Atonement

Just three more parts. Hand in there with me ,I think you will enjoy the ride. The Bear

***

Friday dawned bright and clear. Auspicious, to say the least. Definitely a step up from my last couple of weeks. I showered and shaved, and went out to the garage. I thought for a moment about taking the Bronco, but figured I would make a better impression in an automobile. So I took the Beemer, and drove to Waffle House. If my plan worked out, she would need a car, and this was the best choice until she got squared away.

My mind was a jumble as I drove to breakfast; thinking of last night, what I was going to propose, how it might or might not work out. Was I going too fast, was I way out of line? The sex was pretty good last night, but other than the release, there was no affection. Not that I was complaining, and I didn't know what I wanted in my life. I was trying to take this logically, and slowly. Oh, well. One step at a time.

I pulled up to the restaurant, and went inside. Ginger waved to me, and came over with a cup of coffee. "Where are our friends?" I asked.

"Down in the corner, at a table. They asked if you would join them this morning."

Oh, O.K. Just as I picked up my coffee, Short stuff saw me and pointed me out to her mother.

"There's Mr. Main" She said. I waved, still not getting much of a reaction from Mom. I asked "Ginger if she could join us when she got a chance.

"Sure, it's kind of slow this morning."

"Good. This may be interesting."

With that, Janine walked in. Little Sonia's eyes widened. "Mommy" she squealed "Look; it's Storm!!"

She ran over to Janine, and looked up at her. "I know who you are; you're Storm!!" Janine looked down, and smiled at the kid. We were doing fine.

"No, sweetie, but some people say I look like her. My name is Janine, and I'm a good friend of Mister Tremaine's."

With that, it just got better. Into the Waffle House strode Pepper Kinkaid, only daughter of Ginger, and Terry. If she was entranced by Janine, she went nuts when she saw Pepper.

"Pepper, Pepper, Pepper!!" She squealed, "It's my new friend, Storm!!"

It seems Pepper's husband, Dave, the Air Force pilot had deployed overseas, and Pepper thought it would be a good idea to go home, and be with Mom, and Dad, being 7 ½ months pregnant. She had been at their house for about a week, and the bonding was instantaneous.

"Hello, Mr. Tremaine," said Pepper.

"Hello, sweetie," I said. Her Mom had thought it would be cute if her daughter was named Pepper, to go with her name, Ginger.

"O.K.", I said. "Let's get this show on the road."

We walked over to the table, and Pepper said she would ride shotgun on Sonia while we talked. So Janine, Jillian, Ginger, and I sat down, and started to negotiate. Introductions were made all around, and Jillian still looked a little skittish.

I explained to her that I was an attorney, good friends with Ginger, and Terry, and I had a mid-sized law practice. I was the one who had been buying their breakfast for the past 2 weeks.

Janine looked at me, and said "You old softie".

"And are you the one who left the money under my windshield wiper?"

"Guilty," I said.

"Well, at least that answers some questions."

"Jillian," I said "We want to talk to you. Nothing is being pushed on you, o.k.? From the first time I saw you walk in here, I thought that you were a poor young woman who had been, pardon the expression, shit on and thrown away. And the way your little girl looked at you, I knew you had been hurt just like me. I lost my wife a few weeks ago, and it wasn't pretty. I was just about to divorce her, when she was murdered."

'Well, she was,' I thought.

"And something similar to that feeling was what I saw on your face. I figured, based on what Ginger told me, that I would put some food in front of you till you got your feet under you."

Ginger interrupted, and said that I was a decent guy with no ulterior motives, and everything I had said was true.

"When I saw your car with out of state plates, I figured you were really in dire straits. That's when I put the money under your wiper blade.

"A couple of days later, I was on my way home from work, when I saw you in the gas station parking lot, with the hood up. I pulled in and you wouldn't talk to me. I'm just glad you didn't have a gun. I called Ginger and her and her husband came over. When they took you home, I had your van towed, and put in storage. By the way, it's going to cost in excess of $8,000 to fix it up, not to mention the registration being out of date. All your stuff is safe, and in covered storage. That's when I had my staff start to dig into your story."

Her eyes started to fill up with tears, and Janine reached across the table and took her hand.

"James is telling the truth. Everything we looked for is available in public records. We don't want you to feel like we were prying into really private stuff, but everybody at this table cares about the two of you. We only want to help you."

