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14. Chapter
When Prue got off the next morning she was still waiting for some guilty feelings, but there weren't any. She felt in line with herself. What was the problem? Cole was right, it was just sex, nothing else no feelings and she couldn't imagine for the life of her to fall in love with him. But unfortunately she forgot intentionally that not long ago, she would have sworn that she would never sleep with him.
Cole was sleeping, or pretended to sleep, when she left his room silently. So she didn't have to listen to his customary barbs. When Prue looked into the mirror she found out, that everything was alright. She couldn't resist a satisfied smile, when she thought of Vivian Wingrove. She wouldn't allow Vivian to spoil her workday ever again. She was an excellent photographer and if Petersen didn't appreciate her work, he would lose her. She was aware of it after last night. Vivian wouldn't push her around ever again, Prue didn't have to stand for that.
When she entered the kitchen contently, Mrs. Jennings was already waiting for her.
"Good morning Prue." she welcomed her. "I'm a little bit early this morning. Shall I look for Danny first, or will you do it?"
Prue shook her head. "No, I'll do it in a moment." She told her, while she sipped at the cup of coffee, Mrs. Jennings has already poured out for her.
"Good." Clara Jennings said and nodded. "Then I'll look after your room first."
Prue looked at her shocked. "Oh well, that isn't necessary today, Clara. I've already made my bed and the dirty wash is in the laundry basket."
Clara looked at Prue in surprise. "Okay, if you say so. Then I'll take care of the washing first." she said and left the room busy.
Prue looked after her and sighed. Probably everything wasn't as easy as she has thought.
When Prue has left Cole's bedroom in the morning, he didn't budge. He was too tired for their usual banters and he felt too good to spoil his great mood. He didn't know exactly what it was between Prue and him, but it did him good. And in fact he didn't want to think about it too hard. He fell asleep again and when he had to get up, Prue had already left the house. He looked after his son and noticed, that Mrs. Jennings was already working. "Good morning." He greeted her.
Clara Jennings looked up. "Good morning, Cole." she said and looked at him thoughtfully. "Tell me, was Prue at home last night?" She asked curiously.
Cole looked at her with surprise. "Yes, as far as I know she was. Why?"
"Because nobody used her bed last night. It was made." She told him.
"Oh, but isn't it more likely that she has already made her bed, before she left the room?" Cole suggested.
Mrs. Jennings shook her head forcefully. "No, that's the way only I make it." she explained self-confident and cast him a look of complicity. "I'm sure that she didn't sleep in her bed last night."
Cole shrugged his shoulders calmly. "Well I didn't notice anything. But who knows, I went to bed early last night."
Clara Jennings nodded and turned her attention to her work again. "Well hopefully it's a nice man." She muttered to herself. "She deserves it."
Cole let her work and left the room. He wondered for the first time, if it was such a good idea to have people who ran the household for you. You couldn't keep a secret for a long time and he didn't know yet, what he was thinking about that.
Later on he set off to the country club to meet Edward Wingrove. The club was located out of town, because of it's huge terrain. There was a hotel with a restaurant and many bars on the ground and a huge number of sports grounds, tennis courts, swimming pools and a golf court as well. After Cole called his name, he could enter the grounds and parked his car. An employee was already waiting for him in front of the entrance, he told him, that Mr. Wingrove would meet him in the sports lounge of the restaurant soon.
Cole entered the building and went to the restaurant. There were already a lot of guest at this time of day, especially a lot of women, who were sitting at the tables made of glass, watching out of the windows at the tennis courts. Cole wondered why Edward Wingrove had asked him to come to this place. But he would find out about it sooner or later. He sat down and ordered a drink.
Soon after Edward Wingrove arrived at his table. His hair was still wet from the shower, but he was wearing suit and necktie again. He welcomed Cole and sat down opposite to him. "Well what do you think about our little club?" He asked proudly.
Cole shrugged his shoulders. "I haven't seen a lot yet."
