Read Online Change of Heart by Sally Mandel - Free Book Online

… well, I guess you don’t want to hear about it, with your appointments and all.…”
    Finally she came to an abrupt halt and hung up. Brian stared at the phone in remorse. Poor lonely woman.
    Half an hour later Barbara Kaye appeared at his door. Brian had been staring out the window, and he wondered how long she’d been watching him. He noted uneasily that she was wearing her “invincible suit,” the navy-blue three-piece thing.
    â€œI’ve just had a call from Salmonella.”
    Barbara’s habit of distorting their clients’ names had always disturbed Brian. He believed it encouraged an attitude of contempt toward the people they were supposed to be helping, but today he let it pass. His lack of response was not lost on Barbara. She leaned against his desk, her arms folded around an assortment of papers and files.
    â€œWhat’s all this bullshit about talking to me because she thinks a woman could understand her half-wit daughter? I thought you were going to keep her off my back.”
    â€œSorry,” Brian said vaguely.
    Barbara watched his face, waiting for him to look up at her. He did, finally, and she continued with quiet urgency.
    â€œI want this case. She needs to have her hand held and she’s getting billed for it. You’re the one who told me she’s a pathetic old lady with nobody to talk to.”
    â€œI’ll call her later,” Brian said with obvious lack of enthusiasm.
    Barbara stood tall and handsome, head set in the no-compromise position so familiar to Brian and to the judges presiding at district court. She kept unsmiling eyes riveted on Brian’s face until finally he threw his hands up in a gesture of concession. She shook her head, and he prepared himself for the full treatment.
    â€œI do not read the usual level of human compassion in your face lately, and that scares me.”
    Brian smiled dubiously at her, thinking. Nothing scares you, dear Barbara.
    â€œNo, somebody around here has to bleed for our guys,” she said. “I count on you for that. What the hell is going on?”
    She waited, but Brian remained silent.
    â€œYou expending all your sympathy on this new girl?”
    His eyes narrowed, and she shook her head.
    â€œI can’t lay off, Morgan. You bring it in here, and it’s not private anymore.”
    He sighed at the rising heat in her voice and waited for the rest.
    â€œYou leave early every day and come trailing into court unprepared, and for all the work you accomplish when you do haul your ass in here, she might as well be standing over there in the corner doing a striptease.”
    She leaned over to tap his forehead with a long bright-red fingernail.
    Brian said quietly, “You’re right, Barbara. I’m sorry, okay?”
    â€œWhat happened to the tennis freak?” Brian kept his face blank. “Susan. The one with the good legs.”
    â€œNothing.”
    Barbara stared at him. “Nothing happened, or nothing’s going on there?”
    Brian only raised his eyebrows at her to let her know he’d heard the question and chose not to answer.
    â€œYou made a nice-looking couple.”
    â€œDo I ask you about your love life?” Brian snapped.
    â€œNo!” Barbara burst out, with a bitter laugh. She averted her eyes, staring out the window at the bright sky. Brian watched her pupils contract into tiny black specks. He was astonished to see that she was hurt. There had been harsher words between them over courtroom procedure and client relations, battles in which they attacked each other’s basic competence and judgment. What had he said this time except a fairly restrained “butt out”?
    He was about to make a bewildered apology when she turned to him and said quietly, “Her father’s a real shit.” Brian looked nonplussed, and she smiled. “Listen, I heard her name. I met Walter Converse at the McKaye examination before