The day arrived for the late morning Wainui District Council planning and building control sub-committee hearing for consideration of the objection to the demolition permit for the old cinema.
Liberty swept into the hearing room leading the executive of the Save the Starlight Cinema Campaign.
Expressionless, hiding her shock, Liberty saw sitting beside The Enemy was daddy. They were chatting and hadn't bothered to look up at the new arrivals. She fumed, thinking that disinterest must be difficult to achieve. Doubtless it was a plotted snub, planned and agreed by them.
Quickly recovering, Liberty felt extremely confident. Her father would produce a legal opinion second to none because his knowledge of law was immense. But she'd observed him in Court when losing a case or two and looking slightly unnerved in the face of sharp and emotionally-fired legal onslaught from the opposition.
She looked forward to rolling her highly respected father.
Her excitement mounted. Even so, she wondered if in sitting directly opposite her had Fenton Archer McDonald Murdoch - gawd, what a name but that was the given name on documentation - had looked at her legs yet?
Silly girl, she admonished, her father might demolished her with his legal might if she divert on to frivolity like that.
Resolving not to divert, Liberty looked across at the Opposition and turned pink with infinite ease: Fenton was staring at her legs - or what he could see of them below the simple table, which was plenty: her short skirt didn't even come close to covering her knees. How was it that the jerk was able to keep her off balance like this?
The chairman of the three-person hearing committee presented her preamble and then invited submissions from the objectors.
Liberty rose to her feet.
She knew this was what she was destined to do, to represent the so-called Little People. The downtrodden, more like it.
"Madam chairman - permission to speak."
"Mr Wentworth?"
Liberty was already aware that 'Madam chairman', usually known as Joanna Wilson and in her younger days as Juicy Lips Wilson, had gone through High School with her father and was one of three very close female 'acquaintances' of his that precipitated his divorce from her blameless mother.
She obeyed procedural rules and sat down, signifying her father had the floor. The adulterer and The Enemy - what a pair!
The news media should be here, thought Liberty: Father and daughter in a Titanic clash. Blast, she should have called the deputy editor of the morning newspaper Mary Simpson - they'd gone through school together.
"Madam chairman in order to speed proceedings my client has instructed me to accept a stay of issue of the permit until the legal grounds for this challenge have been argued in Court. We lodged an application for the Court to consider our legal argument to declare the so-called Save the Starlight Cinema Campaign organisation's challenge as being invalid and was advised 15 minutes ago that Judge Watson will hear submissions on Friday the 30th in Chambers at 4 p.m."
"Council and the campaign committee are welcome to involve legal representatives in the proceedings, which is their right. Would you please confirm that if the objection is withdrawn the permit would automatically issue?"
Liberty looked at the pair opposite; both men were studying the ceiling.
She was furious.
"The swine have pre-empted us," she hissed.
"We've lost," the campaign organiser almost whimpered.
"Not at all, Sally. This now is war!"
"Goodie let's roll the bastards," the real estate saleswoman said enthusiastically, and Liberty thought critically Sally was supercharged with female emotions that could flick like a horse's tail.
"Order!" called Madam Chairman after taking legal advice. "I can confirm the permit will issue automatically if the objection is unreservedly withdrawn."
"Thank you Madam," smiled Paul Wentworth, eyeing his daughter. "We await to hear from our learned friend."
"Miss Wentworth?"
"We await your decision Madam."
"This matter is adjourned pending legal proceedings. Thank you for your attendance everyone."
Liberty felt gutted.
What a swine of a thing to do to her and her community-minded group. Her father wouldn't have thought up a slippery tactic like that, circumventing the action group from making its views known formally to the Council. It will have to be that smart-ass client of her father's - that blasted Fenton Archer McDonald Murdoch, a name that sounded straight off the list a defendants appearing before the Criminal Court.
Liberty briefed the executive members who'd gathered around Sally and her. They were relieved to be told the fight had only begun.
As they began leaving Liberty looked across to where she last saw her father, wondering if he'd like lunch. But he'd gone; she saw him and Fenton walking from the hearing room. Quickly gathering her things she raced after them.
"Liberty?"
Fenton had spotted her; the prick must have eyes in the back of his head.
"Lunch?"
Looking at the flight of granite steps to the sidewalk she saw a woman almost run down the steps from another angle and take her father's arm. Madam Chairman was off to lunch with her father Paul. What a tight little world of intrigue they lived in, she thought.
Liberty's instinct was to snarl at Fenton, 'Go bite your bum'. But that was demeaning herself and instead said, "Providing I pay for myself."
"Sure - pay for me as well, if you wish."
"Going Dutch will do nicely," she sniffed.
Hopefully something of value would come from this unlikely coupling for lunch. She was in no mood to be wasting her time.
"Hung out to dry by your father, eh?"
The grinning ape!
Liberty had a sudden thought. "Excuse me."
He looked startled as if she were abandoning him. His unnerving blue eyes softened as she thrust her brief case and handbag at him, taking only her phone. "I'll only be a minute."
The first call was to report back to her office. No messages. She asked Cynthia to look up a number for her and punched it into her phonebook and then phoned it after advising Cynthia she was out to lunch.
The person she was calling connected through with little delay. She went to the top and informed the managing editor and co-owner of the
Metro
Steve Pennington about the 'Save the Cinema' campaign update, how the campaigners had been legally blocked in their initial efforts to save the cinema and that the fight would continue. She gave him Sally Tucker's contact details and suggested Sally and some of her supporters are interviewed and photographed outside the theatre.
"Note this one quote and attribute it to me Steve: 'We shall fight on the streets, in the courtroom and blockade the theatre site until we exhaust every breath to achieve victory for the cause'."
"Isn't that a little excessive sweetie?"
"Your readers will realize that, but they'll get the idea we mean business."
"All right then, I'll also ask Fletch the reporter who'll be assigned to this to investigate this Fenton fellow. The name Fenton Murdoch rings a faint bell. Does he come from here?"
"I haven't a clue, all I know that he tried it on with me the first time we met, and that's not for publication."
"If he succeeded it would have been your first, wouldn't it?"
