stood up. “I have to run.” Callie rose to kiss her on the cheek.
Kacey flung her purse onto her right shoulder then picked up her black leather bag that contained all her working notes, and turned to Callie. “If you knew something you’d tell me, right, Cal?”
“Kacey, we’ve been best friends longer than I can remember. Of course I’d tell you.”
“I know you would. Thanks for meeting me so quickly…I’ll call ya’ later.” Kacey started to leave the restaurant, but stepped back towards Callie. “Tell Mike I said he made a great decision.”
Callie laughed. She remembered her conversation from earlier in the day. “I think I’ll do that.”
“Later, Cal-pie”
“Bye, Mer-maid”
Kacey blew her a kiss on her way out of the restaurant. Callie reached into her purse and nervously fumbled her Revlon Super Lustrous lipstick. She ran ‘Cherries in the Snow’ slowly across her lips, then did it once more. She pulled a napkin from the table dispenser and pressed her mouth twice against it, eventually dropping it on Kacey’s dessert plate. Callie inched her chair closer and rested both her elbows on the table. She ran her hands through her soft brown hair, gathered it up and wrapped her flowered ponytail band around the back of it. Callie had never been in this position before and was unsure of how to handle it moving forward. For the first time since they had met twenty-seven years ago, Callie Wheeler had lied to her best friend.
Ten
August 3, 2011
Chairman Rice pounded his gavel once again as the murmurs in the hearing room only intensified the noise. “Quiet please!”
The day was still young, yet the worry on Rice’s face belied his usual calm demeanor. His decision to have Callie testify looked to be a sound one at the time, but now Rice began to have doubts of his own. With the entire country watching the proceedings, the real problem at this point seemed to be that any backtrack would look like the Senate was running scared and afraid to hear what Callie had to say. Rice took a macro view of the situation and settled on the best course of action from his seat as Chairman. If Callie testified in front of them, Rice argued, at least they had a chance to respond or redirect, which was the main reason why her uninterrupted opening statement had become so problematic. In hindsight, giving this woman an open forum turned out to be a very bad idea, but now that she started, Congress could not cut her off without being accused of hypocrisy by stifling the one witness who could shed light on the very problem they had promised to fix. Instead, the entire dais was at her mercy and Rice understood that as well as anyone. “Ms. Wheeler, it is quite abnormal for this body to entertain an opening statement without a copy in advance for the entire committee.”
Callie, confident as ever, knew she struck a nerve and put them on the defensive. Any hope the legislators entertained about Callie somehow letting them off the hook soon fell by the wayside. “Mr. Chairman, I’m not really too concerned about what is normal in the Senate.”
“Well you should be!” Rice startled the entire room with his uncharacteristic outburst, the lone exception being the woman it was intended for. The information Callie knew regarding each and every member who was staring straight at her, made her extremely dangerous. She also recognized it granted her the leverage and the confidence to continue in the face of all the hostility directed her way.
“With all due respect, Senator, I’m testifying on my own volition and only because you said yourself that the country needed to understand what happened here. I am taking you at your word, even though I know with most of you up there, that’s a losing proposition. I can give you all the information you’re looking for and then some. The choice is yours.”
Callie stared up at Chairman Rice undaunted. She’d made her proverbial bed and she came prepared to lie in it. Callie knew all she had done since taking the job at M&G and while she could not take it back, she felt the need to expose it and the behavior of the others who had infested the process. Just maybe, she thought, the American people would finally pay attention to what was happening in Washington and wrestle back control of their government from the massive culture of corruption. The only obstacle in their way were members of Congress, the most powerful of whom, were sitting in judgment before her.
Rice removed his bifocals and placed them on the desk in front of him. “Ms. Wheeler, I’m going to confer with my colleagues for a moment after which time I’ll decide if your unauthorized opening statement will be allowed to continue.”
Callie poured herself a glass of water, lifted it with her left hand and before bringing it to her lips, leaned into her attorney sitting to her right and whispered in his ear. “They can screw me all they want on this…I’m still going to say what I want to say.” Callie moved away from Goodman, took a long drink, then placed the glass back on the table.
Callie’s defiant behavior left Goodman feeling uneasy, but she’d also surprised him by the ease at which she handled herself. He turned to Callie and offered her the counsel he’d been paid to give. “I’m not sure if you’re trying to get them pissed at you, but whether that was your intention or not, you’ve done a hell of a job,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper.
“Do I look worried?” Callie said, still facing her attorney. Goodman looked at her for a moment and shook his head in agreement to her rhetorical question. Peeking over his right shoulder, he caught a glimpse of twelve huddled Senators surrounding the chairman, their arms moving nervously with a number of them talking at the same time. Looking back at his client, he smiled. He no longer wondered who seemed more uneasy.
“Callie, it doesn’t matter. If they give you a chance to walk, then walk. At the very least you have to consider it.”
Callie pushed her chair back and bent over slightly, reaching under the witness table to pull a compact from her purse. She understood the signal she was sending, not only to the Senators at the front of the room, but to a larger audience, both in the gallery and across the nation. Her calculated move was meant to agitate, which is exactly what it did. Callie checked her makeup, fluffed her hair and smiled, then purposely positioned the compact next to her, knowing what sort of effect it would have. She did not care.
“I’m not going to think about it, Miles. I need to do this and I’ll deal with the consequences later.”
“But there are other ways...”
“No, this is the right thing to do,” Callie said interrupting her lawyer. “I’ve ignored the right thing for too many years. It has to stop.”
Chairman Rice returned to his chair and called the session back to order. “Ms. Wheeler, what you have done here is wrong and shows a total disregard for the integrity of this body. Nevertheless, I have decided to let you continue with your statement and even give you some latitude. It is my hope, however, that you’ll take this opportunity to salvage whatever is left of your reputation. You can start by addressing this committee with the proper respect is deserves.”
Callie’s face conveyed her contempt for the Chairman and the rest of the members as she pulled her microphone closer. “Senator, please don’t lecture me on the integrity of this body or how I should address you. Spare me the self-serving notions on the sanctity of this institution and the illusion of greatness that sits pompously before me,” Callie said, then glared at Senator Shulman. “I know all too well about the integrity of this body and in all honesty, I believe I am showing each of you the exact respect you deserve.”
There was a flurry of camera flashes
