ROMANCING MO RYAN (30 page)

Jameela paused, stared at her desk again, and then proceeded cautiously.
 
“No, it wasn’t.
 
I always set lofty goals for myself, Miss Tarver.
 
This judgeship is a fulfillment of those goals, so yes, you’re right.
 
I didn’t want to put any blemishes on my career.”

Nikki could relate to that.
 
Before Mo, her career used to be the center of her existence.
 
“But his harassment allegedly happened a decade ago.
 
Why are you coming forward now?”

Jameela leaned back, now eager to talk.
 
“That’s easy,” she said.
 
“He has no business anywhere near the highest court in this state.
 
The idea that a man like him would be nominated to become our next justice infuriates me, Miss Tarver.
 
There was no way I could remain silent now.”

“But he’s a conservative just like you.”

“Yes.
 
I understand that.
 
If you’re looking solely at his record as a judge, yes, he’s an excellent choice for the Supreme Court.
 
But as a man, no.”
 
She shook her head.
 
“He doesn’t have the moral core to sit on the highest court in this state.
 
No way.
 
A man who would sleep with another woman when he has a very ill wife at home is a very bad man, Miss Tarver.”

Nikki fought hard to keep her emotions out of this.
 
She was too busy sizing up Jameela’s emotions.
 
“Do you still love him?” she asked her.

She thought about this.
 
“A part of me always will, despite what happened.
 
Look, Miss Tarver, I’m coming forward because right is right and I have to do what’s right.
 
Wouldn’t you do the same, if you were in my position?”

She said this and stared at Nikki, her face warm but seeking some kind of affirmation.
 
“I would have done it when he first started harassing me,” Nikki replied.
 
“If what you’re telling me is true.”

“Oh, it’s true,” the judge said firmly.
 
“He knows it and so do I.”

She actually smiled at Nikki.
 
But Nikki’s heart was pounding.
 
Not because of Judge French’s wild assertions about Mo’s moral core.
 
But because of Judge French herself.
 
This woman looked unimpeachable.
 
She sounded reasonable and tortured.
 
And she came with the additional twist of being his former lover.
 
It wasn’t just a one-tap like the other two accusers.
 
And Mo was a married man while he was tapping her.
 

Or at least that was her story.
 

And it was a compelling story.

But Nikki knew Mo.
 

She didn’t believe a word of it.

Lance met her at the Jacksonville Landing and they found a small table on the boardwalk with a great view of the Saint Johns River.
 
The breeze from the river was blowing back Nikki’s long hair, and she spent nearly half an hour saying nothing, just watching the sailboats slowly drift by while the jet skis would lift up, drop down, and then zoom by.
 
When she finally explained the Jameela French problem to Lance, he leaned back in his chair.
 
“She’s a judge?” he asked.

“Yes.
 
A family court judge.”

“And a black woman, too?
 
Damn, Nikki.
 
What does she have against Mo?”

“Nothing, Lance.
 
I don’t see where she has anything against him.
 
That’s the point.”

“Damn.”

“I know.”

“Well what’s her politics?
 
Is it this right wing, left wing thing?”

“No.
 
She’s a conservative too.
 
She’s no conservative activist, but her rulings from the bench have been very conservative.
 
I checked the chick out, the Gazette’s investigator has checked the chick out.
 
She’s a registered Republican, she even showed me her voter’s registration card while I was at her office, Lance.
 
I talked to some of her colleagues, too.
 
She’s a conservative from way back.
 
There’s no political angle here.
 
Philosophically she wouldn’t mind Mo’s ascension to the Supreme Court.”

“Then why is she lying on him?”
 
Then Lance added:
 
“
If
she’s lying on him.”

“She’s lying,” Nikki said confidently.
 
“He wouldn’t treat women like that, I know he wouldn’t.”

“But. . .”

Nikki looked at Lance.
 
“But what?”

“Maybe he’s changed, Nikki.
 
Maybe he used to be an asshole.
 
Hell, you don’t know him like that.”
  

“I believe Mo.”

“What has he said about it?”

She hesitated.
 
“I haven’t spoken to him yet, he had to go to Tallahassee, remember?
 
He told me this morning he probably won’t get back until sometime tomorrow.
 
I dread the conversation anyway.”

“He told you that this morning, did he?”

“Yes.
 
We were ---” Nikki suddenly realized she had said too much.
 
She looked at Lance.
 
Lance was staring at her.

“You’re all-in, aren’t you?”

Nikki knew it was a risk to be in love, this had, in truth, been an ordeal for her.
 
But Mo was worth it.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“I’m all-in with Mo.”

“Look,” Lance said, leaning forward, “I like Mo too, you know I do.
 
But I mean, she’s a fellow judge, Nikki.
 
A judge!
 
And a conservative one, too?
 
With grandkids?
 
Come on sweetie, you gotta keep it real here.
 
No judge is going to put herself out there like that unless it’s true.”

“I know it’s crazy to think that all of these women would conspire to lie on Mo, I know this, Lance.
 
But Mo wouldn’t treat women the way they’re saying he treated them, he just wouldn’t.”

“But again, she’s a judge, Nikki.
 
Why would she lie?”

Nikki didn’t know.
 
And that was the problem.
 
She told Mo that she believed him.
 
