Rosato And Associates: Accused Part 9

Mary didn't smile, worried.

"I'm hungry."

"Because they didn't give us the cookies."

"I know. Daddy punished us."

"We need to go back to the office, set up a war room, and order lo mein for dinner, like we always do."

"Can we still, now that you're a partner?"

"Yes, only now, I pay for the dinner that we charge to the firm. So, no appetizers." Mary's phone started ringing on the console. "Can you grab that?"

"Will do." Judy picked up the phone and read the screen. "It's your mom and dad. I'll put it on speaker."

"d.a.m.n, I forgot to call them." Mary braced herself while Judy hit the b.u.t.ton, and screams of excitement came from her mother, her father, and a third voice.

"MARE! YOU AND ANT'NY ARE GETTIN' MARRIED! CONGRADULATIONS! WHY'N'T YOU CALL US?"

Mary flushed. "Sorry, I got busy at work, I was going to call you."

"S'ALLRIGHT! YOUR MOTHER AND I ARE SO HAPPY AND ANT'NY'S MOTHER IS HERE, TOO!"

"Thanks." Mary smiled to hear her mother talking in frenzied Italian, which was redundant. "Ma, don't have a heart attack."

"Maria, Maria, I'm a so happ' for you, so happ'!"

Judy beamed. "It's Judy, Mrs. D! How about this? Our baby grew up! We need grandchildren!"

Mary smiled. "Don't encourage her. Hi, Ma!"

Anthony's mother joined in, her voice raspy from years of smoking, "Mary, my new daughter! G.o.d bless you both! He's the luckiest man in the world, and you're the luckiest woman!"

"Thanks, Elvira."

"No more with the Elvira! Call me Mom!"

Mary liked Elvira, even though she could be annoying, but it would be weird to call her mother, especially since she'd secretly nicknamed her El Virus. Mary didn't need another mother. She already had the best mother in the world.

"Mare?" Elvira asked, froggy. "You there? Did we get cut off? Oh, no, Matty, we got disconnected-"

"Elvira, I'm here," Mary rushed to say, because any disconnection in a cell-phone call panicked her parents, requiring endless discussion about why the call dropped, who had been cut off first, what it sounded like when they were cut off, and how the old days used to be better, when phones were two cans and a string.

"Mare, call me Mom!" Elvira croaked. "You gotta call me Mom! We're family."

Judy shot Mary a meaningful look, so Mary bit the bullet. "Hi, Mom."

"Ha!" They all dissolved into applause and laughter, and Mary had to switch lanes not to run into the back of a construction truck.

"Okay, I have to go! I'm in the car! I love you guys! Talk to you later!"

"BYE, MARE! CALL US! LOVE YOU!"

"Good-bye Mr. and Mrs. D, Mrs. Rotunno!" Judy pressed the b.u.t.ton to end the call. "That was fun."

"Was it?" Mary rolled her eyes. "I have to call her Mom now?"

"Go with it. What's in a name?"

"But she's not my mother, for G.o.d's sake. I love my mother. El Virus isn't in my mother's league."

"You're really negative about this, aren't you?"

"No, I just feel, well, maybe, negative about calling El Virus my mom. Sheesh."

"Mary, you should go home tonight."

"Why? We have to work. You're working late, aren't you?"

"Yes, but you don't have to."

"I have to read the file. You read it, and so did our client."

Judy clucked. "But they want to see you and celebrate with you."

"They just saw me. We just celebrated."

"That was business, and this is personal. Plus Anthony might want to see you. What if he wants to talk about it? Maybe it will help clarify your feelings."

Mary felt her stomach tense. She hit the gas and spotted the highway on-ramp, up ahead. "He'll understand that I have to work late."

"Will he?"

"He'll have to." Mary steered the BMW onto the highway and accelerated smoothly into the fast lane.

"Mare, are you avoiding going home?"

"No, but I won't drop Allegra because I'm getting married."

"You sure that's it?"

"Yes." Mary gestured at the phone. "Do me a favor and press A on my phone, to speed-dial Anthony. I'll call and give him the heads-up. He doesn't have cla.s.s until this afternoon."

"Okay if I talk to him first?" Judy pressed A.

"Sure."

"Anthony!" Judy said into the phone, when the call connected. "It's me, on Mary's phone. You're betrothed! Congratulations!"

Mary kept the car at speed, in light traffic. She could hear Anthony laughing, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.

"Yes, she's showing everyone that big rock you got her! You selling crack now? Ha!"

Mary smiled. It was so touching that he'd been saving for the ring. She should wear it with pride, not guilt. He was a great guy. "Tell him I love him."

"She loves you, but she's driving. We left the client's and we're going back to the office."

Mary reached for the phone. "Gimme."

"Not while you're driving. Where's your earphone?"

"I forgot it. It'll be two seconds." Mary reached for the phone, but Judy pulled it away.

