help him to grasp her mindset. “He's a COP, for God's sake, Amanda. Do you get that? All this for a cop? What are you going to do? Have a massage and a facial while he does shift work at the precinct?”

“Why not?” Mandy countered directly, holding his gaze. "Is there a law against it? There are plenty of laws against what you’re up to, so I’d worry about myself if I were you.”

Tom shook his head in wonderment. “Do you think a guy like this wants to be a gigolo? A roughneck, a combat veteran marine playing house with a rich mistress? The relationship won't survive a year. He'll be an object of scorn in the station house, a rent boy. His buddies will envy him but ridicule him behind his back.”

“Not everyone is as petty or as obsessed with appearances as you are, Tom. And he’s not taking any money from me so there will be nothing for them to say.”

Tom exhaled explosively in exasperation. “Why couldn’t you just have a torrid affair, then pack him off to a little woman who'll press his uniforms and produce parochial school children and attend the FOP dinners in a thrift store dress? You didn’t have to break us up over a runaway case of adolescent lust.” He smiled thinly. “I'm in favor of lust, of course, but only when it doesn't control your higher thinking.”

“My higher thinking is just fine, good enough to put you in the box you currently occupy, Congressman.”

Tom’s eyes narrowed. “You always assume you’re smarter than the other guy, Amanda. But this time you’re not. You've crossed the line.”

“What line?”

“The line between a good time and forever together. Your detective, as natty as he looks in his tailored blue coat, is nothing but a good time.”

“I am touched by your concern but I think I am a better judge of Kelly’s character than you are.”

“Character! He’s a self loathing street boy with a violent streak. It didn’t take him long to throw himself under this bus, and if you bail him out of his current mess another bus will come along soon enough.”

“I’ll take that chance.”

“And continue to fight his battles for him?”

“I’m fighting this battle because I can, just as he fought the battle with Cameron for me when he was much better equipped to do it than I was.”

“Big and tough and macho don’t count for much in the civilized world, Amanda, as you should know by now. That’s all he has going for him and it won’t be enough once you cool your jets and realize you can’t stay in bed with him forever.”

“He is big and tough, Tom. And strong and sexy, and I love that. I love that he could kick your candy ass from here to Wellington, New Zealand if he wanted to and you would just have to take it.”

Tom stared at her, stunned. Amanda held his gaze but felt slightly ashamed of herself for descending to his level. This was fun and satisfying in a visceral way but it was getting her nowhere.

“Gone primitive, Amanda?” Tom inquired. “A few more sessions lying under him and you’ll be gibbering like an ape.

Amanda forced herself to swallow the retort that sprang to her lips. Sniping at Tom accomplished nothing and was as dispiriting as having the same type of conversation with her mother. She stood up and gathered the materials she had brought with her, stuffing them into her leather case.

“I’m not going to exchange insults with you any more,” she said to Tom. “What you have to understand now is this: you thought you had Kelly cornered but he has a potent ally you didn’t even consider, and that’s me. I’ve changed, Tom, I’m no longer the compliant daddy’s girl you knew. I’ll use this information to stop you if I have to, and without a moment’s regret.”

She paused to let that message process. Tom looked disturbed and irritated but said nothing, which meant that he was listening.

“So here’s what we’re going to do,” Amanda continued. “You leave Kelly alone and I’ll leave you alone. That’s the deal. Drop the case against him, make it all go away, criminal and civil. Talk to Rhinegold or whichever of his acolytes is handling it and have it expunged, canceled, exsanguinated. Schmooze whoever you have to, file whatever motions are necessary, make it end. And in exchange I’ll forget I ever dug up this evidence against you. I’ll watch to make sure you use the better steel in the marina construction, but beyond that I won’t bother you. On the other hand, pursue this case against Kelly and I’ll be in Sam Rhinegold’s office this week with the details of your illegal activities in my briefcase. Do we understand each other?”

“If that’s true it’s my problem and you don’t have to worry about it,” Amanda said crisply. She picked up her purse and the briefcase and waited while he unlocked the door. Then she said, “Three days,” and went through it without glancing back at him.

Amanda spent the next several days in a state of suspended animation. She had hope that Tom was doing what she wanted when she didn’t hear from him; if he had discovered a way to confound her he would have lost no time in contacting her to gloat about it. But the hours without Kelly were long and she couldn’t sleep. The time at work passed a little quicker because she had something to occupy her thoughts. But she had nothing to say to her colleagues, who were either aghast at Kelly’s arrest or sympathetic to her dilemma, and either attitude left her silent with suppressed emotion. She had a short interview with Rhinegold’s assistant, but it was long enough to tender her resignation and observe that everyone involved was relieved that she was going. That was just as well. No one else could possibly understand how she felt and she didn’t have the energy to explain anything. She just passed the time in a waiting game, constantly reviewing the recent events in her mind.