"We even have a golf course here." Wingrove explained enthusiastically. "But I prefer to play tennis. In summer I usually do it in the early morning hours, because of the heat. But well, we do everything to keep fit, don't we?" He asked laughing and looked at Cole. "What kind of sports do you prefer?"
"I prefer combative sports, martial arts." Cole explained with a smile.
Wingrove nodded. "Well, I don't know, if it's on offer here, you'll have to ask first. But you have to know it's difficult to join our club. A lot of people apply for admission but we only admit a few new members each year. Our club is old and has a good name, and we old-established members want to keep it. But I can put in a good word for you." He promised Cole with a smile.
"Thanks!" Cole said and looked at him blankly. He didn't even say a word about his desire to become a member of this club. But obviously Wingrove took it for granted. "But I suppose we don't meet here, because you want to make the advantages of this club clear to me."
Wingrove laughed and sipped at his drink. "No, you are right, that isn't the reason. But it's always great to combine business with pleasure." He looked at Cole thoughtfully. "I'd like to talk with you about Amy Carey. How are you getting on? Did you make any headway yet?"
Cole smiled at him coldly. "Don't you think it's a little bit early to ask me this question? I'm just working on this case for a few days."
Wingrove nodded. "Of course." he said. "But Donald Carey is one of my best friends and you can't deny that we don't know each other very well."
Well you should have thought about it before, Cole thought ironically. Then he said contently. "But you know my references and I thought that was the reason why you've chosen me."
Wingrove sighed. "I'll tell you the truth. Donald called me yesterday and he told me that he's worried about Amy's defence...."
"I understand." Cole interrupted him immediately. "But you have probably told him, that it's too early. No serious lawyer could present him a perfect strategy at this time. It'll develop with enquiries and with time."
Wingrove nodded again. "You're right, but nevertheless Donald thinks that Amy could have some problems with you."
Cole looked at him without batting an eyelid. "He's wrong on that." he stated very sure of himself. Although Amy made things difficult for him and he had upset her the day before, he couldn't believe that Amy would complain about him to her stepfather. "You can tell him that Amy gets on well with me."
"Did you already find out anything? Did Amy tell you anything?" Wingrove asked.
"That's just mine and my clients business." Cole told him very briefly.
Wingrove leaned his arms on the table. "Mr. Turner." he said reserved. "Cole, we're talking about a good friend of mine. And if he thinks that Amy deserves a better defender, I can just try to persuade him with the opposite but..."
Cole shook his head. "Tell him, that he should talk about it to his daughter first. Because whatever I have no doubt that she doesn't want another lawyer."
"Donald is sure that she'll agree with a prominent attorney for her defence." Wingrove told him composedly.
"Oh, you couldn't be more wrong." Cole stood up. "Perhaps I have to remind you, that you've put me in charge of this case, because you had every confidence in my abilities. And therefore I'll represent Amy in court."
Wingrove sighed again and grabbed Cole's arm to stop him from leaving the table. "As you already realized, I am your boss. And therefore I can withdraw you from this case whenever I want."
Cole sat down again. "But Amy wants me to represent her in court." he explained calmly.
"You shouldn't be so sure about it." Wingrove said. "Don't make it so difficult for me. I know, that you are particularly interested in this case and it makes quite an impression on me. And therefore I'll make sure that you'll get the very promising cases in future."
"I'm sorry, but I won't give up this case." Cole told him coldly. The longer he listened to Wingrove's efforts, the more he was convinced that there was more in this matter than meets the eye. He had to find out where Amy's mysterious boyfriend was.
Edward Wingrove's lines hardened. "Do you want to lose your job, the company car, the advance payment...?"
Cole glowered at him. "Do you want to threaten me?"
Wingrove looked at him pitifully. "You know, who has more pull."
