– we’ll have an appeal before the judge can pound his gavel. Donald has good friends and deep pockets,’ Tom said with a knowing smile. Jennifer had no reason to doubt what he said. After all, Tom was not only a Harvard undergrad and Law Review at Yale, he was also much more than her brilliant attorney. He was her beloved fiancé.
‘Think of it, Jen,’ he had said days ago, ‘everyone here will be in your debt. You’ll not only have Donald’s gratitude, but also the gratitude of the partners and all of the employees, right down to the secretaries and the mail-room staff. They’ll all owe their fortunes and their jobs to you.’
‘I only regret that I have but one life to give for my firm,’ Jennifer had joked on that day when she, Tom, and Donald got together with Bob, the financial officer and Lenny, his assistant, to hatch their plan. There was plenty to drink and lots of laughter at that meeting as they discussed how Tom would prepare her statements, how they’d all sign them, and how Tom would ‘turn her in’ to the SEC. The Feds would be ripsnorting mad to miss their shot at Donald, but if she confessed they were scotched in their witchhunt, and Jennifer would be back at work within a week.
At the time their plan sounded solid; after all, Jennifer loved the heart-stopping thrill of high-risk deal-making. She loved the power of outleveraging any competitor in a buyout, and she loved the rush of watching one of their IPOs – Initial Public Offerings – burst onto the market to take the lucky or the gullible investor for the ride of his life. She loved it all – but most of all she loved the money and what it bought. She loved the Pratesi sheets on her bed, the silk Kirmans on her floor, and she loved every piece of Armani, Prada, Gucci, and Ferragamo that she kept neatly in her Biedermeier armoire. Even if her Tribeca condo was a little small, it was beautiful and in the best neighborhood in New York. (John Kennedy, Jr. had lived just around the corner.) With the very generous bonus that she was likely to get from pulling off this little charade, Jennifer was sure that she’d be able to move right on up to the penthouse.
‘Jennifer, I’m so, so sorry. It’s a mistake. Honestly. I thought we had Levitt in line,’ Tom said to her now. Jennifer just stared at him, speechless.
The court officer began to move toward her. ‘We’re going to have to go now,’ he said.
‘What?’ she asked. He must be joking. ‘Go where?’
Tom looked away from her, unable to meet her eyes. ‘To be transported,’ he said. ‘To go …’
‘To go to jail?’ she asked, and heard her voice rising. After the indictment she’d been out on bail before the desk sergeant could call the press and tip them off to her presence. ‘Ridiculous,’ she said, with more bravado than she felt, but the guard came at her relentlessly and when he reached her he pulled out handcuffs. Jennifer almost fainted. ‘No,’ she said, and it came out almost as a moan.
‘Surely handcuffs aren’t necessary …’ Tom began.
‘It’s procedure,’ the marshal said, and it was clear that there was no negotiating. He snapped the cuffs on Jennifer’s wrists, then had to stop and adjust them again and again because her wrists were so small. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Let’s go. We have transport waiting.’
‘We’re going to have to go out there,’ Tom told her. ‘There will be a lot of photographers and journalists.’ He paused. ‘Look, this is only a momentary setback,’ he said. ‘You’ll be there overnight. We’ll appeal or we’ll get a mistrial. Don’t worry about this.’
‘Let’s go,’ the marshal said again and took her, not gently, by the arm.
‘Um, could she fix herself for a moment?’ Tom asked.
Jennifer, dazed and confused, didn’t know what he was talking about, but Jane, one of the other attorneys, took out a comb and tissue and actually fussed with Jennifer’s face as if she were an actor about to go before the cameras. As she was being preened, Tom stood very close to her and she felt something drop into her pocket.
‘Call me sometime,’ he whispered into her ear. ‘Look undaunted,’ Tom continued as he stepped back, while she was marshaled out to face the exploding lights and equally unsettling questions. ‘Are you sorry now?’ a woman’s voice yelled.
‘What will you do in prison?’ she heard someone else shout.
‘Jenny, look over here!’ a husky voice intoned.
‘Jenny!’ echoed behind her.
‘Jenny! Jenny, here!’ was being chanted all around her.
Now she realized why people photographed for the newspapers always looked guilty. She, too, had to hang her head down to protect herself from being blinded by the flashbulbs and strobes. The marshal had been joined by several court officers who were pushing the media out of the way. Jennifer realized that she didn’t know if Tom was still with her or not, but when they walked through the double doors and she found herself at a loading dock, Tom was right behind her, though blessedly the wolf pack was stopped in their tracks.
But right now, the idea of prison gave Jennifer another roll of nausea. She tried to quiet her fears with the confidence that she had cut quite a deal with the firm. With Tom in charge of her appeal, and Howard McBane, senior partner of the white shoe firm of Swithmore, McBane pleading it, there was – she reminded herself – essentially no risk. When all the dust was settled, Donald Michaels was going to owe her big time. She may have left the firm in cuffs, but she was certain that she would return as a senior partner.
In the days following her initial arrest, Jennifer focused her energies on practicing her testimony with Tom and deciding what to wear to court. She was charged with investment fraud, so it seemed that she should try to look as unfraudulent as possible. She chose Armani over Yamaguchi, because who could appear fraudulent in Armani? And for shoes she opted for Louboutin over Manolo Blahnik. Only a classic Gucci purse would do, and with a new hairstyle and makeup done to perfection, Jennifer was sure that she was dressed not only for success, but for an acquittal.
What she hadn’t planned on, however, was the possibility of a female judge. For all of her success, Jennifer had never learned how to deal well with other women – especially the fat, dumpy types who prefer to cloak their femininity in the dark uniformity of robes. When Jennifer saw her judge it was like seeing the ghost of Sister Mary Margaret from St Bartholomew’s school. Jennifer had looked to Tom for encouragement.
But as clever and handsome as Tom was in his own impeccably tailored suit, he had no charm over this severe incarnation of Lady Justice. The grand jury hearing was a disaster. Jennifer was indicted and brought to trial amidst a media frenzy that made national headlines. Donald had warned her that the Feds were looking for a high-profile scapegoat. They found one in Jennifer Spencer. Her story kept the tabloids churning out edition after edition, and while the humiliation of the live television coverage was considerable, what really frustrated Jennifer was the judge’s inability to see that the charges against her were bogus.
At the van Jennifer cried as Tom held her close. ‘This is only a little setback,’ he told her. ‘It’s all going to blow over. We’ll get an appeal. You’ll get another judge. We’ll get Howard McBane for the appeal. McBane is an appellate genius and every judge in the state knows him. Your case will be decided on its merits.’ Jennifer tried to remind herself ‘No guts – no glory.’ The shame of the publicity and the shock of the verdict would be a small price to pay for a senior partnership in the firm – and a lifetime of wealth with her beloved Tom. She’d taken a gamble and if this was the downside of it, the upside was well