She didn’t know if she would wind up helping Kelly, but she knew that she had done everything that she could.

When the third day passed with no word on anything Mandy felt that she had lost the game of chicken she’d been playing with Tom. He was going to do nothing and just hope that she would let his illegal dealings go, out of deference to her father or a desire to avoid more trouble. She went to bed that night in a state of near despair and lay awake staring at the bedroom ceiling, wondering what she could have done differently to get a better result and wondering what her options were if Tom’s decision went against her.

“Aw, some snafu in the DA’s office, papers didn’t come through on time or something. I’m picking him up, he can’t drive until he gets his license back. They impounded his phone with his personal effects and the charge died. He asked me to call you.”

“Thank you, Ted,” Mandy said softly.

“I’ll drop him off at your place in a few minutes, okay? He told me you wouldn’t mind letting him bunk in with you on short notice.”

“It’s over. No charges means just that, nothing criminal or civil, federal or local. Henderson dropped the civil charges and the DA’s office won’t seek an indictment against Kelly without Henderson’s testimony. The DA could compel it with a subpoena but then Henderson would be a hostile witness and the jury would hear that he had dropped his own suit. It’s a dog to prosecute and won’t fly without Henderson’s weight behind it. I’m sure Rhinegold’s office knows it.”

“Rhinegold won’t go after Kelly on the criminal charge?”

“Why, Amanda? Your ex is the only person with a yen to ruin Kelly’s life, and somehow you’ve neutralized Henderson. He’s dropped the civil charges and Rhinegold’s not going to spend money and time and resources prosecuting Brendan, a local hero nobody wants to see in prison, for an assault nobody cares about but the Congressman. Plus Rhinegold has to be worried about a malicious prosecution case which would make his office look bad. Brendan could turn this around and sue the DA for malpros if the history with the three of you comes out and it’s obvious that the prosecution was undertaken frivolously, and for personal reasons.”

“You’re right,” Amanda said, impressed with Manning’s knowledge of the law. Thirty plus years on the police force had turned him into a jailhouse lawyer.

“But I’m sure all of this has occurred to you and you’re ready with the malicious prosecution case, right?” Manning said. Mandy could hear the smile in his voice.

“I did some research on it, yes. I just wasn’t sure it was on point.”

Manning chuckled. “You won’t need it, Amanda. He’s free as the wind. The Congressman must be spitting cotton. I don’t know what you did there, lady, but it worked.” Manning paused and then said, less jovially, “But you’d better find Kelly some help, Amanda. He needs to get a handle on his hair trigger or this sort of thing will get him nailed again and again until it really costs him. Another time he might not be able to wriggle out of it, even with your help.”

“I know that’s true.”

“The department is going to insist on anger management or therapy or something, the brass won’t give him his shield back unless he enters a program or hooks up with one of their doctors. He may be on desk duty for a while until the Commissioner calms down about this. Punching public servants is not going to help his career. He may not be in trouble legally any more but everyone knows what happened and his superiors can’t ignore it. He’ll get the details of what he has to do later but you should talk to him about it.”

“I will.”

Mandy could hear Manning sigh over the phone. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to him, Amanda. I didn’t think so at the start but I can see it now. Just hang in there over the rough spots and I feel sure it will come out right in the end.”

“He has a good friend in you, lieutenant.”

“A better one in you, my dear,” Manning replied. “The little girl I knew has grown up to be a wonderful woman. I know your father is proud of you.”

Amanda closed the cell phone, overcome with a rush of emotion. She didn’t know what to do and stood motionless in her long cotton nightgown, restraining herself from running barefoot into the parking lot to meet the police car. She went into the bathroom and saw her face flushed with excitement and relief in the mirror. She brushed her hair and brushed her teeth and then sat on the couch in the living room, listening for the doorbell to ring, like a teenager waiting for an escort to the prom. It seemed like an eternity before the chime sounded and she pulled open the door to see Kelly, dressed in the same clothes in which he’d been arrested, looking down at her.

She met his steady gaze and watched as his blue eyes grew wet and then filled with sparkling tears. He looked at her for several moments, overcome, and then reached out for her, two errant teardrops clinging to his lower lashes.