Faithful in Her Fashion

"Try to understand dear. The attractive and rich John Martin can change his name to something more Hispanic. He can march in the Purto Rican Day Parade, but he can't come out of the closet in a district made up sixty percent of African and Hispanic Americans."

"I feel like such a fool. I should have guessed."

"Now none of that. We intelligent broads are not used to dealing with men. It's something in the genes that says, 'top of the class bad with guys.' Maybe God's way of making sure the girls at the bottom of the class get their fair share."

"You said we.

"My first husband, Mr. Markowitz. The prominent realtor and broker who wined and dined the not very pretty girl who was valedictorian of her class at Queens College. Fifteen years my senior, he swept me off my feet. It took me five years of childless marriage to discover the truth. How's them apples? But in my defense, being a good Jewish girl, I was a virgin on my wedding night, and he was so considerate. I actually thought my mother lied to me regarding what marriage was all about. Oh, it was not that we didn't have intercourse, but it didn't quite last to completion, and neither of us enjoyed it very much."

"BUT," asked Carrie remembering what she had heard.

Ester smiled knowingly, "Oh, we eventually had children -- two boys and a girl. Just not his in the biblical sense. The wonderful thing about the Jewish faith is that only the mother's religion counts. Jewish mother then Jewish child."

"What are you saying?"

"That John or Jose —or whatever he calls himself today, is a rich and powerful man. Capable of ensuring your future as my husband, Henry Markowitz, insured mine. He paid for my early electoral efforts. Put me in the Assembly and then the State Senate. He needed me.

"Things were far different forty years ago for a "feyg' of a man. Ray and his boss need you. Stop crying and make yourself useful. This is a harsh world you seek to enter. Take from this bubba. Use every advantage that comes your way.

"But what about love?"

"You have to look for it and work for it and at it. Henry Markowitz was a good man and a fair one, but I never loved him. Not like I do my second husband. I had to keep looking until I found that love. It didn't just happen like it does in the films.

"I found my Charlie some years into my political career. He wasn't much to look at, but he was all man. A good solid never hit a woman man who would lay down his life for his family. Yes, I kissed a lot of frogs in the finding. Charlie's bed wasn't the first I slept in outside my marriage," Ester said with a bit of a far away look as she reminisced.

"But how did you know, you'd been fooled before?"

"It didn't happen like some great romance. It wasn't a spring day, but a killer hot August evening that suddenly had a cold breeze coming off the ocean. We were on a park bench. He put his arm around me, and I slipped my hand in his. When I felt his rough masculine hand, it was as if for the first time, but I knew I would never let it go again.

"We had two girls together, twins. It wasn't easy, and I needed medical help to achieve conception. I was a bit of an age by then and five years his senior. I was well up the political latter. A power in my own right. Henry was glad to be rid of me by then. Times had changed to the point people would know but say nothing."

"I don't know," Carrie mused.

"Think on it and do nothing rash. Look at your options and turn down no opportunities. Everyone who has spoken of you had good things to say. Those little Pols at the bottom can't reward the things you have done for them except to tell others about you. You've built a good reputation in a short time -- don't throw it away. But, I must go now to be home by sundown. It is Friday after all, and I have a long way to travel."

With that Ester showed Carrie out but stopped to give her a hug as they exited the Legislative building.

Raymond was waiting for her at the University dorm room she was renting. He wore a worried look. He couldn't know for sure if it had been her in the outer office, or what she might know. He hoped and feared it was her at the same time. Feared her reaction and hoped it was her in the office so he could contain what she knew.

Carrie didn't make him sweat. By the time she had crossed Albany to the University Campus on Western Avenue, she had resolved to accept Ester's advice. Ray was relieved but disturbed. Guilt was haunting him, and grief at what he saw was the loss of her respect. Carrie set him at easy, but as a smart girl she let him know that if the relationship was to continue honesty was required.

She dealt with John/Jose differently. By the time Carrie met with the big man after the incident, she had prepared herself. She had the facts of the relationship between the two men, the older dominant man and the facile younger man. The beautiful young man and his handsome older partner, The Assembly leader and his aide/lover who obeyed every command given. She knew the relationship had an edge of sadomasochism to it.