"I don't know what to do. I feel so lost. Why is this happening to me?" Ginger put her arm around her, and hugged her.

"We don't want you to panic," I said "What we would like you to do is come to my office, have an interview with my lead attorney in Wills and Estates, and sit down and talk with Mrs. Anderson, our lead Divorce attorney. Then we can talk about getting you settled here. When I don't use my whips or chains and don't trot out the rack, I'm really not a bad boss."

Then Janine piped up, "James is a kind, and considerate guy, and really a pussycat, and a great boss. But he can't tell a joke to save his life."

"HEY,"I said, "I'm sitting right here." I pouted, and giggles erupted around the table. Even Jillian smiled. "So what do you say?"

"What are my alternatives?"

"If you want, you can keep doing what you're doing. I'll have you stuff delivered anywhere you want. I'll have your car liquidated, and give you the money. It probably won't be much, but it will be fair."

"No," she said, "I'll try your way. Please."

"No problem," I said.

We finished breakfast, and she said she would like to ride with Janine. Pepper said she would bring little Sonia, and we left for my office. When we arrived, and Pepper was getting Sonia out of the car, I walked over and asked if there was a child seat.

"No, I just strap her in tight."

"Do you have one for the new baby?"

"Not yet," she said.

"I'll take care of that." We went inside, and while Janine was showing Jillian the daycare downstairs, I took the elevator to the third floor, and got a hold of Neal, our office intern, and part-time paralegal. I gave him my credit card, and told him to go to Babies, Inc., and get two car seats, one for a four year old, and one for a newborn, to one year old. I wanted the best they had.

"When you get back, put the new born seat in Pepper's car, and the 4-year old's seat in the BMW."

"Right, boss, on my way."

He left on his errand, and I called Jeremy, and asked him to come to my office. About that time, Janine and Jillian came into the office, and Janine got all of us a cup of coffee. Seconds later, Jeremy came in, and I introduced him to Jillian.

He looked her up and down, and said "She looks awfully normal for having graduated from Mississippi State, boss," with a wink and a chuckle. She looked at him like he had two heads.

Janine looked at Jeremy, then turned and looked at Jillian, and said "James isn't the only one who can't tell a joke."

Jillian blushed, and said "Jeremy must be from Alabama."

Jeremy guffawed, and said, "Good, she can dish it out as well as take it."

We all laughed a little. I told Jeremy to use the small conference room, and talk to her about employment.

Jeremy and Jillian walked out, but Janine calmly closed the door behind them, and came and stood in front of my desk.

"Boss, she seems to be a good girl, scared and unsure what to do next. But there is something else there that she doesn't want to talk about. We really need to help her, if we can."

"If it's possible, Janine, we will."

She hesitated; "She may be able to help some of us more than we can help her," Janine said, impaling me with her stare.

"Yes, well, see if you can get a hold of Pete, will you Janine?" I asked.

"Sure thing, boss." She went back to her desk with a small grin on her face.

Moments later, the intercom buzzed. "Pete on line 2" said Janine.

"Thanks, Janine" I answered. I picked up line two, and said "Talk to me, buddy."

"It's a clusterfuck here, boss. The court clerk came up with minimal documentation on the divorce case. Seems she had a public defender who couldn't find his way out of his briefcase. Husband had pretty good representation, and the judge was a family friend. 2+2=4; the case was thrown out on some shaky grounds. Her grandfather didn't know about it until it was done, and he was pissed.

"But then she up, and disappeared. However, there were some interesting documents from the emergency room; spousal abuse, and the doctor, and nurses will swear to it; one of the nurses knew her from high school. Says she was surprised they got married. Nobody has a good word for him, or his family. Talked at length with her granddad, and he seems like a good guy. He's a little worried about the oil property and her inheritance. I explained to him who we were, and told him not to tell anyone else about us, to keep his granddaughter, and great-granddaughter safe, because her husband doesn't know where she is."

"Hang on, Pete" I said. I picked up line 3, and said "Yeah."

"Boss, its Jeremy. I'm going to take Jillian over to see Giselle; then I'd like to come talk to you."

"Sure, Jer, come right on up."

"Yeah Pete, I got Jeremy coming in to report. Anything else of importance?"

"Na, just background."

