Justice

"No," Hayden said, "You're right. Let's stick with an online investigation for now."

Hayden didn't want his curiosity to run wild. It was tempting to use Tasha Grey's investigative skills to place the entire life of Athena Hart at his fingertips, possibly revealing aspects of her that she had kept secret from him in the three years that he had believed them to be in love with each other. However, he couldn't dismiss the possibility that seeing her, or someone that resembled her, on Saturday, and the call today from the mystery woman, were all a game of some sort.

The smart thing to do was to try and verify some basic facts that would be hard for someone to alter. An online obituary wasn't something that by itself could be taken as proof of Athena's death. Tasha would be able to access official government records, credit reports, and other data sources that she could then compare for validation of each.

Hayden could live with that degree of proof for the time being. Maybe it would answer additional questions that had plagued him since Athena had dropped her bombshell on their relationship. If not, he could always pursue those inquiries separately.

The image of the woman from the pub suddenly entered his thoughts. How could two women on this planet possess the beauty capable of turning his world on its end every time he was in its presence? A beauty that had always seemed too perfect for this world. A beauty that radiated from her core essence and manifested itself for mankind in her breathtaking external appearance; her tall, athletic, and perfectly proportional figure, her naturally symmetric facial features, and her long auburn hair.

There was so much that Hayden was uncertain of right then, and he was not inherently a patient man. The next few days were going to be a challenge for him.

~~~

"What can you tell me about Coastline Multimedia?" Minerva asked.

Lana Street kicked her shoes off, set her glass of wine on the counter, and asked, "In what context? They are one of the largest employers in the area for non-seasonal work. Are you looking at them as a potential client?"

Minerva sipped her own glass of wine while gazing out at the ocean through the sliding glass door. She enjoyed being able to stay in the oceanfront condo that her parents had purchased years ago for family vacations at the beach. It was so much more convenient and homier than having to stay at a hotel or renting someone else's condo. She also supposed that since the condo mortgage was paid off, and she had insisted on taking over the monthly maintenance fees for the unit, she was as much an owner of it as her parents, even if her name wasn't yet on the deed.

She turned back to face Lana, "No. I met a young woman, well actually two young women after the session today who both claim to have potential actions against the company. One is a former intern and the other is a current employee."

Minerva didn't mention that her interest in Coastline Multimedia could run much deeper than the claims of the two women. Her sister had interned at Coastline Multimedia for three summers while in college. Minerva had always expected that this was the reference for "Coastline" in the deathbed statement by Athena, but she had never had any definitive proof of that. Maybe these women would provide a mechanism for her to get that proof.

Lana picked up her wine glass again, looking pensive. She said, "I don't know a lot about Coastline other than they have their hands in a lot of different business segments in this area. You've probably seen the corporate name on the bottom of eighty percent of the billboards around here. They also do some or all of the marketing for most of the hotels and resorts along the Grand Strand, as well as many other businesses. They have a virtual monopoly on the commercial sign business, and own the largest television station here. What are these ladies alleging?"

Minerva hadn't realized that Coastline Multimedia was as large as Lana was describing. Athena had been a marketing major at Clemson, so it was just assumed that the company that she interned for over the summer months would be a player in that field, which it appears that Coastline Multimedia was.

Minerva's guilt over the distance that had grown between herself and her sister once Athena had started college began to resurface. Being two years younger than Athena, Minerva was just a junior in high school when her sister had moved into, first the dorms at Clemson, and later her own apartment. Being too focused on her popularity and social events during her junior and senior years of high school left Minerva with little time for, and even less interest in, what was going on in anyone else's life.

When Athena would come home for holidays, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, the two sisters barely spoke. There wasn't any animosity between them, just two young women with separate lives who had grown recently accustomed to not sharing details of those lives with each other. The distance between them had grown even more pronounced once Minerva had begun her own college experience at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. It was never anything planned by either of them, and neither complained about things between them at the time. The sisters had felt that there would always be time for them to catch up, reconnect, and likely grow even closer once they had their college years behind them. Neither of them expected that time to never come, but it was only Minerva who had to live with the guilt.

