and he'd make sure that my stunts with Szlipkowsky wouldn't ruin the
Jackson prosecution. I didn't have complete confidence that the bureau
would make the Gunderson investigation a priority, but Russ knew some
questions needed to be answered before the Jackson trial. Once those
answers started rolling in, I had to believe that someone would pay
attention Jessica Walters, or maybe the Attorney General's Office.
Maybe Duncan would even let me get involved again.
But for now, I thought as I pulled out of the Justice Center parking
lot, I was tired of beating my head against the wall. I had lingering
issues in my personal life to deal with, too.
Tension with my father was foreign to me, and I still hadn't figured
out a way to move past it. But he had extended the olive branch by
calling me this morning, and I owed it to him to return the gesture.
I don't know why I did it, but, perhaps for the first time in my life,
I knocked on the front door of the house I grew up in.
'Hey, look at you. What a surprise. Come on in. Did you lose your
key?'
'I couldn't find ... I just wasn't sure .. . well, you know.'
He gave me a sad smile, and my eyes welled up looking into his. Then
he got teary-eyed too, and that did it. I burst out crying in front of
my father for the first time since I had walked in on Roger and then
driven straight to my parents' house.
Just as he had then, he sat me on his couch, put his arm around me, and
rocked me, telling me everything would be OK before I'd even told him
what was wrong. When I finally quieted down to the point of quiet
sniffles and deep breaths, he asked me what happened and why I wasn't
at work.
'Nothing,' I said, wiping my cheeks with my sleeves, 'it'll be fine. I
just want to be here right now if that's OK.'
'It's more than OK. It's a treat. You hungry? I could make
something.'
I still hadn't eaten lunch, but it wasn't even four o'clock. If I ate
dinner now, I'd be hungry again before bed, then I'd be up all night.
'That's all right,' I said. 'Can you stomach a couple hands of
cribbage?'
My mother had been the cribbage player, passing the habit down to me so
she'd have someone to play with other than my father, who never hid the
fact that he played only to make her happy.
After I soundly trounced him, he insisted that I begin to shuffle more
thoroughly. I was on my sixth waterfall when I finally brought up my
reason for being out of the office in the middle of the afternoon. I
didn't bog him down in the legal details, but I gave him the gist: I'd
persuaded the defense attorney to raise a stink about a bribe the
victim was taking, and now I'd been tossed off the case.
To his surprise, though, when he started in on Duncan, I
actually defended the decision. 'I don't know, Dad. It might've been
for the best. For a first homicide case, it was probably a little too
much for me to handle on my own.'
'You were doing the right thing, but it happened to lead you to the
doorstep of some people who don't want a hard-working prosecutor
looking into their business deals. Who knows? Duncan may have pulled
you off because he's in the pocket of this guy what did you say his
name was?'
'Gunderson, Dad. And Duncan can be political, but he's not on the
take.'
'You'd be surprised, Samantha. The people who get into a position like
Duncan's most of them would sell their own mothers to get an advantage.
This is exactly what I was worried about. You challenged the wrong
people, and now they won't be happy until your credibility is run into
the ground.'
Just then, my pager buzzed. I didn't recognize the number, so I
ignored it.
'No one's trying to ruin my credibility, Dad,' I said, shutting off the
signal. 'I got removed from one case, and it was because I blew it. I
got so wrapped up in the Gunderson angle that I forgot who the bad guy
was. I used Jackson's defense attorney to prove my hunch was right,
but in the process I handed him a defense theory that might get his
client acquitted.'
Dad nodded to appease me, but I could see that he disagreed.
'I can tell something's on your mind, Dad. Go ahead and say it.'
He chose his words carefully. 'You said you forgot who the bad guy
was, but I don't see what's good about this Gunderson fellow. Even if
you're right and he didn't set up Jackson, that doesn't make him a good
guy.'
Now it was my turn to sigh with exasperation. 'All I meant was that he
wasn't as bad as Jackson.' He looked at me skeptically.
