The Perk (52 page)

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Authors: Mark Gimenez

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"
What?
"

"He punched Bruno."

"Where?"

"In the nose."

"No. Where did he punch him?"

"Oh. Downstairs."

"What was he doing here?"

"He followed Bruno in."

"What was Bruno doing here?"

"Mavis said he was filing suit against
Quentin. Said Quentin stiffed him out of six months' pay. Bet he's gonna have
a tough time winning that case."

"You think?"

"Yep, I think."

"What did Bruno do when J.B. punched
him?"

"Went down like a sack of potatoes, way I
heard. Cussed in German, said he was gonna get up and kick J.B.'s ass."

"What'd J.B. say?"

"Said, 'That'll be the day.' "

Beck laughed. "Tell J.B. I'll come over
and bail him out … in an hour or two. Guess I'll have to sentence him to
community service."

"Punching Bruno, that was a community
service."

Grady had left but Beck hadn't moved from the lawn chair when
Jodie poked her head out ten minutes later.

"Mavis said you were up here." She
sat and said, "Nice boots … and shirt."

"Thanks—for the shirt and for helping me
with the kids the last six months. I wouldn't have made it without you."

"Y'all are doing better?"

"Meggie hasn't wet the bed in two weeks.
And Luke and I, we talk now."

"Good."

They sat silently for a while, then Jodie said,
"Are you moving back to Chicago?"

"I've thought about it. But the kids seem
happy here … and they've bonded with J.B. And he's bonded with them. I'm
just not sure I belong here anymore."

"Beck, most people spend their lives
searching for where they belong. I know I belong here. It's not a perfect
town, but no town is. But it's a good town and it's my town. I'm here and I'm
staying and I'm going to fight to make my town better. You belong here, too.
In this town and in this courthouse. It's a better town with you as our
judge."

Beck thought about her words.

"J.B. said it's not the town, it's just a
few old-timers in the town who are afraid of change. He's right. He's right
about most things. Yeah, Jodie Lee, I'm staying." Beck checked his
watch. "That reminds me, I've got to bail J.B. out of jail."

"J.B.'s in jail?"

"He punched Stutz in the nose."

She smiled. "I love J.B."

"He loves you. Says he wishes he were
younger, says he'd marry you even if you are a lesbian."

"That's sweet … I think."

"Annie knew my secretary bought all her
presents."

"You mean like, birthday and Christmas?
From you?"

Beck nodded.

"Not good."

"I thought I was too busy to do it myself.
I wish I could go back and do it all over again. I'd do it right this
time."

They sat silently, and Beck thought of his dead
wife and his new life that she had known he would have before he did. He had
to leave J.B. to know the father he had been, and his wife had to die for him
to know the woman she had been.

"Gretchen came into the store," Jodie
said. "She asked about you."

"Did she mention her needs?"

That look. "No."

Beck chuckled. "Well, I don't think it
would've worked with Gretchen. But I'm glad she's Meggie's teacher."

"Annie wouldn't have wanted you to be
alone."

"You want me to date Gretchen?"

"No. But I don't want you to be alone. Beck,
you need a woman."

Beck reached over and patted her knee.
"Well, Janelle's already got the best woman in town."

Jodie slapped her hands on her knees and abruptly
stood as if he had said something wrong. He looked up at her; she was looking
down at him with a funny expression.

"No, she doesn't. She's dating a widower
down in Luckenbach."

"She's
cheating on you? With a man?"

Jodie rolled her eyes. "Oh, for God's
sake, for a smart man you can really be dense sometimes."

"What?"

She took a deep breath and exhaled like an
athlete about to perform her event. Then in one quick movement she bent down, grabbed
his face, and kissed him full on the lips. She stood straight and said, "I'm
forty years old, I'm a crazy liberal, and I love you, Beck Hardin."

She ducked through the window and was down the
spiral staircase before he could recover: he had never been kissed by a
lesbian.

He stood and went to the railing. When Jodie
appeared on the sidewalk below, he called out to her.

"Jodie!"

She stopped, paused a second, then turned to
face him.

