She still felt like a ghost beneath the gloss and glitter.
The bar—called the Gavel because of the proximity to the courthouse—where the legal secretaries hung out every Wednesday night was two blocks from their law office in Glendale. It was a large firm, and anywhere from four to ten women met once a week to let off steam and enjoy company and gossip.
It was the gossip Danielle hated, almost as much as the small talk.
Tonight six of them sat at one of the booths and drank wine. Danielle had to regulate herself. Alone, she would drink an entire bottle. With people, one glass was all she could handle.
Nina put her hand over Danielle’s. “I’m so glad you decided to join us tonight, especially after the victory you helped secure.”
“I didn’t do anything,” Danielle said. “Just my job.”
“You caught two huge mistakes that saved our client tens of thousands of dollars, and a major embarrassment for our firm. Your drink’s on me tonight.”
Danielle didn’t want the accolades. Yes, she was good at her job. It was all she had. Work or die slowly. Those were her options.
The women all chatted amongst one another. Danielle responded to questions because it was expected. She asked a few of her own—she could play the small talk game when she had to. Half the women at the table were married. Grace had no kids, Natalie had a teenage daughter, and Nina had a son.
An eight-year-old boy named Kevin.
Danielle didn’t want to ask, but she couldn’t help herself. As the conversation turned to relationships and children, she said, “Is your husband home with Kevin? Does he watch him every Wednesday?”
It was a casual question and fit the conversation, but it was something that had been on Danielle’s mind a lot lately. Especially after she saw Tony Fieldstone watching his law partner, Lana Devereaux, at the Christmas party six weeks ago. The way he looked at her. The way he watched her walk. Danielle knew the look.
She knew it well.
Too well.
Nina rolled her eyes. “Sometimes he does—he loves spending time with Kevin, don’t get me wrong, but Tony is all work, work, work. And tonight he had a poker game with Judge Carlson and the gang. Third Wednesday of the month. I say, why not Fridays when you don’t have to be in court the next morning? But men.”
Men. Right.
Danielle had worked for Taggert, Fieldstone, Finch, and Devereaux for three years. She knew of the poker game, it was common knowledge just like Wine Wednesdays and the monthly bunco game Grace hosted that she had, thankfully, avoided almost every month. But she wondered how long the game really went. If maybe Tony Fieldstone had someplace else he wanted to be.
A place he wasn’t supposed to be.
With a woman he wasn’t supposed to be with.
“You okay, Danielle?” Nina asked.
“Sorry, long day. Little headache.”
“Another glass of wine? You can Uber home and I’ll pick you up in the morning. You don’t live too far from me.”
“No, I’m fine.” She smiled, such a fake smile, but no one knew. “Do you have a regular babysitter for Kevin? He’s such a good kid.” Nina had brought him into the office a couple of times when there were minimum days in school and she didn’t have a sitter. Danielle tried not to pay attention to him, but she couldn’t help it. He was a perfect child.
Perfect.
Tony didn’t deserve a perfect son like Kevin when he was off screwing another woman.
You don’t know that he is having an affair. You only suspect.
She knew. She damn well knew and she would prove it.
She always did.
“Tony’s mom watches him after school—she lives only a couple blocks from his school, walks over and gets him every day. It’s nice, Kevin being able to spend some time with his grandmother.”
“It is,” Danielle agreed.
But you should be picking him up at school. You should be spending that time with him. Instead you’re sitting here laughing and drinking wine with a bunch of selfish, arrogant women.
“We have a regular babysitter when we have to work late—Maggie Crutcher.”
There was a lawyer named Wayne Crutcher. Maggie was his daughter. A teenager. Probably brought her boyfriend over to fuck when Kevin went to bed. They all did. They couldn’t be trusted.
The talk turned back to the office, and Danielle was relieved. She still needed to get out of here. Forty-five minutes … that was long enough, wasn’t it? She showed her face, made the small talk, did the dance, she needed to go because she was already on edge.
“You know, I’m really tired after today,” Danielle said. She finished her wine and smiled. “I think I’m going to call it a night.”
“Do you want to join us Friday for bunco? It’s at Shelly’s house in Burbank,” Grace said. “You had so much fun last time you came.”
Danielle barely remembered the last time—it had to be six months ago. She had too much wine, of that she was certain.
“I don’t know, my mom is having a hard time getting around and I help her on the weekends. Shopping, fixing things around the house, you know.”
“You’re so good to your mom,” Nina said. Danielle had told her all about her mother years ago, mostly to get out of socializing. “To drive all the way up there.”
“Where does she live?” Natalie asked.
“Sacramento,” Danielle lied. But it was a lie she told often, so it was one that came out smoothly. “It’s only five, six hours depending on traffic. I don’t mind, put on a book-on-tape or listen to music. But if she doesn’t need me, I’ll consider bunco. You know me, I’m not really an extrovert. Too many people makes me antsy.” That was the truth.
Nina smiled and patted her hand. “No pressure, but I would love you to come. It’s one night a month, a great way to get out and just relax, no work the next day.”
“Thanks.” She got up, said good-byes—why did it take so long to just tell people good-bye? Why more questions, more small talk, more nothingness?
Finally, she was free. She walked back to the parking garage and retrieved her car. She intended to drive home where she could open a bottle of wine and maybe eat something, but she found herself outside Judge Carlson’s house.
The judge had a private address, but she’d followed Tony Fieldstone here last month, after she suspected he was screwing Lana Devereaux. She saw Tony’s car in the driveway of the opulent house in the Glendale hills.
And Lana’s car. Did Nina know that Lana played poker with “the boys”? The only female partner … is that how it started? The one night a month … turning into something more?
For two hours Danielle watched the house from down the street. Then a car left.
Lana.
Five minutes later a second car left.
Tony.
She followed him.
Tony didn’t go home. She knew where he lived, because she’d once gone to bunco at Nina’s house when she first started the job with the law firm. Instead, Tony went to Lana Devereaux’s condo in Los Feliz.