The Hearing

by James Mills

Overview

Gus Parham has just been nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. But when an old enemy digs into his past, Gus finds out he has a daughter who had been given up for adoption by his wife before they were married. On the eve of his confirmation, Gus is presented with a videotape of his daughter--and an unspeakable threat. Now he must struggle to preserve his integrity, his family, and his life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446607186
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/1999
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.74(d)

Read an Excerpt

The Hearing

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By James Mills

Warner Books

ISBN: 0-446-60718-5

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Chapter One

Gus Parham felt as if he'd been pushed off a cliff. The air pressure changed, and along with it his orientation, perspective, priorities. Everything hurtled by, robbing him of breath and reason. He'd be dead in an instant. "So what that means, Judge Parham, is she's alive. You want to meet her or not? If you want to meet her, there are certain conditions." "Where? Where is she?" "Certain conditions, Judge Parham."

"May I see it again?" "Certainly." So they watched the video again. How beautiful she was. Eleven years old, short black hair, slender, smiling, going somewhere and happy about it. He had never seen anyone walk like that. Head, shoulders, hips, legs-everything was in that walk, as if she were headed for a brick wall and knew, just knew, she could go right through it. Gus said, "What do you want?" "Withdraw." "But ... How will ..." Mumbling, babbling. He was still falling. "I can't hear you, Judge." "I'm sorry. I just-" The man punched the eject button and removed the cassette. Gus said, "I'll have to talk to my wife." "Show her this?" He held out the cassette. Gus took it. The man opened his attache-case and handed Gus a manila envelope. "This too." Gus took the envelope. The man said, "You've got three days. Close of business Monday, we have to know." "And if I say no?" "Alternatives. You won't like them." An hour later Gus sat with his wife in the kitchen of their rented house in Vienna, Virginia. It was smaller than the kitchen in their home in Montgomery. The walls were yellow and the table was round and small. They'd moved here three weeks ago when he'd been nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court. The confirmation hearing was scheduled to begin in a week. And now this. What would this do to Michelle? Their marriage was perfect, they had never stopped loving each other. She looked at him, worried. She could see it in his face. "Michelle ..." "Gus, what is it? You look like someone died." Alternatives. Television, newspapers, exposure, humiliation. He put the cassette on the table, reached across for both her hands, and said, "Michelle, I love you. I will always love you. No matter what." "What is it, Gus?" Her eyes fixed on the video. "What is that?" Thirteen years ago, before they were married, she had said she was ending the pregnancy. He had believed her, for all those years. She had let him believe the lie-to save his feelings, out of love for him and their marriage, but a lie nevertheless. He understood, he loved her for taking all the pain on herself, but how would she react? He wasn't sure. He stood. "Let's go in the living room." They sat on the sofa, still holding hands. Her face was dark, sensing trouble. "I'm afraid, Michelle, that when I say what I have to say there may not be a chance to tell you again how much I really love you." She was staring into his eyes, scared to death. "Tell me, Gus." He said, "Honey, I know you didn't end the pregnancy." Her fingers tightened around his hand, but her eyes did not leave his face. "Who ... How do you know?"

"I'll tell you in a minute. There's something else." Her eyes went to the video in his other hand. "What is it?" He got up, put the video in the VCR, and came back and sat next to her with the remote in his hand. She hugged herself and shivered. Gus said, "Are you all right?" "I don't feel well. I'm freezing." "Do you want me to get you something?" She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Let me see it." He pressed the button. She tilted her head forward, looking up, tentatively. The girl came on the screen, walking. Michelle didn't move. Her face didn't change. Short black hair, slender, smiling, determined. When the screen went blank and it was over, she said, "She's very pretty." Her face was frozen. Then she smiled, a thin, false smile he had never before seen on her face. She let out a small mirthless laugh. She laughed again. She put her head on her knees and laughed and laughed and laughed. There was more pain in the laughter than there would have been in sobs. Gus touched her arm. She jumped from the sofa and ran back into the kitchen. She cleared the dishes from the table, dumped them noisily into the sink, turned on the water, and began scrubbing blindly. He didn't know what to say, what to do. Her hands full of soap and plates, she put her head back, took a deep breath, and released an almost inaudible shriek of pain.