"But you're a lesbian!"

Several passersby stopped dead in their tracks
and looked up at Beck, then at Jodie. They shook their heads and walked on.

"That's what
they
said, Beck. I never said that."

Now that he thought about it, she never had said
that.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why'd you let everyone think you're a lesbian?"

"So every lonely goat rancher in the county
wouldn't come into my bookstore looking for a wife."

She had a point.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted us to be friends first."

They now stared at each other; it was an awkward
moment, so she turned away and walked fast down the sidewalk—but she stopped at
the Eagle Tree. She stood there a long moment as if she were admiring the
sculpture. Then she whirled around and marched back toward Beck. She stood
directly below the balcony and looked up at him. The breeze blew her red hair
across her face.

"I have needs too, Beck. I'm going back to
the bookstore. I'm closing at five. If you want to tend to my needs, come on down.
If you don't, we'll always be friends."

She turned and walked away and didn't stop this
time. Beck watched her all the way down Main Street until she disappeared
around the corner. Beck plopped down into the lawn chair.

Tending to needs. With the town lesbian. Who
wasn't.

I'll be damned.

EPILOGUE

On the first anniversary of her death,
Beck reburied his wife in the Hardin family cemetery next to his mother. They
would have enjoyed each other's company.

It was just the Hardins in attendance—J.B.,
Beck, Luke, Meggie, her doll, and Frank the goat. After J.B. and Beck lowered
Annie's coffin into the natural limestone vault, J.B. said what a fine woman
Annie had been and that he had been proud to know her, such as he did. He promised
to help her children until he joined her and Peggy. Beck then said,
"Annie, I should have brought you here before, but I've brought you here
now. In a few months, these fields will be covered in bluebonnets as blue as
your eyes. I think you'll like them. I think you'll like the Hill Country.
Happy birthday."

He wiped his face and turned away, but stopped
when Luke stepped forward.

"It's not fair."

"No, son, it's not. It's not fair at
all."

Beck put his arm around his son. Tears were
sliding down the boy's face.

"Mom, I'm going to make you cheer
again."

Beck put his other arm around Meggie. She said
in the tiniest voice, "Mommy's not coming back, is she?"

"No, honey, she's not."

Meggie stepped forward, kissed the doll, and
placed it on top of her mother's coffin. Beck glanced over at J.B., who was trying
not to cry but failing. He nodded at his father: Frank the goat had done the
trick after all. Beck turned and saw Aubrey standing just outside the white
picket fence.

"I quit today."

Beck nodded at his old friend. J.B. said,
"Kids, let's walk up to the house, give your daddy a few minutes
alone." J.B. stepped through the gate, Meggie under one arm and Luke
under the other, and Frank following behind. J.B. slapped Aubrey on the
shoulder and said, "Aubrey, you know anything about wine?"

The four of them walked up to the house. Beck
sat alone on the bench and talked to Annie until the shadows grew long. He
promised her that he would raise the children like she would have. He promised
to fight for their children every day so neither of them ended up in a ditch.
And he promised to love her until the day he died.

Then he went down to the river and sat on his
rock.

Twenty-four years before, he had run away from
his life here, and now he had come back. Beck Hardin was home. He had come
home hoping to find justice in this life. To live where life followed a code
of right and wrong. It didn't. Not here, not in Chicago, not anywhere. Good
people die young and bad people live long. Life isn't fair, and justice isn't
found in this life; in this life we only have the law. And the law has judges.

He stood and walked over to the natural rock
bridge and stepped from rock to rock until he was at the midpoint of the river.
The last light of day glistened on the water. He found a small flat rock and
threw it low and watched it skip across the glassy surface of the river then
disappear from sight. He watched the ripples spread out and die.

Ripples in the river.

