“I’m here to serve you papers,” he said, his tone and demeanor revealing his unease.
“Serve me papers? For?” he asked.
“Tim Marshall is suing you for harassment, medical costs and pain and suffering caused by the incident that transpired a few weeks ago, Mr. O’Leary,” the young deputy said.
“Did you get that Meredith?” he asked, not taking the papers the man was holding.
She let out an audible sigh. “I heard. Take the papers. Thank you, Deputy, your job is done.”
The deputy looked at the phone and nodded his head as if she could see him. He spun around on his heel and headed for the patrol car parked outside. Ben caught his security guy looking at him. Ben through up his hands, asking what the hell. The guard shrugged his shoulders as if to say there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Ben slammed the door. “What the hell?” he growled.
“Send me copies of the suit. I’ll get right on it,” Meredith said.
“Can he actually sue me for all that?” Ben asked, pissed and surprised.
“He can sue you because your house is a color he doesn’t like. It doesn’t mean he’s going to win. Send me the paperwork. Don’t worry about this Marshall guy. I’ve done a little background research. He thinks he’s hot stuff in LA. I’m the queen bitch around these parts and I look forward to raking this guy over the coals. Any man that beats a woman is already on my bad side,” she grumbled.
“I’m sorry to make more work for you,” Ben mumbled.
Meredith burst into laughter. “Are you kidding? You’re paying for my retirement. I knew you were good for business.”
He chuckled but didn’t really see the humor in his situation. “Will those investigators call me soon?” he asked, wanting to do something right away, not later.
He could hear Meredith talking to someone else and was about to get pissed that he didn’t have her undivided attention for a call he was sure was costing him at least five-hundred dollars.
“We just got the divorce papers back via courier,” Meredith said.
“Back? What do you mean?” Ben asked. “Katherine’s papers?”
“Yes. That smug jerk sent them back with a post-it note.”
“What does it say?”
“No,” she snapped.
“What?” Ben asked, confused why she wouldn’t tell him what the note said.
“It says no. Like he refuses to sign. How much you want to bet he talked to Katherine?” Meredith said, her voice full of rage.
“What if he threatened her?”
“We need to find her and ask her what happened. I’m going to get the paperwork for a restraining order started. I need to find her and have her sign it. Tim wants to play games. I need to protect my client. He’s going to continue to harass her. Every time he calls her, looks at her or attempts to get near her, I want to slap him with a violation of the order,” Meredith grumbled.
“Great, but first we have to find her.”
“I’m not worried about that. Katherine is smart, but it’s very hard to get truly lost in this day and age. We’ll start with her bank and credit cards and go from there.”
“How? Is that legal?”
Meredith burst into laughter. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You just said—”
He got it then.
“Look, you need to know this Tim character is going to drag this thing out. He is going to do everything he can to paint himself as the victim with Katherine as the cheating spouse. You can pretty much guarantee your name is going to be dragged right into the middle of it all,” she explained.