Marie Ferrarella - Cavanaugh Judgement стр 2.

But she knew that this was part of the game, part of the system, and she was determined to do everything she could to put that soulless pseudo Drug Czar of Magnolia Avenue, as Munro liked to refer to himself, away. She would have preferred putting him away for good, but ultimately, she would take what she could get. Every day Munro wasnt on the street was another day someone else potentially avoided becoming addicted.

Greer was well aware that every victory counted, no matter how small.

The sound of a door sighing closed registered and she glanced toward the back of the courtroom, just in time to see the chief of detectives, Brian Cavanaugh, make his way down the far aisle and slip into one of the near-empty middle rows.

What was up?

Greer couldnt help wondering if the well-respected chief was here because of the case in general, or because his daughter, Janelle Cavanaugh-Boone, was the assistant district attorney prosecuting this case.

Or if, by some remote chance, he was here to lend her his support. Brian Cavanaugh was, after all, her newfound uncle.

The thought would have

coaxed an ironic smile to her lips if the overall situation hadnt been so grave. And if she wasnt currently on the stand, testifying and being relentlessly grilled by Munros defense attorney, Hayden Wells, an oily little man who, despite his posturing, was not all that good at his job.

The latter discoverythat Brian Cavanaugh was her uncle, that she, Kyle and Ethan were actually related to the numerous Cavanaughs who populated the police forcestill boggled her mind a bit, as she was fairly certain it did her brothers. Triplets, they tended to feel more or less the same about the bigger issues that affected their lives and learning that they had been lied to by their mother all their lives was about as big an issue as there was.

It was only on their mothers deathbed that the twenty-six-year-old triplets learned that the man they had believed was their late father, a war hero killed on foreign shores nobly defending freedom, never even existed. He had been created by Jane OBrien in order to make her children feel wanted and normal. In truth, they were conceived during a brief liaison between Mike Cavanaugh, the sullen black sheep of an otherwise highly respected family, and their mother, a woman who had fallen hopelessly in love with the brooding policeman.

Angry, hurt, bewildered, the day after the funeral Kyle had marched up to Andrew Cavanaugh, the former chief of police and family patriarch, and dropped the bombshell that there were three more Cavanaughs than initially accounted for on the mans doorstep.

Rather than rejection and scorn, which was what she knew Kyle was expecting, she and her brothers had found acceptance. Not wholesale, at least, not at first, but rather swiftly down the line, all things considered.

Taken in by the family, that left Greer and her brothers to work out their own feelings regarding the tsunamic shift that their lives had suddenly experienced. To some extent, they were still wrestling. But at least the angst was gone.

Pacing before the witness stand as he addressed her, Munros defense attorney paused. The slight involuntary twitch of his lips indicated that he wasnt satisfied with the way his round of questioning was going. At the outset, it seemed as if he was winning, but now that conclusion was no longer cast in stone. The balding attorneys voice rose as his confidence decreased.

The momentary lull allowed Greer to shift her eyes to the side row again. She was surprised to make eye contact with the chief of detectives. And even more surprised to see the smile of approval that rose to his lips.

He mouthed, Good job, and at first, she assumed that Brian had intended the commendation for his daughters efforts. But Janelle had her back to the rear of the courtroomand her father.

The approval was intended for her.

Greer realized that a smile was slowly spreading across her own lips. Shed always told herself that, like her brothers, she was her own person and that approval didnt matter.

But it did.

She could feel the warmth that approval created spreading through her, taking hold. Ever so slightly, she nodded her head in acknowledgment of her superior. Of her uncle.

The next moment, she heard the judges gavel come down on her right. Her attention returned to the immediate proceedings.

Alert, Greer waited to hear what the judge had to say, trying not to dwell on the fact that she was sitting far closer than was comfortable to Judge Blake Kincannon.

It wasnt that she had anything against Kincannonshe didnt. In her opinion, Auroras youngest judge on the bench was everything that a model judge was supposed to be. Fair, impartial, compassionatebut not a bleeding hearthe was the kind of judge who actually made her believe that maybe, just maybe, the system could actually work. At least some of the time.

Added to that, Blake Kincannon even looked like the picture of a model judge. Tall, imposing, with chiseled features, piercing blue eyes and hair blacker than the inside of a harden criminals heart, Kincannon was considered to be outstandingly handsome and quite a catch for those who were in the catching business.