Betrayal

Chapter 19

THE SAND MAN opened to rave reviews, for the acting, direction, score, and cinematography. People were going nuts for it, and moviegoers of all ages were stampeding the theaters where it was showing. It was a colossal hit, and Tallie was thrilled. It gave her an enormous boost after a painful year. Max came home the night before the premiere and attended it with her mother, and the next day the house was filled with flowers, champagne, gifts, and messages of praise. And Tallie couldn’t help wishing her father could have seen it. He had loved it every time one of her movies was a big hit. And he would have loved this one. It had all the action, complicated plot, and fine acting that he loved.

Jim Kingston called to congratulate her too. He said he was going to see it that weekend with Bobby. And Josh was due home in a few days for Christmas vacation.

“It must be a fantastic movie, from what the critics say,” Jim said pleasantly, and then asked her if she was ready for Christmas. In truth, she was dreading it. It was going to be another important holiday without her father. The pain of his loss was still acute, for her and her daughter.

“As ready as we’re going to be.” She had already been to Max-field’s to buy everything she thought Max wanted. Brigitte had always helped her with her Christmas shopping, but Tallie didn’t ask Megan to do it for her. She had made a point of being less dependent on her than she had been on Brigitte, and doing more for herself. She wanted their working relationship to be better balanced and even a little distant. She was keeping things more professional, and getting less personally involved. It seemed wiser after all that had happened, and Megan understood. She had already become a major asset in Tallie’s life.

“What about you?” Tallie asked Jim about Christmas.

“Christmas shopping has never been my forte. These holidays are never quite the same after what we’ve been through and you have. And I know you must miss your dad.”

“I do,” she confessed. “But at least he was eighty-six, so even if I miss him, there’s a kind of natural order to it,” which hadn’t been the case with Jim’s wife.

“We have to set up that skating date,” Jim reminded her. “I’ll call you as soon as Josh gets home,” he promised. So she wasn’t surprised when he called her four days later. She’d been sitting at her desk, thinking about Brigitte, wondering what her Christmas in jail was going to be like. Tallie couldn’t even imagine it and didn’t want to. She picked up the phone, knowing it was Jim, and he sounded elated when she answered. Before anything else, he congratulated her on her latest film. As promised, he and Bobby had seen it over the weekend and loved it. “It’s amazing!” Now that he knew her, he had been even more impressed by her skill as a director. The performances had been incredible, and Bobby had loved the film as much as he did. Tallie was pleased to hear it.

“Thank you,” she said warmly. It was breaking box-office records, and so far was the smash hit of the season. “It’s doing really well.”

“I have a Christmas gift for you,” he said, changing the subject. She didn’t have one for him, and was suddenly embarrassed. “Brigitte’s lawyer contacted us today, and the district attorney. She wants to plead guilty in both cases and get it over with and get the time running. And that means you’ll be home free on the civil lawsuit too, because once she pleads, all you have to do is make a stipulated settlement with her lawyer for the amount she’s willing to make restitution for, and you’re done. You won’t have to go to court or testify. There’s no jury, no trial… it’s almost over, Tallie,” he said gently. It was a gift he was thrilled to be able to give her. Soon she could put it all behind her, and he knew how important that was for her. The upcoming trials had been weighing heavily on her, and Jim knew they would be traumatic. And until they were behind her, she couldn’t really heal.

“Why do you think she did that?” Tallie asked him, surprised and pleased. It was major news.

“Probably because her lawyer’s not stupid. She can’t win any of these cases. She’ll get a much better deal from the U.S. attorney and the district attorney if she pleads. Damage control. They’ll agree to how long she spends in prison, instead of pushing it to the limit with a jury trial in both cases. She would have had to be suicidal to do that. She’s doing the right thing, and it’ll make the civil matter a lot easier for you if she’s reasonable, which remains to be seen. But I hope she will be. This was really her only choice.” He was delighted, and as she began to understand it better, Tallie was too. “Merry Christmas, Tallie,” he said warmly.

“Thank you, Jim, for everything.” She really meant it. They both did.

“Let’s set up that skating evening to celebrate after the holidays,” he said in a friendly tone.

“I’d love it,” she said with genuine pleasure in her voice, since they’d had fun with them before, when they went bowling. And then she went to tell Max what Brigitte had done. She wished she could have told her father. The nightmare was almost over. Maybe it was Brigitte’s Christmas gift to her after all, or maybe not. Maybe she had done it for herself. Damage control, as Jim called it. It was hard to tell. But it was a good thing. And very good news for her.

Tallie and Max were having breakfast in the kitchen on a Tuesday morning between Christmas and New Year. Tallie was glancing at some e-mails on her computer while Max read the paper, and suddenly Max gave a scream, and Tallie nearly jumped off her seat.

“Oh my God, what is it? What happened now?” She felt constantly wary of bad news, which was the fallout of everything that had happened. Jim had told her it would pass, but it hadn’t yet. “What’s wrong?”

