Close To Danger (Westen #4)(37)
“The former football strong-safety? That Joe Whitehead?” Okay, that threw him a curveball. He hadn’t expected a sports hero to pop onto her stalker-possibility list.
“The one and the same.”
“Isn’t he serving time for spousal abuse?”
“Actually, it’s twenty years for assault and kidnapping his wife. It was his fourth offense. He got the maximum.”
Wes typed the name onto the list of suspects then paused. “I thought you were a corporate lawyer. What does this domestic violence case have to do with you?”
Chloe gave a little shrug and shifted in her seat. “I do pro bono work in my spare time. Joe’s wife Tamika was a high school friend of mine. I filed the restraining orders against him for her. He kept violating them. When one of Joe’s punches landed her in the ICU with a broken eye socket, it was the last time. With no college education or job skills, she didn’t have any money of her own and no way to support her children. Before the prosecution went after Joe’s freedom, I went after his money in her divorce.”
“How much did you take him for?”
The question bristled her. She’d heard more than one male lawyer and client claim women were always out for more money than they deserved. She sat straight up in her seat, pointing a finger at Wes. “I didn’t take him for anything. Why is it men always assume a woman wants to take a man for everything he has? Shouldn’t she get some compensation for being his personal punching bag?”
W?den lifted his head to stare at the pair of them.
Wes held up his hands in submission. “Whoa, there counselor. I didn’t say she shouldn’t. Personally, I think any man who treats a woman like that deserves to lose everything he holds dear.”
The sincerity on his face eased some of her ire, slightly. She sat back in her chair, crossing one leg over the other and tapping her foot on the floor as she stared out into the snow falling once more outside the cabin window, tears of frustrated anger burning her eyes. A moment later, the large grey and white wolf-dog nuzzled her foot. She froze. Then W?den moved to slip his head under her hand. Carefully, she rubbed her hand in his thick fur. The action gave her comfort.
“I fought for my client and friend to have enough money for a nice home in a safe area of another town and to pay their bills and for her education so she could get the skills necessary to support her kids. The judge awarded her more than we’d asked for. I was very proud of Tamika. She asked me to use the extra money to set up education accounts for her kids and trust funds in case anything happened to her.”
“Sounds like a very sensible woman.”
Shaking her head, Chloe continued to run her hands through W?den’s fur. “She wasn’t always. That’s how she ended up with Joe in the first place. She believed marrying a famous athlete would make her famous and living the bling life without any worries.”
“Until the fantasy life turned into a nightmare?” Wes asked, all censure out of his voice.
“I think she would’ve put up with it for longer if she hadn’t had kids.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I noticed she changed after her daughter was born and even more after her son. She wasn’t on the gossip pages or on social media as much. Her posts and tweets had more to do with her kids than partying with the rich and famous.” W?den laid down at her feet. She lifted one leg up into the chair, wrapped one arm around it and relaxed into the cushions. “It’s one of the reasons I wanted to help her. She was in over her head and wanted to get out before Joe killed her or one of her kids.”
“You said he broke the restraining orders?” Wes asked, rubbing the day-old stubble on his chin.
“Yes. All four. Why?”
“I’m just thinking he’d have had to develop stalking skills to find her, wouldn’t he?”
“Yes, but like I told you earlier, he’s in prison for twenty years. I don’t see him stalking me from inside a jail cell.”
“True. But he might still have the resources to hire someone to do it for him.”
“This feels too personal to be a hired thug. Besides wouldn’t it make more sense for him to be terrorizing Tamika?”
“Yes, on both counts. Still, I’ll keep him on our list,” Wes said, typing on his laptop again. “We’ll see if he’s had any regular visitors at the prison.”
“You’re going to access federal prison records on your little laptop while we’re snowed in out here in the woods?”
He gave her a nonchalant shrug. “I have an app.”
She snorted. The man had an app for everything. “You’re kidding, right?”
He didn’t answer, just lifted one eyebrow her direction. “Anyone else you want to add to the list?”
Chloe pulled more cookies out of the packet and munched on them. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that the man on the couch had connections that could get him into federal data bases and apps that let him clone cell phones, much less search her own memory banks for anyone who’d ever threatened her. The whole thing—Wes and her stalker—seemed too surreal.
“Anyone else you might’ve pissed off doing a case pro bono?” Wes prompted her.
She focused on the few side cases she’d had since joining the firm. One name came to mind. “Nathan Tremont.”