"The intern," Minerva began, "claims that she was touched inappropriately by the President of Coastline Multimedia. She states that she has witnesses to the event, including the second woman, who is claiming that she has faced both sex and race discrimination during her tenure there, and the President of the company is also cited by her as being complicit in the discrimination."

Lana nodded and asked, "Do you want me to check with the state employment office to see if other complaints have been filed against the company?"

"Yes, try to get on that tomorrow morning," Minerva said. "If I leave first thing in the morning, I can be in the Greenville office before lunch. I asked both women to keep tomorrow afternoon open for us to question them and get their complete statements documented. We can do that via a Zoom call. I'll text you their contact details so that you can get the meetings scheduled with each. Try to leave at least a half hour between each so that they don't have a chance of encountering the other coming or going from the office."

"Got it," Lana said. "We want to avoid any allegations that the two colluded in their statements."

"Correct. I will have TJ start researching the organizational hierarchy at Coastline through corporate filings and the like. I did a quick check of their website and the recruiting material on it. They mention equal opportunity and all the standard anti-discrimination policy mumbo-jumbo, but I couldn't find any of their actual policies posted..."

"That's not uncommon," Lana observed. "It's probably on their corporate intranet and accessible only to employees."

"That's what I was thinking. It shouldn't be difficult to get copies if I decide that we might have a need after meeting with the women." Minerva snapped her fingers, "Oh, and work your local contacts to learn who handles Coastline's corporate legal counsel. That will tell us whether they would likely use them or get referred to another firm more familiar with employment law."

Finishing her glass of wine, Lana asked, "Do you want to grab something to eat? You didn't get a chance to try the Shepherd's pie at the pub when we were there..."

"God, I would go anywhere but back to that place," Minerva groaned. "I still don't know who that guy was, but the looks that I was getting after he left in such a huff are seared into my brain. I don't want to experience that again if I can help it."

Lana nodded in understanding. She had been planning to return to the pub to try and find out who the guy was, but with Minerva in town for the symposium, she hadn't had her time free. She could understand her boss being reluctant to face the crowd at the pub so soon after what had happened, and avoiding the possibility that she might find the same guy there again would certainly be foremost on Minnie's mind, but Lana was still curious.

"Don't you wonder at all about why the guy reacted to you the way that he did?" she asked Minerva.

Minerva didn't want to acknowledge that why the guy had reacted the way that he did was way down the list of things about him that she had been wondering about for the past four days. Foremost among her questions remained why the simple presence of the stranger had enticed her to seek his attention in the first place.

She was an alpha female and had naturally attracted alpha males all of her life. Those that weren't intimidated by her were usually alphas only to the inferior "pack" of followers that they attracted. The guy in the pub had everyone there courting his favor, and she was certain, willing to follow him anywhere. Why?

She had no problem acknowledging that the guy was physically attractive. A person would have to be blind not to realize that, but that attribute could be applied to millions of men. Studies had shown that physical appearances alone would not attract followers. From wolves to humans, research had shown that although the way that an animal looked would draw the attention of others, the behavior and character of an animal is what gained it the acceptance of others as a leader.

Here, Minerva was at an apparent disadvantage. Other patrons in the pub likely knew the guy or were at least familiar with things about him, as told to them by others. She hadn't had any prior knowledge or exposure to the stranger, so what was it that drew her to him? And, she had definitely been drawn to him. "Crap," she silently admitted to herself, she was still drawn to him, or why else would he still be occupying her thoughts so completely.

Changing the subject, Minerva said, "If you promise to take any leftovers home with you, I'll treat you to a hearty Italian dinner at Maggi D's."

Lana smiled and said, "I'd be happy to, but you're driving back. If you put any leftovers in the freezer here, they would be fine until you reached Greenville."

