Attorney Client Privilege Bk. 07

By now there were people moving in and out of the room at an insane pace. The only constants in the room were Briski, Cujo, Lis, the EMTs working on Cory and Captain Leroy Parker who had entered the room along with the second team of EMTs. The first team was nearing the end of their work with Corinna Everlund. She had lost so much blood and the bullet had done a great deal of damage. Finally the senior member stood up and they put her on the gurney for the trip to the hospital. They would continue working on her until they got to the emergency room but it was simply going through the motions. There was no heartbeat and the muscular blonde hadn't taken an unaided breath in the last ten minutes. Lis watched with tears in her eyes as the gurney wheeled by. She knew it was the last time she'd ever see the woman that had changed her life.

"Excuse me but we have a lot to clean up here and we're really going to need your help." Detective Briski had walked up to Lis.

"Yea I know." Lis was pretty much in shock and couldn't offer much more.

"I'm Detective Briski and this is my partner Detective Cujo and Captain Parker from vice." Briski had winced when he had let it slip that a vice officer was in the room. He figured just looking at the tall gorgeous blonde that she had to be part of X's stable. So he was surprised to hear her open right up.

"My name is Lis Rome. I'll help anyway I can as long as you get up to Xavier Washington's townhouse and . . . ." Lis answered.

"That's already been done. We arrested three men and took one to the hospital along with a woman who needed some observation." Parker informed her with an assuring tone.

"What happened over there?" Lis was beside herself. She needed to know what had happened.

"Did you know these people?" Cujo asked.

"Yes! My friends Gideon and Amy were over there!" Lis responded.

"Well you picked the right side. Your friend Amy is fine, just shaken up. That moose Gideon, he was one of yours?" Lis nodded and Briski continued. "Well he's going to be fine. It seems it takes more than one bullet to bring down a grizzly. He's being operated on to remove the bullet but it's not life threatening."

"Oh thank God! Oh thank God they're going to be okay!" Lis gushed.

"You're the one. You know we never would have closed this without you. You know that don't you?" Briski asked.

"Yes that was me. Believe me I wanted this as bad as you did. In that table, in the drawer at the end of the hallway I hid a CD disk. It's got everything you'll need. I switched it with a blank I was carrying before I got to this room." Lis admitted and then she went into a story that had the detectives on the edge of their seats for the nest four hours.

They talked down in the living room while the forensic people worked upstairs. The men fired questions at Lis one after another. She handled them all like a pro. When the men found where the beautiful blonde's day job was they understood why. They smiled knowing that their primary target Xavier Washington was finally going to get the justice he deserved. They had a an ace fighter pilot that was as experienced and as slick in a court room as any lawyer the black pimp could ever hope to hire. So with Lis' involvement there was only optimism as the detectives went out the front door with Lis into a sea of cameras and microphones. No one spoke to the reporters despite the shouts and pleads for information. The reporters were in a frenzy at the shooting of an assistant district attorney. The detectives and Lis simply moved towards their cars with Lis riding in the front seat of Captain Parker's cruiser. Still there were pictures, plenty of them and they landed on the front page of all the city's tabloids. Lis Rome was now a star, the wrong kind of star.

46

The first shoe to drop belonged to Judd Witt, or more accurately the entire partnership at Collins, Kelly & Witt. As it turned out Judd Witt still had a soft spot for his favorite associate. While he knew that in all probability she was going to lose her license to practice law not as much because of her transgressions as a whore for hire but more accurately as a result of her using information her client had told her against him. Ironically it would be X that would end Lis Rome's career as a lawyer even as the evidence she had gathered would put him in jail.

Despite his affection for Lis it came down to Witt to do the partnership's bidding. He visited Lis at her home and told her that she would no longer be allowed to practice law at Collins, Kelly & Witt. Still he gave her his assurance that he would be there for her at any disciplinary hearing that determined her license to practice law either as a character witness or as her defense counsel, whichever she wanted. It was the ultimate reassurance for the blonde attorney. Especially since without a law firm to lean back on she would be all alone out there, an easy target for anyone that wanted to bring a grievance against her with the disciplinary committee.

The inevitable happened when X, sentenced to sixty years without parole for his part in the murders of Cameron Sedgewick, Chester Bain and Corinna Everlund, also known as Helga Johanneson, plus his career as a pimp spent his last dollars on paying his attorney to bring action against his former lover and sex workhorse. Lis found herself standing alongside Judd Witt at a defense table up against August Twain. A rather blue blooded individual Twain had nonetheless earned his keep handling some of the sleazier products brought before the city's courts. Thus they found themselves in unusual positions, Twain as the prosecutor up against Lis who had been one of the more ethical attorneys in the city prior to meeting Xavier Washington. Still no one involved with the proceedings could have predicted what was going to happen as the case reached it climax.

