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“He’s worried,” I confided.
“He should be. Today was bad. Have you heard from Ms. Patterson? It’s been two weeks.”
“No.”
“What did you say when you went to see her? I thought you handled it.”
“I thought I did too. I even offered her more money. I thought that would seal the deal.”
“You know you can’t just throw money at people that have money, right?”
“Money answereth all things,” I deadpanned.
“Don’t misconstrue the scriptures and figure out a way to get her. If not, we are going to be sending our folks to prison.”
* * *
I stoodin my office after I finished speaking with Xavier trying to figure out what to do.
“Uh-oh,” Gretchen said when she entered my office.
“What?” I shrugged. I put the hourglass I was holding back on its shelf and turned to her.
“What’s bothering you?”
“How do you know something is bothering me? I haven’t said anything.”
“I just know. Spill it. How can I help?”
“Have you heard from Ms. Patterson?”
“I actually just spoke with Liddy, her secretary.”
“And?”
“And she doesn’t like you,” Gretchen shrugged.
“Liddy or Ms. Patterson?”
“Both, but more so the latter than the former. You know you have a way of finding a person’s trigger and really working it with all you have. I think it’s your superpower.”
“Gretchen, are you going to help me or not?”
“Well, I did get Ms. Patterson’s schedule for the evening. She goes to work out at a gym around the corner from her building. She should be back home around eight. I would suggest you go and talk to her. Maybe apologize?”
“I told her I regret some of my word choices!”
“Ah-pa-low-gize! It’s not hard really. You just say, ‘I’m so…’”
“I know how to apologize, Gretchen.”
“Obviously you don’t. If you want to win this case, you are going to need her help. So, put some Vaseline on those soup coolers and work ‘em out with a real apology. I sent her home address to the driver.”
She turned before I could roll my eyes or protest and walked out my office.
* * *
Per Liddy’s instructions,I waited outside of Ms. Patterson’s building at the south entrance. Liddy said she walked to her exercise class down the street from her building and used the South entrance to gain re-entry to her building. Hopefully, she didn’t choose today to revise her routine. I didn’t pursue Ms. Patterson aside from our meeting at her office because I felt like VLG could handle the case on our own. After the day we had in court today I realized Xavier was right, I did need her on this case. I needed her to focus on Coco, and I could concentrate on Roc. I knew Coco required another woman at the table with her not only for optics but because the DA was coming after her hard. I wished there was another female attorney that was employed by me that could help, but as always, Xavier had chosen the best.
