Dirty Blonde

CHAPTER 32

“Come in, Cate.” Chief Judge Sherman rose from behind his desk and motioned to her with a smile. “Please close the door behind you, dear.”

“Got it.” Cate closed the door. Cigar smoke lingered in the air.

“I’m having tea. Shall I ask Mo to get you some?”

“No, thanks.” Cate entered his lovely office, crossing the Oriental rug and passing the jewel-toned tapestry couch. Rain beat outside his window, too, because all of the chambers shared the eastern exposure, but it seemed less gloomy here. Warm incandescent light glowed from Waterford crystal lamps on the end tables, and Cate made a mental note to finally move into her office.

“Please, sit down.” Sherman picked up his black reading glasses, and Cate seated herself in a club chair in front of his desk. “Did you have some lunch?”

“No, I’m not hungry.” Cate had been trying to ignore the jumpy sensation in her stomach. She’d already thrown up this year.

“Our cafeteria served delicious chicken today. Chicken marsala, imagine!” Sherman chuckled, easing back into his chair. “Aren’t we fancy?”

“Chief, let me say how sorry I am, about all of this.”

Sherman raised a hand, still chuckling. “I must say, when I was growing up, you know what I ate every day for lunch?”

“No, what?” Cate asked, playing along. If he was trying to put her at ease, it wasn’t working. She could hardly meet his eye, and she’d been doing so well with the eye-meeting thing this morning.

“Every day, I went home for lunch. The school was only three blocks from my house. I went to Merion Elementary, in the suburbs. Do you know it?”

“No.”

“Merion’s only twenty minutes outside the city. The golf club is there.”

Cate sensed she should know it, but she didn’t.

“In any event, every day, I’d go home for hot dogs with baked beans. Every day, my brother and I ate the same thing. The only difference was that sometimes we put the hot dogs in the beans, and other days we ate the hot dog on white bread. You know, that soft white bread?”

“Wonder Bread.”

“Of course. Wonder Bread!”

Cate smiled. “It is a funny name.”

“‘Builds strong bodies twelve ways!’”

“What twelve ways?” Cate said, and they both laughed. “They used to spray it with vitamins.”

“Ha! Imagine if you tried that today. Think of it. At home, Ellen buys that artisanal bread, from Whole Foods. Dark brown, with what, tree bark sticking out, for God’s sake.”

Cate laughed.

“You can hardly tear it apart with your teeth. I lose my bridgework, every time. Fifty-five grains, or some such silliness.”

“Builds strong bodies fifty-five ways.”

“Right! Perfect, Cate.” Sherman laughed heartily, holding his chest, his reading glasses still in hand, their stems like crossed legs. “Everything old is new again, isn’t it?”

“It sure is.” Cate felt her stomach relax a little and eased back in the chair. “Your master plan is working, Chief. I’m starting to feel better.”

“Excellent, excellent,” Sherman said, doing a passable Montgomery Burns, and they both laughed again. Then he cleared his throat. “Tell me, Cate. How are you holding up through this travail?”

“Not terrible, not great.”

“I understand you had quite a morning.” Sherman nodded sympathetically. “Tell me about the man in your courtroom today.”

“It was bad, but it’s fine now.”

“Your attacker was unarmed, I understand from the marshal service.”

“I figured. He wasn’t really an attacker. He was more like a heckler. He began yelling during the colloquy and running wild. It disrupted the entire proceeding and I got off the bench.”

“Safely, I trust.”

“Yes.”

Sherman nodded. “The only problem with public service is the public, it seems. And yesterday, what happened?”

Cate had to think. “Yesterday was the longest day of my life.”

“I’m referring to the sentencing, for conspiracy to distribute. D’Alma.”

“Oh right.” Cate remembered. How had he heard about that? Meriden? “I had to end the proceeding.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“I was unprepared, frankly. My house and chambers had just been broken into, and I was distracted.”

“Understandable. Russo is targeting you, it seems.”

“Yes, definitely. He blames me for the ruling and for Marz’s suicide.”

“Terrible, just terrible.” Sherman tsk-tsked. “The risks we take, as judges. The responsibility we carry.”

“I hired a bodyguard. He’s sitting in your reception area with the FBI agent, as we speak. Between them and the marshals, I feel safe.” Cate thought again of Nesbitt, in the courtroom.

“Good.” Sherman sipped tea from a white porcelain mug with the tea bag hanging out. The little square of white paper fluttered on its string as the mug moved back to the desk. “Why did you end the proceeding, then?”