The no longer naïve girl met the masterful Jose Martin-Prez, the Assembly majority whip, and started her conditions for playing the covering female role in a sexless relationship. It wasn't blackmail she told herself. It was a continuing favor for a series of continuing favors. An engagement ring followed. A modest but presentable ring and a trip to the governor's office for an entry level position with support as she climbed higher.

Carrie never looked back. She would never walk up a Church aisle with her Raymond, but neither needed nor wanted that. In the governor's office, she found success, much of it on her own merit. She was a junior aid, but one the formidable Governor Kincade came more and more to rely on. She managed to graduate Yale Law Cum Laude and slip into a full-time position on the governor's staff. Life was perfect. And then came James O'Reilly.

*

Samuel Gil was pounding on the desk of Frank Thomas, former DA and well-known defense lawyer.

"I can't believe this! Those stockings were clearly planted. The only reason that I was in the house was because that incompetent O'Reilly told me the police had stopped searching my trash, and it was safe to come home."

The lawyer Thompson was a bit confused, "Are you saying that you were deliberately avoiding the police."

"Yes, are you stupid or not listening?" Gil said, "I was mostly out of town so that the police could not get my DNA. The man in the house was a detective working for O'Reilly's sister. It was all to keep them from getting my DNA."

"Well, I can't see how that helps us. You gave the trash bags to the collectors. This Don Buono says you handed him the bag yourself, and his brother Andy backs him up."

"Don't you see, the police planted the stockings!"

"Look this is not a trial, only a hearing to determine whether you must surrender your DNA. Absent a statement from someone that the evidence was planted - well, they can compel a DNA sample."

"Well, call the detective O'Reilly hired. He can say that I had nothing to do with the trash."

"Ok, what's his name?"

"How should I know? Ask O'Reilly."

"He refuses to talk to me, claiming a conflict."

"His sister then."

"She claims to know nothing about your case."

"Well can't you subpoena them? Force them to talk?"

"Yes, but if I did you would waive the attorney-client privilege. Even though the sister is not an attorney, she was acting under his control. Once you waive the privilege, anything they know comes in. I don't think we want that..."

*

When Samuel Gil was indicted in New Jersey, the local press covered the case as if it were a local trial. Jimmy O'Reilly was vilified once again, and just for good measure, they went after Foxy Fitzgerald. Neither man suffered greatly by the additional notoriety. By year end, Fitzgerald, contrary to all prior expectations, was a junior partner in his firm, and O'Reilly had taken on his clerk as a full-time attorney to handle the additional work that had come in.

Carrie Wilson could only shake her head and wonder at the curious nature of the profession she had studied to enter but never intended actually to work at. Better to sit in a cubby hole in the Capitol then navigate the crazy world where up is down, and left can be right but never wrong. It was nonetheless upsetting to find Tony Greco sitting in her minuscule office complaining about attorneys

"Shakespeare was right, the first thing, we kill them all."

"I don't think the line was meant to be taken seriously, or he wouldn't have had a villain say it. But tell me, what today is your particular grievance."

"She won't leave that slug of a husband. She is planning to have a child with him."

"I take it we are discussing Mrs. Fitzgerald, who is planning a family with her spouse. How extraordinary. I can see why you are upset," Carrie said while trying very hard to suppress her smile.

"The woman loves me, and I'm twice the man he is. I don't get it. She has way more money than he does, and her father insisted on a prenup agreement. Why is she staying with him?" Tony grumbled.

"Maybe she loves him," Carrie said, and added as she saw Tony flinch, "Well, I was just floating the possibility."

"Is that what O'Reilly tells you? That he loves his wife," Tony said with a sneer for the man he liked only a little more than Steven Fitzgerald.

"He doesn't have to tell me. He shows it. Some men are like that -- they fall in love and can't break free no matter the provocation," Carrie said. But she was being magnanimous. She knew she could win a fight with Simone O'Reilly. The question was should she undertake the competition. The other lady was already packing for her next trip abroad. That would leave her Jimmy free and unattached and knowing that his wife would be sleeping in another man's bed. The time was right, but would she give up what she had? Jimmy would accept nothing but a full commitment.