Grabbing her purse, Minerva said, "Nope. As soon as the food started thawing, I would smell it. The last thing I need is to try to eat cold pasta while driving."

"Okay," Lana conceded, "But let's take separate cars. That way I can just head home and not have to come back here."

Chapter Five

"The usual?"

Hayden settled onto his stool and smiled at the woman behind the bar. He said, "To drink, yes. Give me a few minutes to decide on the food."

Candice smirked and turned to get Hayden his standard scotch and soda. He might imply a willingness to try something else, but she would bet her day's wages that he would be ordering the same thing to eat that he always had; spaghetti Bolognese with one sausage sliced into it.

Sliding his drink onto the bar in front of him, she recited the specials of the day to him, regardless of how useless she knew it to be.

Hayden listened politely until she was finished, and said, "I'll decide while munching on some of your bread. Where's what's his name?"

Getting the attention of another waitress, Candice asked, "Joy, can you bring out some hot bread for HO when you get a chance?" Addressing Hayden's question, she said, "He's around somewhere. Probably sleeping in the office again..."

"I never sleep, and you know it," came the grouchy response from John Magliato, the owner of Maggi D's Italian restaurant. "Is Candy taking care of you, HO?"

"Better than my own mother," Hayden teased. "It's pretty busy here for a Wednesday night, isn't it?"

Hayden had noticed upon arriving that there was a waiting list for a table and only three open stools at the bar. He always ate at the bar when dining by himself, so the wait wasn't an issue for him. The food and drinks were just as good wherever he sat in this restaurant.

"There's always a place for you, my friend," John replied warmly before hollering at one of the waitresses to come and get her drink order from the bar.

Although he could have found something in his own kitchen to eat, or even walked to one of the dozens of places within blocks of his house to grab dinner, Hayden had wanted the familiarity and friendly atmosphere that he always found at Maggi D's. They always made him feel like family, usually without the joking insults that he experienced at his other frequent haunts, such as the Ole Irish pub. Here he could get a nice, quiet, and delicious meal without constantly having to come up with a snappy retort to someone's inane comments.

The staff knew him, but not as many of the regular customers did. Maggi D's attracted an older, more "civilized" crowd than places like the Ole Irish pub, but there were enough customers who knew Hayden that he was frequently greeted by someone coming or going and the occasional wave from a party dining at one of the tables. Of course, John made it a point to hang around behind the bar to greet customers and keep an eye on his operations. This allowed him to keep a semi-consistent conversation going between himself and Hayden.

It was during the lull in one of these conversations that Hayden's attention was drawn to the mirror hanging behind the bar. He could watch people entering and exiting the restaurant, but he seldom paid attention to them. However, his eyes were immediately drawn to the woman who had just entered. He watched as she spoke to the hostess and then pointed to one of the empty stools remaining at the bar. Hayden diverted his eyes from the mirror and focused instead on buttering a piece of the hot bread that had just arrived in front of him.

"Is this seat taken?"

Hayden was hoping that the question was targeted at Candice or John behind the bar, but when neither of them responded, he simply shrugged his shoulders. He sensed the woman taking the seat beside him and then felt the air around him seem to charge with electricity when he saw her eyes studying him in the mirror.

A barely audible "Oh, fuck!" escaped her lips before she could restrain herself.

Minerva thought that she had the image of the man's retreating form etched into her memory, so how could she not have recognized him from behind as she approached the bar? Resigned to the inevitable, Minerva hung her purse on the hook under the bar and faced straight ahead, trying to ignore the masculine presence that her whole body suddenly felt invading her space.

"I think that I owe you an apology," Hayden softly said.

Hayden was now all but certain from the information provided by the mystery woman, and verified by Tasha Grey's preliminary report, that the woman he had seen on Saturday; the one now sitting beside him, was not Athena Hart.

Minerva fought hard not to laugh or smile. She used the experience honed from all of her courtroom experience to keep a neutral tone to her voice when she replied, "A woman would be a fool not to question the sincerity of an apology that a man merely 'thinks' is owed her."