"Yes, I know!" Cole said with a cold smile. "Perhaps you think that you've engaged an unemployed lawyer, who has problems with alcohol. But that's a big mistake. Don't start a fight with me, nobody could do with that." Cole stood up again. "Would you like to read anything about it in the paper? That you've fired one of your best lawyers, just because the stepfather of his client wanted that? And the reason is, that the lawyer did his best for his client in contrast to the stepfather who wanted to see his stepdaughter in prison for the rest of her life. Oh, and I shouldn't forget that the stepfather is your best friend."
Wingrove looked at him angrily. "Don't talk that tone with me." he said and added. "And besides nobody will believe you."
"Mm, I'd say your reputation is too important for you to take that risk." Cole explained and turned around to go, but Wingrove stopped him again.
"Okay, then you'll be Amy's lawyer as long as I'll have talked with Amy about it." Wingrove told him glowering.
"I agree." Cole said and hoped that Amy wouldn't stab him in the back.
"But another thing." Edward Wingrove said in a bad mood. "Keep away from my daughter."
"Which one do you mean?" Cole asked with an interested smile.
Wingrove stopped shortly, but then he explained angrily. "Both! I whether want to see you close to Vivian, nor that you go on pestering Charlotte with questions."
Cole looked at with pity. "You should better tell Vivian about it." he told him and left the restaurant. Lost in thoughts he didn't notice that the just mentioned Vivian was standing in the entrance hall.
She saw him immediately and ran after him. "Cole!" She shouted, happy that she finally caught him.
Cole stopped and turned around.
Vivian walked towards him with a bright smile on her face. She was wearing a short sport dress and nobody could see her lack of sleep. "I've already tried to reach you, but it was more difficult than I had expected." She explained with a smart smile, but then she stopped, when she noticed that Cole was wearing a blue shirt. She was sure, that she has seen the same blue shirt lying on the chair in the small room in Cole's house.
"Oh really?" Cole said and smiled. "I hope you got the key, I gave your sister yesterday."
"What?" Vivian looked at him asking. It sent shivers down her spine, when she realized whom she could have watched in the room last night.
"The key for your plantation." Cole reminded her. "That's why you called me, didn't you."
Vivian shook her head. "No, I don't care about the damn key. You could have kept it as long as you want." She explained. "But I hope you don't forget that we want to repeat our unfinished diner."
"No, but unfortunately your father will be strongly against it." Cole looked back and saw Edward Wingrove coming out of the restaurant at the same moment. He wasn't pleased when he saw Cole and Vivian and Cole decided that it wasn't the right moment to annoy him once again. He would leave it to Wingrove to have an argument with his daughter.
Vivian looked at him in surprise. "Why do you think my father wouldn't agree, if we met each other?" She asked.
"Well you know, we have some business problems at the moment." Cole explained with a gentle smile.
"But that's got nothing to do with me. It's just my decision, whom I want to meet." She said quickly and looked at her father watching her disgruntled.
"I know, but nevertheless we should wait and don't pour oil on troubled waters." Cole said and with an optimistic nod, then he left the building quickly.
Vivian looked after him in disbelief, before she turned around and rushed to her father.
When Cole entered the remand prison shortly after, he was told, that Amy didn't want to talk to anybody today. Cole sat down cursing and wrote a short note. He wanted to let her know, that her stepfather and Edward Wingrove had decided to engage another lawyer for her. If she also thought that another lawyer would be better for her, she should nevertheless do him the favour and talk to him the next day. He gave the message to the warder and the man promised to hand it over to Amy. Cole left the building frustrated. He had to get Amy to talk, he decided. And he saw only one chance, he had to invite Prue for lunch.
Cole entered Prue's office on time, but the only person he saw was Judy. "Hey Judy, where is Prue?" he asked surprised and sat down on Prue's chair.
"Outdoor shots." Judy told him and leaned back on her chair. "Prue gave Petersen a piece of her mind today. After this bitch Vivian has lumped Prue with overwork yesterday." Judy started to tell. "You should have listened, it was great. She had a real go at Petersen" She explained satisfied.
Cole grinned, he could form a clear picture of it. "Yes she won't be told. She won't let you get away with anything, that's Prue."
