Unconscionable, A Rich Coleman Novel Vol 3, Page 2

  Chapter 1

  Graduation

   

  It was a pleasant day on the SMU campus in Dallas. The ceremony was being held outdoors in the law school quadrangle. It was a small and intimate crowd, as the graduating class was just over a hundred students. Erica, her mother, Matt, and Rich were the only ones there supporting Ryan. Erica’s father was dead, and Rich’s parents lived in California and were too elderly to travel.

  Since Rich had graduated from SMU some thirty years earlier, he had been afforded the privilege of delivering Ryan’s diploma to him. Ryan smiled broadly when Rich handed it to him and shook his hand. Rich had done the same thing for Matt and, as Ryan walked off, Rich worried that he might have jinxed Ryan. He wasn’t a superstitious person, but he couldn’t help but wonder if somehow he had passed on his bad fortune to Matt and now he was doing the same thing to Ryan.

  After the ceremony was over they went inside the administration building where there was to be a reception. While they waited for Ryan to join them, Rich went and got everyone a drink. When Ryan finally showed up two drinks later, he had a girl in tow.

  “Mom, Dad. This is Amanda Sherman. She and I were study partners.”

  Rich gave Amanda a quick look and then grinned at Ryan. She was a looker, and he wondered how much studying they’d actually done when they were together. He stifled a laugh.

  “Oh. So nice to meet you,” Erica said. “What a nice ceremony. Your parents must be very proud of you.”

  “Yes. They are.”

  “I’m just glad it is over,” Ryan noted. “I can’t wait to actually start practicing.”

  “Well, you still have to pass the bar,” Rich reminded him soberly.

  He shrugged. “I know. Wouldn’t that be a kick in the ass if I failed the bar after three grueling years in law school.”

  Amanda shook her head. “Yeah, like you have something to worry about. You always ace the tests. I’m the one who barely passes.”

  “Don’t worry,” Rich interjected. “I barely graduated from law school, but I did pretty well on the bar—top ten percent.”

  Amanda’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

  “Yes, the bar exam is more practical than academic. I’m not a scholar, so it was a breath of fresh air to be given some real-life cases to analyze rather than be asked to remember the details of a bunch of irrelevant historical cases.”

  “Well, that makes me feel better,” Amanda said.

  “So, what type of law do you want to practice after you pass the bar?” Erica asked.

  “My undergraduate degree is in English literature so I was thinking of something related, like publishing or literary rights.”

  “She wants to be a literary agent,” Ryan said, rolling his eyes. “She’s going to waste her law degree.”

  Rich shrugged. “It may not be as glamorous as being a criminal defense attorney, but if she signs some good talent she’ll be making more money than you will pleading out drug dealers.”

  Ryan frowned. “I’m not going to represent drug dealers. I’m only taking on clients who are innocent or who had a good reason for the crimes they committed.”

  Again Ryan’s motivation was obvious. Matt had committed a number of criminal acts in his quest for vengeance against Frank Hill and MidSouth Bank, but Ryan considered them all justifiable considering that Hill had hired Hans Schultz to kill Lynn and three other people that Ryan knew about. In Ryan’s mind, his brother’s actions were just and right and he would have been proud to defend someone like Matt seeking justice as much as revenge.

  “You’ll starve, then,” Rich noted. “Very few criminal defendants are innocent.”

  Ryan shrugged. “Then I’ll have to do bankruptcies for you for a while until I get established.”

  “That’s fine,” Rich said, happy to hear for the first time that Ryan was considering practicing with him. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up. If you really want to practice criminal law you should go work for the DA for a while and learn the ropes.”

  Ryan shook his head. “No. I’d never be a prosecutor. They don’t give a damn about justice. All they care about is their conviction rate.”

  “You don’t have to make a career of it,” Amanda interjected. “It’s just a good way to learn how the system works.”

  Ryan shook his head again. “The system doesn’t work. That’s the problem.”

  “So, how do you think you can change it?” Amanda asked.

  “I don’t think I can change it, but I plan to become good enough to beat it.”

  “Well, I have to admit you have the cocky confidence of a criminal defense attorney,” Rich said. “Just be sure you can deliver what you promise.”

  “Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll do whatever it takes to win.”

