Chapter 15: Of The Mighty And The Weak

Linda entered the imposing room with its paintings by old masters hanging on oak paneling, and its bookcases of old law books. Randolph West was writing, comparing files and documents, looking left and right and then right and left, a caricature of the man of success in his field. He looked up at Linda over the top of his glasses, and waved at her, "Come... come..." as if she were a dog or a little child.

"Sit down," he said, with a commanding voice, still busy with his papers. A few minutes ticked away before he put the paperwork aside and called his secretary over the intercom. "Donna, would you bring Ms McDougall's file? Right away?"

There was a quick answer and the file was on his desk in no time. The red-haired, fortyish secretary disappeared as fast as she dashed in. West let his slanting smile appear for a short moment, as if he was pleased by his eloquent display of power.

"Now, then... Here we are... Linda... I'll be honest with you... and I hope you will be honest with me. I'll not call this an open-and-shut case but the prosecution had to indict you and your dad for the reasons we all know. I managed to reschedule the hearings... You will be first, and I expect a quick dismissal of the case against you... Everybody knows what the Woods are after... and they know what kind of man their son was... A quick dismissal of your case will help your dad enormously. Are you following me?"

Linda was getting irritated with his patronizing tone of voice. Of course she was following him! With her grades she was sure she would enter Harvard or Yale or any Ivy League college... She was no dumb blonde. The hell with stereotypes!

"Are you following me?" he repeated.

"Yes," she said, controlling herself. No point in making an enemy.

"All right... However, I have to ask you a few questions. I hate surprises in the middle of a hearing... where the judge will decide between a dismissal or a trial."

He proceeded, asking her about personal information and other inconsequential questions about her family, friends, school, grades - did she glimpse some surprise in his eyes? Then he went further, dealing with how Jeannie had been shot and how the redneck died. Linda noticed the slightly confusing questions and how he played her, trying to see if she contradicted herself... He eventually gave a satisfied grunt, consulting the documents in her file, pushing the glasses up his nose.

"Now let's go back a little further," West suggested. "I talked to your dad about this... I've got the testimonies of your sisters... and yours... and frankly this is the weakest point of our defense... There are a lot of contradictions... Take your sister Zoë, for instance... She stated you ran away because she hated school... Jeannie says it was because you said so... Nikki, because all of you couldn't stand your parents any longer... Your dad tried to explain all this to me but I am still not convinced."

The crucial time had arrived, Linda thought. Dad and Linda and her sisters had prepared themselves for this... Dad had coached them well... Convincing West about the accuracy of their statements was the key to the hearings.

"All that's true. Zoë wanted to leave the cheerleader squad and there are witnesses to that... All Zoë's and Jeannie's friends know how Zoë stormed out of cheerleading practice a couple of days before we ran away. You have dozens of witnesses right there... Mom and Dad got mad because of that... That's why Nikki says we couldn't stand our parents any more... I thought how unfairly Mom and Dad were handling it. If I see someone being treated unfairly, I can't just stand there and do nothing... I just can't."

"I'm aware of that... I interviewed a few people who know you, friends and teachers... They think highly of you... So... Was that the reason why you run away?... Because Zoë hated school, your parents became unreasonably mad at you and you tried to defend your sisters... Is that it?"

"Part of it, yes..."

"Part of it? Is there something else?"

"Yes."

"Come on, let's hear it."

Linda sighed and said, "Mom hit me and I hit her back... That's when I decided to run away."

West removed his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose, his fingers reaching for the corner of his eyes. He stood still for a while in that position, as if he was measuring the consequences of Linda's last statement.

"Hmm," he grumbled, his glasses back on his nose but sliding down. He went through his papers, read a couple of them, and then asked, "Hmm... Why did she hit you?"

"She was complaining we never do what she says... And I told her it was because she didn't care about us... She never did... Then she hit me."

"Hmm..." The lawyer reclined in his comfortable leather swivel chair, thinking, scratching his ear and the hair above it. "Hmm..."

A few "hmms" later, he dismissed her. Dad was waiting in the lobby for his turn with Randolph T. West. Linda was supposed to wait for her father right there, on that huge leather couch, being ogled at by the secretaries and the lawyers and other clients of the firm.

