Dirty Blonde

CHAPTER 19

“So, how did it come about, you following me?” Cate asked. “How did Simone even know about me? I didn’t meet him until trial.”

“How do I know you’ll keep the deal? Will you put it in writing?”

“I give you my word.” Cate ignored the irony. The girl had learned her lessons from Simone. “Now, how did Simone know about me?”

“You have to promise not to tell anyone you heard it from me, too. I need this job.”

“I promise. By the way, you’re not telling me anything I won’t find out in discovery.”

“Okay,” Micah said reluctantly. “When you first got the case, you held a meeting or something with our lawyer, George Hartford. Some kind of meeting in your office.”

“I had a pretrial conference with both counsel, it’s standard.”

“Whatever.” Micah brushed a dark tendril from her eye, recovering her composure. “After the meeting, George told Art about you. He said you had star quality, which is like a nineteen-fifties term for ‘hot,’ I think. Art had been thinking about expanding the franchise, so he asked me to see if George was right. I went and watched you in court, and we took it from there.”

Cate felt her teeth clench. “You began to follow me.”

“I had to. He told me to. It was my job.”

“You invaded my privacy.”

“I didn’t…think of it that way.”

“How could you not?”

“You were in public, it wasn’t hidden.”

“Just because something happens in public doesn’t mean it’s not private. You remember when the Challenger blew up in midair? Did you wanna see those poor people watch their daughter explode?”

Micah looked blank, and Cate realized she must have been in diapers at the time.

“How about the moment of someone’s death? You wanna see that, even if it happens on a street? Or when you weep, at Simone’s funeral? Is that public or private? Or when you get married? Or hear someone say I love you, for the first time?” Cate heard herself getting worked up. “The location doesn’t make something public or private. Your heart does.”

“It was research.”

“No, it was my life,” Cate shot back. “And you found out stuff you didn’t need to know, which is now going to be in a TV show. All over TV screens, a new franchise for the @Law cult. My life. Me.”

“The show isn’t about you. It’s fictional.”

“Me, fictionalized.” Cate raked her fingers through her hair, loose to her shoulders today. “And they’re going to make this show, even though Simone is gone?”

“Yes. Matt Gaone was hired to exec-produce, from L.A.”

Cate made a mental note. “When does production start?”

“It’s in production already. It started two months ago. December.”

Cate didn’t get something. “Then why did you keep following me? You were following me up to last week.”

“I didn’t know they’d started.”

“Will you be the production assistant on the new show?”

“Yes, I’m the Philly girl. More job, same pay.” Resentment edged her tone, but Cate had her own problems.

“Where is it being produced? L.A.?”

“Yes. It’s too expensive to shoot here. We shoot exteriors in Philly next month.”

“Is it called Judges@Court?”

“Yes, just like the Law amp; Order franchise.”

“When will it air?”

“September, next.”

Cate had plenty of time for an injunction, if she could get one. “What’s the show about?”

Micah hesitated. “A woman judge.”

“Federal?”

“Yes, and three other judges on the court.”

“In Philly?”

“Yes.”

“Are the characters based on the other judges, on my court?” Cate asked, appalled. She’d been so self-centered she hadn’t even thought of that. “Have you been following my colleagues, too?”

“No. Art thought they were boring.”

They are, God bless them. “Okay, let’s talk about the woman judge. Is she married?”

“Single.”

“Describe her.” Cate folded her arms in the thick sheepskin coat. “Or should I just look in a mirror?”

“Well, yes.” Micah smiled weakly. “Only taller. Hollywood doesn’t like shorter women, like us.”

“Okay, and don’t tell me, let me guess-she sleeps around, and no one knows.”

“She has a secret sex life.”

Oh, God.

“But she’s good,” Micah rushed to say. “She’s a good person. She’s fun and cool, like you. She’s a strong heroine. She’s empowered.”

Cate mock-shuddered. “Make me anything but empowered. I hate empowered.”

Micah smiled, for the first time. “They haven’t cast her yet. Did you really want Charlize Theron?”

Cate groaned. “I was kidding.”

“She sleeps with another judge on the court, who’s crazy about her. In the first episode, they have a threesome.”

Cate’s eyes flew open. “Three judges?”

“No, two and a male law clerk.”

Cate burst into laughter. Way to miss the point. “Oh, God. I thought what I did was bad, but this’ll make it look worse. I didn’t think that was even possible!”

“It’s entertainment, Judge.”

Argh. Cate had a terrible thought and sobered immediately. Meadowbrook Lane. “Wait a minute. This judge doesn’t have a best friend, does she?”

“Well, yes. I mean, she has to, to show that-”

“Tell me about her friend.” Cate felt new anger in her chest, and Micah must have seen it, because she edged back in the chair.

“Well, to be honest, she’s a lot like your friend.”

“No!” Cate thought quickly ahead. Warren. “She doesn’t have a kid, does she?”

“He’s mildly retarded, but in the end-”

“No, you can’t do that!” Cate shot up, her body rigid as a stake in the ground. “You cannot do that. His mother didn’t ask for this. He’s a little boy. He didn’t ask for this.”

“It’s not them, it’s just characters-”

“It is them, and all their friends will know. All the people on their street, and all the kids in his preschool, when he goes next year. You think he doesn’t have it hard enough?”

“Judge, maybe it’ll help-”

“It won’t help! You didn’t do it to help! You did it to make money!”

“I didn’t do it.” Even Micah looked upset. “I’m sorry, I’m just the-”

“That boy doesn’t deserve this, to be exploited! To be put in the spotlight! His mother doesn’t deserve this! They’re just people, living their lives!”

“It’s out of my hands, Judge.” Micah was shaking her glossy head. “Art really loved the little boy, as a subplot.”

“He’s not a subplot, he’s a child!” Cate couldn’t stand still anymore. She’d learned all she needed to know. It was going to be worse than she thought. Never mind the threesome. Gina and Warren. The people she loved most in the world. She felt stunned, stricken. She couldn’t even speak. She went to the door.

“Judge, there’s nothing you can do-”

Cate hurried for the door of the office, her stomach churning. What had she done? What had she caused? She ran out of the office and down the stairs and made it to the curb, panicky and sickened. She looked right and left, found an alley, and bolted for it.

And inside the alley, with one hand on the dirty brick wall, Cate got sick to her stomach.