False accusations

CHAPTER 32

The minute Madison laid eyes on Catherine, he instantly felt fifteen years younger. They spent the first part of dinner laughing, hard at times, at some of the things they did when he was just finishing up his residency at the University of California, San Francisco and she was in her second year as an associate at an up-and-coming law firm in the city.

“Where have those years gone?” she asked.

“Gone, Catherine, they’re gone,” he said with regret in his voice, noticing that her left ring finger was bare.

“How are things with your wife?” she asked. “The paper reported that she left you.”

“You read that? In the newspaper?”

She nodded. “The Vallejo Times. A page three story.”

The irritation was no doubt evident on his face. “Guess my personal life is now public domain. Get accused of a crime and lose everything dear to you. Even your privacy. I stopped reading the paper weeks ago.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well, Leeza and I are separated. I don’t know if it’s temporary or permanent, but I do know one thing-it’s hell.”

“Such an ordeal.”

There’s that word again. Ordeal. Fuck the ordeal shit. It’s hell. I said HELL.

“How’ve things been with you?” he asked. “Fill me in.”

“Well,” Catherine said, “you remember Tom?”

Madison’s face hardened. He remembered Tom. It had taken Madison months to get over the bitterness before he was able to feel any pain…the hollow pain of a lost love.

“Tom was good for me at the time, Phil.”

“He stole you right from under my nose. Waved big bucks and jewelry in your face, and off you went. You left me in a heartbeat. You’ll excuse me if I didn’t think he was so good.”

“He wasn’t good for you, that’s for sure. For me, well, that’s another story.”

Madison smiled. “Maybe I’m being too hard on him. He was good for me. If it weren’t for him, you and I would’ve gotten married.”

“And that would have been bad?”

“That’s not what I meant. If he hadn’t ‘intervened, I wouldn’t have met Leeza.”

“I guess the jury’s still out on that one, huh?”

He gave her a stinging look.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean that.” She sighed. “Guess I’ve got some leftover bitterness too.”

“It’s okay,” he said, waving a hand. “We did have a good thing, though. I thought with all my heart that we were going to be together for all eternity.”

“So did I. Tom changed everything.” The waitress came over to fill her glass with more iced tea. “You weren’t very accessible. That was part of the problem. I know you want to think it was the money, but that was only part of it. A big part of it,” she said, smiling, “but it wasn’t the whole story.”

“I was finishing up my residency, Catherine, what was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t want to argue about it. I’m just saying that I hardly saw you, and we were tight financially. When a prince dressed in an Armani suit comes along and flashes the good life in your face, you jump at it. It was like falling in love all over again. I got taken in.”

“More like taken.”

“Well, that’s actually truer than not.”

“Why? What happened?”

She gave a mock laugh. “Too much of a good thing. Tom continued to play the market. Day trading, options, some other stuff I didn’t even understand. Did real well at it, too. But I kept telling him we should just put some in a different account, leave it alone for the long term, or at least put money into something safer, like real estate or muni bonds.” She gently moved a few strands of hair back with her fingers, out of her eyes. “But he didn’t listen. He made some bad bets, and it spiraled. Lost it all, even the money I had put away in a CD from the bonus I’d gotten for making partner. It was like he’d become a gambler. The more he lost, the riskier the stocks were that he picked, hoping to catch up by hitting it big.”

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“We were married for three years. It ended in disaster. We wound up suing each other, and the attorneys ended up with more than either of us.” She took a swig of wine. “It got so messy that I had to take time off the job. That kind of broke my partnership agreement, so they bought me out. I lost everything. Had to start over, with my own office. That failed, and now I’m in-house counsel for Energy Data Systems. It’s never quite been the same. I haven’t enjoyed law ever since. Kind of resent it, actually.”

“That’s really sad. You used to love it.” Now I’m doing it. Sad? Where the hell did that come from?

“It’s been lonely.” She smiled at him, the toothy smile that used to grab him by the balls and hold him, mesmerized. The years had been good to her. The red hair was redder than he remembered. It fell about her shoulders and shimmered in the overhead spotlights of the private table she had reserved for them. He had to unglue his eyes from her hair. What was she saying?

“…the paper said you’re very prominent in your field.”

He shrugged.

“It said that you’re the top orthopedic surgeon in northern California.” She tilted her head slightly, well-manicured red-painted nails fingering the rim of her wineglass.

He smiled, consciously aware of what her fingers were doing. His accomplishments had always turned her on. He had forgotten about that. She played; he watched. He had to break the spell. “Want to see pictures of my boys?”

“Sure,” she said, dropping her hand from the glass.

He pulled out his wallet and flipped through the photos of Leeza, coming to rest on the pictures of Elliott and Jonah. She looked them over.

“They’re gorgeous,” she finally said.

He had forgotten how much she had wanted to have children.

“I guess I should’ve adopted a child.”

“It’s not too late.”

“I suppose. But I’d prefer to have my own. It’s kind of hard when you don’t have any prospects. Takes two.”

He caught her looking at him; he chuckled nervously. “I’ve got enough problems right now, Catherine, without fathering your child.”

“You could supply the sperm. I could draw something up that would remove all responsibility for you.”

He sat back in his seat. “Is that what this is all about?”

“What do you mean?”

“This dinner.”

“No. I was genuinely interested in seeing you. I just thought that while we were on the topic…”

“I couldn’t. It’d be-it’d be a really bad idea.”

“I understand,” she said, taking a bite of her veal.

Madison changed the subject, asking her about old friends with whom she was still in contact. They finished their meal and left the restaurant. He walked her to her car, their breath fogging the cold winter air.

“Why don’t you come back to the house?”

He looked into her warm hazel eyes and felt the allure of her invitation.

“I’ll make some coffee and we’ll have some dessert, relive old times.”

“Catherine…reliving old times with you means ending up in the kitchen, all right. On top of the table.”

“And what’s wrong with that? It used to be fun.”

“I’m married. A couple of months ago, I was happily married. If I’ve got any hope of salvaging it, the last thing I should do would be sleeping around with an old girlfriend. Think what the papers would say about that.”

“You always were the most honorable man I’ve ever known, Phil.”

“Tell it to the jury.”

She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’d be glad to, if I thought it would help.”

He opened her door for her. She sat down, sinking into the bucket seat of the well-maintained Porsche 928, apparently one of the few possessions left over from her law partner days.

“We had a good thing once. If things don’t work out with Leeza, there is a future here for you, Phil. Remember that.”

“That’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me in months.”

He closed her door, gave her a wave, and trudged back to his car, hands thrust into his jacket pockets. It was indeed cold out, but his heart had just been thoroughly warmed.