“You mean D’Alma? I wanted to hold it when I was fully prepared. It’s scheduled for this coming week, I believe.” Cate made a mental note to check with Val.

“But you’re on trial this coming week, U.S. v. Blendheim. How will you do both?”

“I’ll squeeze it in somewhere,” Cate answered, surprised. Sherman, as chief judge, had access to their dockets and schedules, but she hadn’t realized he followed them that closely.

“There was another matter, I understand, that you canceled.”

“There was?” Cate had to think a minute. She hadn’t expected to be talking about this, after what had happened in the courtroom today. Where was this coming from?

“A pretrial motion. Schrader v. Ickles Industries.”

“Oh, yes, right.” Cate thought back, nervously. That was what she’d canceled to go see Micah. “I had to run out. I was following up on something about Russo.”

“Did you reschedule that?”

“The motion hearing? I’m not sure, but I will.” Cate’s stomach tensed, its vacation over. “Why do you ask, Chief?”

“I got a call this morning from the parties. They needed a ruling on a question about an out-of-town deposition.”

Cate flushed. “Oh, sorry. I guess I didn’t call them back yet.”

“It was a simple discovery matter, so I ruled during a break in my trial. Mo will send Val a copy of the order.”

“Thank you.”

“I also got a number of calls this morning, from your colleagues. Bonner, Andrew, Gloria, Bill.” Sherman paused. “I couldn’t field all of them because I was on the bench. I forget who else called.”

“And Jonathan, he must have called.”

“Yes, he did, of course. Almost all of them weighed in about this newspaper coverage today, and about your…proclivities.” Sherman smacked his lips, as if the word had an aftertaste. “Your colleagues tell me that you said the reports are true, about these things.”

“Yes, they are.” Cate felt her stomach and face on fire, which might be a biological first.

“I see. They were unanimous in their judgment, and I must say, as a personal matter, I’m very disappointed in you. I had such hopes for you.” Sherman frowned behind his glasses. “I knew you were young but I was certain you’d mature into the position. I liked your…style, I guess I should say. True, you’re different, but refreshingly so. I saw you as the future of this court, or used to.”

Cate felt like dying.

“We think, as a court, that it’s conduct unbecoming. It hurts me to tell you this.” Sherman slid off his glasses and examined his reading glasses as if he’d never seen them before. “I normally wouldn’t consider your personal life a matter for public discussion, but you hold public office, Cate. You’re a public official. The duties you perform serve the public, and the cause of civil and criminal justice.”

“I know, Chief, and I’m sorry. It will never ever happen again.”

“I’m sure of that. I know you, at least I felt as if I did.”

“You do,” Cate rushed to say.

“All of us are married, as you know. We have families. Except for the one messy divorce every year, which is our annual allotment-” at this, Sherman smiled slightly-“we lead exemplary lives, on and off the bench. We have to. The first canon of judicial ethics is that a judge must uphold the integrity of the bench. The comments require us to ‘personally observe high standards of conduct.’”

“I know, Your Honor.”

“Canon Two instructs us to avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities, not merely those on the bench.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. I was wrong.” Cate felt like it was the quietest, longest and most excruciating dressing-down she’d ever had. “I didn’t think.”

“The prospect of this TV series about judges, of course, is completely unacceptable.”

“I hate the idea, too.”

“They’re saying it’s fictional, but no one will believe that. I don’t want anyone making a TV show about my court.” Sherman stiffened. “It’s anathema to me. I assume you will file suit, with your resources. I had heard that you’ve been in touch with Matt Sorian. He’s exactly whom I’d hire, Cate. A lawyer with teeth.”

Meriden. “I did call Matt, but he advises me that I wouldn’t win, and I agree. I’ve been thinking that suing would do more harm than good. I’ve decided not to sue.”

“How so? Why?” Sherman’s lips parted in surprise. “You can’t be seen as acquiescing. This is a question of appearances. You must sue.”

“No, I won’t. I think it would bring more attention to the show.” Cate had decided last night, after talking to Gina. She wouldn’t compound the damage she’d already done. “It’s protesting too much, giving it publicity. Making it bigger than it is.”

“You couldn’t make it bigger than it is.” Sherman frowned deeply, and his tone took on a new urgency. “Attorneys@Law is a hugely popular show. Everyone watches it, even me. Ellen’s book group switched their night to Monday, because of it.”

“I’m going to weather it, Chief.”