"She told him, that he'd have to assign better shots to her, if he wanted her to go on working for him. And Petersen isn't foolish, he knows that Prue is a brilliant photographer. And he doesn't want to lose her, in spite of Vivian."
"And that's why she is away?" Cole asked.
"Yes, that's it." Judy looked at her watch. "But she'll be back soon. Do you want to take her out for lunch?"
Cole nodded. "Yes, that was my plan."
"Great." Judy said and grinned. "I always thought, that you suit one another."
"Oh, really?" Cole laughed. "Take care that Prue doesn't hear it."
Judy gave a dismissive gesture. "Don't worry I've already told her."
"And you are still alive?" He asked in surprise.
"Of course, okay she wasn't enthusiastic about it. But she'll realize it with time. It would be a pity, if she didn't seize the opportunity, just because you were together with her sister long ago." Judy said firmly.
Cole frowned. "Did she really say that?" He could hardly believe it.
"Not in these words." Judy confessed. "But I can't see any other problem. You already live with her and if she likes it or not, but you suit her better than all of my friends, I wanted to marry her off to."
"Oh I don't know Judy." Cole turned away. "You can forget about that. Prue and me, no I can't imagine."
"Why not?" Judy asked in surprise. "What do you both have at the moment?"
Cole looked at her thoughtfully, but he couldn't imagine, that Prue has told her anything about him and her. "We just live together." He told Judy calmly.
"Oh, I see. I didn't know, that it's named like this today." Judy explained grinning.
Cole looked at her sceptically, perhaps he was wrong and Prue was more communicative than he has thought. But before he could try to find out more about it, someone opened the door and Prue entered the office.
She put down her equipment on her desk and looked at him requesting. "As far as I know, this is my chair." She told him.
Cole ignored her request and turned to and fro on the chair while he drummed his fingertips on the arm rests. "I want to invite you for lunch." He told her and jumped up. "So let's go."
Prue looked at him thoughtfully, when Judy already answered.
"Of course she'll come with you." she explained. "After all Prue has to celebrate her victory over Petersen."
Prue smiled at her. "Yes that was great, wasn't it? It was something else to see him begging."
"That's right. And therefore you'll enjoy your lunch break." Judy told her firmly.
Prue looked at her thoughtfully. "Well I don't know, I'm busy and actually...."
"Come on, Prue. Let's go, we'll be back soon. If we start to discuss about it, we'll just waste our time." Cole told her and pushed her to the door.
"Enjoy yourselves." Judy called behind them.
When they were standing in the corridor Prue turned to Cole. "How did I come to this honour?" She asked ironically.
"Why? Is it something so special, when I invite you to lunch?" Cole wanted to know.
"It didn't occur to you to invite me to lunch until today!" Prue told him. "And I'm sure there must be a catch to it somewhere."
Before Cole could answer, the door of Carl Petersen's office was opened and a furious Vivian entered the corridor. Her boss has just told her, that Prue was one of his best photographers and that he didn't want to lose her. Therefore he wouldn't accept Vivian's pedantic fault-findings of her photos anymore. She has left his office angrily and has decided that she would have to tell her father that he should give Peterson a piece of his mind, when she remembered, that she also was in conflicts with him at the moment. She sighed and when she looked up she immediately saw the person she could blame for all of her problems, Prue! Together with Cole! Vivian turned to stone and got ice-cold. As much as she wanted to deny it, she knew very well, whom she had watched the night before. She didn't want to believe it, because Prue hasn't told her anything about it. But it was like this insidious bitch to leave her in the dark about her relation to Cole. "Hello Prue." was the only thing she could say, then she rushed away as fast as possible. She entered her office, where she finally could let her rage run wild.
Prue looked after her and shook her head. "Well her plan to run me down in front of Petersen, didn't work." She said contently. "But I suppose she'll ask her father for help now."
"Mm, I don't think so. She also has some problems with him at the moment." Cole told her, while they left the building and went to Cole's car.
