Chapter 3

November 27, 2014 (Thanksgiving) Chicago

"Cassandra, thanks for all the help cleaning up, even though you really didn't have to. We try not to make our overnight guests slave away ... discourages return visits." Carolyn Peters smiled as she said it.

"Oh, I'd be doing the same thing if I was home in Green Bay with my parents. Anyway, I'd like to be invited back." It was her turn to smile.

It was after ten and the house was very quiet. They were sitting on the big sofa in Carolyn's living room in front of a warm fire, shoes off, resting their feet on the coffee table, comfortably full from the Thanksgiving dinner that Carolyn and her husband, Michael Kensworth had prepared. They were dressed casually in wool slacks and sweaters – party frocks giving way to the practicalities of late November Chicago weather.

Cassandra closed her eyes and enjoyed the warmth of the brandy she was sipping. She thought about the meal and those who attended. There'd been a dozen people around the big table in the dining room, mostly young professionals but amazingly not all of them were doctors or lawyers, considering the professions of the hosts. She smiled as she thought about the fact that Carolyn had not dragged in some poor guy trying to match them up.

The meal had all the traditional trappings just like at home. The big difference was that there was not a dozen kids running amok. It wasn't that Cassandra didn't enjoy her nieces and nephews; it was just nice to have a Thanksgiving dinner among adults with adult conversation and without the drama of kids and family. Her mother was mildly disappointed when Cassandra told her she'd not be coming home for the holiday, although Cassandra believed she was secretly relieved that there would be one fewer person in attendance over the long weekend. It wasn't like Cassandra didn't see her parents frequently, Green Bay was only a little over two-hundred miles away to the north. Weather permitting; it usually took about three and a half hours to drive. Of course 'weather permitting' was always a factor in the late fall and winter in the mid-west. When she had spoken with her mother earlier in the day she said it was snowing lightly and the forecast was for a low of four degrees overnight. Cassandra was very happy to be just where she was and she had gladly accepted Carolyn and Michael's invitation to stay the night.

Carolyn seemed lost in thought and when she finally spoke she said, "Cassandra, I know you've only been with the firm since the beginning of July, but I have to tell you how impressed we all are with your performance."

"Thanks Carolyn, coming from you that's high praise."

"Not just from me from David too. You've got us on track to have a very successful international program. All those flights to Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton ... and I believe I even saw an expense report for travel to White Horse, shows your willingness to get out there, Our clients are coming to realize that we're on top of things in Canada. All of a sudden we've become a small but growing factor in cross border commerce. Our clients are noticing, as is David."

"I'm glad I'm helping the firm Carolyn. The atmosphere here is so different than at Stevens."

"No regrets for making the jump?"

Cassandra just laughed.

Carolyn smiled and said, "Well just so you know, David wants to hire a couple more associates for international."

Cassandra tried to hide her disappointment. She enjoyed being a one woman show and having the autonomy she did, and she understood that with more associates would come a new boss. Right now she reported to Carolyn who gave her lots of leeway to make her own decisions, but Carolyn couldn't possibly handle the work of supervising more people. She was David's right hand person and was finally breaking in an office manager.

Carolyn must have caught Cassandra's change of mood despite how she had tried to hide it behind a smile. Cassandra was startled when she laughed.

"Don't look so glum. David wants you to head up the department!"

"What?"

"Now Cassandra, don't go all modest on me. You're the logical person for the job. You'll be responsible for hiring the new associates and then you send them to White Horse or Yellowknife, or Saint John's, because David wants you to start looking at the UK."

Cassandra's heart skipped a beat for a second with the warm memory of a man in London with soft gray eyes. Why couldn't she forget him? Maybe because he was unattainable. But now faced with the possibility of making trips to the UK and of course while in London making a point to stay at the Queen Anne, there was a possibility she'd see him again. Would he even remember her? She thought about her departure, looking up from her seat in the taxi and seeing him and watching him acknowledge her. Would she have the nerve to look him up? What if he was married? At least over the last few months, in her fantasy she'd be able to daydream about Fitzhugh Williams rescuing her and sweeping her off her feet and taking her someplace romantic in the English countryside, and ... and ... Stop it!

"Cassandra, you still with me?" Carolyn smiled at her, mistaking the faraway look for shock at the announcement of a promotion and new world to conquer, or was that the old world to conquer?

"Oh sorry Carolyn ... lots to process." Carolyn was happy to see the delight in her eyes. Cassandra had been a fantastic hire and the fact they now had three associates compliments of Tom Greely made her want to thank the slimy bastard.

"Know anybody at Stevens you'd like to hire?" Carolyn said only half teasing.

"As a matter of fact I know at least one!" Cassandra laughed.

Cassandra really was in shock. This was her dream job. She had worked long hours the last several months, and unlike Stevens, here she was appreciated and no one harassed or belittled her.

"Carolyn, something I've never asked you but wondered about ... how'd you know I wanted to leave Stevens and Broach? I mean, I'd hardly made the decision myself when you called me for coffee."

Carolyn smiled. "I have no idea other than David called me into his office one day last May and said he'd heard you were a top notch attorney and you were looking to leave Stevens, so I should talk to the other two Stevens refugees, and if you checked out give you a call. So I talked to Annabel and Felicity and they sang your praises, so I called."