  Ryan’s attitude scared Rich. Matt’s and Rich’s experiences had hardened him and given him a jaundiced view of the world. Rich thought back to when they were fun-loving teenagers. The one thing Matt and Ryan had in common was their love for fantasy, warfare, and science fiction. They spent countless hours engaged in mock combat, whether it was Risk, Dungeons and Dragons, Civilization, or countless other games. To get an advantage over the other, they studied the theories and exploits of Machiavelli, Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, and Field Marshall Rommel. Although Ryan held up better than most, Matt almost always prevailed, not so much due to his ruthless, relentless attacks, but more on account of his thorough preparation for battle. Now Ryan was thinking like Matt. Rich guessed he’d learned from his brother not only what it took to win, but the preparation necessary to annihilate his opponents. Recalling the last time he’d seen Matt, Rich realized he hadn’t followed them into the reception. That upset him because he had planned to take everyone to dinner after the ceremony was over.

  “Where’s Matt?” Rich asked.

  Ryan and Erica began scanning the area for Matt.

  “I don’t know,” Ryan said.

  Rich grimaced. “I guess I’ll go look for him. He looked kind of in a daze, so he might not have noticed that we had left.”

  Ryan rolled his eyes. “What’s with him? He seems so out of it lately.”

  “He’s depressed,” Erica replied. “He’s still grieving.”

  “It’s been over two years. It’s time he got over her.”

  “He’ll never get over her,” Erica explained. “That’s the way love is—eternal.”

  “Oh, give me a break,” Ryan spat. “If he’d just start dating again he’d find someone else to fall in love with. It’s just chemistry, for godsakes.”

  Rich smiled. “Well, as interesting as this philosophical debate is becoming, I think I’ll pull myself away and go find him.”

  Rich left as Erica was about to rebut Ryan’s assertion that love was just a matter of chemistry. He went outside to make sure Matt wasn’t still in his chair where he’d last seen him. He wasn’t there, so Rich assumed he’d followed the crowd inside. It was a big room so he started in one corner and began searching in a grid pattern. That would work if Matt were standing still, which he thought to be the most likely case. After searching half the room he spotted him at the bar with a gorgeous blond in a short cocktail dress. She wasn’t a graduate or a mom, so he was curious who she was and approached them tentatively.

  “Matt. There you are.”

  “Oh, Dad. Where did you guys go? We’ve been looking for you.”

  “Over there,” Rich said, pointing in the general direction of their party. He smiled at the young lady.

  “Oh, this is Candy Kane. We’re going out after the ceremony. I told her to meet me here.”

  Rich stifled a laugh. He wondered what kind of a sick parent would name their little girl that. “Oh . . . good. Can she join us for dinner?”

  Matt frowned. “No. Sorry, Dad. We have other plans.”

  “Hmm. That’s too bad,” Rich said. “Well, at least come over and introduce your friend to everyone.”

  Matt looked at his watch. �
�Actually, if you don’t mind I think we’ll take off. The ceremony is over, right?”

  Rich nodded, showing his disappointment by his facial expression.

  They got up and Candy extended her hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Coleman. Matt has told me all about how good you are at investing.”

  “Not now, Candy,” Matt said irritably.

  “Wait a minute,” Candy insisted. “Matt said you didn’t do that anymore, but I thought maybe you might make an exception.”

  “Do what?” Rich asked, although he already knew the answer. During Erica’s trial it came out that he had parlayed $50,000 into a million dollars in less than a year. Ever since that publicity he had been hounded by people, mainly women, wanting him to invest their money.

  “I’ve got a nice stash of cash set aside from, you know, my work, and I’d be honored if you would manage it for me.”

  Rich smiled. “Well, Matt was correct. I’m not a licensed stockbroker or money manager.”

  Candy gave him a wounded look as Matt took her arm and guided her away. As they were going out the door Matt looked back and shrugged apologetically. After a minute of processing what Rich had just seen, he went back to their group.

  “Did you find Matt?” Erica asked.

  “Yes. I did. He was at the bar.”

  “Oh. Is he going to join us?”

  “No. He left with a hooker.”

  Ryan turned his head. “What did you say?”

  “He was with a woman. I think she was a hooker or an escort. Anyway, they had other plans.”

  “Oh, my God!” Erica exclaimed. “He brought a hooker to his brother’s graduation?”

  “Well, I not sure what her line of work is, but she did admit to having quite a large sum of money. She wanted me to invest it for her.”

  Ryan’s mouth opened but no words came out. Erica just shook her head. Amanda looked confused.

  “What’s he doing?” Erica asked.

  Rich shook his head. “Grieving, I think, was your diagnosis.”

  Erica looked at him and frowned. “You’d better have a talk with him. I’m worried.”

  Rich took Erica’s hand and squeezed it firmly. “I will. I’ll go see him tomorrow and find out what’s going on.”

  Erica took a deep breath and gave him a worried look.

  “Okay,” Rich said. “Who feels like some dinner? I’ve got reservations at Del Frisco.”