Max was grinning as she read out loud in a voice filled with importance. “It’s an editorial about all the movies that came out at Christmas. They’re predicting you’re going to win an Oscar for The Sand Man, and the guy who writes this column is usually right. How do you like that, Mom?”

“It sounds great, but you can’t believe all those predictions. He’s just guessing. We’ll see.” The nominations weren’t due out till February. And then she added, “I’ve been nominated twice before and didn’t win.” But even being nominated would be terrific and great for the picture, if it turned out later that she was, and she might be nominated for a Golden Globe Award too.

“There’s a nice optimistic attitude,” Max scolded her. “If you get nominated, can I go with you?” Max asked her. She wanted to get in her bid early. And it reminded Tallie that she had gone the last time with her father, but it would be fun to go with Max, and Max had been with her before, although it was a long, sometimes tedious evening. But it would definitely be amazing to win an Oscar, with Max attending the award ceremony with her. It gave her something to look forward to.

It was time to live again, and with Brigitte pleading guilty to all charges, at least Tallie wouldn’t have the trials to worry about. Things were finally looking up. And there might just be an Oscar in her future. She didn’t dare hope for that. It was just a silly prediction, Tallie knew, but it would be incredible if she won one. It was an exciting dream.

Jim called her that afternoon and congratulated her on the article too, and said he hoped she’d win, and he suggested a night for their skating date that they’d all been looking forward to and the date he offered sounded fine to her. It was later that week. “How was your Christmas?” he asked her pleasantly.

“Small. Quiet. Nice. We missed my dad a lot,” she said honestly, “but we had fun too. And we’ve been busy ever since.” The time always flew by when Max was home, and he said the same about Josh. He said he has taking the boys skiing at Squaw Valley over New Year’s, and he had suggested their skating date the night before.

Max and Tallie met the three Kingstons at the skating rink on Thursday night. Max brought a tin of brownies she had baked for them, and the five of them spent several hours on the ice, laughing and chasing each other around. Josh was by far the best skater, as he’d been skating recently in Michigan, and he tucked Max’s hand into his arm and glided smoothly onto the ice with her and kept her from falling, while Bobby speed-skated around the ice with friends. Jim and Tallie went around the rink more sedately, but talking and laughing, until they finally sat down on a bench to catch their breath after an hour. They were having a lot of fun. Tallie had worn pink earmuffs and matching mittens, and she looked like a kid with pink cheeks and bright eyes, while Jim looked barely older than his sons. They were a handsome group as people noticed them skating together.

“I haven’t had this much fun in ages,” Tallie said, smiling at him.

“Neither have I. I always have a good time when I’m with you,” Jim said, looking shy for a minute. “I hope you realize that I don’t normally introduce my children to the people I work with.” He hadn’t wanted to say “victims,” but she understood what he was saying. “You’re a remarkable woman, Tallie. I’m honored that I’ve gotten to know you. I wish I could have achieved a better outcome for you, or that none of this had happened to you at all. But as long as it did, I’m glad I was assigned to work on your case, and have gotten to know you now.” In some ways, they felt like they’d become friends, and he really had gotten to know her, through some of the hardest events in her life.

“I feel the same way, and I think you’ve done an amazing job. If it weren’t for you, we would never have caught Brigitte or been able to stop her. I’m just grateful it’s behind me now.” She had bounced back better than he’d expected, and she seemed stronger now every time he saw her. And she was a very attractive woman, and so gentle and kind that he liked her better and better and was more and more attracted to her. He had never spent personal time with a “victim,” but he loved the time he spent with Tallie, and on every occasion he saw her, all he wanted was to do it again.

“I didn’t want you to think that this is a usual occurrence for me. In fact”-he looked away for a moment and then back into her green eyes-“I haven’t dated since Jeannie died.”

“I understand,” she said softly, took off one pink mitten, and patted his hand, and he gently took her hand in his own.

“Would you have dinner with me sometime, Tallie?” he asked her with a cautious look. He was afraid that she would say no, and he’d spoil what they were sharing now. She smiled at him and nodded.

“I’d like that very much.” As she said it, he beamed at her, then stood up and pulled her to her feet. She had just given him everything he wanted, and he was afraid to say more. And for the first time, looking at another woman he didn’t feel disloyal to his late wife. He felt sure that she would have liked Tallie, and how kind she was to his boys, and Max was a lovely girl. They all seemed to fit together, and the three times they had all seen each other had been innocent and fun. And Jim had already warned Josh not to misbehave with Max, and he had promised. Jim didn’t want anything to go wrong. Tallie had been through enough, and so had Max.

For the rest of the evening, the kids skated together, and sometimes Jim and Tallie skated with them. And in between they sat on one of the benches and talked for a while. Jim said that sometime he wanted to take her to a restaurant called Giorgio Baldi, where they had the best pasta in the world.

