Chapter Thirty

Carol Christian was in her old Toyota on the freeway close to her exit when her beeper went off. She was in no place to do anything about it, so she silenced the unit while retaining its message. Arriving at her office, she went to her cubicle before looking at it. Immediately she recognized Kimberly’s telephone number.

Carol instantly had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The ground had just dropped away beneath her. In spite of — or perhaps because of — working for an old-line law firm, Carol took great delight in regularly scandalizing her colleagues and the firm’s partners by wearing Levi’s, shorts, and anything else she could think of that was dramatically different from approved firm attire. But at the same time she received the silent cheers and approval from the firm’s support staff who were required to “dress appropriately.” Of course Carol was too, but she just ignored the rule.

As it was, she had been very quietly teased by the receptionist when she came in that