"Great; fax over your report, then if you and your guy can think of anything else to check, take care of it. Otherwise, come on home."

"O.K. boss, we'll talk." He hung up and I waited for Jeremy.

Now, Giselle Anderson was a consummate professional, who embodied the looks of an attractive young grandmother, and the mind of a Special Forces commander. She was a striking 57 years old. Her office reminded you of grandma's parlor; homey, comfy, and very relaxing. She had one male assisting attorney, 2 paralegals who were young and attractive, that she referred to as her sharks, and 2 extremely competent secretaries, one male, one female.

She had the largest staff of any of our attorneys, and was one of my partners in the firm. She also accounted for 30% of our profits; but she was happy with her position, and her perks. She got to spend time with her children, and grandchildren. But she hated cheaters of either sex, and would go to the mat for her clients. She particularly disliked husbands who stepped out on their wives, but also had no tolerance of promiscuous wives, and had turned down many clients who were being sued for unfaithfulness. She was a widow lady, having lost her husband to a stroke 2 ½ years earlier. She threw herself into her work after that. So I was very confident that Jillian was in good hands.

Therefore after about 45 minutes, the intercom buzzed, and I picked it up to hear a concerned partner on the line.

"James, you had better come here, and catch this the second time through. I don't think the poor girl can handle a third time."

"On my way" I replied. I strode into Giselle's outer office and was met by withering stares from the sharks.

"They're in the conference area, Mr. Tremaine."

"Thanks." I walked through to the office, and found Giselle, her female secretary, and her assistant attorney sitting around the small coffee table. Jillian was red eyed, and wiping tears from her face. The other two ladies were very grim faced, and I got the impression that my gender was not to my advantage. The assistant looked a little uncomfortable.

"What's going on?" I said.

"James, we have a situation. Everything we discussed, as usual, was recorded. This is not a cut and dried divorce. There are several mitigating factors.

"It turns out that the husband had her drugged, and then pimped her out to two friends. That is the overriding reason there is no father listed on the birth certificate. She was mad, and scared, and wanted him out of her life."

"Do we know who the two individuals are?"

"Yes, we have the names of the two individuals."

I pulled out my cell, and punched up Pete and Tony in Biloxi, and waited.

Almost immediately Pete picked up. "What's up, boss"?

"I'm going to send you the names of two individuals; I want you to check them out, everything, and get close to them, as close as possible. I want DNA on both of them. As long as we can get samples, it will be something we can use to force them to testify. Got it?"

"Yep, boss, got it. Text us the info, and we will get right on it."

"Why are you being so nice and helpful to me?" said Jillian.

"Your husband is the kind of person that makes the rest of us look really bad. Now, what's the whole story?" I felt a warmth toward this woman, and I was beginning to wonder what this feeling I was beginning to have was.

"Well, she was romanced by Cyrus Combs Carstens in college, and they were married in Reno. She isn't sure if it is legal, and based on what she told me, it may not have met the residency requirements.

"When they got back, he took her to a party, and got her really drunk. She said she wasn't used to drinking so much, but with the last drink, she started feeling like she was out of her body. She got very dizzy, and unsteady, and the last thing she remembered was passing out in her husband's arms. Later, she woke up woozily in a bedroom, naked, in bed with her husband's 2 friends, and he was standing across the room with a drink in his hand, watching, and leering.

"They were both having intercourse with her, and she was covered in male ejaculate. I'm cleaning this up a bit, but you get the idea. She passed out again, and only awoke finally when one of them tried to put his organ in her mouth. She started to cry, bit him at which point he screamed, and she staggered off the bed. Her husband struck her, and punched her.

"She managed to get away, and fell backwards. He kicked her, and she tried to protect herself with her arm. That's when her arm got broken. Her husband called a taxi to take her to the emergency room, because he was too drunk to drive. The taxi dropped her off, and left.

"She went in, and said she had been raped, and beaten. The doctors ran a rape kit, and treated her injuries. The cops were called, and when they found out who she was, they called her husband. He came, and signed her out.

"They went home, and things were almost normal for several weeks. They did not have sex, but she didn't think anything of it, as he controlled her life. She found out she was pregnant, and figured it was his, but did not forget about the party. When the baby was born, he was away on a 'fishing trip' and didn't show up till after she got home.

