Chapter 11
Cases in Point

He woke the next morning to a dream of bacon and coffee and a medley of other delicious foods, before he realized that it was not a dream. He couldn't wait to taste it. Toni was already up, in her blue harem costume, setting a tray on the counter when he walked in, buttoning up his shirt. "Wow," he said happily. "I don't remember when I've had a regular breakfast with all the trimmings."

Toni didn't answer. She'd had a sleepless night as well. No matter how hard she'd tried not to think of it the realization of how much her life had changed in such a short period of time was upon her. And some of those changes she had not even been aware of as they'd happened. Her independence had vanished and she'd given it up without a fight. She was beginning to obey Leif's orders without hesitation and was referring to him as her "Master." He was her Master, and that was a fact.

"Did you come up with any ideas?" she asked. There was no use brooding over things that could not be helped.

"Yeah, one. That trick you used on the TV last night, would it work if you did a live feed?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" she was pouring coffee into cups and then blinked. They rose into the air and flew to the table. Leif watched the action with interest.

"Um…I mean could you stream a video of the actual events as they are taking place, even though it was in the past?"

"You mean like a surveillance video, only the real thing on the television?"

He paused, thinking, "I think so," he nodded his head.

"That's what I did with the second copy."

"Really?" this interested him.

"That's why it was in color. I copied the actual event."

"At this point in time whether or not it's in color is irrelevant, so long as the events are true," he returned.

"Yes, I can do that. But how will that help us with the Goldwyn situation."

"I'm going to rent some bugging equipment and you're," he pointed at Toni. "Going to blink the equipment into the appropriate place," she felt a binding compellation to do exactly as he bid her. It seemed her will power had lost its desire to resist. Besides, what he said made sense. It could work. "When we get back from the trial, we'll all go in together, then when Goldwyn makes the phone call, we'll tape it and show it to Placid."

"That's a good idea," she nodded.

"Thanks."

That morning, at work Toni blinked and a can of diet Pepsi appeared on her desk. This was not an ordinary can of diet Pepsi. This was her special can. She was tired of fighting with the vending machine in the lounge that constantly ate change and never gave it back…unless of course she blinked the change back. But this was easier. She would always have it at hand and it would always be the proper temperature and proper carbonation and it she would never have to leave her desk to get another. It seemed like the perfect solution to her dilemma.

She glanced back at the scattered files before her. It was a cluttered, disorganized mess. She blinked again and all the files were in neat little piles. Finally. They had one more day to go over the evidence and then it would be the day. She was looking forward to this particular trial.

Ordinarily they would have had a conference to go over all the facts, but Drake Placid had been called away on business. He would not return until late that night, so Goldwyn was going to head the conference. She was looking forward to what he might have to say about the situation of the case. Did he still think it was open and shut?

The clock read 10:30, time for the meeting. Gathering up her materials she headed for the conference room, meeting Leif on the way. She gave him a casual glance and a slight nod. When they arrived there was a collective scraping of chairs as each of the members of the Johnson trial moved them out to sit down. Goldwyn opened his file and quickly went over important facts. Martin Charles was sitting beside Toni. "Shouldn't we go over the tape again?" Toni asked an innocent smile playing across her lips.

Slowly, Goldwyn's eyes rose from the file before him and rested on her. The faintest hint of red touched his cheek and his Adam's apple bobbed as he took a hard swallow to mask his obvious unease. "No," he shook his head. "Drake checked it two days ago. I'm sure nothing on it has changed since then."

"Oh," Toni nodded, curling her lips pretending she understood his reasoning, but she let her gaze drift towards Leif. He raised an eyebrow knowingly.

When the meeting was completed Leif followed Toni into her office. "I'm going to be meeting with Mrs. Capp and James in a few, would you like to join me?"

A smile brightened her face. "Sure. I'd love to."

"So you want to tell me something, though?" She answered by merely shrugging a shoulder. "How did Mrs. Capp get her money?"

A mysterious smile spread across her face as she answered, "Trade seceret."

Leif rolled his eyes and headed for his office, leaving her to continue comparing files. All of the cases Ace Goldwyn had requested to be a part of during the last year and a half she compared with cases he had worked on previously. What she found was disconcerting. All of the cases he had requested had been predicted to have a particular outcome, whether it was win or loose, but had ended with the opposite outcome for various reasons in each instance.