They all hated to see the evening end, and reluctantly left the ice when the session was over. It was eleven o’clock, and they had been skating for four hours. The three younger members of the group didn’t even look tired. And the Kingstons were leaving for Squaw Valley in the morning for three days of skiing. The boys promised to call Max when they got back, and Jim exchanged a long look with Tallie when they said goodbye and kissed her on the cheek. Tallie waved at them as they left the parking lot first. It had been a wonderful evening, and it sounded like there were more to come. She had had a lovely time with Jim and his boys, and so had Max, who was leaning back in her seat in the car with her eyes closed, listening to her iPod, which allowed Tallie to drive home in silence, lost in her own thoughts.

Tallie didn’t hear from Jim for a week after he got back from Squaw Valley. He was busy at work with a flood of new cases that had landed on his desk after the first of the year. But he called her the day after Brigitte pleaded guilty to the charges of embezzlement, mail and wire fraud, abuse of trust, and tax evasion. She had pleaded guilty to all of it. And then to first-degree murder. The sentencing had been set for early April. And the probation department would be working on the pre-sentencing report and recommendation to the judge until then. Jim said that she would probably do ten years because she had pleaded. She could have gotten as much as twenty, or even life, if she hadn’t. So she had done herself a big favor with the plea. And Tallie’s civil suit would be a matter of negotation for restitution. Brigitte’s guilty plea had included an agreement to make restitution in full to her victim. Jim warned Tallie that she might not be able to recoup that much, if Brigitte had hidden it or spent it, but she would get something. But except for the sentencing and the negotiations for restitution in the civil suit, it was over. And Tallie wouldn’t have to go through the agony of a trial. She was enormously relieved.

“Were you in court for the plea?” Tallie wanted to know.

“Yes, I was.”

“How was she?”

He hesitated and then told Tallie the truth, however hurtful. “She was cool, calm, and collected. Totally unemotional. She didn’t look scared. She gave her guilty plea in an unwavering strong voice, not a tear, not a tremor, and she looked the judge right in the eye. She’s a perfect sociopath, through and through. Her hair was even clean and freshly done, and she wore a very sexy dress that you probably paid for.” It was shocking to hear. Tallie tried to envision it in disbelief.

“I don’t understand,” Tallie said quietly.

“You wouldn’t. Most people wouldn’t. That kind of personality is so foreign to the rest of us. That’s why they get away with what they do. We can’t even imagine it, so we don’t suspect it, while they lie, cheat, and steal, and occasionally kill someone. It’s pretty scary stuff. I feel sorry for Hunter Lloyd,” he said quietly, “but I’m glad it wasn’t you.”

“So am I,” she said, thinking about Max. It would have destroyed her if her mother had been killed.

“So what about our dinner? Does Friday night work for you?” he asked quietly, afraid she might have changed her mind.

“Perfect.” Max had gone back to New York that morning, and Tallie was free. She wasn’t going out socially, and since she wasn’t working at the moment, she had time on her hands. All she was doing was talking to investors for her next picture.

“I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty,” he promised, and they were both smiling when they hung up.

And when Jim arrived promptly on Friday night, Tallie was happy to see him. Knowing that Brigitte had pleaded guilty really had given Tallie a sense of relief all week, and she felt freer than she had in months. And Greg was moving ahead with negotiations for a stipulated judgment in the civil suit, to get some of her money back. She was slowly putting it all behind her.

And she and Jim talked nonstop through dinner about their kids, their work, their families when they grew up. The evening sped by and the food at Giorgio Baldi was as delicious as he had said. And when Jim took her home, he hesitated for a long moment as they stood outside her house, and he kissed her gently on the mouth, and then looked at her with concern.

“I just want you to know that I’ve never kissed a victim before,” he said softly.

“I’m not a victim,” she whispered back. “And I never will be again.” She was definitely coming back. He smiled at what she said. She had told him at dinner that she had taken her most recent letter from the Victim Identification Program with her number on it and thrown it in the trash when it arrived that day.

“You know what I mean,” he said. “I’ve never gotten involved with anyone through my work.” He had already told her that when they went skating, but he wanted to be sure she knew it was true. “I don’t want you to think that I go around hitting on the people I work with.” But she had never thought that. If anything, she had thought they were friends, until he kissed her.

“I have kind of a problem too,” she admitted, as long as they were being honest with each other, which she liked. It was essential to her, and always had been, but more so than ever now. “I’m not sure I could ever trust anyone again.” She looked very serious, and he laughed when she said it, which startled her. “I mean it,” she said for emphasis.

“I know, and I don’t blame you… but if you can’t trust an FBI agent, who can you trust?” She thought about it for a minute and then smiled.

“You have a point.”

“This may be the safest relationship you’ll ever have. I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but… ” Before he could finish his sentence, she kissed him back. He had forgotten what that could be like, and so had she. She had blotted everything out of her mind and heart, and he had thought he was dead after Jeannie, and now he realized he wasn’t. He was very much alive, and so was she. And as she looked up at him, she had no idea what would happen, but what she did know was that she could trust him, and she was safe.