“No. That’s what Cassidy is for,” I said with a smile. “Speaking of which, did you see all the pictures of the tigers? It looks like they’re giving her total access.”
“She’s decided she wants to be a vet now,” Brook shared.
“What happened to joining the Marines and being a personal trainer and security expert?” I asked.
“Don’t forget pilot,” Brook threw in to rub it in that I was the only one without my license.
“Yeah, all that.”
“She’s a modern-day woman. She can do it all. Just like you plan to do movies, play football and baseball, be a dad, college student, and my boyfriend.”
“When I was little, I wanted to be a Canadian Mountie. Or that’s what my mom tells me,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “I realized it might be boring, so I told her I wanted to put nitroglycerin in my pockets to liven it up.”
“Well, I was boring. I wanted to be a ballerina. That quickly ended when I tried to dance on my toes,” Brook shared.
“I know a place where we can get you that getup,” I said, remembering Teresa in her naughty maid’s outfit.
Brook wasn’t interested. Sometimes I wondered why I dated her if she didn’t want to fulfill all my depraved fantasies. Then she leaned over and kissed me. Oh, yeah. That was why.
◊◊◊
Chapter 15 – The Royal Palm Wednesday December 21
Mom and Dad were up very early to talk to me before I was off to do my interviews today. I had to get up at this ungodly hour because of LA traffic. Mom was making breakfast, and it smelled wonderful.
“What are you making?”
“Bacon and stuffed French toast.”
Not exactly on my diet, but I wasn’t about to turn it down. Dad handed me a coffee.
“I talked with Ms. Dixon yesterday. She updated me on several fronts. I’ll start with your civil suit,” he said as Mom put bacon in front of us.
You could tell we were related because we both took a moment to wolf down a couple of pieces before he continued.
“Zander’s lawyers want all the video from Zak’s house. Ms. Dixon said Jason told her it’s a play to get leverage. They think that you won’t want to turn it over because of everything else that’s on it. They’re making noise that they’ll subpoena the full tape for discovery. The implied threat is that Zak was taping people having sex without their knowledge, and that’s against the law,” Dad shared.
Frick! I didn’t want to get Zak in the middle of all this. Fritz had signs everywhere that stated that we had video surveillance; it was clearly displayed. Even then, I worried sometimes that people might not realize they were being videoed. Hell, the women that tried to entrap me by editing their video hadn’t figured it out. That was an issue we would need to check into at some point, especially when I was in college.
“Obviously, we can’t give it to them,” I said.
“Ms. Dixon has been in touch with Zak and explained his potential exposure. His lawyer has demanded that we hand over all the tapes we took from his house; they claim they’re his property,” Dad said.
“I get a bad feeling about doing that. If we knowingly hand Zak the videos back, and they destroy them … well … I don’t want to be the guy involved in a cover-up.”
“Good,” Mom said as she put stuffed French toast in front of Dad and me.
We called a mutual timeout so we could feast on what Mom had made. She’d stuffed the French toast with cream cheese, cinnamon, walnuts, and maple syrup, which gave it just a touch of sweetness. While I savored my breakfast, it gave me a moment to ponder the problem.
“Is there some kind of lawyer maneuver that can be made to protect Zak?” I asked.
“Like what?” Dad asked.
“I don’t know. You hear about everyone getting deals if they testify. What if Zak’s lawyers made some sort of deal with Zander’s people for access to the video? Something along the lines of them not being able to use any of the other stuff if it doesn’t pertain to the case. And that they won’t go to the cops on him based on what they see,” I suggested.
“I don’t even know if that would work in a civil case. Your granddad always told me that you only tell your lawyer what they need to know,” Dad said.
“Unlike your parents. You have to tell them everything,” Mom added.
Even Dad rolled his eyes at that. I nodded so that we didn’t get off track.
“So, it looks like Zander’s lawyers know what they’re doing. Jason never said this would be easy,” I said.
“Ms. Dixon didn’t seem too worried. She told me one option is to give them a copy of the tape for the full time Zander and the girls were in the room. We would make sure to leave everything else off that copy. That would force Zander’s people to file a motion with the court to compel production of the rest of the tape. At that point, Zak’s lawyers can intervene and oppose it, and that would turn it into a battle between Zander’s and Zak’s lawyers, with us getting out of the way.
