Billie Jean

"Hey Sarah," I said. "Thanks for the warning. It was good to know what was going to happen before it did for a change."

"That's what you pay me for," she said cheerfully. "How are things on your end?"

"Well fifty percent of the people I work with think I did it. The one that kills me though is that this may end up destroying my marriage. Mary Beth thinks I'm lying to her. She doesn't believe me and it's killing her. We've been sleeping apart for almost a week. That's the first time that's happened to us. And after I prove that I'm innocent, it won't matter. Billie Jean is going to pay for this," I said.

"Anyway Sarah, I'm coming to you. I'll be there before midnight your time. What I need from you is a file on all of the significant players in the Florida State Attorney's office. I'd like to have some heads up on them before I face them tomorrow. I know it's short notice but I'd appreciate anything you come up with," I told her.

"Okay, I'll have the files at your hotel by midnight," She said as she hung up the phone.

As soon as I hung up, my phone rang again.

"Who were you talking to, one of your whores?" said Tina's acidic voice. "Listen, I just called to make you an offer. Actually it's two offers. Mary Beth doesn't want to go with you to Florida. So I thought that I'd go with you. That way when we get back I could tell her that you only handled business on the trip."

"Why the fuck would I want to take you with me?" I asked. I was totally confused. Tina surely understood that I hated the shit out of her.

"Look, moron, with me there my sister will know that you weren't screwing around behind her back. Plus when we get back maybe I'll try to convince her to forgive you," she snapped.

"Tina you never do anything, for nothing," I said. "What do you get out of this?"

"Well Mary Beth told me that you two haven't had sex in about 4 nights, so you must be kind of hard up, if you get my meaning."

"Tina, I'll never be that hard up," I said hanging up the phone.

Myra stepped into my office at that point. "Everything's arranged, hotel, car, the whole nine yards. I even know you well enough to make a contingency plan for when you call me," she said smiling.

I didn't have any idea what she was talking about, so I let it slide.

I rode to the airport with Burns. There was no way that I'd leave my Shelby in long term parking. Actually I should have realized that there was plenty of room in the area around the hangar where McMillan Worth's jets were stored to park my car.

As we got into the winged aluminum tube that would fly us across the country in a matter of hours, I thought back on my life. By the time the jet took off I was deep into my thoughts. Actually when I'd seen the pictures of the child that Billie Jean claimed was mine, I'd realized what was going on here.I also realized that proving it would be difficult if it was even possible at all.

Several hours later we arrived in Florida. Even though the temperature was a close match to what we'd left in California, it felt hotter. This wasn't dry warm air; this was far more humid, wet towel sticking to your skin swamp air.

In California the temperature and the warn breezes caress your skin and make you feel good. That's why all of the people walk around smiling. This felt more like the temperature and the air clamped you in a fist.

The women here were to be truthful, no less beautiful and certainly at least as well endowed as the ones in Cali. The interesting thing though, was that they seemed to be more natural.

As we walked out of the hangar that connected with the main airport terminal, my head was snapping left and right. Shit, I was a happily married man. If the women here affected me like this, I'd hate to be a single guy here.

As we left the terminal I saw a limo driver with a sign that had Burns' name on it. It was a big Mercedes stretch limo. My face dropped immediately. Then I decided that Myra needed a raise. As we walked towards the car that I was dreading getting into, my transportation arrived.

Back in the sixties when Ford had just released the Mustang, They made a deal with Carroll Shelby to produce some special edition cars for the Mustang line. One of the most sought after was the Shelby GT-H. These cars were sold to the Hertz rent a car company and could be rented by anyone with the money to rent a car. Lots of guys who wanted to get into racing on the cheap would rent those beasts that were faster and more powerful than the stock Mustangs of the day and take to them their local drag strips.

In 2006 Ford and Shelby had built the 06 Shelby GT-H as a tribute to those cars. And yep, you could still rent one from Hertz. All of a sudden Myra's cryptic message made sense. She was probably sure that after I'd driven the car, I'd want it. That woman really did deserve a raise.

