Privileged

Maggie stood staring into the mirror in her office’s private bathroom. She turned on the tap and slowly splashed cold water on her face. Wiping her neck with a cool towel, she began to feel the gravity of the situation. The scene replayed in her mind like a video set to “repeat.”

The burly man with the cowboy walk entered her office. He smiled exuberantly, yet there was something else, something dangerous in his look. Maggie was never very pleased when Dixon McGovern came to see her, but this time his presence seemed to make the hair on the back of her neck prickle. Though not a giant, Dixon towered over her five foot three inch frame. His aura was not only commanding, but also a good bit intimidating. Maggie worked very hard at not letting his appearance affect her composure. Besides, in the world of law, there was nothing worse than a “weak, sniveling woman.” Though feminine, Maggie was anything but weak or sniveling.
“How can I help you, Mr. McGovern?” Maggie asked in her professional, but amiable voice.
“Good afternoon, Maggie. I came by to thank you for the miracle you’ve performed. You know, the Vatican really should make you a saint!” Dixon usually spread it on a little too thick, but this over-play seemed a bit suspicious.
“Well, I don’t think it was quite a miracle, Mr. McGovern. Their evidence was all circumstantial, so the case was pretty cut-and-dry. Besides, I think you have to perform three miracles to become a saint,” Maggie said with a wry smile. Dixon chuckled, his thin eyes practically disappearing into his face. He eased himself down into one of the maroon straight-back chairs Maggie had hand-picked for her office from an antique store just down the street. It made Maggie very unhappy that Dixon was making himself comfortable.
“Oh, Maggie. That’s why you’re my lawyer. You’re the smart one between the two of us,” Dixon said as he crossed his left foot on top of his right knee. Maggie noticed a slight stain on the knee of his pants, but decided against mentioning it since, obviously, he didn’t mind; or maybe he hadn’t noticed and she certainly didn’t want to embarrass the big brute.
“So, what can I do for you?” Maggie asked again, trying to get him back to the point and out of her office as quickly as possible.
“Well, nothing really. I just felt enlightened in your presence. I mean, it’s truly amazing how you turned fact into fiction,” he said, grinning a sickening smile.
Maggie’s ears perked up at the last words of his statement. Fact into fiction? A small queasy feeling appeared low in her stomach, but Maggie fought to keep her face unaffected.
“I’m sorry, I’m not quite sure I know what you mean,” she questioned, hoping he was just playing a bad prank.
“You know, convincing that jury I’m innocent,” he said, pulling the proverbial floor out from underneath her. Maggie was now finding it more difficult to remain calm. She swallowed the enormous lump in her throat and quietly exclaimed, “What?” At that, Dixon McGovern’s smile became even more sinister. It was just the response he had expected…a woman caught off-guard. And he loved catching women off-guard.
“As far as I and this office are concerned, you are innocent because that’s what you told us and the evidence supported your claim,” Maggie tried to collect herself, and her emotions.
“Well, I didn’t actually pull the trigger, but my money is in the pocket of the man who did,” Dixon admitted, as calmly as if he were speaking of doing the laundry. Maggie felt her heart beat begin to quicken and her mouth begin to dry. She nonchalantly took a drink from the bottled water sitting on her desk, while quickly glancing at the door and her phone. What I wouldn’t give for an interruption, right now, she thought. Then she remembered…when a client is in her office, Jana, her assistant, stops all calls and visitors…per Maggie’s orders.
Suddenly, a true miracle occurred…Dixon McGovern, instead of threatening or flat out killing her, got up and moved toward the door. He saw the slightly confused look on Maggie’s face and smiled a chilling smile.
“I just love attorney-client privilege,” he said as he turned and slid out the door.