“Count on it,” Grace said. “Want to share a bottle of wine?”
“I’m thinking a few boilermakers might make this episode fade away for the night quite handily.”
“Even better,” Grace agreed.
*
Rachel brought Nick’s cell-phone to him where John and Gus were again in the kitchen with him sharing sipping whiskey. “It’s for you. Some lawyer named Ben Brock wants to speak with you.”
Nick took the phone. “Hello.”
“Gerald Kensky is gone. He hasn’t called, and I’ve checked his house in Everett. There’s no sign of him, and they found his car abandoned.”
“Thanks for the update, counselor. What does that have to do with me?”
“Ah… well… I wanted to touch base with you. I never had anything against you personally, Sir. I respect your service to our country. Kensky needed representation and I was merely doing my job in defending him.”
“Okay. Thanks for all that, but again, what does it have to do with me?” Nick sipped his Bushmills’ Irish Whiskey while grinning at his companions.
“There aren’t any hard feelings between us, are there, Sir?”
“Not that I know of, counselor. I admit I’m not fond of defense attorneys who defend murderous bastards they know are guilty, but everyone has a job to do, huh? In the future, I’d be very careful about whom I defend if I were you. I look forward to following your career. There really shouldn’t be any hard feelings between us in the future, should there be, counselor?”
“Absolutely not, Mr. McCarty. Have a good evening.”
*
“What’s wrong, Ben?”
Brock glanced at his wife, having not noticed when she entered the room. “Nothing Sue. I’m going to be very careful about the cases I take in the future.”
“Is this about them finding your client’s car abandoned?”
“Partly. Mostly, it’s my theory about how it became abandoned. I’m relieved now because I don’t think I’ll have to worry in regard to Kensky again. I plan on making sure I don’t have any Kensky types to worry about in the future either.”
“I thought the Kensky case was going to make you a household name. It seems to be doing exactly that.”
“Yes… it is. A name to be cursed for helping a murderer go free. I’m done with that TV show crap about everyone having the right to legal defense. I’m beginning to think there are exceptions to that rule, and forces in place to make sure errors in the law get corrected outside of court. I don’t want to become one of the corrections.”
Sue sat down next to her husband. “Did someone threaten you?”
Brock hugged his wife. “More like a promise.”
*
“Wow, the great defender, Benjamin Brock, called you on the phone, Muerto,” Gus said after Nick disconnected from Brock. “What was that all about?”
“He called to let me know they found Kensky’s car. He also hinted at knowing actions have consequences. I agreed.”
“When do we go home then,” John asked.
“I think it will be safe to go home tomorrow. If Kensky’s lawyer doesn’t plan to pursue any wild theories, then I believe it might be time to quietly retreat to our home turf. The Kader mess will undoubtedly follow us. I’d rather face it at home than here. We have a storage freezer at home for unexpected arrivals from John’s future in-laws.”
“You have a wedding to give away the bride in too. John seems close to making it a double wedding,” Gus replied. “Maybe you can give away both brides.”
“I would disagree,” John said, “but if Cala considered my proposal seriously, I would ask you to do us the honor of giving Cala away too. Gus could be my best man, and Rachel might agree to dub in as Maiden of Honor at both weddings too.”
“I sense you are absolutely serious about this, John,” Nick said. “It would be a wonderful double wedding. I as Father of both brides would have the weddings at the Corral Country Club or Lover’s Point. Take my advice. Let’s get the best wedding planner around. We don’t want to deal with Dimah and Cala without a wedding planner to engage them on our behalf. Women can become so emotionally involved as to lose sight of the objective.”
“Has Dimah spoken of a theme or venue for the wedding?” Gus looked less than enthused by Nick’s suggestion. “Women are also incredibly cement headed about what they want for a wedding. Think of Tina.”
“John has balls though. That automatically eliminates you from this discussion, Payaso. Dimah and Cala will act on my suggestion of a wedding planner. I have another idea as to how we can separate the Kader family from Dimah and Cala so we don’t have to put my preventative maintenance extermination plan into effect. It will also separate the Kader family from Fontaine. If he decides to pursue this vendetta to get Cala as one of his wives, I’ll know who to target.”