"What do you mean?" Prue asked.
Cole told Prue about the meeting with his boss, on their way to the next cafe.
"I didn't know that you are such a coward." Prue said ironically. "I assumed that you'd tell Vivian that you aren't interested in her."
"Why? Perhaps I'll need her help in future once more." Cole explained and guided Prue to a table.
"I can't believe it." Prue shook her head in disbelief, but did she expect anything else from Cole? "But I should have known." She said contemptuously.
"Hey, it's just Vivian." Cole tried to justify himself.
"And Vivian is a human with feelings, too." Prue informed him, and liked to forget that she also didn't treat Vivian very carefully, that she didn't care about her feelings before.
"Well she'll get over it." Cole told her. "And actually I want to talk about something else with you."
They waited until the waitress has served their meals, but then Prue looked at Cole searching. "Okay, out with it, what's going on?"
Cole had already told her about his discussion with Edward Wingrove, therefore he didn't waste time with further explanations and said. "I have to find out, what Amy hides from me. I don't want to risk that Wingrove takes away the case from me."
Prue nodded. "I can understand you very well, but what do you want to do now?"
Cole looked at her urgently. "I have to force her to speak. Therefore I thought about magic. A spell or a potion to bring truth to light. Do you know anything like that?"
Prue cast a sceptical look at him, she didn't like this. "Don't you have any better ideas? What about a conversation with a psychologist?"
"Oh yes, and best of all Dianne McCormack." he laughed spitefully. "She'll drive Amy spare, but she won't find out anything."
"She is a good psychologist." Prue tried to convince him.
Cole leaned forward and shook his head. "Believe me, that won't get me anywhere. Amy won't breathe a word to her."
"That she didn't talk to you, doesn't mean that she wouldn't talk to a trained doctor, too." Prue told him with a smile.
"No way, she would sit there without saying anything. And therefore you have to help me." He looked at her begging. "Come on Prue, what's the problem? It's for a good cause."
"It isn't so easy." Prue explained angrily. "You can't solve every problem with magic."
"I don't do it. There's no harm in it, is there? So do you know a spell which helps to establish the truth?"
"I've used one, once." She confessed, but her memories weren't so thrilling that she wanted to do it again. She had found out things, she didn't want to know at all. "If you use a spell for your personal gain, you'll have to bear the consequences, too. Even you should finally know that."
"But it isn't for our personal gain." Cole told her forcefully.
Prue looked at him searching. "Are you so sure about it? Perhaps you just want to win the case, you want to show Wingrove and Donald Carey, that you are the great winner in the end." She asked him sneering.
"What are you thinking of me?" Cole asked and grinned. "Okay, you are right, it's tempting. But that isn't the reason. I'm just sure that they both want, that Amy will stay in jail for the rest of her life. They know something about it and they want to leave it in the dark. So it's just for Amy."
"And why didn't she talk to you?" Prue asked sceptically.
"Well that's what I want to find out." He told her. "It'll be the best for her to tell me what has happened, believe me." He tried to convince Prue. "Or do you want that the bastard who has killed the clergyman will get off scot-free?"
Prue sighed and picked at her food, she didn't want to use magic.
"Probably demons are involved in it, too. Think about the athame." Cole reminded her.
Prue looked up. "I've once used such a spell for my sisters and me, so that everybody had to tell us the truth." she said rejecting.
"Well and it won't be a problem for you to change it the way we'd need it." He said flattering.
"I know myself. But it's long ago, that I wrote it and why are you so sure, that it'll work here, too?" Prue asked, she still couldn't believe that the Angel of Destiny had lied to her about the magic in this world.
"Do I have to remember you, that you've thrown my alarm clock at me?" Cole asked smiling.
"I don't like your idea, Cole." Prue explained again and ignored his question. "But I'll think about it at home."
"But hurry up with thinking please." Cole urged her. "Otherwise Wingrove will fire me, before I'll get the chance to find out the truth."