“Admitted?” Cate blinked. Where had she heard that before? Russo, at her door.
“You canceled important court appearances. You dismissed an ongoing proceeding because you were unprepared. I had to leave the bench to rule in a motion you hadn’t rescheduled.”
“Are you taping me?” Cate looked around in disbelief, and Chief Judge Sherman flushed red.
“I have a court to protect, and so do you. Now, will you resign?”
“Hell, no.” Cate turned on her heel and ran from the office.
CHAPTER 33
Cate stormed into the unfamiliar chambers, ahead of a bewildered Justin Case and Special Agent Brady. Meriden’s secretary looked up from her computer keyboard. “Judge Fante?”
“Hi, Denise,” Cate called over her shoulder, flinging open the door to Meriden’s office and gesturing Justin and Brady inside. “Follow me, gentlemen. Judge Meriden’s going to need protection.”
“Judge?” Justin said, but Cate was already striding to Meriden’s desk, where he sat on the phone, in his shirtsleeves, his rep tie flopped over his shoulder and his feet crossed on the desk.
“Say good-bye, Jonathan.” Cate reached over and pressed down the hook. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“What do you think you’re doing?” Meriden hung up the phone and whirled around in his chair, facing her. “I was on a very important phone call.”
“Listen, you little bastard.” Cate leaned over the desk. “I was just with Sherman and I saw the complaint you wrote. I know what you’re trying to do and I know why you’re trying to do it. And you won’t win.”
“You should look at yourself in the mirror.”
“No, you jerk. You had it in for me from the beginning. You were never a colleague.” Cate glared into his baby blues and realized that not all monsters had scary red eyes. Some even wore starchy white collars and boring ties. “You don’t like me. You’re jealous and you’re mean, small, and petty.”
“I don’t have to take this.” Meriden stood up. “You threw me out of your office, and I’ll throw you out of mine.”
“Don’t bother, I’m going. I was dumb enough to hand you a card, and you played it to the hilt. But this isn’t over, because I know how to fight for my life and you don’t. You never had to, and so you’re afraid.”
“Oh please.”
“That’s why you kept hatch marks on me, why you send your law clerks to spy, and why you run to Daddy all the time. You’re not man enough to confront me and you never will be. I’ll win because you’re afraid. You’ll see.”
“I’ll hold my breath.”
“Please do.” Cate turned, shaking with anger, and stormed out of the office with Justin and Brady falling in place behind her. She stalked out to the reception area and threw open the chambers door, then stormed down the hall to her own chambers.
“You all right, Judge?” Justin asked, while Brady kept his own counsel.
“Never better,” Cate said, fuming. “Bet the Mossad never taught you about a pissed-off Italian.”
“No.”
“Watch and learn, pal.” Cate was at her own door in the next few steps and opened it just as Val was hanging up the phone. She knew from the secretary’s shocked expression that she’d just been called by Sherman’s office.
“Lord, Cate,” Val said, her tone hushed as a prayer.
“He doesn’t waste any time, does he?”
“He’s suspending you?”
“Looks that way.”
Val’s hand flew to her mouth. “I am so sorry.”
“Me, too.” Cate walked over to her desk, and the clerks came out of their office and gathered around the way they always did, except that this might be the last time they did it.
“What’s going on?” Emily asked worriedly. “What do you mean, you’re suspended?”
“Can they do that?” Sam went pale. “Just because you screw around?”
Cate was beyond wincing. “Evidently, yes. At least until I figure out what to do about it.”
“What does that mean, for us?” Sam asked. “Are we suspended, too?”
“Of course not, silly,” Emily said, rolling her lined eyes, and Cate didn’t have the heart to tell them what Sherman had said.
“Gimme a minute, folks. Everybody go to their desks, please. I’ll be right back.” Cate hurried into her office, closed the door behind her, and made a beeline for the phone on her desk, pressing in the main number.
“Beecker amp; Hartigan,” said the quavering voice, when the call connected. Mrs. Pershing.
“Matt Sorian, please.”
“Judge Fante? Is that you?”
“No.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, please hold,” Mrs. Pershing said, and the next voice was Matt’s.
“Matt, it’s Cate.”
“My God, Cate! I saw the papers-”
“We both did. Listen I have some hard questions. Law-review type issues. One, is it within the power of a chief judge to suspend a district court judge for off-the-bench sexual conduct? Obviously, the issue is what you read about in the paper.”
“Well, Cate-”
“Wait, hold on, there’s more. Two, does sexual misconduct rise to the level of judicial misconduct within the meaning of the statute? And third, what is meant by ‘good behavior’ in Article III of the Constitution?”
“Cate, I can’t undertake that research for you. Chief Judge Sherman just called.”
“He called you?”
“We just hung up. He’s angry with me, and with Beecker, for advising you not to sue.”
“What? What are you talking about? He has no right to do or say that.”
“I’ll tell you what I told him-that I did not so advise you. I merely suggested that your chance of prevailing would be low, and that the decision to sue or not to sue was a personal decision, which you should make.”
“What?” Cate thought she’d entered a parallel universe, where your boss taped your conversation and your partners betrayed you. “That’s not what you advised me at all, Matt. You advised me not to sue.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“And where do you get off talking with Sherman or anyone else about my legal business? What about client confidentiality?”
“You waived it, Cate. You spoke to him about my advice, and I thought it only fair to clarify what I told you.”
“Clarify? You lied! My speaking to him waives nothing, and you know it.”
“I can’t afford to have my legal advice misconstrued to the chief judge of our district court. Beecker can’t afford that, either, Cate. You, of all people, should understand.”
“Screw you, too, Matt.” Cate slammed down the phone, just as there was a knock on the door. “Come in,” she called out, flustered, and the door opened onto two federal marshals, a bodyguard, and an FBI agent. Cate tried to recover. “Yes, gentlemen?”
“Judge Fante?” The marshals entered her office in their dark blue jackets, looking so somber that Cate felt a bolt of alarm.
“What is it? Is Russo back?”
“Judge, we’ve been asked to escort you out of the building.”
“But I’m not going anywhere,” Cate said, then came up to speed, incredulous. “Am I being thrown out of the courthouse?”
“The clerk’s office asked us to take care of it, Judge. We don’t know any more about it. We’re just doing what we’re told.”
“I’m with you, wherever you go,” Justin said, his lips pursed.
“So am I,” Brady added, and Cate wondered fleetingly whether Justin and Brady could take the marshals.
“Okay, I’m going.” Cate rose and looked around her desk, trying to think clearly. She hadn’t seen this coming. She didn’t think any of this could happen. What should she take? What should she leave? Would she ever come back? She hadn’t even got the chance to unpack. She picked up her purse and went to the door, smiling at the marshal. It was one she recognized. “Please don’t cuff me, Mel. I’d like to avoid the obvious handcuff joke.”