Truth and Justice - Fern Michaels Page 0,20

of what was about to go down. She looked around at her pricey new digs and wanted to cry.

But if she cried, her makeup would be all over the place, and she would look like a raccoon. No, she had to stiffen up her lips, straighten her spine, and take a deep breath as the old ditty went. Which was just another way of saying pull on your big-girl panties and get on with it. She shivered when she remembered the name of the law firm that was representing Bella Nolan. The Quinn Law Firm. She knew all about that firm because dozens of the clinic’s clients used it. As one client said, they don’t come any better than the Quinn Law Firm, and then went on to say she knew for a fact that the members of the firm called in their lead hired gun for high-profile cases, the famous or infamous, as some put it, Lizzie Fox, also known as the Silver Fox, who mainly practiced in Las Vegas. Petre could feel her blood running cold. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that Lizzie Fox would be on the red-eye tonight, because no case could have a higher profile than this one was going to have. There would be no shoving this under the carpet anytime soon.

“Son of a bitch!” Dr. Candice Petre seethed. “What did I do to deserve this?”

* * *

Bella stepped out of the cab and onto the curb. The streets were busy for this time of day, but then again, tourists didn’t really care what time it was when they were on vacation. The Quinn Law Firm was just five blocks from the White House, which was all the more reason for the amount of pedestrian traffic as well as road traffic.

Bella recognized the building that housed the Quinn Law Firm immediately. She’d walked by here almost daily when she lived in her old apartment, the same apartment she’d returned to after honeymooning with Andy. Her eyes welled up just as a strong, gusty October wind pushed her forward. Damn, her hair was going to look like a haystack. Like she cared.

Bella entered the pleasant lobby, made her way to the reception area, and asked for directions to Alexis Thorn’s office. A Georgetown University student with three open textbooks in front of her offered up directions along with a smile and a badge on a lanyard. Bella draped it around her neck as she made her way to the elevators. Her insides felt like a quivering mass of Jell-O.

Seven minutes later, Alexis Thorn was guiding Bella to a private suite of offices and introduced her to Nikki Quinn; then they all settled down in the seating area, where a fire was blazing in a real fireplace. Bella loved the space on sight. Everything was earth tones with splashes of color. Comfortable was the key word here. A silver tray with a coffee service appeared as if by magic.

Nikki spoke first after the introductions. “We’re big coffee drinkers here, Bella. Our pot goes all day long. Since opening the firm years ago, we’ve gone through three units, and they’re the big industrial coffeepots. I guess you could say we’re all coffee junkies. You okay now, Bella? I tend to babble with new clients to try to get them to feel at ease. You do look particularly tense right now. It’s just my way of saying you made the right decision to seek help, and you came to the right place to get it. We won’t let you down. When we take on a client and a case, we work it till it is resolved to our, and our client’s, satisfaction.” Nikki’s voice was light and cheerful, a best-friend kind of voice, as she poured coffee into three delicate china cups.

Bella struggled to smile and failed miserably. “Here,” she blurted as she handed her smartphone with the video from the clinic over to Alexis. “They wouldn’t give me the tape. I don’t think the three of them, and by them, I mean the three doctors I spoke with, are deliberately hiding anything. The truth is, I think they were scared out of their wits. If my opinion counts, I think they made a mistake, but it wasn’t anything deliberate. At least that was my initial thought. I hate saying this, but when it comes to doctors, you expect a certain . . . I don’t know, kindness, compassion, something. I had three zombies. There