Johnson, Johnson & Lambert

Parker grilled Stephanie, grilled her hard. He was an excellent interrogator and also utilized the tricks of

Asking questions in a manner that would ensnare most people, and would often ask the next question before she even finished answering the previous one.

And fifteen minutes into his questioning, Parker couldn't think of any more questions to ask. And Stephanie let out an audible sigh of relief that her ordeal was over.

Parker was shaken; most people would have wilted under his attack. He had even tripped up seasoned police detectives on the witness stand in court trials.

Obviously Stephanie Hebert had been coached. Coached very well.

"I have no questions of Ms. Hebert. Your next witness please?" Trevor said.

Billy was ushered in. He glared at Stephanie, and felt like slapping her when she regarded him coolly.

Parker asked questions about Stephanie's skills as a waitress, which Billy answered, painting her in a bad light. He smirked as some of his answers seemed to strike nerves wit Stephanie.

"Mr. Williams?" Parker smirked.

"Would you characterize yourself as a great manager? A good manager, an okay manager, or a poor manager?" Trevor asked.

"I'd say I'm pretty good," Billy shrugged.

One of the files I sent over has twenty written statements we obtained from employees of Casa Ole. These are past and current employees," Trevor said as Kelly Montoyez removed a thick folder from her attaché case.

"Wait a minute," Parker said.

"Oh? You didn't read it?" Trevor asked.

"Like I had time?" Parker snarled.

"How many people does Casa Ole currently employ?" Trevor asked as Parker had Frances DeSalvo frantically flip through the six boxes of files.

"Right now?" Billy asked, sweating now.

"Current, right now, yes, Mr. Theriot, how many people does Casa Ole currently employ?" Trevor sneered.

"Uh, twenty one, no, uh, twenty three," Billy said.

Frances put the file in front of Parker.

"Well, I hope the seven we didn't contact have a more favorable opinion of you," Trevor smiled.

"And why were those seven not contacted?" Parker asked, seeing a chink in Trevor's armor.

"Those seven were hired after the date of the alleged incident," Trevor responded. "The questions were graded from one to five, one, very poor, two being poor, three being fair, four is good and five is excellent. When we took the ten questions, ranging from delegates duties and responsibilities to stands behind his employees, Mr. Theriot, you did not score a single three, four, or five."

"What?" Billy asked, stunned.

"And on the back, oh my God, I never laughed so hard," Trevor smiled. "We told your employees to write a few lines about what they thought of you. 'If scratching his ass and looking stupid makes a good manager, then Billy would be a great manager.' Here's another one, 'Billy's got to be somebody's brother or brother in law; he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing.' My favorite, though, Who's dick did he suck to get this job?'"

"So there's some people that don't like him," Parker snapped. "What does that prove? I'm sur you

Walk into any restaurant and ask them what they think of their manager, you'll get the same results."

"You'd be wrong," Trevor smiled and Rebecca produced a second file. "We thought there was a possibility of that, so we sampled forty employees from five other restaurants in the greater DeGarde area, eight from each to see what they thought of their managers. Tabulating them all together, they averaged out to three point eight. Mr. Theriot averaged out to one point two."

Trevor questioned Billy; had any customers complained about Stephanie, any coworkers complained about Stephanie.

Rebecca slid her notes over to Trevor.

"But, when Mr. Johnson asked you about Ms. Hebert's work ethics, you stated, and I quote, 'she was barely skating by.' And now you say she was punctual, got along with coworkers, no customer complaints. Does that sound like an employee that's just skating by?" Trevor asked.

"And what's this shit, she's suing us for wrongful termination? This is a 'Right to Work' state; I can fire her because she wiped her ass wrong if I want to," Billy spat.

"Different case altogether, Mr. Theriot; if you'd just answer the question," Trevor smiled. "How she wipes her ass has no bearing on her job performance, now does it?"

At five fifteen, Parker tried to call for an end to that day's depositions.

"If there be no objections, I move that we reconvene tomorrow at..." Parker snarled, tired and angered that this young upstart was besting him.

"One objection; Ms. Hebert and I have another case already scheduled for nine a.m. tomorrow. We're due in Family Court, Judge Robichaux's court. Besides that, Stacy and Tracy Vickers are here as expert witnesses; at a cost of three hundred dollars an hour; surely you cannot expect Ms. Hebert to pay them for any additional time. No, no, let's proceed, Mr. Johnson," Trevor smiled.

"Then let's get their part out of the way and then we can reconvene at..." Parker snapped, the vein in his forehead visible again.