"She's grabbing the phone, but I want you to know that I'm happy for you both. Love you. Bye, here's the love of your life." Judy handed Mary the phone.

"Hi, babe. How are you?"

"Fine, sweetheart." Anthony's voice sounded soft and warm. "I hear my mother just called you."

"Right, they're all going nuts."

"Tell me about it. Your mother already talked to the priest about booking the church. She got busy at morning Ma.s.s."

Mary cringed. "No flies on her, right?"

"She says you need to, a year in advance."

Mary scoffed. "Who's she kidding? The parish is all old people. Who's getting married?"

"There's funerals." Anthony chuckled. "We'll have to talk dates later anyway, because I have to tell them at school when I want time off for our honeymoon."

"A honeymoon!" Mary kept her eyes on the road. Traffic was picking up, and she couldn't begin to think about a honeymoon. "Okay, we'll have to deal."

"How are you? You sound busy."

"Honestly, we are." Mary felt her gut tense in a way that was uncomfortably familiar. "Can you live with it if I'm not home for dinner tonight? I have a file to read."

Anthony didn't hesitate. "Do what you need to. What time will you be home?"

"Nine, or so?" Mary didn't even want to commit to a time. She wished she could just see how it went. Even if she finished the Gardner file, she had to work her other cases. They were on the back burner, but still simmering. Now that she'd made partner, she felt more pressure to perform up than ever. After all, Bennie was a woman with a coffee mug that read, I CAN SMELL FEAR.

"How about I wait dinner?"

"No, don't." Mary hated when he waited, which added guilt on top of guilt, like a double layer cake of guilt.

"Okay, see you around nine."

"I'll call if I'll be later."

"No worries. Drive carefully. I love you."

"I love you, too." Mary pressed End and set the phone down on the console.

"So he's talking honeymoon?"

"Yes."

"Is that good or bad?"

"Both."

Judy paused. "Mare. Just so you know, don't worry about the maid-of-honor thing. You can wait to make a decision. See how you feel about getting married, in general. And if you want to have your sister be maid of honor instead of me, I'd totally understand."

"Aw, honey." Mary glanced over, touched. She hadn't thought about choosing a maid of honor, but Judy must have been, because her blue eyes were filming.

"I mean it, really. I know I'm your bestie. Or you can have two maids of honor. Angie and I can be co-maids of honor, like co-counsel with bad dresses."

Mary's throat caught. "I would want it to be you, maybe with Angie, but we can't talk about it now or I'll crash the car."

"Yay!" Judy clapped her hands, squealing with excitement, and Mary managed a smile.

Wis.h.i.+ng she could feel half as happy as everyone around her.

Chapter Twelve.

The offices of Rosato & a.s.sociates were empty, quiet, and still, and the air smelled of stale coffee, cold lo mein, and sugary Bubblicious gum, which both Mary and Judy chewed with the intensity of hamsters on a flywheel, as if they were generating an alternative source of energy, powering themselves. They had transformed the small conference room into a war room, with the Stall trial record, exhibits, and stacks of daily transcripts cluttering the conference table, and the articles Mary had found online about Fiona's murder tacked up on a bulletin board that rested on two easels.

Mary was reading the trial record, but had finished only with the first day and knew she was running out of time. The windows showed the bright lights of the office buildings, and the wall clock, which she checked every five minutes, read 8:35. She resented that she had to hurry up and get home by nine, which would never happen, and she was kicking herself for not telling Anthony later. She pulled over the thick transcript of the second day of trial, looking up at Judy. "How are you doing?"

"Fine, plowing through." Judy raised her bleary gaze from the pleadings index, which would show everything that had been filed in the case. She loved the academic side of the legal a.n.a.lysis and was a born appellate lawyer, which was considered the creme de la creme of lawyerdom. In contrast, Mary was a trial-court kind of gal, because she liked the nitty-gritty of courtroom battle and preferred tomato sauce to creme.

"Learning anything?"

"His lawyer wasn't terrible, just inexperienced. But he cited the right cases, even current ones. His papers were very good."

Mary smiled. That "papers were good" was the highest compliment Judy could give someone. "So he did a good job."

"Yes, but he lost, because as we know, you can do a good job and still lose." Judy nodded curling her upper lip. She had taken off her blue jacket and left it crumpled on the seat next to her, whereas Mary had hung hers on a hanger behind the door. They were the Goofus and Gallant of the law, and liked it that way, especially Mary, who got to be Gallant.

"I admire Stall for not taking the deal at the outset," she said.

"I don't. That's why he was sentenced to the maximum. They were making him pay. Not only didn't he plead out, he asked for a jury trial." Judy didn't have to elaborate. They both knew the dirty little secret of the criminal justice system, that it rested on a shaky foundation of plea bargains in which defendants could be cajoled, manipulated, and sometimes pressured into pleading guilty. Mary knew that many of them would be guilty, but some wouldn't, and she wondered if Lonnie Stall could be one of them, actually innocent.