Carrie considered Tony's problem. The woman he wanted was a remarkably beautiful creature, but one with the morals of an alley cat. What Susan Singleton Fitzgerald wanted she took. Carrie knew that Singleton and her father were firm allies of Carrie's boss the Governor. Tony's desire was mixed with a considerable amount of ambition. But overriding his normally sound political mind was his raw sexual desire for the woman. That passion made him blind where Susan was concerned.

"What does she see in him?" Tony all but whined.

"Tony, there is no easy answer to that. But you will have to admit the man has great looks and, whether you like it or not, women are attracted to his looks."

Tony left unsatisfied, and Carrie returned to the crisis of the moment. The Governor had received an urgent call from the Cardinal for the New York Diocese. The Cardinal wanted a meeting and soon. It was an unusual request for barely ten days before Christmas. A busy time for the Cardinal, and this year for the Governor. The legislature had yet to adjourn because the legislators had to pass a spending bill that included a pay raise for themselves. The Governor was refusing to sign unless new taxes were passed as well.

The Legislature was deadlocked, and the Governor was needed in Albany. The Cardinal was insisting on a private meeting in New York. It was a strange request, but Carrie had been tasked with making the meeting possible. It would need the use of state aircraft. Using the state's minuscule fleet of air transport always involved a lot of paperwork and subterfuge. Carrie had to arrange state business in Manhattan to cover the trip. Otherwise, the opposition would shout waste during the negotiations for a tax increase.

*

Jimmy O'Reilly fanned the tickets out in his hand. He thought of the trouble and cost he had gone to. Four tickets to the Nutcracker at Lincoln Center. They were worth many times their weight in gold. He had planned it. They had planned it together, Simone and he, as a last family outing together before she would be gone once again.

Jimmy's daughters were thrilled. They so wanted to see the ballet. Jimmy cared not at all for ballet, but he wanted to be there with his daughters and his wife. He had been working for months to make this Christmas special. He and Simone had come to an understanding, an imperfect compromise that suited neither. When they were apart, they had an open marriage. But when Simone came home, she was to be his faithful wife. He could do as he pleased if he was discreet. When Simone was away, she would not ask what he was doing, or who he was seeing. She would keep him just as in the dark about her own sexual activities.

It was everything Simone wanted, but Jimmy retained the right to see other women even after Simone came home. She knew this was more a threat than an actual condition. Since the Governor's Ball, Jimmy had not slept with Carrie. Nevertheless, Simone knew the woman was waiting in the wings for the New Year. Simone had made a harsh bargain with her husband, but she had him back. They were sharing a bed again, and for more than sleeping.

The agreement fell apart almost before it had begun.

"I have to go. It's an important meeting," she said.

"We promised your daughters, or have you forgotten," he angrily replied.

"Jimmy, try to understand -- lives are at stake. I'll be back before Christmas."

"What about the Nutcracker? You want the girls to see it accompanied only by their father. I thought we were making a memory they would have for the rest of their lives. Now all they will remember is how their mother wasn't there."

"Go ahead, lay the guilt on. I'm a rotten wife and now a bad mother. Well, maybe I am, but I'm going to sleep nights knowing I did all I could to save every life I could."

He could only grumble like a peeved child in response, "Just once, I wish you could put your family first."

"That's not fair, and you know it. Look, I will go to New York with you. I can take the plane from JFK Saturday morning. Then you take the girls to the ballet in the afternoon as planned."

They actually took the train down Thursday. They spent Friday Christmas shopping with the girls. Mother and daughters shopped for clothes while dad tried to look interested. An overly guilty mother indulged her daughters. They toured Time Square and ate a late dinner at a homestyle Italian restaurant. Back at the hotel, they settled the girls into one double bed while mom and dad prepared to enter the other.

It was just past eleven O'clock when the suite phone rang. Simone was already asleep, preparing for her early morning departure.

"Hello Jimmy, It's Carrie," the voice on the phone said.

"Carrie, What the hell?"

"Hell is right. I had a devil of a time tracking you down. Not a good idea to turn off your cell phone."

Checking his phone, he said, "I didn't -- the battery is dead."