"They're my witnesses, not yours, unless you have no further witnesses?" Trevor asked.

Trevor finally agreed to reschedule the deposition for the following Monday, to begin at nine a.m. and Rebecca, Tracy and Stacy Vickers, Ben Scholtz, and Trevor and Stephanie left Conference Room C.

Frances DeSalvo looked at Parker Johnson, wondering if she remembered enough of her CPR training; he looked as if he would have a heart attack at any moment.

Robin and Clair Boudreaux looked at each other, shell-shocked.

Out in the parking lot, Ben happily agreed to give Rebecca Montoyez a ride home. Stacy and Tracy Vickers got into their Alpine white Mercedes-Benz and drove out.

"Hey, give Kristina a kiss for me," Trevor called out as he unlocked his car.

"Or you could come over and give her a kiss yourself," Stephanie playfully suggested.

Trevor hesitated for a moment, then smiled and shook his head no.

"Not a good idea, Ms. Hebert, I'm your attorney," he smiled, then got into his car.

He sent a text message to Donald and was not surprised in the least when his supervisor and mentor requested he come into the office immediately.

Ten minutes later, Ethel Youngblood, the receptionist smiled and unlocked the front door of the office of Richards, Pellichet, And Jones and let Trevor in.

"Well?" Donald smiled, and smiled wider when Trevor smiled.

"Ben's tapes should really tell the whole story, but they just didn't expect us to hammer them as hard as we did," Trevor said.

"No, no, Parker's a true narcissist; he honestly believes no one is equal, or even superior to him, therefore he doesn't have to do anything," Donald agreed.

While Trevor and Donald were discussing the deposition and the child support hearing for the following day, Stephanie was finally, gratefully closing her apartment door behind Clarisse. With her belly full, Kristina lay in her crib, sleeping peacefully. Stephanie stripped out of the new blouse and skirt she'd bought, with Trevor's recommendations, kicked her shoes into the small closet and hurriedly rolled her pantyhose down her legs.

Trevor had smiled and told her that she looked very nice; complimented her on her blouse and skirt choice. Her bra joined the pantyhose and Stephanie scampered into the bathroom.

Her vibrator was in the small cabinet underneath the sink. She did not even need lubricant; just rubbed the smooth latex dong up and down her dripping slit, then rammed it home.

A twist of the knob at the base made Stephanie shriek; the batteries were dead.

So she had to resort to thriving the dildo in and out of herself, while rubbing her hard clitoris with her other hand.

"Fuck!" she grunted as the first orgasm spilled out.

The second one was quick to follow, and the third one nearly brought her to her knees.

Slowly, she pulled the instrument out of her pussy, sucked it clean, the washed it in the small sink and hid it under the sink again.

Batteries," she said before leaving the bathroom and pulling on her nightgown.

Chapter 6

Brandon Johnson looked over as Stephanie rolled the stroller into the courtroom. She wore a simple blouse and slacks, her face was devoid of cosmetics, and her long brown hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail.

All of this, of course, per Travis's instructions.

Brandon looked at the young woman again. On Greg's cell phone, the girl had been a very attractive, very trashy looking girl.

Here, however, she was a very attractive, innocent looking young Mom.

At the front of the court, Judge Marie Robichaux listened to Trevor Williams as he represented a young black woman.

The other table was bare; the young man had simply not shown up for the hearing.

"I'm issuing a bench warrant for Mr. Odell Wilson," the judge snapped. "That should insure his appearance for the seventeenth. Next case, please."

"Trevor Williams, in the matter of Hebert V. St. Charles," Trevor announced and smiled as Stephanie made her way to the front of the court.

"How nice to see you again, Mr. Williams," Judge Robichaux drawled.

"Good to see you too, your Honor," Trevor smiled and stepped over so that Stephanie would have to park the stroller in direct view of Judge Marie Robichaux, so the judge would get a good look at the cute baby.

"That's us," Brandon needlessly said to Greg and Dianne.

"You slut!" Dianne snarled hatefully at her former friend.

"Ma'am, one more outburst out of you and I will have you removed from the court; is that clear?" Marie snapped, banging her gavel on her bench, hard.

Dianne St. Charles was removed when it became clear that Kristina was not conceived on one drunken night. The bailiff lumbered over to grab Dianne.

"You mother fucker!" she screamed, clawing at her husband's face. "You no good, lying, get your God damned fucking hands off of me!"

She was still screaming as the bailiff hustled her out of the courtroom.

Greg did refuse to press charges against his wife, the bailiff looked at his face and applied some antiseptic spray and the case continued.

