Dirty Blonde

and Cate flash-forwarded on what it would be like to be frozen out of his friendship, much less off the bench.

“But I just got on the court. I’m not giving it up. I earned this job.” Cate thought about what Gina had said. You wanted the promotion, but did you want the job? And then she knew, just as she was about to lose it. Maybe, finally, because she was about to lose it. “Chief, I want this job.”

“Then you should have taken better care of it.” Sherman faced-off with her over his desk. “We can do this easy or we can do this hard. Resign or sue.”

Cate reconsidered it, her resolve wavering. It would be so easy to sue. Just file the papers. Then she remembered. But what’s right for you might be wrong for Warren and me. “I can’t.”

“Then step down.”

“I won’t.”

“Then that’s that, I tried.” Sherman’s tone hardened, and he shrugged as if shedding her. “Effective immediately, your cases are reassigned. Blendheim, D’Alma, all of them. You’re off the bench. I’ll reassign Val to another judge. Nobody wants those law clerks. They’re on their own.”

“You can’t do that, Chief. You don’t have the power.”

“I most certainly do. I manage the dockets, and your docket just got cleared. You left me no choice. Federal judges hold their office only during good behavior.”

Cate rose. “The Constitution doesn’t speak to this, Chief, and you don’t have the power to execute, even if it did.”

But Sherman had stopped listening. He rose, too, then pulled a sheaf of papers from his desk and handed them across the desk. “This is a complaint of judicial misconduct against you. It will be filed by the end of today.”

“A misconduct complaint!” Cate snatched the papers but she was too emotional to read them. “The misconduct statute wasn’t meant for an overactive sex life. The statute is aimed at conduct on the bench, within the scope of office. Bias, conflict of interest. It doesn’t cover me! Who drafted this? Jonathan?”

“He feels very strongly that the court is being harmed, and now that we’ve spoken, I agree.”

“Chief, this is insane!”

“No, it’s insane to sacrifice an entire court for one individual, no matter who it is. I won’t have my court turned into a television spectacle.”

“They’ll still do the show!”

“If you aren’t on the court, it won’t be about a sitting judge. It won’t involve us any longer.” Sherman bore down, leaning across the desk. “Cate, last chance. Don’t make me file against you. The complaint goes to the chief judge of the Third Circuit, and he can hold hearings, take testimony. Is that want you want? You, on trial? A judge, as the defendant?”

Oh no.

“Your misconduct is clear. It’s all over the press, and it affected the performance of your official duties. You just admitted as much.”

“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.