  The next day after mass Rich made good on his promise and went to see Matt. He lived in an apartment in a suburb of Dallas called Richardson. Rich had never actually been to the apartment before, and the complex was a maze of buildings, so it was no simple chore finding his unit. When he finally found it and knocked on the door there was no answer. He hadn’t called ahead because he wanted to catch Matt by surprise. If Matt was into hookers and escorts, Rich was sure he wouldn’t want to talk about it with his father. Rich wondered if he was inside hiding or actually out somewhere.

  There was no way to look inside from the front, so he went through the garden gate back to his patio. When he looked inside he gasped. Candy was lying naked on the carpet, and Matt was slumped in a corner passed out. An empty bottle of Jack Daniels sat next to Matt’s feet. For a moment Rich pondered whether to go in. If they were just sleeping off drunkenness from a night of partying it might be best to leave them alone and come back another day for their talk. But then he noticed bloody vomit next to Candy’s mouth. With that discovery he started banging on the glass door.

  The banging made quite a racket, but neither one of them stirred, so Rich took out his pocket knife and started playing with the lock. The door gave a little so he slid it open. It hadn’t been locked. The room reeked of a combination of vomit, blood, and cigarette smoke. Rushing in, he checked Candy for a pulse. She had one, but it was shallow. He went to Matt and began shaking him. It took a minute but Matt finally began to stir. He went back to Candy and tried to shake her into consciousness as well but she didn’t respond. He got out his cell and called 911.

  “Hello. Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?”

  “I have a young woman who is unconscious and not responding to my efforts to wake her up. She’s consumed a great deal of alcohol. I’m not sure if she’s taken any drugs, but she’s vomited blood.”

  “An ambulance is on its way. Do you see any bottles of drugs anywhere nearby?”

  Matt was struggling to his feet so Rich asked him. “Did Candy take any drugs?”

  He pointed to Candy’s purse. Rich grabbed it and dumped its contents out on the ground. A large prescription medicine bottle fell to the carpet. Rich picked it up and read the label.

  “Yes, there’s a prescription bottle of Percodan. It’s got about a dozen pills in it.”

  “Okay, she may be bleeding internally from the combination of the Percodan and alcohol. Is she on her stomach or back?”

  “Stomach.”

  “Turn her over, put a pillow under her head, and make sure she’s breathing.”

  She was breathing, so Rich gently turned her over and put a pillow from the sofa under her head.

  Glaring at Matt, Rich screamed, “What in the hell are you thinking? You let her take drugs and alcohol? Are you nuts?”

  Matt swallowed hard. “I swear I didn’t know anything about the Percodan. She takes those for anxiety. All I saw her do was drink.”

  “You drank a entire bottle of Jack Daniels in one night?”

  Matt shrugged. “I guess. I wasn’t counting the shots.”

  “What’s gotten into you? What happened to your ministry?”

  Matt slumped into the nearest chair and took a deep breath. He had established a ministry in prison and had joined a church after he got out. Since he couldn’t practice law, he was going to study to be a minister so he could preach against materialism, which he considered to be man’s greatest weakness. Initially when he started the Debt Relief Centers of Texas it had been the result of his and Lynn’s desire to get rich quick so they could have anything money could buy. But along the way Matt realized the high price people paid for their greed. He had a lot of time to think about it in prison and decided that once he’d brought MidSouth Bank down he’d devote his life to turning people away from greed and materialism.

  “I shut it down. It’s a hopeless cause!”

  “What do you mean? I thought you were visiting all the churches and raising a lot of money?”

  “It worked for a while, but when my notoriety wore off, the big crowds dwindled and money dried up. Once I wasn’t raising all that much the board of trustees told me I had to come up with some new ideas or they’d take me off the circuit. They said I was a good speaker but people got tired of hearing the same message.”

  “Well, that kind of makes sense.”

  There was a knock at the door. Matt got up and let the paramedics in. Rich reiterated to them all he knew about Candy’s condition. They checked her vitals, put her on a gurney, and rolled her to the ambulance parked outside. Matt and Rich followed the ambulance to Richardson Medical Center. After checking in with the emergency room nurse, they took a seat and waited.

  “So, when they asked you to come up with different material, you just gave up?” Rich asked.

  “I wasn’t accomplishing anything. The church wasn’t interested in curbing greed or materialism. They were greedier than their congregations. All I heard about was how my message wasn’t working anymore. Contributions were down and they couldn’t have that.”

  Rich laughed. “That figures. No matter what line of work you’re in it all ends up being about money.”

  “Not when Lynn and I were working with the Debt Relief Centers. I really felt like I was accomplishing something. And when I was plotting to bring MidSouth down I felt the same way.”

  “It’s too bad you don’t have your law license anymore. I’ve got a crusade for you.”

  “A crusade? What kind of crusade?” Matt asked.

