In Search Of Dreams

Episode 26

“Rob?” Liam pokes his head inside Rob’s
office, knocking as he does so.

Rob is frantically searching his office, looking
for folders that Liam suspects are in his hands.

“What?” Rob snaps, looking up. “Sorry, hey,
Liam, what’s goin’ on?”

“Um… are you looking for these?” he asks
quietly, holding his files.

“Why do you have my files?” Rob asks, his
face clouding.

Liam closes the door quietly behind him.

“Your father handed your case over to me. I… I
thought you knew.”

“He did what? “

“He kept me late last night and told me that I
was to take this case. Said something about
your having lost your objectivity with your
client.”

Rob rakes his hand through his hair and sits.

He leans forward, his elbows on his desk, and
rubs his face, groaning. “Shit.”

“I, um, just talked to her…”

Rob peeks at Liam from between his fingers.

“She’s a bit shocked.”

“A bit?”

“A lot. I didn’t get to talk to her too much, she
—”

“She had to get to work. She teaches
kindergarten at Lincoln.” Rob stands again,
agitated, and starts pacing. “She’s gonna be
mad at me, I know it. She’s gonna set her
brother on me and I’ll never walk again…”

“Rob,” Liam interrupts his ramblings, “is it
true?”

“Is what true?”

“Have you lost your objectivity with this girl?”

Rob stops. He looks at the books on his
massive bookshelf, covering one wall. “Maybe.”

“You haven’t fallen in love with her, have you?”

Liam asks quietly.

Rob’s phone rings before he can answer. He
looks at the clock, and for the first time he
hopes that it’s not Loretta on the phone.

“Robert Carter,” he answers.

“Ah. I was wondering when I’d be hearing from
you. Hold on one moment, Alfred, I’m just going
to pop you on speakerphone. As luck would
have it, my associate Liam Winters happens to
be in my office at the moment. He and I are
both working on this case,” Rob says, looking
meaningfully at Liam.

“…nder the understanding that it was only you,”
Alfred Boudreaux’s voice pops out of the
speakerbox, mid-sentence.

“Good morning, Alfred, and no, it’s both of us
now,” Liam sits, setting the files back on
Rob’s desk.

“I’m actually stepping back a bit into more of a
second-chair position on this case now,” Rob
explains. “Handing the reins over to someone
with a bit more experience.”

Liam nods. I’m good with that, he seems to
silently say to Rob.

“Oh? Young Master Carter has bitten off
more than he can chew, I see?” Alfred taunts.
“No, just willing to take the time to walk before
I can run,” Rob says smoothly. “So what do
we owe the dubious honor of a phone call from
yourself?”

“I think you know perfectly well why I’m callin’.

My client wants you to drop the charges. Says
you ain’t got a case against him or his
company.”

Rob rolls his eyes.

“Of course he’d say that,” Liam answers. “We
got him backed into a corner and he knows it.”

“If any of his employees testifies against him,
they’ll be fired. He wanted me to let y’all
know.”

“Then we can sue him again for wrongful
termination,” Liam answers.

“‘Sides, we’d be able to find them jobs at
companies that have safe working environments
‘fore they even knew they were out of a job,”
Rob adds.

“So you’re refusin’ to drop the charges?”

“Yes,” Liam says.

“You don’t wanna run that by your client before
you answer?” Alfred presses.

“No,” Rob answers this time.

Alfred pauses a beat. “Good. That’s what I was
hopin’ for,” he says, and they can practically
hear him leering on the other end.

“See you in court,” Rob says, and
disconnects. He looks at Liam. “You ain’t takin’
this case all to yourself.”

“I figured as much. I’m okay with that.”

“There are some conditions I’m workin’ with,
here. First, if we don’t win, Loretta doesn’t
have to pay us.”

“All right.”

“Second, if we need to talk to Percy Andersen,
Duncan Matthews, or Ezra Johnson, it has to be
after hours so they don’t have to take time off
their jobs.”

“Understandable. They do know they’ll need to
take time for the trial?”

“Yes. I’ll call them tonight and give them the
date.”

“You all right, Rob?” Liam asks. He can see
that Rob is still agitated.

“No. I need to have a few words with my
father.”

“Probably,” Liam allows.

Rob picks up his phone and dials.

“Lisa, is anyone with my father right now?

Good. Thank you.”

He hangs up the phone, reaches into the bottom
drawer of his desk and pulls out a thin file. He
hands it to Liam. “You’ll want to read this over.

It wasn’t with the rest.”

“What is it?” Liam takes the file.

“Our ace in the hole. You can hang here if you
want, I’m goin’ to go yell at Pop for a few
minutes.”

Rob heads to his door and he hears Liam
open the file. As the door closes behind him, he
hears Liam exclaim softly, “Holy shit…”