Linda had become a celebrity. She had been asked for talk shows and offered acting parts. Even Zoë and Jeannie hadn't escaped the media turmoil. A casting director called and asked whether the twins would consider showing up at a popular sitcom. Mom and Dad declined all offers, however. It was inappropriate. Fortunately the twins were sensible enough to see through it - how casting directors and the TV and the media in general can manipulate and trick and deceive just to make a few extra bucks. If the twins were ugly, would anyone care about them? Maybe, but not for acting parts... To be pitied and held up to ridicule in a talk show then? Almost certainly.

"Hi, there!" a male voice greeted. Linda looked up and saw an attractive young "suit", dimples in his cheeks, and a Tom Cruise-look-alike look. 'Is this becoming the reality version of The Firm movie?' Linda asked herself. Tom Cruise was cute, everybody knew that... and this guy was definitely cute.

"Hi..."

"I'm Andrew Thomas," he said, shaking her hand. "Just call me Andy... Everybody does... I work here... and... I was passing by... and... I was wondering if you wanted some coffee..."

Linda smiled, stopping short of laughing. A pick-up line she knew too well... But he was cute... and she would rather be speaking to someone than sitting alone and feeling she was being ogled at by everybody who happened to be in the lobby or who was passing through.

"I'd appreciate it," she said.

Expeditiously he left and came with their cups of coffee and sat down next to her, initiating small talk. Linda learned he was an associate of the firm, dealing with boring stuff like accountancy and wills... Suddenly, he stopped and said, "May I say something?"

"What?"

"It may sound odd... or that I'm being too forward... but I think you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."

Linda's eyes blinked, then laughed, "Yeah, right... I guess you say that to every girl you meet."

"That's not true... Ask anyone in the firm... I'm a serious person..."

He got to his feet and raised his voice, asking Verna and Paula whether he was a serious person or not. The secretaries giggled. He was trying to impress her, to show her how well he could handle people, how popular he was in that firm. That same loud display of his popularity was not being appreciated by Linda, though. He could be cute... but his attitude stank.

Dad came to her rescue. Andy Thomas sprang to his feet, shook Dad's hand and complimented him on having such a beautiful daughter. West glared at him. Andy Thomas swiftly retreated down the hall on the left, casting a last glance at Linda.

Linda was relieved when Dad brought her downstairs to the parking lot. In the car, Dad said, "West was impressed with you... and most important, he believed you."

"He did?"

"Yes. Good job, Linda."

Her first reaction was to thank him... But no, she owed him nothing.

"We're going to win this case... You'll see."

Linda didn't reply. Dad was cocksure about their chances... Another ace up his sleeve?

To Linda's surprise, things worked out as her father predicted. The cases against both of them were dropped. The Woods were bought off with a financial settlement. They grumbled and squirmed but in the end they took the deal - on their lawyer's advice. The witnesses against Dad mysteriously changed their minds, saying there had simply been a misunderstanding. The Liberty county's assistant DA was reluctant to drop the case but her superiors ordered her to do just that. And that was the end of it - The People vs. Fred McDougall case.

Despite Fred McDougall having successfully gotten rid of his accusers, he didn't get his job back. His reputation was tainted and he was no longer CEO material, the Servenet directors explained. So he decided to move to the East Coast and start his own software company. They moved to Florida and bought a new house a few minutes' drive from the beach. They would start all over as a family.

Little by little that dream seemed to be within reach. Mom and Dad tried to spend more time with them. Nikki mused, however, that their parents' newly found love for family life was sometimes a nuisance. Their freedom of movement was curtailed and their social life was scrutinized more closely. Luckily, Mom started working again, as Dad's secretary. That gave them many hours of precious freedom.

One day after school Nikki hurriedly slipped on her bikini, and jeans and blouse. She and Linda were to meet at the beach. Linda had turned eighteen two weeks before and Nikki was seventeen now, and proud of it. She would soon be able to decide about her life - her life with Linda... Today was the last day before Linda left for college. Now that all their boyfriends were out of the picture, Nikki was sure Linda would be her life companion - for better or for worse, and to hell with what people might think.

Nikki jumped on her mountain bike and accelerated down the hill that led to the beach. She wore shades, a sort of military cap and an unending smile. Her hair tied in a ponytail trailed freely behind her, blown by the breeze in her face that came inland off the ocean. She couldn't cycle fast enough, passing through red lights and taking short cuts down stairs and across lawns. When Nikki arrived, Linda was already there, waiting for her at Ruby's, the beach's coolest hangout. Ruby's was a sort of café that catered to young people, mostly teenagers. Linda sat at a table, looking "cool" with her shades on and drinking her favorite - freshly pressed orange juice. Nikki was jealous when she realized Linda wasn't alone. A guy sat at her table with a can of beer in his hand.

