“I CAN’T BELIEVE it’s over,” Sally said an hour after Frank drove away from the courthouse. They were seated across from each other in Sally’s living room, drinking her scotch. Her son, Kevin, was staying with a friend who had been taking care of him during the trial. “I’m only sorry that the jury didn’t say I wasn’t guilty.”
“A dismissal with prejudice is the same as an acquittal,” Frank reminded her. “The DA can never charge you with your husband’s murder again.”
“There are people who will think I got off on a technicality.”
“Those people would always have questions no matter how the case ended. You’re just going to have to ignore them.”
“That bastard,” Sally muttered. “I wish there was some way to get back at him.”
“You’re going to have to ignore Senior, too.”
“That won’t be easy. I know him. He’ll go after me as long as he’s alive. He can tie up Arnie’s estate, and he swore he’d try and get custody of Kevin.”
“Senior won’t succeed if he tries either of those ploys. He could face criminal charges if it came out that he bribed witnesses to lie about you and you’d have one hell of a lawsuit.”
“I don’t want to file a lawsuit. I just want to be left in peace.”
“I’ll do my best to see that it happens.”
Sally shifted her gaze from her glass to her lawyer. “You’ve been wonderful.”
Frank felt uncomfortable. He wanted to look away but felt he would reveal his emotions if he did. Instead, the blush that colored his cheeks served that purpose.
“It was easy. I believed in you.”
Sally didn’t speak for several heartbeats. Then she said, “I don’t want to be alone tonight.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. I want you to stay with me.”
All of the confidence Frank had demonstrated in court deserted him.
“I can’t, Sally.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t want to.”
“You’re a client. The rules of ethics…”
“Don’t mean a damn thing if two people care about each other. I’ve seen the way you look at me. You didn’t work as hard as you did to free me just because I paid you.”
Frank knew there were a million reasons he should stand up and leave, but he didn’t.
PART III. State of Oregon v. Charlie Marsh 2009
CHAPTER 22
The long table that filled the center of the Jaffe, Katz conference room was covered with banker’s boxes, transcripts, three-ring binders, and case files. Amanda had cleared a space on one end for her sandwich and coffee mug, and she had finished eating well before Frank finished his recap of the Pope case.
“I forgot that Tony Rose was a key witness against Mrs. Pope,” Amanda said. “Life sure takes interesting turns.”
“That it does,” Frank said as he considered the way fortune had favored the former country club tennis pro.
“And I always wondered about what went on in chambers that morning.”
“I couldn’t tell you or anyone else. Burdett agreed to drop the case if the reason for the dismissal was sealed.”
“Did Senior go after Mrs. Pope after the trial?”
Frank nodded. “He’s a vindictive prick. He threatened a civil suit for wrongful death, he threatened to contest Junior’s will, and he threatened to get custody of his grandson. I put a stop to that at a sit-down with him and his attorney. Once his lawyer saw that there was a good chance I could prove he’d hired Rodriguez to take the pictures and bribed Otto Jarvis to perjure himself, he convinced Senior to back off.”
“What happened to Mrs. Pope?” Amanda asked.
“The money Junior left her and the proceeds of the insurance policy made her a wealthy woman. As soon as everything was settled, she moved to Europe with her son to protect him from the publicity. She lived in Italy until recently, when she returned to Oregon so Kevin could finish his education in America.”
“Have you seen her since she came back?”
“No. She’s a bit of a recluse, and I haven’t had a reason to renew our acquaintance,” Frank said.
Amanda thought her father sounded a little stiff. She thought she knew why, but decided to ignore his reaction.
“Are you certain Mrs. Pope had nothing to do with her husband’s death?” she asked instead.
Frank thought about Amanda’s question. “Judge Hansen told me Karl Burdett argued that Charlie Marsh could have faked a British accent to frame Senior in case anyone figured out that Rodriguez took the pictures. It did seem odd to me that Senior would let someone who’d be so easy to identify negotiate with Rodriguez. But I’m fairly certain that Sally Pope is innocent. I even wondered if the bullet that hit Junior was meant for her. Sally was almost next to him when the shot was fired.”
Amanda stood up and tossed her trash in the wastebasket. “Will you try to get the waiver for me?”
“I’ll call Sally today.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
“My pleasure.”
Frank’s shoulders sagged as soon as the door closed behind his daughter. He had told Amanda what she needed to know about the Pope case to represent her client, but he hadn’t told her anything about his relationship with Sally Pope. There were some things that a father didn’t discuss with his children, like the torrid affair that had started the evening Frank had won Sally’s case and the way he’d felt when she went to Europe. Frank had been confused, frustrated, and, though he hated to admit it, lovesick. Just thinking about Sally today had resurrected those emotions.
Before she’d left him, Frank had convinced himself that Sally was drawn to him as much as he was attracted to her. There was the way she looked at him, the way she moved so close whenever the occasion permitted intimacy. There was the timbre of her voice when it was late in the evening and he was driving her back to her house. Later, he rationalized making love to her that first time by telling himself that he’d had too much to drink, but he knew he would never pass a polygraph on that one. Plain and simple, except for Samantha, he had never wanted a woman the way he wanted Sally Pope.
The affair had lasted several months. If it had been made public, it could have cost Frank his license to practice law but he was willing to risk it. Then all of Sally’s legal affairs were settled. When she told him that she was going away, Frank had felt the bottom drop out of his world. Sally had said all of the right things-she loved him, she would always think of him-but she’d asked him to understand that she had to put Kevin’s happiness before her own.
Enough time had gone by for his obsession with Sally to have ended. But he did think about her occasionally, and Amanda’s excited revelation about the Marsh case had ripped the scab from a wound he thought had healed. Frank would call Sally Pope as promised, but he was not looking forward to seeing her again.
CHAPTER 23
Every morning, Amanda performed a routine of rigorous calisthenics, a remnant of her days as a competitive swimmer. The morning after her father briefed her on the Pope case, she was in the middle of a set of pushups when her phone rang. She powered through three more and grabbed the receiver on the fourth ring.