Among them was one that particularly piqued Toni's interest. It was a case that involved a well known and respected state senator who had passed several pieces of important legislature that cracked down on organized crime syndicates. The case brought against him was his relationship with one of his under aged pages. All evidence originally brought forward, including the girl in question, would have cleared the senator of any wrong doing, but the evidence was lost or unavailable at the time of the trial. Even more suspicious, the girl was involved in a serious car accident that had snapped her spinal cord and seriously injured her brain. The senator was convicted based on the evidence given by the prosecuting attorney, a Mr. Gale Bland.

The whole incident unnerved her. She could feel a chill run down her spine. She wondered why no one had questioned the situation surrounding the trial, the accident and the loss of the evidence that had originally been available. Nothing was entered in by the defense to prove that the man was innocent. Yet the files had said something had existed.

She shivered as she grabbed the file and headed out the corridor. She stopped by Darlene's desk on her way to Leif's office. "Would you mind doing me a favor?"

Darlene smiled up at her pleasantly. "Depends on the favor."

"Do you think you could do a little research on this case? I'd like to find out a bit more about the accident the girl was involved in. Who were the other victims in the accident and was anyone else hurt? Also I was wondering if anyone knew who turned in the senator, where the prosecutor got his evidence against him and finally a little more about Gale Bland."

Darlene raised an eyebrow. "Goodness. Just a little research? On a case that was closed months ago?" she laughed good naturedly.

"I'm just curious if the defense used every avenue possible to have the man acquitted," Toni shrugged. "I'm just curious is all."

"I'll take a look at it. There should be something, papers, maybe some reports about it somewhere."

"Thanks," Toni waved as she headed for Leif's office. Mrs. Capp and her son were already there waiting for them.

"There you are dear!" she bubbled. "I'm so glad that you and Mr. Yahn took my son's case. I don't know where we'd be otherwise."

"I'm glad we could be of service to you, Mrs. Capp," she took the woman's hand warmly. "Why don't we get down to business?"

They went over evidence and Leif explained to James just exactly what to expect when they got in court. He nodded, interestedly. He seemed much calmer than he had been before. There were a few pieces of the evidence that would go well in his favor. That would help him immensely.

Once they had established background for the case, Mrs. Capp and James left. Toni turned her attention to Leif with a thought that had been bothering her all day. She'd barely had time to even think of it with all the things that had happened to her in the past few days. Adjustment was a long road.

"Have you seen KD lately?"

Leif was confused. "I guess it was a couple days ago," he shrugged. "Why?"

"I haven't seen Glenda since…"

"When I became your Master?" Leif responded, enjoying the moment to torment her. He realized it wasn't very kind of him. She stared daggers at him. He could almost feel them being thrown at him. "I'm sorry…I didn't mean anything by it." He realized he needed to apologize…and fast. He wasn't sure what exactly a genie would do to him for tormenting her that way.

She folded her arms across her chest and glared at him. Did he have to be so….! She couldn't think of a word that would best describe him. She was just an ordinary human. No, that wasn't right. She wasn't ordinary and she wasn't human. Not completely at least. If she were completely human she wouldn't have to put up with this…well, okay, maybe to an extent she would, but she wouldn't have to be around Leif almost all the time! She could choose not to be anywhere near him when they were not at work.

Since he'd opened her bottle she'd become so confused and irritated all the time it seemed. Irritated at Leif, with her self, her parents, her grandparents. She realized that the part of her that was genie was at war with the part of her that wanted to remain free. She wished that her grandfather had never found that bottle on that deserted island!

No, that wasn't entirely true. She wouldn't trade her grandmother for anyone in the world. But that didn't change who she was.

"It's all right," she knew that her tone betrayed her true feelings about the matter, so she tried to calm herself down. A myriad of emotions welled through her as she continued. "Glenda pops in on me all the time."

"She wouldn't have known where you were," Leif pointed out.

"She seems to always know where I'm at," she snapped. She knew she wasn't being fair. He wasn't being cantankerous right now.

"I don't know," Leif shrugged. "I know I haven't seen KD, so I'm not sure where your cousin might be. Maybe she's just busy?"

He turned away from her to his monitor and checked his email, ignoring her. She suddenly felt a feeling of desertion. She didn't know what was wrong with her as she wrinkled her nose in frustration with herself. Why did she feel deserted? She wanted to be alone, but now she was attached.

(To Be Continued…)