Page 109 of The Right to Remain

If it was true that Elle had sold her baby to pay for gender-affirming treatment, Elliott was the most despicable client Jack had ever represented—and his list of former clients was a virtual “Despicables Hall of Fame.” Elliott’s response was scrawled across the transcript page in his handwriting:

LIE! I would never sell my baby for any reason, for any amount of money.

If you have to ask, you shouldn’t be my lawyer. Leave now or you’re fired.

It was the unequivocal denial Jack had hoped to hear from his client in person. Clearly, a face-to-face meeting was not going to happen, and Jack had no reason to believe that Elliott was bluffing about firing himif he didn’t leave. He tucked the paper into his suit pocket and headed to the exit.

Jack had one more post-deposition follow-up that couldn’t wait. All day long, Bonnie’s tech-savvy nephew had been sending him images recovered from cyberspace, which gave Jack a window into the “relationship” between Elliott’s mother and C. J. Vandermeer around the time of the adoption. CJ was on the prosecution’s witness list, so Jack had his home address. He drove to Miami Beach to confront him. A house servant cleared him at the gated entrance to the compound, and CJ met him at the front door. The smell of fresh paint overwhelmed Jack as he entered the foyer.

“My new girlfriend’s an artist,” CJ explained, as he escorted Jack inside.

Jack was expecting to find a living area that had been converted into an art studio, filled with wet cavasses. Instead, the living room walls and ceiling had become one big canvas, virtually every square inch covered with large purple circles and snakelike lines in a variety of colors. A young woman was on a ladder, a can of purple paint in one hand and a brush in the other.

“Naomi is supertalented,” said CJ. “You can see the influence of Jasper Johns in her work, right?”

The only Jasper Johns painting that Jack could conjure up was his famousTarget with Four Faces.

“Definitely,” said Jack, searching for a BS comment that sounded artsy. “Kind of amovingtarget.Withoutfaces.”

“Exactly,” said CJ, though it was clear that neither he nor Jack had any idea what Jack was talking about. He told his girlfriend to carry on and led Jack outside to the back patio. They sat at a glass-top table near the infinity pool.

“What did you want to speak to me about?” he asked.

Jack scrolled through his cell phone, selected an image that Bonnie’s nephew had sent him by email, and laid it on the table for CJ’s eyes. It was one of many showing Serena in hard-party mode with CJ andhis posse. In the center of the photograph was a glass tray with lines of cocaine or some other powdered substance plainly visible.

“I understand that you and Serena Carpenter did a lot of drugs together.”

CJ examined the photograph and smiled. “Fucking Snapchat and its ‘disappearing’ posts. I warn people all the time that these images never really go away. All somebody needs to do is take a screenshot before it vanishes and repost it.”

“This one is from six years ago. Some months before my client’s baby was born.”

CJ took another look. “Where it all began.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Mr. Swyteck. I know that Serena testified in a deposition today. I’m sure she said I was the one who introduced her daughter to the Pollards.”

Serena hadn’t been that specific, but Jack rolled with it. “It came up.”

CJ looked off toward the bay with the glittering Miami skyline in the distance. “What is the old saying? ‘No good deed goes unpunished’?”

“What was your good deed?”

“Serena was a lot of fun. I liked her. One night, she told me her daughter was knocked up and didn’t know what to do. I knew Owen and his wife were looking to adopt, so I did a nice thing and made the connection. Serena thanked me for my kindness by hitting us up for a quarter million dollars on the day the baby was born.”

“So, it’s true: You paid the money, not the Pollards.”

“Of course it’s true. I’m not a monster. How could I let Owen and his wife walk out of that hospital without a baby after I was the one who made the introduction? Serena played that one perfectly.”

The sliding glass door opened. The “artist” poked her head outside. “Do you think it’stoopurple?” she asked, a wet paintbrush in hand.

“It’s perfect,” said CJ. “Go for it.”

His approval made her smile. She retreated inside and closed the door.

“Oh, the things I do for an expert blow job,” he said with a deep sigh.

Perhaps it was further insight into the nature of his relationship with Serena Carpenter, but Jack changed the subject.