"Did you ever find out who tipped off David?"

"No, didn't ask. You probably know this now, but David is pretty well connected in this town, not just in the legal community, but local politics too ... as well as people in law enforcement and the military and the Catholic Church community. The Ryan family is pretty well connected across the board around here. He has several brothers and sisters and they all seem to know how to play the game. I'm pretty sure one of his brothers is even married to an alderman. He knows lots of people and is related to a bunch more!" She laughed.

"Guess I picked the right place to land after Stevens."

Her friend smiled and said, "Yes you did. You fit in very well with us and I hope you stay a long time."

"Oh you can count on that Carolyn ... even if you do make me clean up after dinner!"

They both laughed.

"Of course David's connections give us a distinct advantage in this town because we can get the back story on any person or corporation in no time. I wouldn't be surprised if David doesn't have a mole in half the law firms in town!"

"Including Stevens?"

"From what you tell me, I suspect it was someone at Stevens who contacted David about your leaving."

Cassandra nodded, thinking about her return from London and the story going around the office. Tom Greely had explained his very obvious injuries by saying he'd been mugged while there. He told several of his fellow attorneys that he had successfully fought off three of them and bragged that at least one of his assailants would need hospitalization. Cassandra had not even bothered to try to set the record straight, but her decision to leave was cemented when one of the assistants came to her and told her that Greely was bragging he had 'finally bagged Casandra Wallace.' She was very grateful when she had received the invitation from Carolyn to join the Ryan firm. Within a month she had moved on.

"Hello, Cassandra..."

"Oh sorry ... I was just thinking about the toxic atmosphere at Stevens."

"Yeah, and Tom Greely?"

"The most toxic of all!" Cassandra laughed.

"Oh and I should mention the Michigan Avenue irregulars."

"Who?"

"You know Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars?"

"Yes..."

"Well the joke around the firm is that David has this group around Chicago who we call the Michigan Avenue Irregulars who feed him information."

"You're joking."

"No, I mean how would you explain visits from a guy who sells beer at Wrigley Field, or a lady who plays the violin on the elevated platform? He even has a guy who shines shoes at Union Station and people who are ushers at most of the top entertainment venues in town, and any number of bartenders and waitresses who check in with him."

"Amazing."

"It really is amazing when you think about the stuff people talk about in front of bartenders and waitresses and other service people because they're invisible."

"What about hotels?"

"Especially hotels!" she laughed. "You wouldn't believe half the stuff that's supposed to go on in hotels in this town!"

"After working at Stevens I think I would!" Cassandra laughed.

"Oh and that's not all."

"I don't think I want to know any more ... too much like that show, 'Person of Interest, ' where all the security cameras are tied into a secret government computer that sees everything!"

"Sounds like David's set up, but his security cameras are people who have cell phones and cameras.

"Actually sounds kind of creepy."

"Fortunately David is one of the good guys and he's helped a lot of people and I believe exposed a lot of corruption in this town. Rumor has it, he was a major factor in blowing the whistle on the corruption in his old firm ... but if you ask he'll deny it, or at least evade. I do know he's best friends with the local DA and was one of the few from Douglas and Shutes who was never investigated."

Carolyn paused, and then said, "He really does see himself as a kind of white knight."

"He's my white knight that's for sure Carolyn!"

"Down girl ... he's taken!"

They both laughed.

"And I haven't even started in about his best friend Fitz Jamison, who has the same kind of connections on the south side where he grew up. I think he and David compare notes!"

"Oh?"

"I've never heard the whole story, but rumor has it Fitz saved David's life in Iraq years ago when David was wounded. I know you've seen the scars on David's leg."

Cassandra remembered asking Carolyn about those scars.

"Fitz was a Navy corpsman, and as you know David was in the Marines. Fitz was wounded that day too helping to save David and others. He got some kind of medal for it, but they never talk about it. I do know that David feels he can never do enough to repay Fitz."

"So is Fitz another lawyer?"

"No actually it's William Fitzhugh Jamison M.D. and he's a specialist in pediatric brain surgery at Comer Children's Hospital at University of Chicago Medicine. Actually Michael knows him and thinks very highly of him. They've worked together several times."

Cassandra's heart lurched a little when she heard the name 'Fitzhugh.'

"Come to think of it ... I should introduce you two. Fitz is early forties, brilliant, a warm and kind man, and a widower. You'd like him..."

Cassandra sighed as she thought about the man in London. "He's not a Brit is he?"

Carolyn looked surprised. "No why?"

So Cassandra told her friend the story of her evening in London and Greely and the wonderful man with gray eyes who rescued her – the man named 'Fitzhugh Williams, ' who works at the Queen Anne.

Carolyn smiled. "So when I said David wanted you to start working the UK you immediately thought of this guy in London, and finding him and properly thanking him for rescuing you?" she teased.

Cassandra blushed, and said, "Caught me ... but it's really more of a fantasy. I don't even know if he's married or anything about him. I did get the feeling he was more than hotel security. The way he dressed and his bearing and his very upper class British accent said he was more ... although that just might be my fantasy projected on him..."