Betrayal - Fern Michaels [28]
“Well, I hope to hell you’re not gonna take this sitting down! Have you talked to the girl? What in the world would she do something like this for, what would she hope to gain? I knew that kid wasn’t right the first time I laid eyes on her. She’s always been on the sneaky side, even as a toddler. What can I do?”
Gertie was being Gertie. Thank God. Kate and Alex needed her unabashed common sense now more than ever.
“I don’t know what to do, Gertie. I’ve never even imagined being accused of something so horrendous in my life.”
“You’re gonna need a lawyer, I can tell you that. My brother ought to be able to recommend a good defense attorney. I’ll call him right now.”
Gertie’s brother was a first-rate attorney, known far and wide in North Carolina. Sadly, he didn’t do criminal law.
She took the phone into the living room. She spoke to her brother for five minutes, then returned to the kitchen. “This is gonna get a lot worse before it gets better.”
“I knew today was too good to be true. It’s time for old Alex to fall.”
“And I’ll be there to catch you, Alex. You can count on it,” Kate said.
Chapter 8
“Since the child maintains the alleged molestation took place in Florida, if this goes to trial, we’ll have to go to Florida.” James Conroy, Alex’s criminal defense attorney, made it a practice to tell his clients the whole truth and nothing but. There was no point in mollycoddling them.
“Do you think this will actually go to trial?” Kate asked.
“Right now I can’t say for sure, but most likely not. I do know that if Alex turns himself in, it will look better in the eyes of the court.”
Kate and Alex had lived in a whirlwind for the past three days. They’d heard nothing more from Don. Gertie’s brother had recommended James. As soon as they told their story, James contacted the authorities in Collier County. As expected, there was a warrant for Alex’s arrest.
“So we drive to Florida, Alex turns himself in, gets bailed out, then what?” Kate asked.
James Conroy was tall and pencil-thin with thick blond hair. A goatee softened a pointed chin and a mustache covered a thin upper lip. He resembled a young professor. If Kate had seen him on the street, she would’ve thought him the scholarly type, not the high-powered criminal defense attorney he was reputed to be. Clear blue eyes met hers. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple.”
“What do you mean?” Kate asked.
James’s office was located in downtown Asheville. It was on the tenth floor of the Bank of America Building. This afforded him a much better view than any of his peers had. The Blue Ridge Mountains dominated the skyline. Gray fog layered the mountains in early morning, reminding him of Los Angeles, his hometown, only there the fog was more smog than anything else. He gazed out at the view, then directed his attention to his client. He spoke in a cultured voice, each word precise and clear. “If the child alleges the molestations took place in Florida, it’s in their jurisdiction. The sheriff’s department will send a pair of deputies to extradite Alex. Once he’s processed, he’ll be formally charged at an arraignment hearing. We’ll make our plea to the court at that time.”
“And what about bail? Just how does that work?” Kate persisted. Alex was still in a state of shock. Kate asked most of the questions while he stood by and listened. This was a nightmare, and both of them wanted nothing more than to wake up with it all behind them. From what James said, it didn’t appear that it was going to be as simple as they’d hoped.
James sat down at a large mahogany desk, its surface clean except for a legal pad, a cup of sharpened pencils, their tips facing forward, and a banker’s lamp. The wall behind him held certificates showing that he’d graduated from Yale Law summa cum laude. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but it’s the way it is. Bond for an accused child molester in the state of Florida is very difficult to obtain. It can be done, but it is going to take a large amount of cash. Of course, at the conclusion of the legal proceedings the money