The Bed You Make
Chapter 12
~ The Best Laid Plans ~
He had finally figured out what was different about his life these days. He was excited. Genuinely excited about something. He hadn't felt that way since…well, since his thirty-eighth wedding anniversary. That was the last one he'd spent with his wife before she died.
The job still occupied his days. But he no longer felt the highs and lows that accompanied successful convictions and heartbreaking dismissals. In his younger days, every failed trial would leave him bitter and regretful. He still had the remnants of several ulcers to prove it. Too many years of seeing too many things had left him jaded and cynical. The loss of his wife had left him numb.
District Attorney Michael Schultz glanced around at the walls of his office. Plaques and framed certificates of citation covered nearly every available inch of wall space. They were his reminder of a job well done. They'd be the last things he removed from the office when he said his goodbyes to the job.
Schultz's gaze sought out a framed photograph of his current staff. To a man they were as fine a group of attorneys as the District Attorney ever had the privilege to work beside. Dara Jensen stood front and center of the staff, just as she did the photo. She had joined the D.A.'s office young and idealistic. To her credit, Dara had not lost her passion for justice.
Dara's love for her job was the reason D.A. Schultz had such difficulty accepting her sudden – and abrupt – resignation. He'd discussed the situation with Police Commissioner Mac Scorpio. The additional facts Mac provided only muddied the picture further. Dara's views on the Cassadine family's manipulation of the legal system were well known among her fellow attorneys in the office. The mere mention of Stefan Cassadine or Alexis Davis elicited a small moue of disdain from Dara that Schultz was certain she did not even realize she made. And yet Dara had chosen to become a Cassadine.
District Attorney Schultz thought about his earlier conversation with Mac. Like the Commissioner, Schultz was hoping Dara would provide some answers that made sense of her current circumstances. Unlike the Commissioner, however, Schultz knew that whatever Dara's answers might be, they would not make a bit of difference to the proposition he intended to pose to her.