"Good, I'd hate to think you are avoiding me," said the woman he had been avoiding. With some sarcasm.

"Sorry, it must be important. What do you need?"

"We need that favor you owe the governor," she said.

Something in the way she said it made a chill run up his spine.

"You still there?" she asked.

"Yes, what do you need."

"I need you out in front of that modest hotel you are staying in within twenty minutes."

"Should I be wearing a jacket? All I brought this trip was a sports jacket."

"Wear your PJ's if you have to but be on the street in twenty minutes. A Lincoln town car will pick you up. Sorry, but I have to hang up now," she said

The hotel was small and dual purpose. Half the building was full-time residences catering to the part-time occupants who work in New York City but make their true home elsewhere. The lobby was small and quiet in the late evening, manned by a single staff person. He was young and surprisingly alert and cheerful, in the late evening.

He greeted Jimmy with a wave and a cheerful smile, "There's a car waiting just outside the door," the attendant said.

Passing through the doors, you couldn't miss the Lincoln Town Car sitting at the curb of West 45th. Street, or the large and formidable-looking older man leaning on its fender.

"Mr. O'Reilly?" he asked.

"Yes," Jimmy replied.

"I'm Don Pleasant, special assistant to the governor," he said, opening the rear door

Showing Jimmy into the backseat, Pleasant took a seat in the front next to the driver, and the town car pulled quickly out into a street -- a street as crowded approaching midnight as most places are at midday. They reached the Avenue and began to race uptown. They slowed only to negotiate around Central Park. When they reached East 80th Street, they turned right two blocks and stopped before a four-story row house.

Jimmy had expected to be taken to the governor's West Side Office, but he had been brought to the East Side two blocks off the park. He was led into the house by Don Pleasant as the town car sped off. The governor's city residence was one step down from palatial, two Brownstone row houses joined together. The lower floor opened to a large double parlor on one side and a ballroom on the other.

Don directed him up the wide central staircase to the second floor and a small upper parlor. Inside this room Edward Kincade, Governor of the State of New York, waited with his personal assistant Carrie Wilson. The pair sat in wing-backed chairs at a right angle to each other around a small oval table. On the table face down lay a document.

"Good evening Mr. O'Reilly," the Governor said. "And thank you for coming."

"I was reminded that I was in your debt," Jimmy said, looking to Carrie, who had neither her usual self-possession nor her fixed political smile.

Don had exited closing the door as he departed, and left just the three of them in the room.

"Yes, but thank you anyway. And if you could read this?" Kincade said, indicating that Jimmy should take one of the remaining chairs around the table. The governor turned over the document and slid it towards Jimmy.

Jimmy started to scan quickly through the three-page document in the way lawyers learn to read, looking for the meaning between the words. But ... Jimmy quickly stopped scanning and reverted to the document's top and began again very carefully. The room was deadly silent as he read. It was a full twenty minutes before anyone spoke.

Jimmy placed the document back on the table face down and slid it back to the governor and said, "I take it that you believe what is in this report, and it, in fact, comes to you from the party it is addressed to."

"Yes, I have a high degree of confidence that it is accurate, and I was, in fact, handed it personally by the Cardinal."

"You must be concerned," Jimmy said.

Kincade smiled, "A very mild way of defining my current mental state."

"May I ask what you want of me?" Jimmy said.

"I want you to handle this. Make it go away."

"Why entrust this to an attorney you hardly know?"

"My reasoning is simple. You know the parties. Carrie here has absolute trust in you, and you owe me a favor," the governor said.

"Getting involved in something like this is a very large favor. I am grateful that you helped my wife, but— "

"That's not the favor, I was referring to," the governor said as Carrie shifted uncomfortably.

Jimmy raise one eyebrow in question, and the governor delivered the answer. "The State Police are hardly adept investigators, but even the incompetent can stumble on the truth. You very cleverly substituted another man for your client Samuel Gil, thereby avoiding his inadvertently providing his DNA to the authorities.

"But that man, who works for your sister, inserted the stockings into the trash. The police suspect this but have not questioned this individual as to who gave him that stockings, nor will they. I have seen to it that no investigation will take place beyond what has already occurred. That is the favor I refer to, Attorney O'Reilly."