I followed the limo to the hotel. I checked into my room and before my ass hit the surface of the couch my phone rang. Inwardly I was pissed then I realized that thought it was 10 o'clock here it was only 7pm back in LA. It was of course crazy Tina.

I pushed the button to record the call and before I could say anything, she just started talking.

"By the time this night is over, you'll wish you had taken me with you. Your life is never going to be the same. You think Billie Jean hurt you. Wait until you see what I'm going to take from you. You should have given me what I wanted." And then she started hysterically laughing. I hung up the phone. Tina was certifiable. When this Billie Jean thing was over and life got back to normal, I needed to have a long talk with Mary Beth about distancing ourselves from her sister.

My phone rang again. I was torn between letting it go to voice mail and just cursing Tina out until I noticed the 904 area code. The call was from here in Jacksonville.

"Hello," I said tentatively.

"Mr. Alexander, this is Sarah Price. Can you meet us in Mr. Burns' suite I have the information you needed and I'd like us to discuss our course of action," she said.

"I'll be right over, Sarah," I said. The woman was certainly worth whatever I was paying her. She'd promised me a file by midnight and she'd cut two hours off of that.

Monty's suite looked much like mine did. Unlike the hotels in Cali where they tended to use different designer's for every suite to create a different mood every time you stayed in place, here it looked like they went with what they liked and used the same pieces or very similar ones in every room.

There were four large wing backed chairs around a small conference table in the sitting room of his suite. His bed appeared to be the same one I had as well. Not just the frame and the mattress, even the linen and spread seemed to be the same. It made me wonder how the maids didn't get lost or confused.

"Okay, let's get started," said Sarah. I was amazed. This was the longest I'd ever seen her go without glancing at her husband. Nope it's over; she just locked eyes with him again and smiled.

"I've narrowed this down to all of the players and sub players involved to make this simpler," she said.

"Darryl Martin," she said showing us a picture. "Don't worry about him. He's toast we won't be dealing with him. He's the attorney for the state who was assigned your case. He's not very good, which would have been great for us."

I raised my hand, like a school kid and she looked at me and smiled. I don't know how Chris could handle being around her all the time. With all of that long honey blond hair and those huge green eyes aimed in my direction, I was getting aroused. Today she was wearing those little rectangular glasses like an extremely sexy librarian. "This is your meeting, Mr. Alexander," she said. "You don't have to raise your hand."

"Why won't we be dealing with Mr. Martin if he's the attorney assigned to the case?" I asked. "And if he's not important why do we have his picture?"

"I wanted to show you the entire situation we're dealing with," she said. "You pay us for all of the facts so that's what I'm giving you. The real deal is that with your celebrity status and the importance of your case, I was expecting the Florida State attorney's office to go bigger. I just wasn't expecting them to go this big."

She flipped up another picture. Even seeing him in a photo filled me with dread. She didn't need to introduce him to us at all.

"Before we get into who we will be dealing with let's look at the why." She pulled out another picture; this one was of a woman. The photo was a full body shot of a woman in a business skirt suit. Her long curly jet black hair was the kind that most men would die to wrap their fingers in while they were...

The woman was incredibly busty, that much was obvious even in the photos. The fact that she was covered from neck to knees only seemed to enhance her appeal, not to mute it. She had a slim waist and a rounded ass that her skirt couldn't conceal. Her legs were thick but so well shaped that it seemed natural. The woman looked like that pornstar Angelina Castro. She had the same zest for life or so it appeared in the photo. Her eyes drew me in, they were the most expressive brown eyes I'd ever seen.

"This is Helena Martinez," said Sarah. "She's the social worker assigned to the case. Her only concern is the child. If paternity is established she's the one who will determine, except for the amount of your obligation, everything else. She is exceptional in her job. If we can get her on our side, or at least not working against us, it would be very good."

I looked at Sarah, thinking that maybe just this once, she'd made a mistake. She shook her head at me as if she was psychic. Then she showed us another picture, this time another woman. The hair was different but there was a resemblance. If the first woman had been busty this one was even more so. I wondered how she could stand up.

