Page 112 of The Bitterroot Inn (Jamison Valley 5)
“Okay.” Judge Tubor looked to Stuart. “Mr. Redhill. You may proceed with your witness statements.”
“Before we jump into witness statements, Your Honor, I’d like to bring something else to your attention.”
What? What else was there besides our witnesses? When were we going to run out of goddamn surprises? I opened my mouth but clamped it shut when Stuart shot me a quelling look.
He pulled a small stack of papers out from underneath his legal pad and stood, taking them to the judge. “Your Honor, my client and I are very concerned about Ms. Carlson’s history of harassment.”
Harassment? What was he talking about?
“In the last few months, Ms. Carlson has made an extreme number of calls to Ms. Holt. As you can see in those records that Sheriff Cleary received last night, the number registered to Ms. Carlson has called Ms. Holt’s number at least once a day for a period of nearly two months. She asked Ms. Holt about her son’s death, to which Maisy did not respond.”
My head was spinning again. Eleanor, not a reporter, had been calling me all spring? Eleanor averted her guilty eyes from her red-faced attorney.
“As she’s demonstrated today,” Stuart continued talking to the judge, “Ms. Carlson has little reverence for Ms. Holt. These obsessive phone calls are nothing but harassment. We believe that Ms. Carlson is seeking these extended, unsupervised periods with Coby to alienate him from his mother.”
The judge frowned as he kept inspecting the phone records. When he set them down, he leaned his elbows on his desk.
“Ms. Holt, would you be opposed to allowing Ms. Carlson supervised visits with Coby once a month?”
I shook my head. “No, Your Honor.”
“Very well. Ms. Carlson, I am denying your request for split custody. I will award you one weekend visit per month with Coby. Location, supervision and duration of those visits will be determined by Ms. Holt. Any questions?”
Eleanor started to speak but her attorney held out a hand. “No questions.”
“Mr. Redhill?”
“No,” Stuart said. “Thank you, Your Honor.”
“Then this matter is closed and adjourned.” He rapped his gavel on its block and stood, looking down at the stenographer. “Ended early. Let’s hope the rest of the day stays on schedule too.” Then he hastened back to his chamber.
The second his door closed, Eleanor, followed by her attorney, stood from their table and stormed toward the door. She yanked it open but paused to sneer at Hunter. “Your father would be ashamed of you for betraying me.”
“Good-bye, Nell” was his only response.
She left the courtroom, and if my lucky streak continued, she’d be gone from Montana before dark.
Stuart breathed a sigh of relief as the door swung shut. “Battle won.”
As I stood from my seat, a wall of large bodies formed in the row behind us. Dad, Beau, Michael and Jess were all standing shoulder to shoulder. I couldn’t see their faces with their backs to me, but I knew they weren’t smiling.
And past them was Hunter. He was looking right through them to me.
Stuart had been right. We’d won one battle.
But there was about to be another.
“Give him a chance to explain.” Stuart leaned over to whisper.
My jaw ticked in response as I picked up my purse and slung it over my shoulder. “How long have you known about the calls?”
Stuart held up his hands. “I just learned it was a possibility on Saturday. Hunter had a hunch that they were from Eleanor so he had me pull the records. We didn’t know for sure until late last night. You were so freaked this morning, I made a judgment call not to tell you. I didn’t need you trying to claw Eleanor’s eyes out in front of the judge.”
My head fell. “That was probably a good call.”
Annoyed as I was with the secrets, I couldn’t be upset with the outcome of the case. Eleanor had been likely to get some time with Coby no matter what, but at least now that time was under my control.
“Please let me know if there is anything else I need to do to wrap this up,” I told Stuart.
