Author's Notes: Last time, Helga and Phoebe had discovered that Arnold was charged with the murder of Lila. Thanks to the following for reviewing: Blonde Cecile: I am used to blocks of paragraphs, because I always hated reading a line and then break, and so on and so forth. As for the grammar, I'll check it over. Ahhelga: I'm glad to know that you're hooked. You'll eventually find out why no one will take Arnold's case. Em: Thank you for the compliment. Nicaxia: Thank you very much. I try to convey the characters personalities, without dabbling in drab descriptions. How's this for a quick update?

Disclaimer: I still do not own Hey Arnold. However a certain little pink book would be nice.

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Vanity's Bane

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Chapter Two: Probable Cause

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Before Helga could protest Arnold's presence in the building, he walked passed her, and took a seat inside her office. Allen quirked an eyebrow at the man's audacity, but thankfully he chose not to comment. Casting Helga a concerned look, he closed the door to her office, allowing them privacy. Suddenly, Helga felt as if she were thirteen again. She could feel his soft eyes watching her intensely, and his scrutiny unnerved her. They had not been together in over two years, yet here she was acting so nervous. She felt angered at her inability to remain calm and collected. She was a lawyer for goodness sake! She was not some grade school girl fawning over her first crush. She could not reflect much longer while in her silent reverie, for Arnold chose this time to break through the silent plateau.

"You know why I have come."

He stated simply. Helga's breath caught in her throat, but somehow she manages a weak nod of understanding. Of course she knew why Arnold had chose to visit her, but she was neither pleased nor grateful. Still, Helga owed it to herself to hear Arnold out. She gripped her lucky dragon pen, an exquisite ballpoint that had been a gift from her best friend. The fancy pen provided a visual distraction while he spoke. She could not bring herself to look into his eyes.

"I need you."

Helga exhaled the breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Those three words fell from his lips so smoothly, that Helga could feel the words float above the room. How many times has she longed to hear him say those exact words? Of course, the reality of his statement came crashing down. There was no one else that had been willing to represent Arnold. He had nowhere else to go, and in a measure of final desperation, he chose her the woman that he would most likely enjoy never seeing again. Biting her lip, she wondered if her emotions had betrayed by her face.

"Why?"

She asked softly, knowing that they were both having different conversations. Arnold's life was on the line, and she was more engrossed in a fictional conversation that should have been held two and half years ago. Shaking her head, she drew her attention away from the pen that she lazily fumbled with. Staring into deep green eyes, she realized that now was not the time to daydream about what once was. His sigh made her legs quiver, but thankfully they were hidden under a large oak desk.

"You know why Helga. I need your expertise. You are the best defense attorney in the city. I can't trust my future in the hands of the D.A.'s office. I need someone that knows what they are doing. I need you on this Helga. I would think that despite our past that perhaps you could put it behind you, if not temporarily."

Helga eyed Arnold fully now. The self-conscious school girl persona disappeared, if momentarily. His case was barely a week old, and already there was no one that would be willing to represent him. News traveled fast, but never that fast. Arnold was a celebrity, and as such he should have had lawyers clambering to represent him. Something foul was definitely afoot. Arnold did have the option of being represented by a public defender, but they usually were underpaid, and overworked. It was because of this, the public defenders almost always overlooked important facts or worse yet, proved their incompetence. The rule was always quite simple in cases like Arnold's. If you can afford an attorney, hire one. Of the numerous people that had been close to him growing up, Phoebe and she were the only people that had become lawyers.

"Why not hire someone out of state? You could probably get more bang for your buck."

She replied, ready to gauge his reaction to her subtle jibe. Whether or not Arnold was annoyed, she could not tell. He shook his head repeatedly, clearly upset with the idea. He wanted her, and he needed her and he would not be swayed. She was his only option, and she was the best option.

"No one has been as close to me as you have, that happens to be an attorney. Phoebe was an alternative originally, but she is a tax lawyer, and the last time she saw the inside of a courtroom was probably during a mock trial as a third year law student. You have known me since I was three years old. You knew Lila and you can attest to my character. I need you, Pataki."

Arnold said countered, unconsciously using her last name. When they had been together, her last name had become a sort of pet name. At first Helga had been annoyed by his usage of her surname, but over time she had grown attached to the moniker. Arnold watched her anxious fidgeting, and allowed himself a small smile. She was obviously cracking, and soon he would wear her down completely. If he could hire someone as competent and as thorough as Helga he would have, but there was no else that met all of his prerequisites.

"Helga, discovery will begin in my trial in a month and a half. The indictment was swift, and now with the case they are building against me—I need you on my team. If you do not wish to represent me, than can you please say so now? My life is on the line for a murder than I did not commit! Now for the last time, will you represent me?"

Arnold pleaded with urgency in his voice that Helga had never heard before. Then again, he had never had cause to be so desperate for something. If ever there were a time for his behavior, now he would be justified. Arnold had made a good point though. Despite everything that they had endured because of one another, Helga could not stand by and watch him be sent to prison for a crime Arnold could never have committed. Even if she had never loved him, Helga could never believe that Arnold was capable of such a heinous crime.