"Seven hundred a month? I only make..." Greg screamed when Judge Robichaux made her decision.

"Plus half of all medical, dental, education..." Judge Robichaux ticked off. "Mr. St. Charles, the court

Does not care if you have to eat tuna fish out a can every day until that child is eighteen, twenty one if she goes to college. You knowingly had sexual intercourse with that young lady, not once, not twice, but several times over a three year period. Did it ever occur to you to use protection?"

"I uh, she said it was cool," Greg stammered.

"Mr. St. Charles, whose penis was it? Whose sperm was it?" the severe looking woman asked, fixing the squirming Greg St. Charles with a glare.

"Your Honor, placing such a financial burden on Mr. St. Charles would leave him unable to pay..." Brandon lumbered to his feet.

"Mr. Johnson, I am assessing the amount of child support based on what his annual income was for last year," the woman intoned. "I assume, he is still working for St. Elizabeth Public Utilities?"

"Yes, your Honor, but..." Brandon said.

"And I assume, his hours are still forty hours per normal work-week the judge continued.

"Yes, your Honor, but..." Brandon said.

"Mr. Johnson, Mr. St. Charles, I am not even taking into account that Mr. St. Charles's spouse, uh, Dianne St. Charles, such a charming young lady, by the way, is also gainfully employed. My ruling is based solely on Mr. St. Charles's income," the woman said.

"Yes, your Honor," Brandon said and sat back down.

"Now, Mr. St. Charles, I see no petition... Mr. Johnson? Is your client not petitioning for visitation with his child?" Marie asked.

"Uh no, no your Honor," Brandon said. "Mr. St. Charles does not wish..."

"Good," Marie agreed. "I would have awarded it; but it would have been supervised, given the outburst we witnessed earlier. So, if we're done here..."

"Your Honor, again, placing such a financial burden on my client..." Brandon stated, again struggling to his feet.

"Then who should bear the cost, Mr. Johnson?" Marie snapped. "The mother? Guess what, she has been. And she's been managing to scrape by. Time for your client to pay his fair share, Mr. Johnson and again, I think I'm being very reasonable."

"Wow, twelve hundred bucks and this was the best you could do?" Greg sneered as they walked out of the courtroom.

"So, um, now that Greg's going to be paying, I need to give back the money y'all been giving me?" Stephanie asked as Trevor pushed the stroller .

"Huh? Oh! No, no, that's for, we're going to take that out of the other trial, the one against Claire

And Robin Boudreaux," Trevor smiled. "By the way, love your hair back like that."

"Trevor, I look like a kid," she hissed.

"No you don't," he laughed and carefully negotiated the stroller down steps in front of the courthouse, never waking the dozing infant. "It shows off your pretty face."

"So he has noticed my face," Stephanie smiled as she put Kristina in her car seat.

The bag from Early's Grocery store was in the cup holder, holding a four-pack of C cell batteries and Stephanie made sure to jam the bag into her purse before backing out of the parking space.

While Stephanie was softly rocking Kristina while she waited for the child's bottle to warm up, Trevor was entering the office building of Richards, Pellichet, and Jones.

Ethel looked up, smiled and pointed at Donald Pellichet's open office door.

"And?" was all Donald said when Trevor knocked on the door jamb.

Seven hundred a month, retroactive for the past four months, plus medical and school, typical stuff," Trevor shrugged.

"Seven hundred, huh?" Donald smiled. "Got a client, bitching because he has to send his ex-wife four hundred a month child support."

"What?" Trevor acted shocked. "He wants to send more? You told him he could if he wanted to, right?"

"Go to work, Mr. Williams," Donald smiled. "Uh, crazy idea, I know, but hear me out before you call for the looney bin. Uh, why don't you see about getting us some paying clients?"

"Does Kathy Kroff from Parasols Magazine count?" Trevor asked.

"What? Kathy, who's she?" Donald asked.

"Parasols Magazine wants her to write a cooking column for their magazine and she wants us to do the contract negotiation," Trevor shrugged.

"I love Kathy Kroff," Donald said. "Don't know who she is, but I love her."

Trevor laughed and nodded his thanks to Ethel; it had been the receptionist that had forwarded Ms. Kroff's call to him. Ethel gave him a warm smile and punched a button and reminded Penny Jones that Katey, her daughter, had a dental appointment at eleven thirty that morning.

While Penny was scrambling to get done with papers that needed filing on or before five pm that day and Trevor was searching through legal notices on the Internet to see about finding paying clients, Dianne was helping Greg pack his belongings.