"This is Myra Martinez," said Sarah. "She's the PA for the Florida State Attorney. She's the aunt of the previously mentioned Helena. I'm sure you guys have all noticed the family resemblance." Sarah smirked as she said this.

"Maybe it's something in the water," said Chris. Sarah slapped him gently on his head and began speaking again.

"Anyway, Helena puts in a phone call to her aunt, who probably called in a favor from her boss and now we'll be facing William Maitland," she said. "He's a far better attorney. He's probably the best lawyer on this side of the country including all of the fancy guys in New York. Our only advantage here is that he usually handles Criminal cases, like homicides etc. You've all seen him in the papers and on TV. They call him the Angel of death."

"Oh great," I said. "From what I've heard that guy never loses. I'm going to the chair for something I didn't do." Everyone laughed.

"Be serious Mr. Alexander," said Sarah. "Maitland is a very good attorney, but from our research, I can tell you that no matter what kind of case he's involved in, all he wants is the truth. Again if we can get him on our side, it will make things a lot easier for us. So we have to be straight and up front with him. Please look over the file on him I've prepared for you and the others too. We're having a meeting with him first thing in the morning, at the courthouse. Be professional and be polite. You're a charmer, make him like you."

"Okay, I'll do my best, but how do I do that?" I asked.

"Just be honest," she said. "Maitland is like me, he can smell a lie from a mile away."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, he probably doesn't know he's handling the case yet?" she said.

I looked at her strangely. "Sarah, why doesn't he know?" Then I had another thought. "If he hasn't been assigned the case yet and he doesn't know, then why do you know?" I asked.

"Because that's what I do," she said. She handed me more files and pictures including another incredibly beautiful woman with an outstanding rack of her own. "That's Maitland's ex wife Debbie," said Sarah.

"There has to be something in the water," said Chris.

"Do I need to start drinking the Florida water, Chris?" asked Sarah.

"Nope you're perfect," he said smiling at her sheepishly.

Then we all left and headed for our own respective rooms. I studied each picture and the files associated with them. I did it the same way I look at a client's product line, looking for weaknesses and products that are a drain on the company. Sometimes they're great products that only need a different target audience or a different pricing structure. Sometimes they're simply deadwood. I will admit that I spent a lot of time looking at the picture of Helena Martinez. She was incredible.

Very early the next morning, we all got up and headed out. Sarah had decided that the best way for us to handle our meeting with Maitland would be to catch him on his way into his office.

Sarah and Chris greeted me warmly as we headed for the parking lot.

"I'll bet you miss your car," said Chris. "Rental cars suck."

I nodded my agreement. "The one I have isn't so bad," I said. As we neared the parking lot I pouted out the GT-H to him and his eyes got bigger.

"Oh my God, that's nice," he said.

"Mr. Alexander, do you really have to?" asked Sarah exasperatedly.

"I'll bet I can beat that one," said Chris. "But I want one anyway. Honey, this one is way closer to our price range," he whined.

"Rrrrrrrrrr," growled Sarah.

We drove over to the municipal complex that housed the court room and all of the office buildings for the county's legal teams.

We waited in a small cafe on the first floor that our target was known to frequent.

# # # # # # # # # # #

My name is Bill Maitland. I'm an Assistant State Attorney in the Jacksonville State Attorney's Office. Unofficially I'm the chief prosecutor which means that I get most of the juiciest and most important cases. Because of my success in high profile cases I'm viewed as the number one guy under the Big Man, State Attorney Austin Edwards. Austin is a friend and sometimes mentor figure to me, though we've bumped heads a time or two.

I had just parked my Escalade and headed to pick up my coffee of choice from the cafe across the street from my office when I noticed something different.

Two obviously not stock Muscle cars, both Mustangs were parked very close to my normal parking spot. As I stepped into the cafe, a tall pretty woman with long honey blond hair moved into step with me. "Good Morning Mr. Maitland," she said. I abruptly stopped and looked at her. She held out her hand for me to shake and I simply looked at it.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that several of the early morning patrons had already stopped their morning rituals to watch. The price of notoriety is that people are always watching me.

The easiest way to end the stares was to pretend that everything was normal and nothing was going on.

