Private Practice Ch. 01

"How so?" asked Romano.

Denise: "He... he would encourage them to share fantasies, with him and with each other. And he'd encourage them to act out their fantasies, including wife-watching, swinging, and swapping partners, like it was Whoville or something."

(Author's note: in the original 'The Grinch' cartoon show, the Whoville residents take house keys out of a bowl, which is a typical wife-swapping thing. Watch and see for yourselves.)

Denise: "Stanley Locklear wasn't the only person who was upset about it. Several other husbands threatened Dr. Frost. There was one occasion a few months ago when one of the husbands blew past me and went into the office. I heard a noise, like a yelp, and I opened the door and went in. Dr. Frost was against the wall next to the door, doubled over. The guy had punched him in the gut, but Peter never told me what it was about. He just said it was a 'misunderstanding', and to forget about it."

Romano: "If you'll give me the names of those couples and husbands, I'll look up their files..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

9:45pm. After dropping Teresa off at Police Headquarters, I drove to the Mountain Nest. Laura and Stephanie Steele were at an impromptu dinner with some other University Faculty members, and ADA Paulina Patterson was watching the kids. Carole, Tasha, and Marie were doing Carole, Tasha, and Marie things.

Jim was working by himself. He'd built a tower out of his Erector Set pieces, and was now putting together a block-and-tackle pulley system from scratch, figuring it out as he went. I asked him about it, and he explained he was trying to figure out why it made things easier to lift. This was a rising second-grader, I thought to myself. And a future engineer...

I sat down next to Paulina on the near-side sofa. "Long day?" she asked as Buddy jumped up on the sofa and into my lap, and I gave him skritchins.

"And a hard day." I said. "Laura is a psychiatrist, and I definitely understand the concept of doctor-client privilege. But Peter Frost's lawyers, Marla Locklear's lawyer Nadine Hall, and Savannah Fineman are using it like a sledgehammer to impede our investigation of his murder. The lawyers, I have some understanding of. But Fineman?"

Paulina said "I had lunch with Judge Hannah Doss the other day. She says the scuttlebutt around the Courthouse is that Savannah has gone 'all in' on this Locklear case, not only as a first degree murder case, but as a 'castle doctrine' and 'stand your ground' case. And if she loses, Miriam may rein her in hard."

"Why do you think Miriam may do that?" I asked.

Paulina replied: "I do know this for a fact: Miriam is about to start the process of hiring new ADAs. At least two. And we do have the work for them. But Hannah is hearing that while Miriam is outwardly supporting Savannah, Miriam is unhappy with the political direction Savannah has taken the Locklear case, and if it begins hurting Miriam's chances for re-election, Miriam will choose her own career over her friendship with Savannah, which may be more tenuous that most people realize."

I said "That won't matter. I told Miriam I'm going to do whatever it takes to get her defeated in the next election, and nothing has changed as far as that is concerned."

Paulina said "Would you reconsider if it was Miriam vs. Savannah for D.A.?"

I said "I won't let it get to that. I'm going to have Miriam primaried, and there will be someone else opposing both her and Savannah in the General Election if need be."

Paulina said "Well, maybe things will work out, and then you'll consider my request to reconsider---"

"Hello everyone." I heard a voice say behind me. It was Laura, with Stephanie Steele right behind her...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After Stephanie took Marie home, Laura invited Paulina to stay in the spare bedroom and Tasha in Carole's room. I told Laura to observe Jim's engineering work, and he proudly showed it to his mom, who was very impressed.

Then the kids were told to get ready for bed. Carole knew better than to argue about going to bed when Tasha was staying over, so getting them to go get ready for bed was not the battle of iron (crowbar) wills it usually was.

"I heard Peter Frost was murdered." Laura said. "What happened?" I recounted everything that had happened, including the arrest of Gale Gaston and the meeting with Judge Folsom. And then it hit me...

"Laura," I asked, "do psychologists videotape their sessions with their clients, or patients?"

"If they're smart, they do." Laura replied. "Best thing in the world, and sometimes the only thing in the world, to beat a lawsuit. And from what I've heard about Peter Frost, it would have behooved him to do so."

"There's that word again!" I said, which was an old Army reply to the word 'behoove'. I then went into a reverie.

"What the matter?" Laura asked.

"We found two servers in Gaston's car." I said. "But there were connections for four servers. I wonder..."

I got out my Police iPhone and speed-dialed Chaplain Romano's number, and hit the button to record our conversation. "Hello Father." I said. "Are you still in Frost's office?"

"In the file room, sir." said Romano. "Denise just left literally a minute ago; Lieutenant Warner is taking her home. And the lawyer Bertram literally just walked out the door. Thank you for the supper, by the way."

"You're quite welcome." I said. "Listen---"

But Father Romano had started talking. He said "Denise told me about several clients that had problems with Dr. Frost. She gave me the names, and I'm going to look them up before I go home."

"Good." I said. "And before you go, check all the filing cabinets for hidden memory drives or even servers. We may be missing two---"

*POW!* *POW!* *POW!*

"What was that?" I asked, having heard the faint sounds through the phone.

"Let me check." said Father Romano.

"Keep this line open!" I said. "Father? Father!..."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Kevin? Grant? Anyone out there?" Father Romano asked as he went to the door of the file room and looked out into the receptionist's office. As he turned to the door of the office, it opened. Someone in all black and a full black mask stepped out, raising his powerful handgun and pointing it at Romano!

*BLAM!* *BLAM!* *BLAM!*

To be continued.