The Attorney Read Online Free PDF

abduction," I tell her.
    There is a long pause. I can feel the sigh of breath as it escapes her body. "Yes. That would be Zolanda's stock-in-trade."
    "First-name basis. You must be more familiar with her than I thought."
    "Its a small town," she tells me.
    "Have you ever met her?"
    "Oh, yes. You might say we were once friends," says Susan.
    "But that was in another life."
    "Friends?"
    "Umm."
    "Tell me about it?"
    "What's to tell? It's been a long time." I allow the fingers of my hands to slip beneath the band of her bikini bottom toward the firm, round globes of her ass. She sucks in a deep breath.
    "You're getting a little red around the shoulders," I tell her.
    "You should see my face. Keep that up, and we're going to have to send the children inside."
    "Tell me about Suade."
    "She's not someone you want to tangle with," says Susan. "Why do you want to know?"
    "I have a client. He has a problem."
    "Let me guess. His child is missing?"
    "Granddaughter," I tell her.
    "Now that's a novelty. Usually her victims are fathers with joint custody."
    "Then you've seen this before?"
    "Oh, yes."
    "How do you know her? Through your department?"
    "That and other places. I've known her for--ten years, I guess.
    Since some graduate courses at the U. Early-childhood development.
    She came to speak one night." When my hands stop, she knows I'm interested.
    "Child protection. It's a small universe. We ran in some of the same circles."
    "What else do you know about her?" I start with the fingers again.
    "I heard she had a bad marriage. In another life, before coming to town."
    "Sounds like half the people I know," I tell her.
    "No. I mean a bad marriage," says Susan. "Her husband had money, and a mean streak. He beat her, tortured her, damn near killed her. The man had a weird edge. He was heavily into kink.
    Manacles and chains. Not the kind you see in novelty shops with cotton padding and phony locks. Word is he chained her in a room in their basement for almost a month. Tortured her. Rape, sodomy--the whole nine yards. The only reason she got out alive is some neighbor heard her screaming and called the cops. The experience touched her personality."
    "I can understand that."
    "She does not like men," says Susan.
    "An experience like that is likely to put you off them for some time."
    "Fact is, she hates men."
    "All of them?"
    "Pretty much."
    "That's a little unreal." I massage Susan's behind, this time through the cloth bathing suit with fingers like feathers.
    "Of course, she's never felt the tingle of your fingertips on her ass,"
    says Susan.
    "How can you be so sure?" She giggles. "Because you still have your fingers."
    "How did she get involved with runaway mothers and their kids?"
    "Call it revenge," says Susan. "Her way of striking back at the male establishment. Courts with men in black robes. Law enforcement agencies that discount claims of spousal abuse. Of course she's gone around the bend," says Susan. "For a while she had her supporters. Even some people in high places, a few legislators, city councilwoman or two. But she went too far. Abused the privilege.
    Her answer is not a solution. Turning kids into fugitives is like slitting a man's throat to put him on a diet. A cure worse than the disease. There have been a few cases--very few, mind you--where mothers she has taken into hiding have been caught and jailed.
    That's an entirely new bundle of misery for the children. But you're not going to tell Zo that. She won't hear of it."
    "My client is convinced that Suade is involved. She came to his house with the mother and told him either give the granddaughter up or lose her."
    "Sounds about right. She wasn't always like that," says Susan.
    "Not when she started. She formed a women's advocacy group. Did a lot of lobbying, mostly local stuff, appearances on TV. She tried to intervene in some high-profile custody cases, though the courts slapped her down, wouldn't let her appear. She's not a lawyer. Since she wasn't a party, she