There was one witness left for Twain. Up until that point his prosecution had been having its way with the defense and why not, after all, Lis had indeed broken her ethical duty to X. As hideous a human being as X had turned out to be and as much as he had deserved to be betrayed Lis was still going to lose her license despite a very spirited defense from her mentor and friend, Judd Witt.

". . . promise to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?" The baliff held out the bible for the witness.

"I do." Answered Detective Larry Briski.

"Detective Briski would you please give us an overview of your duties as a detective on the police force?" August Twain asked of his witness.

"I'm a homicide detective stationed at the 29th precinct." Briski kept it short.

"And what were your responsibilities with regards to the Cameron Sedgewick murder case." Twain continued.

"I was the lead detective on the case, along with my partner Ben Cujo." Briski was like a coiled snake on the witness stand. As long as you stayed clear of him you were okay it was when you gave him a poke that you were in trouble.

"Detective could you tell us about a series of phone calls you received with regards to this case?" Twain was moving in to glean the information he needed from the detective.

"I get a lot of phone calls during the day you're going to have to be more specific." Larry turned his head and addressed the three lawyers that made up the committee.

"What I meant is did you field a series of phone calls from an anonymous source, a female caller?" Twain was beginning to feel that this may not be the lay up that he had originally thought it would be.

Briski sat back in the chair and thought for a long second, too long for August Twain and then answered slowly. "Oh yea, we had a couple of calls from a woman that gave us some information."

"And in the course of your investigation, did you find out who this source was?" Twain wanted Briski to close out this grievance hearing and the committee to spend about ten minutes deciding to take Lis Rome's license to practice law. What he got instead was Briski's heel right in his face.

"Oh no, we could never be sure who that source was." Briski answered nonchalantly.

"Detective Briski is the woman who had given you the leads that led to the arrest of Xavier Washington in this courtroom?" Twain was quickly losing control of the situation.

"Oh I really couldn't be sure. I guess Attorney Sinclair may have a reasonable resemblance to the source's voice." Briski turned and nodded towards the head committee member Linda Sinclair.

"Detective Briski didn't you at one point admit that Lis Rome was the woman that had made phone calls to you with information implicating her client Xavier Washington as the main suspect in the murder of Cameron Sedgewick?" The blueblood was practically screaming now.

"Objection Attorney Twain is leading his witness." Judd Witt jumped up sensing the end may be near.

"Objection sustained." Attorney Sinclair said still amused that she was being dragged in to this grievance hearing as a possible source.

"Detective didn't you conclude that a particular woman was the source after you had met her in person?" Twain ranted.

"I've got to be honest I've thought I had the voice cornered a few times. I mean how are you going to pick out a voice from a couple of quick phone calls over a period of a year?" Briski again turned his attention to the three committee members who were now nodding their heads.

"If it please the committee it seems that Attorney Twain has misjudged his main witness. Without Detective Briski's corroboration with regards to who his source was with regards to the Xavier Washington case I believe that there is insufficient evidence that Attorney Lis Rome is guilty of any unethical behavior. I ask that the committee retire to its chamber to render a decision." Judd Witt applied the coup de gras.

"I haven't finished with my witness. You haven't even presented your defense. We aren't done." Twain winced at the thought of this turning into a romp.

"Attorney Twain I don't see you obtaining any more significant information from this witness and I have to agree with Attorney Witt that simply sending us to make a decision may be the best strategy." Attorney Sinclair concluded.

47

They met outside the building and had a bit of a reunion celebration. There was Lis, Witt, Briski and Cujo, who had attended the hearing for support. They were laughing and joking as August Twain walked by.

"Well that was a new low even for you detective." Twain commented with a smile on his face.

"Hey Twain you've seen those bull fights where the bull gores the matador. Now you know how the matador feels that's all." Briski nodded and smiled triumphantly.

"Well anyway congratulations on keeping your license Attorney Rome. My guess is what you've been dragged through over the past year or so is punishment enough for anyone." With that the thin well coiffed attorney marched the rest of the way down the steps and vanished into the crowd not all that upset at losing his first prosecution.

