Chapter 13: Courtesy Call

I dressed in four minutes and went down with all three men behind me.

The officer stood at the gate with his hat in his hand.

Behind him a black SUV idled on the gravel, and a man in a gray suit leaned on its door with a briefcase.

"Ms. Prescott," the officer said. "I'm sorry to come out here on a Sunday. I have to take a complaint."

"From who?" I said.

"A gentleman named in the paperwork as Ms. Lyle's host. He says you assaulted her on Friday night."

"She threw wine and ash in my face first," I said. "Then I slapped her."

"I know," he said.

I stared at him.

"I've seen the video, ma'am," he said. "Everyone in the county has seen the video. The long one, with the sound."

Christian stepped up beside me.

"Officer, my attorney will be here by noon."

"I'm sure, sir. I only need to put on the form that I spoke to her."

"Then you've spoken to her," Christian said.

The officer wrote something down, and I could see he was fighting a smile.

The man in the gray suit pushed off the SUV and came over.

"I represent the gentleman," he said. "May I have a word with Ms. Prescott?"

"You may have it here," I said.

"My client is a reasonable man. He would like this to end quietly."

"I'm listening."

"He withdraws the complaint," the lawyer said. "You return his car, and you apologize to Ms. Lyle."

"In private?"

"On camera. We have a crew in the van."

I looked past him.

A second van sat at the end of the drive with a satellite dish folded on its roof.

Dorian laughed once, with no fun in it.

"They brought a film crew to a Hamptons gate on a Sunday morning," he said. "I respect the production value."

"The apology goes out today," the lawyer said. "Ms. Lyle has asked for it to be sincere."

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