"Turns out the 'fishing trip' was with the two guys who had had sex with her, and four strippers. He never saw the birth certificate, and didn't realize his name wasn't on it."

All this time James was crumbling inside. He was dying inside, and wanted nothing more than to kill this asshole.

Then, a voice said in the back of his mind, "THAT IS NOT ATTONEMENT "

He was shaken. 'That voice is right' he thought. 'I must set this right.'

"After that" continued Giselle, "she bided her time, and put some money away, to hire a lawyer. She couldn't get anyone of any ability to handle it. Finally, she went to legal aid, and when they got to court, the judge threw it out. She was afraid to go home, but when she did, he was passed out drunk, and she managed to gather some clothes, some personal effects, her daughters clothes, and some toys, and left. She hit an ATM, and pulled out as much as she could ($450.00) and started driving. She filled up the van, driving north, and threw away all her credit cards. Then she started west.

"She didn't realize how bad the van was on gas, because it was in such bad mechanical shape, and she used most of her money for gas and oil. They slept in the van in shopping center parking lots, and bought cheap food. But their luck seemed to run out here, 2 weeks ago. Then, 3 days ago, the van died."

Jillian raised her head, looked me square in the eyes, and said "That's when Mr. Tremaine arrived."

My eyes bugged out, and I was rewarded with the most exquisite smile I had ever seen.

Again, the voice: "BE CAREFUL: DON'T BLOW IT!!" I blushed, and looked down. But her stare never wavered. Nor did her smile.

"So here we are. Where do we go from here? In order to file for divorce, she's going to have to establish residency. She needs to find a job. She needs to establish a set of bona fides; people who will vouch for her, and stand by her. If we can do that, I think we have an excellent case. At the same time, in my opinion, we need to get Alan Dowling involved for a criminal case. Having said that, the ball is in your court...Boss."

I shook myself, and suddenly realized all eyes were on me. With that my cell rang. It was Pete. I answered it. "What ya got, Pete?"

"Well, boss, you need to come up with some much more challenging tasks for your hapless minions. We found those 2 guys at a gas station, engaged them in some idyll conversations about local hot spots, and such, and bought them some coffee and, and sat around shooting the breeze for a while. They offered to refill our coffees, but I said it was on us, so I took their two cups to the machine for refills. I marked them, and bagged them, got two new cups, and came back to the table.

"Then I threw them a curve ball- I asked them if they knew a stripper from around these parts, name Juicy Jillian. Red haired, short, perky boobs."

"Hold it, Pete, you're on speaker, and the client is right here in the room." There was silence on the other end.

"UHH, sorry, ma'am. No disrespect meant."

"It's O.K., none taken," she giggled, and blushed. She was starting to come out of her shell.

"Any way, they said they thought they knew of her, and asked where we had seen her. I told her up in Tennessee.

"Where they said?"

"Just outside of Gatlinburg. The guy named Joe pulled out his phone, and punched in a number. As it rang, the two of them got up, and said they had to go.

I heard this Joe guy speaking "Yeah we just heard from this guy that she was seen stripping up in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. They went out the door. We packed up, and we're in line at the airport. Full report tomorrow."

"Thanks Pete. There'll be fresh donuts for you tomorrow. Please come in to the office." I hung up, and turned to Giselle.

"Start on the case. We will have more tomorrow, and next week, I'm taking a trip to Biloxi with Samuel Lodge.

"Jillian, I'm going to see your grandfather next week. I know you would like to go, but it might not be safe. So instead, I'll do my darnedest to kidnap him, and bring him back here to see you. How does that sound?"

"Why are you going to see my granddad?" she said. "I'm going to take away the biggest roadblock to your divorce. Wish me luck?"

"All the luck in the world," said Jillian.

Giselle rose and said "Charlie, start the brief, and get Jillian up to speed. James, can I see you a minute?" We walked out into the hall. She turned to me.

"Everything she said was true, James. Except for her last statement."

"What do you mean," I asked. I got a bad feeling in my stomach. Sometimes I think I'm getting too paranoid.

"She didn't exactly phrase it that way," she said.

She looked me square in the eyes, and said "What she said, and we have it on tape, is 'That's when my guardian angel arrived.' I think you have made a significant impression on the young lady. She is vulnerable, and that may or may not be good. For either of you!"