Chapter 36

Monday, July 5, 2010

Nina grabbed the arms of her wheelchair, shifted her weight to them, and then stood. One step took her to the sofa. She turned and laboriously lowered herself. She sighed when she finally came to rest. Jake and the DeRizzos cheered.

“I don’t know how many times I’ll be able to do that each day, but this is the first time since the accident that it didn’t hurt too much.”

“Fortunately for Brian and me,” Jake said, “it’ll still be a long time before you can get in and out of the bath by yourself.”

Nina slapped at him. He grabbed her arm and pulled so that she toppled over with her head in his lap. He stroked her hair.

“I want to play the get-to-know-Nina game.”

“The lawyers will be here in half an hour,” Leanne said.

“Plenty of time,” Jake said.

He laid a hand on Nina’s cheek and delved through her cerebral cortex, looking for interesting images. He selected one, projected it to the DeRizzos, and then brought it to Nina’s consciousness.

“Tell us about this memory.”

Nina laughed excitedly. “It’s been years since I thought about that.”

The memory was of a little, brown-haired girl, Nina obviously. She was looking at herself in the mirror, wearing her Sunday best.

“That’s me in my new Easter dress. I think I was probably nine, maybe ten. I started getting boobs right after that so I couldn’t have been any older. We only went to church on Christmas and Easter. At Easter, my mother always made a big deal about dressing us up. I didn’t really understand all the fuss about Easter, but I loved it anyway because we always got new dresses and looked our very best.”

“You looked beautiful,” Jake said.

“I had a pink hat that went with that dress. You should have seen it.”

Jake followed association links until he found one of her looking at the hat in the mirror. Since his neurological skills had been enhanced, he had discovered that there were a lot more very small nerves linking memories than he had realized.

Jake put the memory of the hat into Nina’s consciousness.

Nina laughed again. “Yes, that’s it. I was so proud of that dress and that hat.” She looked up at Jake, her eyes shining. “Do it again.”

Jake smiled at her. “Okay, but not all the memories are going to be good ones, so prepare yourself.”

Jake went to Nina’s memory lookup index for boyfriends. He had become familiar enough with Nina’s memory indexes that he knew many of them by heart. It was the same with all his women, especially Ellen. He had spent a lot of time in Ellen’s head. He thought he could probably bring up any of her memories on demand.

He followed the nerve into Nina’s cerebral cortex, examining the various branchings. Finally he found an old memory that suited his purposes and energized it.

“Oh, God, that’s Kyle, uh, what’s his name. Oh, yeah, Kyle Inglehart. I was fourteen. He was sixteen. We met at the mall and then went to see a movie. I don’t remember which one. Not that it mattered because we spent the entire time making out.”

“Was Kyle important to you?”

“No. I made out with lots of boys at the movies. I got a reputation as a slut. Not that I cared. I just loved all the closeness. I still do. As you can imagine, I didn’t hold onto my virginity very long.”

“Before this or later?” Jake asked.

“Later. I was almost fifteen when a senior with a car decided to check if the rumors were true.”

“The backseat?”

“Yup.”

“How was it?”

“I lit off like a Roman candle.”

“So that convinced you to stop having sex?”

Nina slapped at Jake’s arm.

“Not hardly. From then on, I lost interest in boys who didn’t have a way to get me alone.” She fanned her face with her hand. “Stop it. I’m getting too wound up. It will mess up the deposition if I jump one of the lawyers.”

“Okay, change of topic,” Jake said.

This time Jake found an image of her at a graduation ceremony. He showed it to the others.

Nina smiled broadly when it came into her mind.

“That’s my high school graduation. God, was I relieved to graduate. My heart was never in studying. It just got in the way of going on dates.”

Jake felt several people getting off the elevator. They were early.

“Who was there with you?”

“My whole family was there. They were way up in the bleachers someplace.”

There was a knock on the door. Jake sat Nina up and then helped her to her wheelchair.

“Remember the plan,” he said softly to the room at large. “Let me deal with the lawyer with the gun. Keep Nina’s door locked until I come for her. Crack-shot Kara will stand guard until I give the all-clear.”

Nina nodded. Kara pushed her back to a bedroom. Another knock sounded on the door.

“The rest of you can go back to a bedroom, too. It’ll be riskier out here.”

Julie, Leanne, Brian, and Kate pointedly ignored him.

Jake sighed and went to open the door.

Jerry entered followed by Sidney Vincent and three lawyers. The court reporter trailed behind.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t charter a four-seater,” Jake said.

“Lawyers from big firms are like high school girls,” Jerry said. “They move around in packs. What’s the setup, Jake?”

“One table for each side. There’s room over here for Nina’s wheelchair. The court reporter can plug into the wall right next to her.”

“There’s not enough room for us,” one of the lawyers said, not the one with the gun.

“You can spill over onto the sofa or one of the easy chairs.”

“Where’s the witness?” Vincent asked.

“She’ll be here as soon as you’re ready to start,” Jake said.

The lawyer with the gun sat on the sofa. He put his briefcase on the coffee table.

Jake caught Brian’s eye and nodded in the direction of the lawyer on the sofa.

“Why are those other people here?” Vincent asked.

“Family of the witness,” Jake said. “They’ll be off to the side and won’t interfere with the deposition.”

“Not acceptable,” Vincent said. “Nothing in the order permits it.”

“Nothing forbids it either,” Jerry said. “If the witness wants her family close by, she can have them. If you don’t like it, you can leave in a huff. If you don’t want to cross the witness, it’s no skin off my teeth.”

“I’m ready,” the court reporter said, settling into her seat.

“I’ll get Nina,” Leanne said and started walking toward the bedroom.

The assassin reached into his briefcase. Jake sensed him take hold of the gun and release the safety.

Jake sprang toward him, his hands coming down hard on the top of the briefcase, trapping the lawyer’s hands inside. Jake read the lawyer to see where the gun was pointing. It was uncomfortably close to Jake’s left leg. Jake pushed on one side of the briefcase, shifting it so that the gun pointed at the table with Vincent and the other two lawyers. Jake made the assassin’s trigger finger jerk and the gun fired. One of the lawyers screamed.

Brian sprang from his position and grabbed the lawyer in a headlock, pulling his hands out of the briefcase. Jake’s pressure on the top of the case ensured that the assassin had to release the gun as his hands were pulled out.

“What the hell is going on here,” Vincent thundered.

One of the lawyers at his table fell to the floor, blood blooming from his thigh.

Jerry went to the telephone and dialed.

“This is room 921. We need security and police here immediately. We need an ambulance, too. Someone has been shot. We are holding the shooter.”

Jerry hung up and rounded on Vincent.

“I don’t know what the fuck you think you are pulling here, but I’ll have you all disbarred before this is over.”

Jerry pulled out his cell phone. He hit the speed dial.

“Judge Thompson, please. I’m Jerry Amos. This is an emergency ... Jerry Amos here, Judge. I thought you should know that one of Sidney Vincent’s associates just tried to kill my witness ... We’re in her hotel room. The deposition was just about to start ... We got the gun away from him and we’re holding him until the police get here ... No, Ms. Tamborg is unhurt but it looks like Vincent’s second-chair was shot in the leg ... No, I don’t think we can go forward with the deposition in these circumstances. I’ll bring a motion this week for sanctions against Vincent and his firm. A grievance will follow. And if I were a betting man, I’d expect a civil suit will be coming soon against Vincent’s law firm ... Okay. Bye, Judge.”