Laid Bare Ch. 02

"This is amazing Elidi but I can't use the original documents; fruit of the poisoned tree," Celia chewed a nail.

Elidi had been watching Celia intently, noticing her little quirks, the way she chewed her fingernail when she was thinking intently.

"Look at you going all Law and Order on my ass," Elidi laughed.

Celia laughed too and turned to see that Elidi was staring at her.

"I'm the Partner in a law firm and you are a junior Associate; so why do I feel like I'm the little girl and you're the woman," Celia sighed.

"It's late. Do you wanna stay the night," Elidi smiled at her.

Celia thought about Adele down in Kentucky for a brief second and then nodded. Elidi put out her hand and led Celia back to the bed. She'd lit scented candles and left the window open so that a cooling breeze billowed the sheer drapes. Elidi turned out the lights and Celia fell into her arms.

Fully dressed except for her heels and with the flash drive in her purse, Celia leaned down and kissed Elidi on the cheek to awaken her. Elidi opened her eyes and Celia's heart fluttered when she saw those bright blue eyes and Elidi's sensuous smile.

"You're leaving?" Elidi said; her voice resonant with sleep.

"I have to go home, shower and change," Celia sat on the edge of the bed and stroked Elidi's hair.

"Do you mind if we don't do this again. I've enjoyed every second of it but that's the problem; I don't want it to become an addiction," Celia whispered.

"Not all drugs are bad for you Celia, especially if they are only taken in small doses," Elidi drifted off to sleep.

At work that morning Celia finally mustered the gumption to call Adele and tell her about the illicit work product she had obtained.

She and Michelle had already gone through the most useful files and copied and pasted the text into blank documents which would be untraceable once they got their IT guy to remove all the electronic tags that would lead back to the originals. Celia only knew two things about IT Guy, he was brilliant at what he did and he was besotted with Michelle and would do anything she asked.

"That's brilliant Celia. Highly unethical of course... and you say this girl just gave the documents to you?" Adele was sitting in a roadside diner watching Kimberly Peak demolish a stack of pancakes and syrup.

"She hated the way her firm was treated by the courts and the unethical way Grantham, Walker and Tate had their case thrown out," Celia responded.

"And..." Adele could tell when Celia was lying or telling a half truth.

"And... Elidi might have a girl-crush on me," Celia's face reddened.

"Elidi. Sounds like an Elf in the Lord of the Rings," Adele teased.

"No it means..." Celia realised that she was being too defensive.

"So you fucked her," Adele needled her.

"You know I love you Adele, it was just a fling," Celia was close to tears.

"I'm not angry Celia. We love each other too much to let anyone come between us. How can I take your inventory given my peccadillos? Maybe you shouldn't always visit your mom on Thursdays, you hate going there anyway," Adele replied softly.

"We should talk about this face to face," Celia said.

"Ok but spare me the details. I know you don't want to know about how I occasionally like getting boofed and I don't want to know about you going bumper to bumper or going all Bambi with some Gidget," Adele cackled.

"You need to update your urban dictionary," Celia lightened the mood.

"Also you need to know that Brindle is likely on to us. Apparently Tammy Peak was quite vocal about finding some big city lawyers to take on her case," Celia changed the subject.

"I'll watch my ass," Adele replied.

"I'm sure you're going to get your ass watched plenty, you just be careful," Celia said seriously.

"Gotta go. Tammy has just come back from the ladies and I want to get to Missionville before dark, she doesn't look well," Adele was all business.

"I love you," Celia sighed into the phone.

"I love you. And stop feeling guilty; you should only feel guilty if you hadn't told tell me," Adele hung up.

Celia placed a call to Elidi's cell phone.

"What do you do on Thursday nights?" she asked.

*****

Adele had hoped to make the drive to Missionville in one hitch, only stopping for food and gas, but it soon became apparent that Tammy Peak was a lot sicker than she was letting on. She sat in the back of the car mainly sleeping but occasionally woke herself with intermittent bone-wracking coughing fits. They stopped at a Motel Six overnight; Adele got Tammy and Kimberly their own room and she had fitful night's sleep.

Kimberly had talked incessantly during the trip, telling Adele her life story so far, her accomplishments and her dreams. First she wanted to be a veterinarian, and then she wanted to be a doctor so she could help her dad and her mom, now she wanted to be a lawyer like Adele so she could take on bad guys for the underdogs.

"I'm going to wear smart suits and high heels and nylons and makeup and have my hair done every week," Kimberly beamed.

"There's a lot more to being a lawyer than dressing like we do," Adele entertained Kimberly's notion of legal prowess.

"Yeah I get that; I'm not a moron. But you and Celia are smart and sexy too; even if you are lesbians. I don't want to be a lesbian though," Kimberly said candidly.

Adel burst out laughing and Tammy admonished her daughter from the back seat.

They arrived at the Peak property before noon. It was five acres of lush savannah with a stream running through it. It looked innocuous enough but the land and the water were likely heavily contaminated with runoff from the mining activities on Bear Mountain which filled the backdrop.

The two-bedroom farmhouse was small but tidy and well maintained.

Bear Mountain loomed over the property looking like a beautiful green wooded mesa that had developed cancer. The once magnificent peak had been ripped off and dumped in the valleys below it to expose the first coal seam. Then as each coal seam was removed, another layer of the mountain was cut away to get to the next layer of coal below. It was an eyesore that grotesquely contrasted with the beautiful green flatlands below it and the majesty of the Appellation chain that continued on to the horizon with the big beautiful blue sky above it.

"If you don't mind Miss Adele, I'm going to let Kimberly take you into town. I'm feeling a little piqued from the journey and might lie down a while," Tammy eased herself gingerly into an overstuffed armchair.

"Can I put my good clothes on momma?" Tammy was obviously excited to be taking Adele into her town.

She was currently wearing faded skinny jeans, a high school letter jacket and sneakers.

"Sure you can Kimbo," Tammy smiled at her daughter.

"Makeup and nylons?" Kimberly pushed her luck.

"Nope, you cannot," Tammy chuckled at her daughter's tenacity.

"Are you ok Mrs Peak? Should I call a doctor?" Adele asked when Kimberly went to her bedroom to change.

"The doctor will be around this afternoon; fat lot of good it will do. I've got about a year, maybe a year and half. I just get these spells of weakness that pass after a while. Eventually they'll get longer and then they won't pass and then..." Tammy made a flippant gesture.

"You just make sure you secure my daughter's future, that's all I ask. She needs enough money to live comfortably for the rest of her life; hell she deserves it! If you can make those bastards pay for taking away my Maurice well do so, I'm making it seem to my daughter that this what this is all about but it's secondary to making sure she gets looked after when I'm gone," Tammy stopped talking to cough.

She reached out and took Adele's wrist in her bony fingers and squeezed.

"Kimberly don't need to know that. Far as she's concerned you're fighting the good fight, taking on the evil corporation that killed her daddy," Tammy wheezed.

Adele nodded.

To be continued