"I bill $370 an hour, Arnold. This does not include business lunches."

"So you decided to raise your rates. I always knew that you would be charging big money to your clientele. I just never thought I would need your services. I can write you a check, but the bank closes in three hours. I doubt you will have time to cash the check, but you could always take cash payments instead. Can you have someone draw up the contract?"

Helga had always been amazed by the alacrity in which Arnold conducted his business. She always wondered why he had never sought out a profession in law, but he declared his love of writing to have too much of a hold on him. His knowledge of the law was thorough and near the level of a second year law student. Considering that he had never been to law school, this was pretty impressive feat. She called in a Jenny, her thirty seven year old paralegal and had her draw up the contracts. They sat in awkward silence, waiting for the copies to be finished. Helga desperately wanted to hear the facts of the case as he saw them but she knew that they were not in a binding contract as of yet.

"I'll be suing a few newspapers for libel if things get out of hand."

Arnold said suddenly, glancing at his watch impatiently. Helga wanted to know which papers he was referring to, but she didn't bother asking. There were too many papers to name that routinely were sued by celebrities. Finally, Jenny returned with the contracts. They both read the document thoroughly, until they were both satisfied. They both called the court appointed notary three blocks over, and had the elderly man witness their signatures. Arnold then retained her services at the meager price of $420. He smiled sheepishly, noting that this was all the cash that he carried around at the moment. Once he received his receipt, he pocketed the slip of paper.

"Now that this business is settled, let's go to one of your private boardrooms. I'll tell you what really happened a week ago."

Arnold stood, walking to the door. Holding it open for her, Helga gathered her legal pads, tape recorder, and a few pens. As she walked by, he inhaled the scent of her raspberry scented shampoo. As always Helga's clothing was immaculate, and she was still as beautiful as he remembered, if not more so. They walked in companionable silence to her corner office boardroom. Of the few they passed, a few of her coworkers (most of the young ones at least) gave them nervous smiles. Perhaps they were intimidated by Arnold's presence, or awed by his celebrity. Helga did not give the thought much reflection. Entering the boardroom, she felt a cool chill, and silently reminded herself to have maintenance adjust the heat in the room. They sat facing one another, and while Arnold poured himself a glass of water, Helga prepared herself.

"Okay, let's start from the beginning. What exactly was your relationship with Lila Sawyer?"

"We were dating casually. There was nothing serious, since she was dating other men at the same time that she was seeing me."

Helga silently wrote down his response. The bitter, petty side of her was both annoyed and heartbroken at the thought of Arnold having seen Ms. Perfect Prissy. Suddenly, she felt ashamed of her thoughts. A woman was dead, and Helga had the gall to make light of something so serious?

"When was the last time that you saw her alive?"

"The last time I was with Lila was a week ago. We had tickets to see A Raisin in the Sun. We went to the play house near Lexington and Berlet Street. After we saw the play, I took her to that Italian restaurant on Galen Avenue. Once we finished dinner we parted ways, at about ten pm. I didn't call her when I got home. This was the last time I had seen her alive."

Helga didn't want to know why he had taken Lila to the same restaurant that the two of them had frequented, and christened 'their place', but she did want to know why they hadn't gone to back Lila's apartment, or for that matter his own. Lila would have jumped at the chance to get into Arnold's pants again. Helga made a mental note of his statement.

"Who can attest to your statement? Do you have ticket stubs from the playhouse? Did you keep your receipt from the Italian restaurant? You need an alibi from the time you last saw Lila, all the way up to the time Lila was killed."

"That's pretty simple. I kept my ticket stubs from the play, as you know I always do. I paid with a credit card at the restaurant, and I always keep my receipt. As for the time in between our date, and her murder I went home and began the first draft for my third novel. I also called Gerald before I went to sleep."

Helga jotted down his comments, thinking about the many different ways the prosecution could tear down his statements. What was the motive here? Who would benefit from Lila's death? If there was no direct benefit from her murder, who would be happy to see Lila dead? She would need to compile a list of the people Lila had been closest to, and then prepare subpoenas.

"Why did you call Gerald so late? If you didn't get back from your date with Lila until late in the night, then you would have woken him up in the wee hours of the morning. He's in D.C. and he's hours ahead of you."

Arnold stiffened slightly. He could not very well tell her that he called Gerald to discuss Helga? Their cross country late night chats had become routine now. Gerald worked odd hours and since he was his own employer, they frequently would talk on the phone about everything from family, money, jobs, sports, and of course the former women in their lives. Gerald would always ask about how Phoebe was doing. Of course, he never broached the topic of Helga unless Gerald specifically asked him. Still, he would have to answer her question truthfully. Though the last half of her question may have seemed irrelevant, if they could confirm the call, then that would further affirm his story and place him away from the crime.

