Page 121 of Heist

Chapter Thirty-Four

Patrick pushed open the courtroom doors and braced himself for the inevitability of speaking to Austin. He loathed the idea of seeing the hurt in her eyes, but he was dying inside without her. They hadn’t spoken since Saturday morning and it felt like a lifetime had passed since then instead of less than forty-eight hours.

A woman he didn’t recognize was sitting at the defense table. Was he in the right courtroom? The woman turned when she heard him approach and smiled.

“You must be Mr. Sutton. I’m Victoria Marche.”

“Where’s Austin?”

“She was away this weekend and couldn’t get back in time. Since I’m the one who filed the original motion for broader discovery, she asked if I would fill in for her. It’s all perfectly legal since you added me to your council when the search warrant got served on your lab.”

He knew for a fact that Lance had put her on a plane back to New York yesterday morning. She just didn’t want to see him.

“OK, but I hope Miss Yates understands that I’m paying for her representation at trial and not yours.”

Victoria gave him a tight smile. “I’m sure she does, Mr. Sutton. This is a pretty run-of-the-mill hearing and shouldn’t take too long. You actually don’t even have to be here if you don’t want.”

Patrick scowled at her. “I’m facing possible prison time. Why would I skip important hearings regarding my defense?”

Victoria held up a hand. “I wasn’t suggesting it’s not important, Mr. Sutton, just that it’s very standard and you don’t really have a role here today. I’m good at my job.”

Victoria turned out to be formidable in the courtroom. That was no surprise since Austin hired her. They left the courtroom having won the right to see the prosecutions witness list among other things, even though the prosecution argued that they hadn’t had ample time to prepare for discovery. It was going to be delivered by the end of business that day.

“What now?” Patrick asked when he stood on the courthouse steps with Victoria. The press was preoccupied with some other big case and hadn’t spotted him yet.

“Now you let us do our jobs and wait for your next court date. There will be a few more hearings, I’m sure, but there’s really nothing more you can do before trial.”

“And Austin will be handling the trial, right?”

“Shouldn’t you be having that conversation with her? I’m not going to get in the middle of whatever is going on between you two.”

Patrick sighed. “It’s complicated. You’ll call me if you find anything?”

Victoria assured him she would, and he ducked into his waiting car.

On a whim, he ordered his driver to take him to his New York lab. There, he was met by Wayne Dorian.

“Mr. Sutton, we weren’t expecting you today. We’re still trying to pick up the pieces after the police executed their search warrant.”

Patrick extended his hand to the man for a firm handshake. “Don’t worry about it, Wayne. That’s why I’m here. They would have been required to leave a receipt of anything they took. Do you have that for me?”

Wayne went to a desk and pulled out a sheet of paper.

“Here you go. Doesn’t look like they took much. Just made a mess more than anything.”

Patrick scanned the list several times before a slow smile spread across his face. There was no reason for it to make him so happy, but the diamond wasn’t on the list.

He folded the paper and tucked it into his pocket. He spent an hour or two helping Wayne and some of the other staff straighten things up before he had a car take him to Austin’s office. He hadn’t seen the new space yet, and he was impressed with what she’d done with the space in such a short amount of time.

A handsome young man sat at a desk in the lobby space and Patrick knew instantly it was James Saunders, her new office manager.

“Mr. Sutton, can I help you?” he asked after he finished a phone call.

“I’m here to see Austin, my attorney, Miss Yates,” he stuttered. Why the fuck was he nervous?

James looked at his computer screen. “Miss Yates isn’t in right now, but Miss Marche is if you want to talk to someone about your case.”

Patrick agreed to see Victoria and did his best to mask his disappointment that Austin wasn’t there.

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