Bluegrass State of Mind(22)

Kenna smiled and stood up. She extended her hand over the desk. "I say you have a new assistant,” and she took Mr. Burns’s hand in a firm shake.

"You can call me Tom. Here," he said as he shoved a pile of books across the desk. "These are some study guides for the bar exam I got from UK's law school. They have practice questions and so on to help you study. After you take the exam, but before you get the results, feel free to come to court as often as you want. I'll want you to see the procedure in action and how the courthouse functions."

"Thank you. I'll do that. You can call me McKenna, or just Kenna. You said I could open my own practice, but I don't know the real estate around here. Isn't it hard to get an office close to the courthouse?" Kenna was already thinking of the things she needed to do to go out on her own. It was scary, but at least she'd have some money coming in with the assistant D.A. job, though, compared to her old salary, it was peanuts. It was a good thing she had paid off all her loans while working and saved a nice nest egg for rainy days.

"There is a solo attorney who handles a lot of defense work who had put the word out a couple of months ago that he was looking for someone to share the space with. His name is Henry Rooney. He's not bad for a defense attorney," Tom winked.

"That sounds promising. Where is his office?"

"It's about two blocks up from the courthouse on the right. If you pass the feed store, you've gone too far."

"That sounds wonderful. I'll talk to him. I'm really looking forward to working with you, Tom."

"Just keep in touch and let me know how the bar went. I'm sure you'll have no problems. Besides, I'm pretty sure if I didn't hire you, the town wouldn't re-elect me. Do you know my own father called me and told me I was a moron if I didn't hire you? Not to count my nephew, the Rose sisters, all three of them, the Ashtons… William even threatened to have me blackballed at the country club! Then Pam Gilbert called and threatened to have the PTA vote

against me, too. I don't know how you met so many people in such a short time, but your friends play politics better than the mayor does. And he wanted his nephew to get the job. But, I must say, you're a damn good reason not to hire that loser," Tom said as he escorted her to the door.

Kenna was slightly stunned that all these people contacted Tom just to support someone they only knew for a couple of days. Kenna gave a nod and a smile to Tom, then turned to walk out of the office. A scruffy-looking man in what used to be a white undershirt

stood at the counter, arguing with Martha about taking out a warrant on someone for assault and battery stemming from a fistfight. She couldn't see any evidence of bruising, but his right hand was swollen and wrapped in an air cast.

"Don't you pull this crap on me, Dwayne. You know perfectly well that your brother didn't hit you. He took your punch, turned around, and left." Martha nodded toward Dwayne's hand, "and apparently you got hurt as a result. The only assault and battery charges you can file are against yourself. You want to just go ahead and do that, Dwayne?" Martha asked in all seriousness.

"You don't know he didn't hit me. It's my word against his. I say he hit me and I was just defending myself." Dwayne's lower lip stuck out in a nice pout. Kenna was sure any minute this man-child in a dirty undershirt and jorts would stomp his booted foot and go into a full tantrum. Kenna enjoyed watching Martha work too much to ask Dwayne to get out of the way for her to open the swinging door. So Kenna propped a shoulder against the wall and decided to enjoy the show. Maybe Martha wasn't that bad after all.

"Dwayne, bless your heart, but you are one stupid man. Do you think no one would see you storming up the church stairs, grabbing your brother, and pulling him out into the parking lot? We all saw and we all heard you threatening to cut off his balls if he didn't cover your mortgage payment. Pastor Jacob even followed you all out there and saw the whole thing. Now, Dwayne, do you really think a judge is going to believe you over Pastor Jacob when he testifies he saw you hit your brother? I don't think so, and all because your brother has put his foot down and isn’t allowing you to leech money off of him. Dwayne, sober up and get a job. Now get! Get out of my office before I call Red up here to arrest you for stupidity." Martha lowered her head back down to her computer and started typing. Dwayne shuffled his feet as his mouth opened and closed like a fish. He then turned and walked out the door, mumbling some very nasty phrases about Martha.

Kenna opened the door and gave Martha a little golf clap. "Very well done. It'll be a pleasure to work with you next month," Kenna said as she walked out the door. All she heard in response was a grunt and figured it was better than nothing. She smiled and headed to see a man about a law office.