Sherman set his reading glasses down quietly. “What are you saying? The relevant question is, can our court weather it? Are you saying you’ll stand by and do nothing to stop this? To stop them from hurting our court?”

“I have no choice, Chief.”

Sherman eyed her for a moment, over his folded reading glasses. “Then I’ll have no choice. You’ll be leaving me no choice. If you don’t sue, I’ll have to ask you to resign.”

Cate almost fell off the chair. “Resign? From being a judge?”

“Yes. Of course. I’ll have to ask for your resignation if you won’t sue. At least that.” Sherman shook his head, as if the explanation were simple. “I have to protect our court. Our judges, our staff. We all work too hard to get dragged through the mud on television. Or in the press. You have to sue, Cate. Then you’d at least be doing something to remedy this terrible situation you created. Then at least I could defend you.”

“Chief, this will die down, it has to, and-”

“Not if they make a TV show about it. Not the way the press massages TV, and vice versa.” Sherman scoffed. “It’s a twenty-four-hour news cycle, as they say, and I cannot have the entire Eastern District on TV, as news or entertainment. You tell me which is which, nowadays. Cate, won’t you sue? Please, rethink your position.” Sherman hunched over, in appeal. “Give it a day. Confer with Matt. You’re not thinking clearly. You’ll be an excellent judge someday, Cate. Don’t throw it away. Don’t make me ask you to step down.”

“You don’t have to-”

“Yes, I do, and I will. If you don’t sue.” Sherman edged away in his chair, watching her as if from a distance, and Cate flash-forwarded on what it would be like to be frozen out of his friendship, much less off the bench.

“But I just got on the court. I’m not giving it up. I earned this job.” Cate thought about what Gina had said. You wanted the promotion, but did you want the job? And then she knew, just as she was about to lose it. Maybe, finally, because she was about to lose it. “Chief, I want this job.”

“Then you should have taken better care of it.” Sherman faced-off with her over his desk. “We can do this easy or we can do this hard. Resign or sue.”

Cate reconsidered it, her resolve wavering. It would be so easy to sue. Just file the papers. Then she remembered. But what’s right for you might be wrong for Warren and me. “I can’t.”

“Then step down.”

“I won’t.”

“Then that’s that, I tried.” Sherman’s tone hardened, and he shrugged as if shedding her. “Effective immediately, your cases are reassigned. Blendheim, D’Alma, all of them. You’re off the bench. I’ll reassign Val to another judge. Nobody wants those law clerks. They’re on their own.”

“You can’t do that, Chief. You don’t have the power.”

“I most certainly do. I manage the dockets, and your docket just got cleared. You left me no choice. Federal judges hold their office only during good behavior.”

Cate rose. “The Constitution doesn’t speak to this, Chief, and you don’t have the power to execute, even if it did.”

But Sherman had stopped listening. He rose, too, then pulled a sheaf of papers from his desk and handed them across the desk. “This is a complaint of judicial misconduct against you. It will be filed by the end of today.”

“A misconduct complaint!” Cate snatched the papers but she was too emotional to read them. “The misconduct statute wasn’t meant for an overactive sex life. The statute is aimed at conduct on the bench, within the scope of office. Bias, conflict of interest. It doesn’t cover me! Who drafted this? Jonathan?”

“He feels very strongly that the court is being harmed, and now that we’ve spoken, I agree.”

“Chief, this is insane!”

“No, it’s insane to sacrifice an entire court for one individual, no matter who it is. I won’t have my court turned into a television spectacle.”

“They’ll still do the show!”

“If you aren’t on the court, it won’t be about a sitting judge. It won’t involve us any longer.” Sherman bore down, leaning across the desk. “Cate, last chance. Don’t make me file against you. The complaint goes to the chief judge of the Third Circuit, and he can hold hearings, take testimony. Is that want you want? You, on trial? A judge, as the defendant?”

Oh no.

“Your misconduct is clear. It’s all over the press, and it affected the performance of your official duties. You just admitted as much.”

“Admitted?” Cate blinked. Where had she heard that before? Russo, at her door.

“You canceled important court appearances. You dismissed an ongoing proceeding because you were unprepared. I had to leave the bench to rule in a motion you hadn’t rescheduled.”

“Are you taping me?” Cate looked around in disbelief, and Chief Judge Sherman flushed red.

“I have a court to protect, and so do you. Now, will you resign?”

“Hell, no.” Cate turned on her heel and ran from the office.