The Tolling of Mercedes Bell: A Novel Read Online Free

made her smile in the dark.
    Just then, car tires squealed loudly around a corner, followed by gunshots, men shouting, more tires squealing, and the roar of engines speeding away.
No, we don’t live in Piedmont anymore.
Within moments, Germaine slipped into bed beside her. Mercedes curled around the child, calming her as quiet settled again over the neighborhood.

CHAPTER THREE
January 1983
THE FREDERICKS CASE
    M ercedes reviewed the transcript in front of her and continued dictating her summary. Lindsay was on the phone with a court clerk and Simone was organizing documents. The three paralegals, each in a cubicle, shared a room with one unoccupied work station. After seven months, Mercedes was well settled into the firm’s routines.
    Darrel Crenshaw’s secretary, Louise, entered the room, gave Mercedes a quick once-over, and handed her a file. “Darrel wants to see you in the conference room,” she whispered. “Take this with you.”
    “I thought he was in a deposition this morning,” Mercedes replied quizzically as she took the file.
    “He is. The deposition’s here. He wants you to join them right away.”
    Mercedes’s eyebrows rose in surprise, and she quickly left her desk.
    The people in the conference room were taking a break. The court reporter was loading more paper into her machine, and Darrelsat at the table between two men. He was large and robust, with a broad chest and wide, straight shoulders. He looked up expectantly as she entered, then signaled for her to come closer. As Mercedes leaned over to give him the file, Darrel cupped his hand around his bearded mouth and whispered into her ear. “I want you to sit in and watch. Take notes and give me your impression of this witness. She’s out with her attorney right now, but when the deposition resumes, pay close attention. Sit where you can watch all of her.”
    Darrel’s auburn eyebrows graced an unlined forehead. His was the face of a good man with a clean conscience. His expression told her that he suspected something and needed another pair of eyes to confirm it.
    He introduced her to the two men sitting with him: Mr. Constantine, the insurance company representative from whom the firm got many of its cases, and Mr. Dailey, the defendant. Dailey was a bilious-looking man in his late sixties, with a few strands of dyed hair stretched over his balding pate in a futile attempt to conceal the obvious. Darrel pulled documents out of the file and reviewed them with Constantine, a rotund man in a tawdry suit. They looked at each other and both nodded slightly.
    Out in the hallway, an extremely tall, debonair gentleman in a midnight blue silk suit approached the doorway, accompanying a blond woman in black. His movements were smooth and catlike. He seemed both relaxed and keenly aware. He looked to be in his late thirties, with silver appearing at the temples of his luxuriant dark hair. He extended an arm around his client, who was a dumpy, middle-aged woman with her hair piled high in a meringue-like bouffant. She looked tense and anxious. Her earrings bobbled as she nodded in response to his whispers.
    When they entered the room, Darrel introduced Mercedes to the plaintiff, Emily Fredericks, and her lawyer, Mr. Jack Soutane.
    Jack smiled. Laugh lines creased his handsome face and he nodded slightly, looking at her with intense blue eyes. “The more the merrier,” he said in a deep voice.
    Mercedes gave him a deferential nod and sat down. She pulled out her notepad and looked toward Darrel, who was about to resume questioning. She had a full view of Emily, above and below the table.
    Darrel’s examination proceeded. Some years earlier Miss Fredericks had approached another lawyer, Milton Dailey, to represent her in a civil suit against her former boyfriend, Jason Greer. She had provided Mr. Dailey with medical and financial records, and the names of witnesses who could testify on her behalf.
    She and Jason had lived together for several years, well