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Brigid’s husband.
“She said he’d gone to Maine, also for a while—took a leave of absence from the school,” Maureen says. “I got the feeling it’s because of what happened at the trial.”
“She tell you where she was going?”
Maureen grins. “She told me you’d show up and ask that.”
“Where’s my sister?”
“She just said for me to tell you it’s a place all smart lawyers like you know about. Out of your jurisdiction.”
Sixty-Seven
Jimmy
JIMMY GETS RIGHT TO IT,tells Jane about the fight with Pat Palmer, Palmer accusing Rob Jacobson of raping Laurel, the NDA he said the whole Gates family signed, the whole thing. When he’s done, Jane tells him that Brigid is on her way to the Meier Clinic in Switzerland, on a full Rob Jacobson scholarship, as promised.
“Judge is going to be pissed,” Jimmy says.
“Mostly at me,” Jane says. “I can handle it.”
“Not for nothing? Whole grand scheme of things? Her cancer is more important than our trial.”
“Well, to her it’s more important than the trial.”
“What’s that mean?”
“It means she’s got her priorities and I’ve got mine,” Jane says.
They’re seated at a table in the middle of the room, close to the bar, near where the Steinway used to be when Bobby Van was still alive and playing the piano on Sunday nights. Jimmy likes the setup of the room just fine. He just liked the old room better. He likes a lot of old things better.
Hardly breaking news.
Jane circles back to Jacobson. “Let me get this straight. We’re supposed to believe he did pay them off and did make them sign a nondisclosure even though he says he didn’t rape that kid?”
“That’s his story, and he’s sticking to it.”
“I must point out once again,” Jane says, “that knowing him is truly a blessing.”
She looks tired to Jimmy, more tired than she has at any point in the trial. But he knows better than to tell her that.
Now she says, “Why do you think it took the Palmer kid this long to come after you? It’s not as if he didn’t know where to find you before this.”
“No idea. But it’s not as if we had a bonding moment after we tried to beat the crap out of each other so’s I could ask him.” He reaches over and forks the other half of the cheeseburger he knows she’s not going to finish. “You want to know what I really think? That our guy Rob might have paid the kid off, too.”
“If he’s talking to you,” Jane says, “what’s to stop him from talking to Ahearn, whether he has a nondisclosure or not? Because let’s face it, the story he told you doesn’t help us at all. But for Ahearn, it’s pure gold.”
“Say our client is passing around NDAs like business cards,” Jimmy says. “And say the Gates family did sign one. Why go to all that trouble and then turn around and kill them anyway?”
The place is crowded at lunch. Jimmy always wonders how many of these people have jobs to get back to. Or whether they’re just here living the life, even before summer has started.
Jane and him, they have jobs to get back to, even if this is one of those days when Jimmy feels as if they’re the ones who are really out to freaking lunch.
He says, “The kid stood down a long time. I’m thinking that if Jacobson did pay him off, it was enough to make him think twice about coming forward, no matter how much he might have loved that girl.”
“But he came after you,” Jane says. She grins. “And looks like he got some good licks in.”
“You know what they say. You should see the other guy.”
