The Divine Appointment by Jerome Teel Page B

to advise the court and the DA’s office that we will be representing the defendant. A lawyer friend of the Grissoms in Nashville helped with the initial appearance, and Dr. Grissom made bail over the weekend. He’s under house arrest, and I’m going to meet with him Friday afternoon. The last thing is that you or Jimmy or both of you need to find out everything you can about the victim. I need to know who her friends were, who her enemies were, and what she did the night she was murdered. Ms. Grissom said the victim was a young lawyer in Nashville named Jessica Caldwell. See if you can find any lawyers in Nashville who knew her and would be willing to talk.”
    “Jessica Caldwell?” Jill replied. “I know that name. She was in her first year at Vandy when I was third year. I didn’t know her very well, but I should be able to find some classmates who did.”
    “Good. That should give you a starting point. See what you can find out.”
    “I got it,” Jill stated. “Anything else?”
    “That’s it for now,” Eli replied. “Get back to me tomorrow afternoon on what you’ve found.”
    Jill stood to leave as Barbara entered Eli’s office with a large expandable folder. Eli retrieved the golf balls again. Two were in the plastic cup and the other two had glanced off to the right.
    “You haven’t forgotten about your deposition this afternoon, have you?” Barbara asked Eli.
    “I was just leaving,” Jill assured her and departed Eli’s office to carry out his instructions.
    “And I’ll start preparing, but I need to call my wife first,” Eli replied.
    Barbara left the expandable folder with Eli. He pondered Anna Grissom’s story as he putted the four balls again. All four clanked into the plastic cup and he propped the putter in the corner behind his office door. Before opening the file Barbara had left, he dialed home.
    Sara answered after the second ring.
    “I just took a case where I’ve got to be in Nashville later this week to meet with my client,” Eli told Sara. “Why don’t you plan to go with me, and we’ll make a long weekend of it?”
    “I don’t know, Eli,” Sara replied. “I’ve got so many things to do this week, I’m not sure it would be a good time to get away. And I’m scheduled to work in the nursery this Sunday at church.”
    “C’mon, honey,” he pleaded. “We could go to the Loveless one night for dinner. I know it’s one of your favorite places. Instead of a long weekend, we’ll go up Friday morning and come home Saturday night. That way you can get everything done that you need to, and we’ll be back in time for church on Sunday. What do you say?”
    “The Loveless,” she repeated with excitement in her voice.
    Eli knew he’d placed a temptation before her that she couldn’t resist. “You’ve got yourself a date, Mr. Faulkner. When do we leave?”

Chapter Nine
    The Rose Garden, the White House, Washington DC
    “Ladies and gentlemen,” the president’s crier said to the White House press corps gathered in the Rose Garden. “The president of the United States of America.”
    On cue, President Wallace exited the French doors that opened from the Oval Office onto the veranda and began walking toward a podium that had been erected in the Rose Garden for Wednesday’s press conference to announce the president’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Lauren Wallace, Dunbar Shelton, and his wife, Victoria, trailed closely behind President Wallace as he emerged from the veranda and into the spring sunshine. All four looked very solemn, but President Wallace knew that each one was screaming with excitement on the inside.
    The Washington Post had been silent that morning about the nomination. Despite lots of speculation inside the Beltway, there had been little talk of Judge Shelton and no article by one Holland Fletcher. The nation seemed taken by surprise.
    The White House Rose Garden was bursting with deep reds, brilliant pinks, and whites as pure as the driven