If throwing his stuff at him as he stood in their front yard and begged and whined was helping. Dianne, who had been the captain of the softball team when they were in high school made sure to throw the harder things at Greg's head and the breakable things at his car.

Finally Greg called Brandon Johnson, their attorney.

"Oh, I am sorry, Mr. St. Charles, but I am Mrs. St. Charles's attorney," Brandon smirked when Cindy patched the call through. "I'll be representing her in the divorce. Might I suggest..."

"Divorce?" Greg screamed at Dianne, just in time to catch his dvd case squarely in his face.

Mr. Weisberg from next door held an improvised ice pack to Greg's swollen eye while Dianne continued to hurl belongings and insults out the front door of their small home.

While Greg was driving himself and what possessions he had managed to gather toward his parents' house, Cindy St. George was quietly counting down the minutes until the weekend.

"Smoked three packs a day every day, twenty eight years," the slightly older man smiled as he walked past Cindy.

She quickly stubbed the cigarette out and entered the office just behind the client.

"I keep telling myself I'm going to quit one of these days," she admitted as he requested Parker Johnson.

"Ma'am, take it from me, the only way to quit smoking is to quit smoking," the man smiled.

"But didn't it drive you crazy?" she asked.

"Mighty short drive," the man laughed.

"Send Mr. Torres back, please," Parker's voice intoned in Cindy's ear.

She was back outside on another smoke break when Mr. Torres walked past.

"Have a nice day; hope you quit soon," he said and unlocked the door to an Astin-Martin Db5.

"O.M.G That's your car?" Cindy asked. I was standing here looking at it and thinking..."

"Yeah," he smiled. "Bought it with all the money I saved from not buying cigarettes."

She laughed and he winked at her, then drove away.

Her good mood evaporated; Parker was in an extremely foul mood and did not care who he lashed out at. Frances DeSalvo tendered her two weeks' notice after a particularly bad harangue.

If she did not have those two drug arrests on her record, Cindy would have offered her two weeks notice as well.

"I didn't go through three fucking years of law school busting my ass be treated like this," Frances was still muttering when she stomped through the receptionist area at five pm.

"Have a great weekend," Cindy offered.

"Whatever," Frances snapped.

A moment later, the young attorney stuck her head back into the room.

"Sorry; you have a great weekend too," the woman said, then left.

"Boy, right at five fucking o'clock," Parker spat venomously as he watched Frances get into her Nissan.

"Yes sir," Cindy said as she shut everything down.

"Scatter like cockroaches," he sneered.

Cindy ignored him; nothing she said would soften his bite.

Chapter 7

Robin and Claire Boudreaux magnanimously agreed to drop their suit against Stephanie Hebert. Parker Johnson typical foul mood was heightened when Trevor Williams and his staff showed no signs of leaving the conference room.

"Did you hear..." Parker snapped.

"Yes, we heard; are you ready to proceed?" Trevor asked, unblinking.

"But there's no..." Robin Boudreaux sputtered.

"There is a counter suit pending, Mr. Boudreaux, and we have every intention of pursuing that suit," Trevor said, the hint of a smile beginning to form.

Stephanie Hebert had been well coached in how to answer a barrage of questions. Robin Boudreaux had not.

Trevor Williams hammered Robin for thirty four minutes, employing a simple, but effective method of asking a question, then rewording the same question and asking it again.

Finally, Trevor concluded by again asking those questions he'd managed to trip Robin on, clarifying the answers.

"I think this would be a good place for us to take a fifteen minute potty break," Parker demanded when Trevor requested Claire Boudreaux.

"You couldn't do that before you left your house?" Trevor asked and smiled as Rebecca, Stephanie, and Frances let titters escape.

"O.M.G., I knew you were smart but..." Stephanie whispered to Trevor when Parker stormed out of the conference room, followed by a shaken Clair and Robin and a smirking Frances.

Stephanie kissed Trevor, fully on his lips, small hands touching his face.

"Wow, um, wow," Trevor said, blushing hotly, when Stephanie released him.

"Yeah," Stephanie agreed, then giggled at the blonde lawyer's hot blush.

"But I do have to go tinkle; no I didn't do it before I left the house," she said and Rebecca followed her out the conference room.

"I got it all on tape; fifty bucks for a copy," Ben joked, slapping Trevor on his shoulder. "Got to go burn one, dude."

Stephanie and Rebecca returned before Clair, Robin, Frances, or Parker returned. Stephanie smiled at Trevor and both she and Rebecca giggled as he again blushed hotly.