  “The mortgage industry. It’s a fucking nightmare. Peop
le are getting screwed a dozen different ways and don’t know it until it’s too late. I must get a four or five calls a day from angry consumers who have been foreclosed or are about to be.”

  The door opened to the waiting room and a nurse came out. “Is someone here with Candy Kane?”

  Matt stood up. “Yes, that’s me.”

  “You can go back. She’s in room E216.”

  They got up and followed the nurse to Candy’s room. She was groggy but awake. An IV hung from a hook attached to her bed, and a heart monitor was beeping beside her. Matt went over to her.

  “Are you all right, Candy?” Matt asked gently.

  She smiled faintly. “I think so.”

  “Why did you take the pills?” Matt asked.

  “Oh. I had a terrible headache. The pills usually stop it.”

  “That’s because Percodan has aspirin in it,” the nurse said. “If you’d have just gotten an aspirin you would have been all right, but Percodan and alcohol don’t mix. That’s why you were vomiting blood. The combination of the Percodan and the Jack Daniels did a number on your stomach.”

  “Will she be all right?” Matt asked.

  The nurse nodded. “Probably, but the doctor wants her to stay overnight so they can do some more testing.”

  Matt sighed, feeling greatly relieved.

  “Okay, we are going to move her to a room now. So why don’t you go to the third-floor waiting room? Her room number will be 324.”

  Matt nodded then leaned down and gave Candy a kiss. As an orderly was coming in to transport Candy to a room, they went back into the waiting room.

  “Want to get something from the cafeteria?” Rich suggested. “It will be a while before they get Candy situated in her new room.”

  Matt nodded. “Sure, let’s go.”

  The cafeteria wasn’t busy, so it didn’t take long for them to get a couple of sandwiches, potato chips, and soft drinks. After paying for the food they took a seat at a table.

  “So, why are you out with a hooker?” Rich asked.

  “She’s an escort, not a hooker. She just goes out on dates. Or she used to, anyway.”

  “Well, she was naked on your floor, so I would say she was more than an escort to you.”

  Matt nodded. “Yes, I’ve been a regular for quite a while. I don’t like going places alone but I’m not really ready to date yet. It was a perfect situation.”

  “Right, but—”

  “But after being with her a lot we became friends. She doesn’t charge me anymore. We just hang out.”

  “But you have sex, too?” Rich noted.

  Matt shrugged. “Sure. We both have our needs, but we’re not in a committed relationship or anything.”

  With Rich’s history with women he wasn’t about to judge Matt’s behavior, so he kept his mouth shut.

  “Well, I’d better get home. Your mother will be worried. Can you take it from here?”

  “Sure, thanks for checking up on me. If you hadn’t shown up no telling what would have happened.”

  “Yeah. Well, I’m glad it wasn’t more serious. Call your mother when you get a chance. She’s worried about you.”

  They stood up and embraced, and Rich left. When he got home Erica and Ryan were anxiously awaiting his arrival. He filled them in on what had happened and his conversations with Matt.

  “Is there any way we can get Matt’s law license reinstated?” Ryan asked. “He needs to get back to practicing law.”

  “Yes, that would be the ideal solution. I could get him all the foreclosure work he could handle. Unfortunately, I’ve been so busy with bankruptcies and estate planning to take any of it in myself. You wouldn’t be interested in that, would you?”

  Ryan gave him a look. “Are you kidding? I don’t know anything about real estate and I’m not interested in learning about it. I hated that class in law school.”

  Rich sighed. “Well, the only way we could get Matt’s license back is to appeal his conviction and get it set aside.”

  Ryan perked up. “Well, he was innocent. Couldn’t we file an appeal and ask the court to reverse the conviction?”

  Rich shrugged. “The problem is everyone knows he helped all those inmates get MidSouth credit cards. They didn’t charge him with it since MidSouth was taken over by the feds and the conspiracy to kill Lynn came out.”

  “Still, it would be worth a shot. Don’t you think?”

  Rich nodded. “Sure, it’s probably exactly what Matt needs right now. I’ll call Matt’s attorney, Bruce Pierson, tomorrow and ask him about it. But don’t get your hopes up.”

  After Ryan left, Rich began to consider the possibility of getting Matt reinstated. It was a long shot but well worth the effort if there was any chance of success. The thought occurred to Rich that Senator Goss might even help out if he asked him. Senator Goss had been an ally in Matt’s efforts to get Congress to do something about predatory lenders before Matt was sent to prison. For the first time in months Rich was feeling optimistic about the future. Would it be possible to have both his sons practicing law with him? Coleman & Sons PC. That had a nice ring to it. Somehow he had to make it happen.