AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Bart turned his focus back to his food.
“Sounds like Metro is fighting an uphill battle,” the Judge noted, drawing Finley’s attention. “Johnson is lucky to have an attorney of Jack’s caliber on his side.” She smiled. “He may, however, regret having you digging around.”
Finley gave her a nod. And there it was. Proof that Finley had taken the Judge’s earlier comment the wrong way. It would take time to get beyond that automatic response. “We’ll see. I’ve barely started my investigation.”
“You know Finley,” Matt pointed out with a grin. “She won’t stop until she finds all the little pieces.”
He knew her well.
Matt made a face then, checked his smart watch. He looked to Finley. “According to a contact of mine at our local ABC station, we should turn on the news.”
They all relocated to the family room, where Bart powered on the television and selected the channel. The Judge and Matt stood a few feet from the large television screen as a reporter, Jason Bentley, spoke from an office Finley recognized instantly. The office of Davidson County District Attorney Briggs—her former boss.
While the reporter waxed on about the esteemed DA, Finley sidled over to her father and whispered, “You okay?”
He blinked at her, frowned. “Of course. Why do you ask?”
“I thought maybe the subject of my new case might have made you uncomfortable.”
“Certainly not.” He worked up a fake smile. “You and I talked all that out already.”
His immediate shift of attention to the television and the nervous twitch near his eye said otherwise.
She wrapped her arm around his. “Love you, Dad.”
He peered down at her. His smile was real this time. “Love you, too, sweetie. I just need you to be careful. This client of Jack’s and his family are not good people.”
She leaned her head against his shoulder. “I’ll be careful.”
This seemed to satisfy him for the moment.
Bentley’s questions related to next year’s election drew Finley’s interest back to the television. He deliberately tossed out a number of negative points that kept popping up in the news. Briggs had been accused repeatedly of being too soft on crime. Most recently his travel budget had been attacked after a disgruntled former assistant spilled about him using travel funds for personal vacations. All of which Briggs strongly refuted.
It was when Bentley moved on to who might be able to unseat him that Finley saw her name scroll across the screen.
She went cold, then hot. Every muscle in her body tensed.
“The rumors are growing that former assistant district attorney Finley O’Sullivan will be running against you next year.”
Briggs smiled in that condescending way of his. “As you probably know,” he said from behind his too large, too ornate desk, “I brought Finley O’Sullivan onboard. She was a brilliant young attorney at the time. I had high hopes for her.”
“A perfect record of wins,” Bentley pointed out. “Her record stands unbeaten.”
Briggs shook his head. “What happened to Ms.O’Sullivan was a true tragedy. After her husband’s murder, she was not the same. She fell apart. You likely know this as well.”
“It was the headline at the time,” Bentley agreed. “But she’s pulled herself back up. She’s handling some very high-profile cases with Jack Finnegan’s law firm. She still appears to be a force to be reckoned with.”
“She is very talented,” Briggs agreed, “as I said. But there are underlying issues, baggage that comes with the tragedy she suffered.”
“She single-handedly brought down Carson Dempsey,” Bentley reminded the DA.
“I like this guy,” Matt said.
“He’s good,” Finley’s father agreed.
“Wait for it,” the Judge said. “I’ve seen him in action before. He always does a setup before jerking the rug.”
Finley steeled herself and waited through a number of other nice comments about her work as compared to that of Briggs. But then the tone of the exchange took a different direction.