"I'm Sarah Price," she said. "You're not scheduled to be in court for a few hours so is it possible that you could sit down and talk with my boss for a few minutes?"

"Miss..."I began.

"Price," she supplied. "And actually it's Mrs. Harris, but I use my maiden name for business."

Whoever she's married to is one lucky bastard, I thought. She was very pretty. At first glance I thought she was one of those up and coming, fresh out of school attorneys that some of the bigwigs hired. That way they could develop their own legal talent while they were still affordable. Later on in their careers when they were no longer cheap, you could use the "But I gave you your first job when you got out of law school," line on them.

She was as I said tall. Her body was thin but curvy in the right places. Not in the same class as my wife Debbie. God, why did I still sometimes make that mistake even in my own mind and especially after all of the water that had passed under that bridge. My ex wife Debbie, who'd dumped me for a younger guy with a bigger dick. No, Sarah was no match for either Debbie or the current woman I was hoping to start something with, Myra Martinez.

But Sarah had a youthful vigor and a spark that neither of them could match and her legs were incredible.

"Mr. Maitland you're going to meet my boss one way or another anyway," she said. "We'd like it if our meetings weren't adversarial, so why not have a brief sit down before the hostilities begin?"

"Who's your boss?" I asked.

"Blake Alexander," she replied.

I'd heard of him. Who hadn't? Recently he'd been all over the newspapers. He was one of those California guys who had everything going for him and wanted more. He wasn't my type. The guy had everything, a great career, a beautiful if boring looking wife and more money than he could ever spend.

Recently, one of his former lovers had crawled out from under a rock somewhere and started making trouble for him. It was the same with all of these guys, his first line of defense was to claim he didn't know her. One of the local papers even had a banner headline using a quote from him. It read, "Billie Jean is not my lover." Yeah, sure. Why didn't he just pay the woman and get on with his life?

Still there was something interesting about Sarah if not necessarily her boss. "Lead the way, Ms. Price," I said.

She turned and started walking towards a booth in the rear of the cafe. I was suddenly glad I had manners. Sarah's rear view was a symphony of syncopated muscle movements and twitches that would drive any man to the brink of sanity. I was sure she'd thrown in just a little extra sash, in her sashay for my benefit.

Three men awaited us at the table she pointed to. One of them Monty Burns I remember from Law School. He'd been a couple of classes ahead of me but was a competent attorney. After graduating he'd headed out to the land of fruits and nuts to do entertainment law.

In the middle sat Blake Alexander. I recognized him from his pictures and TV. The boyish charm and good looks were even more intense in real life. I really wanted to hate him.

The third guy at the table could have been related to Alexander. He was roughly the same age, but cut from a slightly different cloth. His hair was darker, his eyes weren't that peculiar purple color that Alexander's were, but they had the same kind of appeal.

"The Angel of Death in person," smiled Alexander, extending his hand to me.

"And they call you Alexander the Great, don't they?" I asked. We both smiled.

"It's funny," he said. "A bunch of people who don't know us, or what we stand for, give us names that the public takes to more readily than they do the ones our parents gave us."

I nodded.

"All you've ever tried to do was to bring out the truth and make sure that the guilty got what they deserved," he said. "In my case all I'm trying to do is to advertise my client's products to the best of my ability. I don't conquer people or places. Despite our differences I think we're lot more alike than most people would ever believe."

God Damn it, I thought. I was going to like this bastard.

"Both of us are men who give our careers almost too much of our lives and attention until they put our families in danger," he said. The bastard had certainly done his homework.

"In fact this whole fiasco is putting so much pressure on my marriage that I'm not sure it will survive, Mr. Maitland," he said, looking me straight in the eye. Despite his slick way talking, I was sure he was being very straight with me. But I had run into people who were simply such good liars that they never even blinked, when telling lies in church. I'd imagine in his business, advertising you'd have to be a good liar to sell useless products to the public and make them believe they needed them.

"I still don't understand why I'm here, Mr. Alexander," I said.

"You're going to be assigned my case," he said. "I know that normally you handle criminal cases, but I guess my case is high profile enough that I merit the best." He smiled ruefully.