BOOKS BY MARK GIMENEZ

Available now in e-book:

The Color of Law

The Abduction

The Perk

The Common Lawyer

Accused

Available in e-book on December 1, 2011:

The Governor's Wife

And Mark's first children's book,

Parts & Labor: Book One of the Adventures of Max Dugan

Praise for Mark's books
THE COLOR OF LAW

No. 6,
Sunday Times
paperback list (UK)

No. 28,
New York Times
hardback list

Amazon's Top 10 Mystery & Thriller List, 2005

Finalist, 2005 Thriller Award for Best First Novel

Finalist, 2005 Gumshoe Award for Best First Novel

Alan Cheuse's (NPR/All Things Considered) 2005 Holiday Booklist.

Top 10 of 2006, CrimeSquad.com (UK)

"First novelist Gimenez draws on his experience as an
attorney in this taut legal thriller that echoes
To Kill a Mockingbird
.
With fast-paced and edgy prose, dramatic tête-à-têtes between attorneys, and an
explosive courtroom conclusion, Gimenez effectively weaves elements of race,
class, and justice into a story of a lawyer who rediscovers the difference
between doing good and doing well."

-
Library Journal
(starred review)

"Gimenez delivers an authentically creepy debut novel.
A big part of this thriller's appeal is its moral backbone… . This is a
well-calibrated contemporary morality play, set in get-rich-quick Dallas, with tours of country clubs and gated communities, and knowledgeable forays into
Darwinian legal tactics. Gimenez also gives us a hateful character who becomes
more sympathetic the more he fails. Fast-paced and thought-provoking
fare."

-
Booklist
(starred review)

"
The Color of Law
is an unbeatable legal
thriller with a lot of heart."

-
Texas Monthly

"Gimenez makes his debut with a legal thriller based in
Big D that will keep you on the edge of your seat… . 'The Color of Law' is
full of twists and turns into the dark side of human nature with a final
courtroom scene straight from 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' "

-
San Antonio Express-News

"American lawyers, more accustomed to speaking the language
of their people, are much better at [writing legal thrillers]. Scott Turow and
John Grisham are the best known, but there are many others. I recommend The
Colour of Law by Mark Gimenez, one of the most promising American
lawyer-writers I've read recently. It's a Grisham-like novel about a slick,
successful, ambitious Dallas corporate lawyer whose life changes when he has to
defend a black prostitute accused of murder."

–
The Guardian
(UK)

" 'The Colour of Law' by Mark Gimenez is a compulsive read
that owes its heart, soul and passion to Harper Lee's 'To Kill A
Mockingbird'. In this fast-paced debut, Gimenez sinks his teeth into the
manicured and corrupt world of lawyered, high-society Dallas in all its
ostentatious glory: golf club memberships, fancy houses, fast cars, sleek
wives and the all-encompassing reach of cold, hard power. In A. Scott Fenney—a
young, rich and ruthless corporate lawyer at one of Dallas's most prestigious
firms who glibly practises 'aggressive and creative' law for his high-paying
clients—will the world find a hero or a patsy? Only a case involving a poor,
black, drug-addicted prostitute and a dead white senator's son will tell.
Warning: you can lose an entire lazy Sunday to this one.

–
Time Out London

"New author and former lawyer Mark Gimenez, a Texan,
has written a riveting story about the corruption of the law… . Gimenez
matches up to biggies like John Grisham and Scott Turow, with a thrilling tale
of how the law actually works."

–
Calgary
Sun

"This is a powerful courtroom thriller set in Dallas and featuring an engaging hero in the form of hotshot corporate lawyer turned
defence attorney, Scott Fenney. Gimenez is a gifted plotter and the story
winds its way through some good twists before arriving at a startling
conclusion. Along the way, Gimenez also makes some points about wealth, social
responsibility and race relations in America."

–
Canberra Times

"A little
To Kill a Mockingbird
with some
Law
& Order
thrown in,
Color
is a page-turner, and Gimenez—a
real-life attorney-turned-author—seems to warrant his billing as 'the next John Grisham.' "

-
Houston Press

"At least once a year a new legal thriller hits the
shelves, hyped to the stars, with promises that the author will be 'the next John Grisham.' Usually, the fanfare is wasted, the hype is a lie and the promises fall flat
because the book isn't very good. Not so with Mark Gimenez' compelling debut,
The Color of Law."

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