They met up at a restaurant. She didn't know why this one in particular had been chosen, but she'd left it up to Danielle, and so when the name had been given, she hadn't been all too surprised.
"Why is it that whenever you and I meet up, we always end up here?" Kelly asked as she came to sit down.
"Because it's familiar, and at least we know what we're getting here," Danielle replied. "It's been a while, Kelly. How've you been?"
"Considering what I've managed to get myself into, I would say that things could definitely be better, but before I decided to take up for this, everything was perfectly fine."
"I'm surprised you've taken this up at all," Danielle remarked, and the hidden question was too obvious to miss.
"You already know as well as I do that Rebecca's extremely upset about this. I know she talked to Anna, and I didn't get the impression that she trusted Anna all that much with what happens in this case." Kelly replied dryly.
"Could it be any more obvious that she's the product of a union between two lawyers?" Danielle asked mildly, and then, "What made you think she didn't trust Anna?"
"I don't know. I just got that impression. And then I have Jack telling me that it's a conflict of interest, but he won't go into detail, other than the fact that he might actually feel as if he wants more than a friendship from her, and I find myself stuck in the middle, yet again."
Silence fell between them, and after a moment, Danielle spoke. "I'm sure that's not what anyone intended, Kelly," she said. Kelly snorted.
"I doubt it," she said. "Somehow, I always end up in the middle. In between home and courtrooms, prosecution and defense, Jack and the DA's office…never ends."
"I'm sure it does somewhere," said Danielle, "But you still haven't said anything about why you took this case on, other than the fact that your daughter's upset over it. But I know as well as you do that Rebecca's not the only reason why you took this up."
"I've had enough of the rumors, Danielle, I'm not looking to get into it again," said Kelly, almost tiredly. She took a sip from the glass of water in front of her before she went on. "Life is such that I take cases as they come, you know that."
"We all take cases as they come, but not every one of us ends up defending his or her ex in court," Danielle pointed out. "Most people would think you're out to railroad him, Kelly."
"I'm not out to railroad him, thanks," said Kelly, flatly. "I'd like to think that I have some sort of morals, even if I am a defense attorney."
Danielle laughed. "Point taken," she said. "I know you have morals, and I know you're not out to railroad him, but you do have to admit that it looks odd."
"And Flynn is one of those that buckles when too much pressure is put on her. We've both known her for quite a while. This is a high-profile case."
"I have the feeling she might have come out quite well in this particular case." Danielle paused for a moment and then sighed. "I must admit that I didn't expect to have so many people appear in the courtroom."
"Half the city's watching the papers every day for news," Kelly said dryly. "They can't get into the courtroom to see for all the cops and prosecutors there."
"I'd say it's more than obvious that they all think he's innocent, wouldn't you?"
"Well, of course they think he's innocent, everyone there has worked with him at one point or another. I could've sworn I saw Bell there, and Hawthorne, but it might've just been me."
"I didn't see them, but I'm sure I'll mention it if I do come across them there, though heaven only knows I can't see why they'd be there."
"You ask me, the only reason any defense attorney would be in there is to see him convicted, with the exception of you, me, Anna, and possibly Trevor Langan."
"You sound like you're starting to doubt yourself."
Kelly shook her head and took another sip from the water in front of her. "I'm not. It's just…I don't know what it is, Danielle, I really don't. And I feel awful, because part of me is almost wishing that he is guilty, and then I look at the crime scene photos, and I know he…he's not capable of that."
"Of course not," said Danielle, slowly. "It would take a lot for him to drop to the level of those he's prosecuted."
"Then what the hell is this?" Kelly asked, not bothering to hide the note of frustration in her voice. "What is this entire case? The murders, the evidence…it's all nothing! There's gotta be something else here…something we're not seeing."
"Are you sure you were never a cop before you became an attorney?" Danielle asked dryly, and Kelly gave a rueful laugh.
"Guess if you run prosecution and work with 'em long enough, you start thinking like 'em. I was an assistant, remember?"
She'd been talked into another case. The good part about it was that it was that it provided a distraction. The bad part was that it kept her out of the courtroom, when it was really where she wanted to be. As it was, she sat in the office now, having just finished a meeting with her latest client, and the silence was about to drive her up the wall.