She only let the man squirm for a few seconds before saying, "However, it is I that should be apologizing to you. I am sorry if my comment the other day offended you. Even though it was not my intention to do so, I take full responsibility for how it affected you."

Hayden snorted and said, "I wish it was only your words. No, when I saw you in the pub, I was reminded of someone from my past, and I reacted to that perceived recognition in error. I am truly sorry."

Minerva gazed at the man's face in the mirror. She remembered the depth of sadness that she had heard and felt in his words last Saturday, and silently gave thanks to God that she wasn't whomever this man had thought she was. She had enough guilt in her life related to the distance that she had let grow between her and Athena. She didn't think her soul could bear the degree of guilt that she would feel if she ever hurt a person as much as some other woman had this man.

Swiveling her stool to look directly at the man, Minerva extended her hand and said, "Hi, my name is Minnie."

Like a square peg falling perfectly into the hole matching its shape, long-forgotten memories began snugly falling into their rightful place in Hayden's mind. He turned to face the woman and asked, "Minnie? As in Minerva Hart?"

Minerva's jaw dropped just as Candice asked her what she would like to drink. Recovering quickly, Minerva requested a glass of Merlot. When Candice stepped away to fulfill the request, Minerva turned back to Hayden and asked, "Do I know you?"

With a look of lament, Hayden shook his head and said, "No, but I know of you. I used to know your sister."

"You knew Athena? How? Did you go to Clemson with her?"

Candice was busy with another drink request, so Hayden signaled John for another drink. While waiting, he considered what to share with Athena's sister.

He finally said, "I work at Coastline Multimedia. Your sister interned there during the summer years ago. She used to regale a lot of her coworkers with tales from mythology, including how her parents had named her and her sister after the same goddess, one from Greek mythology and the other from Roman mythology. You look a lot like Athena, so when you said that your name was 'Minnie', it rang a bell with me. I assumed that it was short for 'Minerva'"

"Wait!" Minerva thought. "If he was upset on Saturday because I reminded him of someone else, and now he says that I look a lot like Athena, does that mean that she is the one who hurt him? No, that couldn't be the case if the man's statement at the pub about the woman's promiscuity factored into his pain. Athena had confessed right before the birth of Alexander that she had only had sex with one man, the father of her child."

She needed to know more, "Athena was always impressed with the mythology that our parents love. When was the last time that you spoke with my sister?"

Hayden stiffened at the memory of his last conversation with Athena Hart. The one where she informed him that she was pregnant with another man's child and thought it would be best if they never saw each other again. He didn't feel right sharing that particular conversation with this woman that he didn't know, even if she was Athena's sister.

He nodded thanks to John when he placed the new drink in front of him and then answered the question she had posed, "Oh, years ago. Athena was getting ready to start her final year at Clemson if I remember correctly."

Hayden watched Minerva assume a stoic posture before saying, "That must have been shortly before she died."

"I wouldn't really know," Hayden softly said. "I didn't even know that Athena had passed away until very recently. I'm sorry for your loss. Athena was a very special person, and I'm sure she is missed by you, your family, and everyone who knew her."

"That she is," Minerva replied.

Wanting to move away from the depressing discussion of her sister's passing, "Do you mind if I ask you something?"

"I suppose..."

Minerva considered how to phrase her question, "I don't want to offend you again, but can you share how you got the nickname, 'HO'?"

Hayden chuckled and said, "I'm not offended, and the nickname is based on a very innocent circumstance..."

"What is that?" she asked.

Hayden explained, "When I went out for the football team in high school my freshman year, there was already another player on the team with my same last name. Since they don't want to confuse other players and fans by having two players with the same name on the back of their jerseys, a team will typically add the first initial for players with the same last name. In our case, the problem was that he and I both had first names that begin with the letter 'H'. This prompted the coach to then include our middle initial, which in my case was an 'O', and in his case, an 'I'."