She said it was important that communication be kept open and if I ever had any concerns I could call her.
Clay organizing his books may be nothing, but added to the other things that have been building up, I know I won’t feel right if I don’t at least tell Leonie.
The line beeps, bringing me to her answering machine.
“Hi, Leonie, this is Amelia Rivers—Clay Carter’s erm…” I don’t want to use the word nanny. “I help out at the Carter house. You said if I had any concerns about Clay I could call. I’d really appreciate if you could give me a call back on this number at your earliest convenience.”
Pulling the cell away from my ear, I click the end call button and lean my back against the counter, blowing out a breath.
Something in this house needs to change, and soon, because the people Tris’s moods are affecting are the two little humans who need to be sheltered from it.
I wish I had the answers to it all. If only.
“Come in.” I look up from the file I’m looking through, my gaze landing on the door as it opens.
“Mr. Cole, you may want to turn on the news,” Stacey says as she walks in and closes the door behind her.
I stand and move over to the sofa, turning on the TV on the wall opposite where I’m sitting. As soon as I have, our firm’s biggest client graces the screen being taken to a police car in handcuffs with the headline “Joe Kent arrested over domestic abuse charges.”
A knock on the door gains my attention and Marina comes walking in. “Sorry for barging in but we have—”
“I’ve seen.” I stand up, facing her. “What are we doing about it and why haven’t we been called?”
She hands me a file. “I went to the station, I knew you were busy with the Marco case so I took this on.”
I nod gratefully and press my intercom. “Tara, clear my schedule for today.”
“Already on it, Mr. Cole.”
“You keep me sane,” I reply before picking up my jacket and heading toward the conference room closest to my office with Marina and Stacey on either side of me. “Stacey, get Holland and Nina and meet us in there.” She nods and walks off in the opposit
e direction. “What do we know?”
Marina turns on the TV in the conference room as we sit down, the news coming on. “Classic domestic abuse case. Mrs. Kent is insisting they’ve had a toxic relationship for a while now. She was admitted to Victoria State for treatment of injuries similar to those of a domestic case last night.”
“Why wait until this morning to arrest him?”
She shrugs as Holland and Nina—our in-house investigators—enter the room with Stacey following behind. I have little to no information to go on but the cogs are already turning, putting together a case.
I nod along to my own thoughts, standing up in front of everyone. “Holland, contact every close friend of the Kents. I want character witness statements for both Mr. and Mrs. Kent.” I turn toward the brunette pouring herself a coffee. “Nina, I need you to dig up anything we could use as testimony to Mr. Kent being a humanitarian or an advocate for women. I know he donates to a lot of women’s charities: get me records.”
“On it,” they both say as they walk out of the room.
“Holland, how are you?” I hear a deep voice ask from the hallway.
I stand up and walk out of the conference room seeing Holland shaking my client’s hand. “Mr. Kent. I’d say it’s a pleasure but under the circumstances I’ll refrain.”
He chuckles and turns around. “Ahh, Nathan Cole. If there’s anything I need right now, it’s a little humor.”
He shakes my hand warmly. “Well you can always expect a little from me.” I motion toward the conference room. “Shall we?”
“Of course.”
Marina stands and greets him with her signature sickly sweet two kisses.
“How long were you in there for?” I ask.
He swats the air like it’s a fly. “Not important. It kept me out of the press’s eye for a few hours that’s for sure.”