"Gerald and I routinely talk every few days, and I called him to talk about my disastrous date with Lila."

"So you didn't have a good time on the date. The state could say that you were so upset with your time spent with Lila that you killed her."

Helga replied, writing swiftly as he spoke. This was in fact a weak defense, but only she had only mentioned it because she wanted to see his reaction.

"Perhaps, but I was unhappy and dissatisfied with our date. That is not enough of a motive to murder her. There is no history of bad blood between us, so I would not have cause to kill her. I think that stretching it a bit, Helga. My record is clean and I have no prior history of violence of any sort."

Helga could feel a sharp retort on the tip of her tongue. She wanted to ask who him who was the lawyer and who was the client here, but that would have been petty. At least she knew it would not be hard to prepare Arnold for the state's cross examination.

"The autopsy reports have not been finished yet. I am highly suspicious of this case Arnold. For one thing, you were just indicted yesterday, but the news of Lila's death was released at the same time. According to your statements, Lila has been dead for more than a week, but the paper lists her as having died the night before. Even with a large amount of evidence, no one could be charged with murder that quickly unless they were found present at the scene of the crime, and the police had irrefutable evidence."

"So you're saying that I am being framed."

Arnold spoke with cool brevity. The very thought of someone out there despising him to the extent of framing him disturbed Arnold greatly. He had barely had time to grieve. Her funeral was tomorrow and he had been barred from attending. His home had been bombarded with calls from friends, and foe alike wanting to know if he really did kill his childhood friend. If his grandparents were alive to witness this debacle they would be heartbroken.

"Now I didn't say that, Arnold. However, this case is highly suspect. Any competent attorney can see that everything is happening too quickly. This case has been fast tracked at an alarming rate. How can the newspapers say that she died of stabbing wounds when the autopsy isn't even finished? Moreover, why would the paper wait until a week later to release news of her death? The news of a stabbing victim would have been ready the next day."

"What we have here is someone that has conspired to kill Lila, frame me, and manipulate the proceedings of the case. I find it hard to believe that someone could kill Lila, and orchestrate something so complex, yet manage to be lax when covering their own tracks. There could be multiple conspirators, and perhaps the weakest link let this happen."

"Maybe, but the disparity in your story, and the snafu with the paper brings forth many questions. I'm calling the D.A.'s office, and then the Ledger-Post to straighten this out. Do you know of enemies that Lila may have had? Any business deals gone bad?"

Helga asked, sipping the ice cold water. She could not think of anyone that had ever hated Lila Sawyer. While Helga had never particularly liked the young woman, they did not frequent the same social circles, and the last time that she had seen Lila had been on a cosmetic commercial. Lila had been an upcoming model; with a couple of lucrative modeling contracts as far as Helga could surmise. A wave of guilt washed over her as she reminded that they had never buried the hatchet.

"Listen, can we continue this tomorrow? I have a meeting with my publicist and I need to schedule a press conference. I assume that you will leave your schedule open? I'll send you the remainder of your fee by mail."

Helga sat with her mouth agape, astonished by his words. Didn't he realize the importance of this case? Now was not the time to be gallivanting off with his public relations people. Then there was his cool self confidence that either annoyed her or made him more admirable in her eyes. She nodded weakly, shook his hand and watched as Arnold walked out of the room. They bid one another farewell, and she reminded him to set up an appointment with her secretary. What in the hell was going on here? Since when did he act so abrupt with her? She sighed, wringing her hands.

Maybe she was taking this case too personal. If she allowed her feelings for Arnold to get in the way of her ability to win his case, she would have failed them both. Settings aside her dormant love would be hard, especially since they would be seeing so much of one another, but as an attorney she owed it to her clients to maintain a professional demeanor. Seeing Arnold so composed, while she had been visibly flustered made her want to work even harder to succeed.

Helga gathered her legal pads, one of them already filled to the brim with notes and she filed them into the office vault. After her experiences with Kravitz Wyler, and Thanes, she knew enough about keeping files out of file cabinets that could easily be broken into. Thankfully her practice could afford a medium sized vault that could house the original hard copies of the files of every client. Every lawyer and paralegal in the building had access to the vault. However, she had issued access cards for every client's documents. Those cards could be used to enter the indestructible lockboxes that each client had. Once Helga had stored her notes safely away, she would return and create electronic files of her notes. Helga grimaced as her stomach growled. She had missed her lunch date with Phoebe.

"Well old girl, it looks like you've gotten yourself into a serious mess. I'm in too deep now to pull out."

She whispered aloud, heading for the city morgue. Truthfully, she would never have been satisfied with anyone else representing Arnold. No one else was a qualified, and she just could let bear to see that football head sent to prison when he was clearly innocent.

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Footnotes: Yeah, so that was it for now. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next update. Lastly, what was Xing thinking with this QuikEdit mess? I miss the way we could update back in 2001! The link posting, changing the text color, and changing the background colors was pretty cool. Peace.

-Shanni