And she did.
 
But Judge French raised the stakes.
 
She was a fellow jurist.
 
And unlike the others, she didn’t just claim that Mo harassed her.
 
She claimed that she and Mo were lovers once.
 
Lovers while he had a sick wife at home.
 

Nikki leaned back and rubbed her forehead.
 
She didn’t know what to do.
 
She couldn’t keep running to Mo every time somebody made these ass-backwards allegations, not at the rate they were coming in.
 
Besides, she couldn’t imagine him fighting back now, especially if Jameela was telling the truth about being his lover once.

“Go see Jake Braswell,” Lance suggested.

Nikki looked at him. “Why?”

“Because he really knows Mo Ryan.”

“I know Mo Ryan, too,” Nikki reminded him.
 
She knew Mo in every way there was to know a man.

“You know him now.
 
Jake knew him way back when, when he ran that law firm and Jameela French worked for him.
 
Go to Jake.
 
He’s a straight shooter.
 
He’ll tell you the real deal.”

Nikki didn’t go to Jake, but she phoned him.
 
As soon as she mentioned why she was phoning, Jake insisted she come to his office and see him.
 

“What did he say?” Lance asked when she flipped shut her cell.

“He said he can move some things around and see me tomorrow.”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Lance asked.
 
“Go to Jake.”

The next day, in the early afternoon, she went to Jake.
 
His office was on the top floor of the mammoth Braswell Industries office complex and Nikki was ushered back to his inner sanctum as soon as she arrived.
 
When she explained to him exactly what Jameela French was alleging, he looked at her and nodded his head.
 
And even Jake, Mo’s best friend, didn’t jump to Mo’s defense.

“What is it, Jake?” Nikki asked him.
 

Jake leaned back in his swivel chair.
 
He looked as agonized as Nikki felt, his dark brown face filled with concern.
 
“When your Tonya Wright story broke I had one of my company’s investigators check out every woman that’s ever worked under Mo.
 
At least the ones we could find out about.
 
That included Jameela French.”

Nikki braced herself.
 
“What did you find on her?” she asked.

Jake paused.
 

“What is it?
 
What did you find out?”

“Nothing.
 
Not on any of those women.
 
And especially not on Jameela French.
 
Not yet anyway.”

“But you know she’s lying, Jake, right?”

But Jake didn’t leap to Mo’s defense.
 
This astounded Nikki.
 
She hadn’t expected this at all.
 
“You believe Jameela French?
 
You believe the other two women?”

“Mo has had some rough times in his life, Nikki,” Jake said.
 
“His wife wasn’t just ill, she was sick for the entire duration of their marriage.”

“So you’re saying you know for a fact that Mo cheated on her?”

“I’m not saying any such thing.
 
Even if Mo did cheat, he wasn’t going to tell me about it.”

“Mo wouldn’t cheat on his sick wife.”
 
Nikki said this pointblank.

“I know that but. . . A man is a man, Nikki.”
 
Jake looked up at Nikki as if he was warning her not to expect any happy ending with these kind of allegations.
 
“Are you asking me if I’ve ever seen him harass women, the answer is no.
 
He doesn’t harass women, Nikki.
 
Why the hell would he need to?
 
Have you looked at the guy lately?
 
He doesn’t need to harass women for dates, let’s make that perfectly clear here.”

Nikki studied Mo’s best friend.
 
“But you can’t get pass the obvious, can you?” she asked him.
 
“You can’t understand why this conservative judge would lie on Mo.
 
It doesn’t make sense to you.
 
And you yourself said there was nothing in her background to suggest a problem.
 
So you’re wondering why in the world would this woman, of all women, just lie like that?”

“It’s crossed my mind, yes.
 
I don’t know her.
 
But I know Mo.
 
It’s tough.
 
And I know for somebody like you, who believe in facts, not fiction, it’s even tougher.
 
Because loving Mo Ryan isn’t going to be as easy as proving or disproving a rumor.
 
You’re going to have to believe in him despite the rumors.”

“I know.
 
And I do.
 
But---”

“But what, Nikki?”

“I’m like you.
 
I’ve always been taught to follow the evidence.
 
And just because it’s not turning up the way I want it to turn up, then I can’t act as if I don’t understand that something’s wrong.
 
Something is wrong here, Jake.”

“But it can’t be true.
 
That’s the problem.
 
That’s what’s wrong.”

The intercom on Jake’s desk buzzed.
 
“Excuse me, Mr. Braswell, but Judge Ryan is here.”

Jake and Nikki looked at each other and sighed at the same time.
 
Neither one of them was ready for Mo.
 
Nikki walked over by the big, bay window.
 
Jake remained behind his desk.
 
“Send him in, Peg,” he said to his secretary, and then turned to Nikki.
 
“Let me handle this,” he said.

She agreed easily, because she wanted no parts of it, but she knew, in the end, something had to give.
 
She could overlook Marlene Wingate’s tales and even Tonya Wright’s.
 
But Jameela French was somebody’s grandmother for crying out loud.
 
A conservative woman who even Jake’s hounds couldn’t tarnish.
 
Now she, too, was supposed to be a part of some grand conspiracy to get Mo?
 
Nikki closed her eyes and held her head back.
 
It was too much.
 
Too much.
 
Too damn much!