in film and TV. We handled a few deals for Halsey, Burt out there and they brought us in as associates about twelve years ago to help them expand into entertainment. We both made junior partner seven years ago and became named partners two years ago.”
“So you two headed the entertainment division?” she confirmed.
“Yes,” he said. “At first it was just us but as it expanded, each got our own teams. Last time I checked, Milly’s unit was comprised of eleven attorneys and mine had fourteen. We were planning to hire an additional five in the new year.”
“Okay, let’s talk about her clients. Representing folks as narcissistic as actors, directors, and writers—things must have gotten volatile for her when cases didn’t go her clients’ way,” she said, finally leading him down the difficult path leading up to her death.
He offered her a wry smile, fully aware of what she was doing.
“That’s an understatement. There were some folks who acted as if she had committed the crime they’d been convicted of. But in the end, even her most irate clients had to admit that she served them well. Did you know that in over seventy criminal cases involving celebrity clients, sixteen of which involved felony charges, not a single one served a day in prison? Sure, a few had to spend some time in jail awaiting trial. But when it came down to it, she either got them off, got them probation, or got them time served. Some even got community service. Name another criminal lawyer for celebrities in this town who can say that. You can’t.”
“Did that make you jealous?” she asked.
He smiled once again.
“Do I sound jealous? I was proud of her.”
“And yet you still got divorced.”
Her comment seemed to make him drift off for a moment, as if consumed by a particularly vivid memory.
“Yes,” he said, returning to the present. “It wasn’t what I wanted. But after seventeen years together, seven of them married, Milly felt we’d drifted apart. There were no big fights or screaming matches. She just told me one day over brunch that she loved me but wasn’t in love with me anymore. She wanted more passion in her personal life.”
“How did that make you feel?” Jessie asked, well aware that she sounded more like a therapist than an investigator.
“I was devastated. I was still in love with her, still am actually,” he said, sounding wistful. “But I wasn’t angry, just more wounded and disappointed. I guess that proved her point. If I was more outwardly upset, then maybe she would have never felt the need to end things. But I was more resigned to it than anything. So we worked it out, how we’d still make the firm work, the business side of things. It was surprisingly easy. Other than me moving out, the logistics weren’t that complicated.”
“It never ate at you?” Jessie asked skeptically.
“I can’t say that,” he conceded. “She’d come to work in more provocative dresses and wear a little more makeup than she used to. I didn’t ask about it but I knew she was going to parties and having dates. That stung a little because she seemed to be having such a good time without me. But I also worried about her.”
“Why?”
“She just really threw herself into the new lifestyle. I used to tease her about it, say that she was having the mid-life crisis instead of me. I know she did a lot more drinking and other chemicals, things she generally avoided prior to that. That’s also when she started going to Jasper Otis’s place a lot.”
Jessie was hesitant to press the matter for fear that he’d shut down but knew she had no choice.
“Do you think they were involved?” Jessie asked, shifting uncomfortably.
He sighed as he weighed how to answer.
“I think she just enjoyed the perks of being in his orbit, though she did tell me he hit on her a few times. She said she wasn’t interested, that she always found him to be a little creepy. I don’t think he liked that. He’s not used to being rejected.”
“Is it possible that she was just denying it to avoid hurting you?”
He shrugged.
“I suppose. But she was pretty forthright with me about her other dalliances. I don’t see why she’d hide that one.”
Jessie decided she’s warmed him up enough to go for it.