Just like that it was over. Lis gave each of the men a hug and a kiss. They had all had a part in rescuing her but now they were saying good bye. Judd Witt was the last to leave and the most emotional. Lis Rome had been the daughter he had never had and he had so loved seeing her every day. He made her promise that she would stay in touch and she agreed. Yet it would be the last time she would see the man who had done so much for her outside of a hospital. The managing partner would develop cancer and be dead within a year. She got to visit him as he went through his treatment. She was indeed like a daughter attending to Judd Witt right next to his longtime wife almost every day as he fought a valiant battle against the deadly disease. While it was a revelation seeing and briefly getting to know her former boss outside of a work environment it also broke her heart.

48

The three of them stayed together, through the trial of Xavier Washington and his thugs and beyond. They never faced any charges themselves. The fact that an assistant district attorney had actually tortured and tried to kill one of them and seduced and had a relationship with another had the prosecutors' office running for cover and quickly looking to make deals with Nikki, Amy and Lis to be witnesses and not defendants. They all did their part and as a result not only was X going to spend the rest of his days behind bars, so was Chuck. Tyrone and Al had assaulted Gideon with deadly weapons and they were an intricate part as the muscle end of X's high class escort service and so those deeds had cost them twenty years.

The girls became inseparable. They met every day and ate lunch and then spent time together. It was more for support than anything else. At first it was just Lis and Amy. Nikki's injuries were severe and despite having a top notch plastic surgeon work on her the gorgeous brunette's nipple and genitals had been mangled by Cory. They did their best to make her whole again but the scars were always going to be there. While it wouldn't have been too bad for a normal woman, it was hideous blow for one that had spent the better part of her life performing naked and exciting men and women with her perfection. She was glad to have Amy and Lis when she was done with her physical recovery as the psychological recovery would go on and on.

They also had Jamaica. Robert welcomed his women with open arms and they took advantage of the warmth, sunshine and abundance of interracial sex. At one point all three lived with Robert for over two months. The pool parties were legendary and even the up until then stodgy Beauvilles joined in on the small orgies. Lis would marvel at the sight of Catherine Beauville's long elegant body spread out on a lounge chair with a black man on top of her and another feeding his engorged cock into her mouth. She was an experienced and eager lover, something Lis found out first hand on Robert's bed one night.

The final night of one of their trips was especially emotional as Nikki announced that she would be staying behind. She had grown tired of the city and thought it was time for her to take things a bit slower. As a result of the authorities laying off of the women, all three had rather significant savings that went untouched. Thanks to Lis and the expertise of many of her investment connections those savings had grown robustly and so Nikki was going to be quite comfortable. She was also going to be looked after by Robert, Trevor and the rest down at the close knit beach club.

Meanwhile Amy and Lis went back up north. They were still hungry in a way. They couldn't put a finger on it but they took a plane ride and landed back at their destiny.

"How is this going to go?" Amy asked as they walked through the midtown hotel. She ignored the stares, something she had discovered happened often when she looked the way she did and something she learned to live with when she began dressing the way she had on this night.

"I think it'll be a rather easy meeting. Just follow my lead okay?" Lis returned with a smile.

"Gotcha! This is pretty important I guess." Amy answered.

"If we don't get this then we don't get our business so yea baby girl this is big." Lis gently patted Amy on the head and the blonde laughed at the gesture.

Their fur coats went down to mid thigh and exposed high heels and silk encased legs shaped by miles of exercise. Everyone in the lobby knew that these women worked hard on their bodies. If they were lucky enough to get a glimpse as the coats opened as the women walked they saw exquisite and expensive cocktail dresses underneath.

They rode the elevator up to the eighteenth floor and stepped out. They hadn't been in this hotel before but they each had been in enough of them in their line of work to know where to go. The room was 1844 down at the end of the hall. Lis looked over her friend before knocking and gave her face a quick caress. She didn't want her partner in business to be overly nervous on her first important meeting. She rapped her knuckles gently on the door. A tall black man answered the door.

"Why hello ladies! Step right in." He answered the door with enthusiasm.

"Good evening Captain Parker. How is the commanding officer of vice doing tonight?" Lis turned on the charm as she leaned in and gave the black man a full kiss on the lips. "You remember my partner Amy?"

"Of course how could anyone forget." Parker went over to Amy and gave her a kiss on the lips. The blonde accepted the black man's advances and why not? If things went well she would be doing more than simply kissing the black cop in the very near future. Permission from the establishment to sell one's body in the city came at a high price.

Lis and Amy had made their choice and now the fun and games would begin as they started a new and much more independent chapter in their lives at the top of the food chain in the city's crowded field of working women.