He frowned. “A message? Isn’t she here tonight?”
“I believe so.”
“Then why not tell me herself?”
“I don’t know. I’m just the intern. She said it was important.”
“All right, let’s hear it, then.”
She took a breath, knowing that she was about to cross a line. But she had to do it, for her family.
“The judge asked me to convey that people in high places are interested in your work on the Fiamma case. And that’s making some other people very nervous.”
He went white, his mouth falling open.
God, this was worse than she imagined. Without knowing the specifics, Madison had recognized the message as a warning of some kind. Seeing Kessler this terrified, she realized—he was a co-conspirator. And she’d just tipped him off that he was under investigation.
That was obstruction of justice.
Madison had just committed a crime. And there was no turning back.
“Who’s concerned?” Kessler said.
“I don’t know. I was tasked with delivering that message in those exact words and wasn’t told anything beyond that.”
“A word to the wise, Madeline. Forget this conversation ever happened. Never mention it to anyone, or you could be in real trouble. Understand?”
Shit. He’d just proved her theory right.
“Yes, sir.”
“If I hear you talked about this, you’ll regret it. And that’s a promise.”
Kessler walked away, leaving her standing conspicuously alone. Hearing his angry tone, a couple of people in the immediate vicinity had turned to look. Bixby lawyers, presumably. God, let them forget her face by next summer, when she’d have to work with them. If she wasn’t locked up by then.
Cheeks blazing, she was slinking away when she heard her name. Chloe swanned toward her, trailing Ty in her wake. In evening clothes, champagne in hand, they were a glamorous pair. But the sight of them after what just happened made her want to run.
“What was that about?” Chloe said, looking shocked. “My dad seemed angry.”
“I don’t know. It was odd, actually. I mentioned I was interning for Judge Conroy, and—”
“Oh, that explains it. There’s bad blood between those two.”
“Why? Did something happen between them?”
Chloe looked over at the Bixby tables, realized that she was surrounded by lawyers from her dad’s firm, then turned back to Madison with a guarded look in her eye.
“I’m surprised to see you here,” she said.
Maybe that was her way of avoiding an awkward question, but it came off as condescending. Madison wasn’t having it, not after Chloe’s father, who turned out to be a criminal himself, had just threatened her.
“You’re here. Why not me? Am I not worthy?”
Chloe flushed. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just wondered where you got your ticket.”
“Where did you get yours? Oh, wait, your dad sponsored tables.”
As Ty took Chloe’s arm, his eyes lingered on Madison in the black jumpsuit.
“We should find our seats. Enjoy the party.”
She could hear them bickering as they walked away.
The encounter with Kessler spooked her enough that she wanted to go hide in the bathroom. But she wasn’t done with her espionage. She had to find the second target before cocktail hour ended and the guests repaired to their assigned tables. The judge had been clear that she would only sign the order releasing Danny if Madison succeeded at both tasks.
Pulling out her phone, she glanced surreptitiously at the photograph the judge had provided of Andrew Martin. The young prosecutor was in his thirties, clean-cut, with dark hair and a square jaw. Trouble was, at a party full of lawyers, dozens of men fit that description. She grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter and began a circuit of the room, trekking from one end to the other of the vast space. She spotted several lookalikes, but none of them was him.
The band took a break. A woman stepped up and tapped the microphone, eliciting ear-splitting feedback.
“Please take your assigned seats. Dinner service is about to begin.”
Time was running out. Because her assigned seat would normally have been next to the judge at a table full of people from the courthouse, she was supposed to leave the event before dinner was served. Otherwise, people would find out the judge gave her a ticket, which would look strange, since she was only an intern. That meant she had to find Martin in the next few minutes, or she would fail at her task, giving the judge an excuse not to fulfill her end of the bargain. She’d be exposed to criminal prosecution for warning Kessler and get nothing in return.