Final Option

that we do not appear in sordid, criminal matters. I don’t think we’ve had a partner associated with the crime of murder in the entire history of Callahan Ross. I hope I don’t need to remind you that as this firm’s most recent partner you have a very special responsibility.”
    “And I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that the day that I was accepted into partnership you called me into this very room to lecture me on service to the client and a partner’s obligation to bring new business into the firm. Well, I brought in Hexter Commodities, and it is my intention to help the company and the Hexter family through this difficult time of transition. If you read the Tribune article you know that Elkin Caufield is representing Mrs. Hexter. All I did was give her son a ride to the police station.”
    “You are in a special position, Kate,” warned Tillman. “As one of this firm’s first female partners, you must do better than avoid wrongdoing. Like Caesar’s wife, you must avoid the appearance of wrongdoing as well. Unfair as it may seem, it falls to you to set an important precedent.”
    “I am confident that none of the male partners of this firm would have allowed concerns about appearances to prevent them from serving a client.”
    “This has been a friendly warning, Kate. Not all of your partners would have been this reasonable.”
    “You don’t have to tell me that,” I replied, rising to go. “When you come to work for this firm, one of the first lessons you learn is just what the partners are capable of.”
     

CHAPTER 17
     
    “Tourniquet?” inquired my secretary politely as I stormed back to my office from Skip Tillman’s.
    “It’s only a flesh wound,” I answered. “I wouldn’t mind a fresh cup of coffee, though.”
    Cheryl appeared a few minutes later with the coffee and her steno pad. “While you were down the hall getting chewed out, Elkin Caufield’s office called. Mrs. Hexter’s bail hearing is set for eleven o’clock. They said they’d keep you informed, whatever that means. Do you think she killed him?”
    “I don’t know what to think,” I replied honestly. “For her children’s sake, I hope she didn’t. Imagine if your mother were arrested for murder. Besides, this is going to be the made-for-TV movie scandal of the year. It’s only a matter of time before the Hexters’ butler is on ‘Oprah,’ along with some psychologist who’s just spent three weeks writing a book on murder among the rich.“
    “That’s not an answer,” pressed Cheryl. “You’ve met her. Do you think she murdered him?”
    “There is no limit to what people are capable of,” I ventured cautiously. “Who knows what goes on inside of a marriage? Pamela Hexter doesn’t seem like someone capable of murder. She’s a kinder, gentler version of my mother—you know, a fiftyish woman in a Chanel suit who plays bridge, goes to parties, and shops. I saw her the morning after the murder. She was methodically making a list of people to be invited to the house after the funeral.”
    “That sounds awfully cold for someone who’s just found her husband shot to death.”
    “I know,” I countered. “But if she’d just shot him, don’t you think she’d have made a better stab at playing the grieving widow?”
     
    Carl Savage sauntered into my office, making no attempt to hide the fact that he found the Hexter family troubles vastly amusing. I explained that under the circumstances I’d had no chance to discuss a severance package with Barton Jr. Instead, I suggested that Carl give me a proposal that I would relay back to his former employer.
    “You can tell him to shove it up his ass,” said Carl, leaning back in the armchair that faced my desk. “I start work at McKenzie on Monday. In the meantime I’m going to hire a lawyer and sue.”
    “It doesn’t have to be this way,” I said. “You’ll end up paying your lawyer more than you’ll win in settlement.”
    “It’s not the money,” Savage snorted. “I’ve got plenty of money. It’s the principle. Baby Barton would have to pay me a shit load of money before it would make even a dent in the pile he’s got. I want him to feel it.”
    “You worked for his dad for how many years? Nine?”
    “It would have been ten years next January.”
    “I’d think that under the circumstances you might want to cut his son a break just out of common decency. It doesn’t look very good, you coming after him over this when his