"You do remember that I know where you live, right?" she said, to Trevor, when the door opened and she looked up to see him walking in. "I can't believe I let you talk me into this."
"You need something to keep your mind off this other case," he said, simply. "It's not that I want to keep you away from it, Anna, it's that I don't want you to drive yourself up the wall any more than you already have."
"This new case is going to drive me up the wall," Anna muttered. "I swear, it's either just me or people get stupider by the day. It's gonna take a miracle to get this evidence thrown out."
"Another murder case?" Trevor asked, and Anna glared at him.
"Manslaughter. Prosecution can't prove outright murder, though they're trying. They actually tried to convince me that they had enough to go with murder one."
"Premeditated, or a cop killing?"
"Premeditated. The victim wasn't a cop, thank heaven. I hate taking on those cases."
"I think all of us do. The cops might be a pain sometimes, but I doubt there's any one of us that would rather see them dead." Trevor trailed off and after a second went on. "So you don't think they have enough to go for murder?"
"Oh, they can try to go for murder, but from what the police have shown it looks more like an accident than anything else," said Anna. "All depends on whether or not my client's willing to deal out. That, or a jury. I get the feeling this client of mine's going to be stubborn enough to take it to a trial."
"More courtroom work. Lovely," said Trevor dryly. Anna rolled her eyes at him, and sighed.
"Since you're not working anything at the moment," she said, "Have you been to Judge Ross' courtroom at all today?"
"I have. Afternoon session, though. I don't know anything about what happened this morning."
"And here I was hoping I could count on you. What do you know?"
"That Holloway's this close to getting told off by Rubirosa in open court. It couldn't be more obvious that she can't stand him."
"And Monahan?"
"Smoke and mirrors. She keeps talking the way she is, she'll have that jury eating out of the palm of her hand."
"But the evidence…"
"Prosecution's been treading lightly with that, honestly. I don't know why. They're probably holding back until it gets closed to the end."
"Damn." Anna looked away, shaking her head. "That doesn't sound good."
"No, it doesn't." Trevor glanced over at her and sighed. "I still say you're worrying too much about this."
"I still say that I'm not going to listen to you if you keep telling me that. I'm starting to think that worrying about it is the only thing keeping me from being put in a rubber room."
"I'm sure you're quite far from a rubber room, Anna. All you're going to do is make things worse."
"Things couldn't possibly get any worse than this. I'm dealing with the District Attorney's office on two fronts. It's bad enough dealing with them on one."
"If you leave now, I'm afraid I'll have to come after you. Things are…hard enough around here as it is right now."
"I'm well aware of that, thanks." Suddenly Anna was feeling irritable, and she knew it wouldn't end well if this conversation kept going the way it was going. "Is there a reason why you came in here, or did you just come around to make small talk?"
"Well, the real reason I came was to tell you what went on this afternoon, but since I've already done that, I'll go if you'd like me to," said Trevor, but Anna shook her head.
"Nah, I could use the company. Heaven only knows I've got too much on my mind as it is."
They hadn't found her, and it was getting frustrating. The trial had been two days going so far, and the way things were going, it definitely didn't look good.
"Her family's not cooperating," said Nina, pacing back and forth across the lieutenant's office, "We haven't seen any sign that she's back in the city. It might not even be her."
"But she's the only one you can see as a viable suspect, other than the one who's already on trial," said Anita, more of a question than the statement it sounded like.
"She's the only one who threatened either of the prosecutors, according to the file," said Ed. "McCoy and Abbie Carmichael both. And then, we found this."
He slid the file across the desk to her. "Tara Galinet's attorney in the case McCoy had against her was Kelly Monahan."
"Isn't she the one representing him now?" Anita asked, looking over at the detectives with raised eyebrows. Nina nodded.
"She is," she said. "We're thinking we might have to go so far as to question her about Galinet's whereabouts, if anyone would know, she would, no?"
"It's more than likely that she would; have you tried getting a hold of her yet?" Anita asked, but both detectives shook their heads.
"We haven't," said Ed, "But we're planning on it. We're waiting until she isn't tied up in court."
Anita looked at her watch. "Well, court should be adjourning for the day; it's almost five o'clock," she said. "Try and catch her at the courthouse."