Gus grabbed her and she collapsed against him, gasping for breath, sobbing. He carried her to the bedroom, laid her on the bed. "Michelle, it's all right." She turned onto her stomach, buried her face in the blanket, and cried like a child. Gus dropped to his knees beside the bed, laid his arm across her shoulders, squeezed her, and pressed his cheek to her hair. Ten minutes later her breathing steadied. Thinking she had fallen asleep, Gus rose silently and went to a chair by the bed. Her face still buried in the blanket, she said, "Where is she?" "I don't know where she is." She turned to face him. "Who knows where she is?" "The attorney who gave me the video." "Who's he?" "Someone who doesn't want me confirmed, doesn't want me on the Court. He works with the Freedom Federation." "So if you don't withdraw they won't tell us where she is." "They'll do worse than that, Michelle."

(Continues...)

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Editorial Reviews

Few thriller writers handle the milieu better than Mills, who in his eighth novel (after 1995's Haywire) once again uses his skills as a journalist (evidenced in The Underground Empire and other nonfiction bestsellers) to bring complicated fictional scenes of crime, law and politics to instant and completely credible life. When Alabama Judge Gus Parham is nominated by the president--his old college friend--for an opening on the U.S. Supreme Court, his new prominence brings a lot of people out of the woodwork, including a 13-year-old daughter he never knew he had and a vengeful Colombian drug dealer who can orchestrate more damage from behind prison bars than most villains on the outside. Add to the mix Helen Bondell, a fascinating, complex woman who runs an alliance of public interest groups known as the Freedom Federation and who at first sees the nomination of Parham, a moderate Southerner, as a bad idea. Bondell wants to keep Gus off the Supreme Court in the worst way--until she realizes that her supposed allies are determined to do so in more ways than she can imagine. Helped by a supportive president with some resourceful aides, a tough DEA agent friend, and Samantha, the delightful and courageous daughter suddenly thrust into their lives, Gus and his wife, Michelle, resist all pressures to withdraw from the race and avoid a bloody Senate hearing. Ensuring that every detail of motivation and landscape rings true, and pacing his story with capable ease, Mills will keep readers captivated through this strong and smartly told story. (July)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

A witty morality tale about the depraved events that can influence a controversial Supreme Court nomination is, wonderfully, about character. How can we know who is right for any job in Washington when everyone has a skeleton in the closet? Sleazy criminal lawyer John Harrington, who had unsuccessfully defended repulsively fat Colombian druglord Ernesto Vicaro, warns Gus Parnham, the federal judge who sent Vicaro to prison, that if Parnham accepts a nomination to the Supreme Court, terrible things might happen to the daughter Parnham never knew he had. It seems that when Parnham was attending Harvard Law, Michelle, the girl he eventually married, became pregnant with his child. Without telling him, Michelle chose adoption instead of an abortion. As far-fetched as this sounds, veteran thriller writer Mills (Haywire, 1995, etc. ) makes it work by reminding us that sometimes love means believing only what you want toþand forgiving anything else. It takes Parnham's law enforcement buddy Carl Falco only a few days, ten thousand frequent flyer miles, and some comic viciousness to find the girl's nasty stepmother Doreen in Wisconsin and then to locate her kinder, gentler stepfather Larry Young, a cocktail pianist at a swank Saint-Tropez nightclub. Gus and Michelle successfully manage a teary reunion in France with biological daughter Samantha. Come what may, Gus accepts the nomination. Meanwhile, Harrington, aided by a murderous assassin supplied by Vicaro, the ruthless confirmation committee chairman Senator Eric Taeger (a live ringer for Bob Packwood), and the depraved "subviolent" spin doctors of the Freedom Federation, an utterly immoral "social activist" lobbying group, go afterParnham and company in public and in private. The story suffers credibility when an assassin's bomb almost blows up the Parnhams, but Samanthaþs testimony to defend her father brings it to a rousing climax. That innocence ultimately triumphs over guile is, perhaps, the only unbelievable element in this cooly constructed, smartly plotted Washington-insider novel.

Kirkus Reviews