Fourteen years since she was made partner, Ally felt as if she was still not getting any respect. Her fiftieth birthday was also looming over her head and she and Billy were running the place with John and Richard in absentia. John and his wife, Nita, were off on a second honeymoon to the Caribbean and to not be outdone, Liza was dragging Richard and his money through Europe. The only bright spot in Ally's day was to go to lunch with Maddie and her daughter, Georgia, named by her late husband after Billy's wife. Her youngest, Lainey, was gone to college as she relished her time with her progeny.
"Maddie," Ally emerged from her office. "You ready?"
"Just a minute, mom." Maddie gestured to her cameraman and lifted a microphone as Ally found herself on the spot.
"This is Maddie Collins for the Boston Six O'clock news." Using the name of her adopted father, she started talking as she and her mother got hit with a light. Ally froze as she realized she was being taped.
"I'm standing in the law firm of Cage, Fish, Thomas and McBeal, the very law firm who is going to be defending Jeremy McBride..." Maddie continued in her job as a network reporter and exploited her mother for a quick interview as Ally gasped. "...the alleged suspect in the recent Coffee House Strangler case about to start court proceedings next week. Mrs. McBeal, do you think you can get a fair trial after the media coverage already demonstrated in this case ?" Maddie turned to her mother.
"Oh, um, uh, uh..." Ally tried to support her daughter's job as a local TV reporter, but she made it so hard. "Yes, I believe we can. You see, reporters won't be allowed in the courtroom." She scowled to her daughter.
"Does the defense have any proof to the contrary against the police evidence?" Maddie asked as she grilled her mother.
"No comment."
"How about McBride's claims that these seven murders were underworld slayings and he is just being framed?" Maddie pressed a bit further.
"No comment."
"Is there anything you can tell us?"
"No comment."
"Thank you very much, Mrs. McBeal." Maddie started her sign-off. "As you can see, the defense is keeping a tight lid on their facts - back to you. This is Maddie Collins for the Boston Six O'clock News. Cut!!" She lowered her microphone. "Okay, Mike, get that to the station for the news spot."
"Right, Mads..." Maddie's camera man left as she turned to her mother.
"How dare you put me on the spot like that!" Ally scowled.
"Mom," Maddie loosened up and undid her ponytail. "They could have sent Amber Hunt, and you know how obnoxious she is! We're still having lunch, right?"
"Okay," Ally relented as she led the way to elevator. "But only because I've really been looking forward to this. Let's get your sister..."
"Oh," Maddie suddenly remembered something. "She called me from the courthouse. She's stuck in court with Aunt Renee." Renee Raddick was still a very close friend of Ally.
"Well," Ally scratched her chin as and looked young again in the sunlight streaming from the window behind her. "Then it's just the two of us... No talking about the case?"
"Right." Maddie answered as Ally gave the sign to Billy she was going to lunch. Billy acknowledged her from his office while he continued talking on his phone with a view of the outer offices. He continued talking to John in Europe for another twenty minutes then noticed Glen Noe, one of the junior partners, pass his door. He rose to talk to him about a recent case as they both looked up as they saw the former child they knew was now a beautiful young woman. Georgia Angelique Collins, the youngest and most promising student lawyer in the firm, glided from the elevators as a beautiful brunette angel they couldn't touch. Resembling Nashville vocalist Sherri North, she had Ally's look and regal up bearing of the Collins family. Their eyes scoped her perfect butt twitching under her short skirt as and her arm pulling back her long mane of dark curly hair. They heard etheral music in their heads pulsing up from Vonda's Martini bar downstars as she strutted before them as some forbidden fruit.
"Pretty Woman...Walking Down The Street...
"Oh, Pretty Woman...Walking Down The Street...
"Oh You Look So Good To Me...Mercy!..." The music was affecting them.
"Like what you see?" Georgia Thomas busted their bubble as she caught them lusting after Ally's daughter. Billy and Glen's record needle jumped and scratched the imaginations of what could have been had they been younger and unmarried as they looked to her.
"Oh, well, we were..." Billy was on the spot.
"Yes, just..." Glen postured a bit. "Marveling at how far she's come..."
"Yes," Georgia swatted her husband. "She's become a very beautiful woman." She exhaled a bit disgustedly as she rolled her eyes. Marching ahead of them, she wondered if they were checking her out as she strided up to Ally's old office which her little namesake now had.
"Georgia?" She stuck her head in.
"Hi, Aunt Georgia..." Younger Georgia was grinning ear to ear as she opened up a packet from her mail.
"I was wondering." Her godmother looked at her. "You missed lunch with your mom, how about coming with me?" She looked at the legal documents in her namesake's hands. "What do you got?"
"What? Oh, I just had the Collinsport Police Department send me a copy of my dad's murder report." She answered. "I'm going to reopen the investigation."
"You are?" Georgia nervously looked up at her. "Does your mother know you're doing this?"
"Well..." The young brunette beauty tossed her hair. "I tried talking to her about it all last month but she kept changing the subject. Oh, I'd love to go to lunch with you."
"Honey," Georgia watched Ally's daughter stand, grab her coat and drop the case file in her briefcase. "Maybe you ought to get your mother's help in this. You've only been practicing for a few months. You're still basically just an intern."
"She so busy in the McBride trial." Young Georgia stood. "I'll surprise her later. Just think, after almost twenty years, I could find out who killed my father. Oh, this guy is going to burn!"
"Well," The older blonde Georgia turned making a face that predicted war between mother and daughter. "Someone is going to be surprised..." She reacted as if she already knew who the killer was.