"Hi, Linda," she greeted, dismounting from her bike. "Ready?"

"Yup... Bye... Gotta go," said Linda, turning to the young man at her table.

When they were out of earshot Nikki asked, "Who's that guy?"

Linda smiled, chuckling. "Jealous?"

"No... I just want to know who he is."

Linda kept smiling, staring at her sister, who shied away from eye contact with her. "You want to know who he is... ? And if I tell you I don't know him, would you believe me?"

This time Nikki looked up, facing her sister. "Don't you know him?"

"No, silly... He was just trying to hit on me... You should know better than that."

"Really?"

"You start sounding like Jeannie... Come on, let's go home."

Looking back, Linda saw that the guy had returned to his red MG sportscar. She noticed him staring, and the way he looked away when their eyes met.

"Don't look now but the guy's gonna follow us," said Linda, getting on her mountain bike, pulling up her black shorts and checking how she looked in her sister's shades.

She looked back once more and then, turning to her sister, said, "Let's go."

The sisters accelerated down the avenue that ran alongside the beach. As Linda predicted, the red MG promptly moved into the middle lane from its spot at the curb and rolled leisurely behind them. Suddenly Linda pointed to the left, warning Nikki she was going to turn into a side street. "Follow me," she said.

Nikki nodded and cycled behind Big Sis, avoiding two honking cars. The drivers screamed obscenities, furious with the girls' sudden maneuver to the left. 'We're cycling dangerously, ' Nikki thought. It was the only way to shake off Linda's stalker, though. They looked back from time to time, making sure the red convertible was not behind them any more. Linda smiled at Nikki when the red MG was no more to be seen.

They stopped by a cafe. The owner's family spoke a strange language - Portuguese - but they served a helluva good espresso. That's what they'd go for. As they sat down, the owner, Mr. Pontes, came over to their table. A chunky man with a mustache, he displayed his usual welcoming smile and carried a small notebook and a pen behind his right ear...

Linda and Nikki liked the funny way Mr. Pontes spoke English, the way he talked about his country, the nostalgia he felt for the green hills around his home town. He had given them his mother's address when they showed an interest in visiting his country.

"She's very happy to invite you," he said.

Linda and Nikki curbed their smiles but they loved him for his generosity and openness.

After exchanging the usual greetings and compliments, Linda and Nikki ordered their espressos and two delicious Portuguese pastries called pastéis de nata. When he left with the order, Linda smiled at Nikki, lifting her shades up on her hair. Nikki smiled back at her. Linda wanted to reach out over the table for her sister's hand, to intertwine her fingers with Nikki's, to say how much she loved her. Instead, she laid her hand on the table, a couple of inches away from Nikki's, and whispered, "What would he say if now I held your hand and we kissed?"

Nikki laughed, her quiet gaze turning into an intense, loving stare. "I don't know... But I'd love to..." Their eyes locked onto each other. It was impossible to break that spell. So much so that they didn't even notice how close her faces were.

"You don't mean that," Linda said, exerting herself to articulate the words properly in spite of her heavy breathing.

"Yes, I do. I don't give a damn about what people say. I'm beyond that now... I love you and I want everybody to know it."

"We can't," Linda said, her face pulling away from her sister's. "Even if we could, that'd be extremely risky to me, you, Dad, Mom, the twins... They could re-open the case against me or even Dad."

"I'm sorry," Nikki muttered, looking down. "I didn't think about that."

"Don't be sad," Linda said, holding her sister's hand, forgetting her earlier qualms about public displays of affection. "I just don't want you to get hurt..."

Nikki shrugged, still sad. Linda was about to scold herself over her inane proposal when Mr. Pontes came back with their order. As always, he chatted with them for a while before he left. Nikki faked a smile, sliding her shades back on. Linda and Mr. Pontes did most of the talking while Nikki kept her head down. Linda heaved a sigh of relief when he left.

"Nikki, look at me... Look at me... What happened?"

Nikki shrugged again. "Nothing... I don't want to talk about it... here..."

This time they downed their espressos and pastéis de nata with little enthusiasm. They soon left the café, waving good-bye to Mr. Pontes and his wife, and hurried over to their bikes.

"Let's go home," Linda said, unlocking her bike.