The trial was only three weeks away when Martha got an unofficial call in her office from the assistant district attorney.
“We think he’s going to plead,” he told Martha. She wondered if Bob had finally convinced him. Or maybe Dan was finally listening to his lawyer. Martha wanted to draw up papers at the same time, to settle the civil suit she was bringing against him, for damages for all three of his victims.
Bob was depressed after he saw Dan in jail. Dan wanted to sell his half of the agency to Bob, and Bob wanted to buy him out, but he was also settling accounts with Martha. Dan’s wife, Rita, was divorcing him, and trying to get every penny out of him she could. Dan was going to prison a poor man.
Martha surprised Bob in the end by being more reasonable about the divorce than he’d expected. They weren’t touching each other’s businesses, which were equally lucrative. He was giving her the house in Greenwich, and she wanted roughly half of his investments. She wasn’t leaving the marriage empty-handed, but at least she hadn’t touched the agency. And Bob made an agreement with Dan to pay him for his share of the partnership over time, although Rita was going to get half that money from Dan in their divorce. “What’s the point of working our asses off for thirty years, in order to give it all to the bitches we married?” Dan said to Bob when he saw him. His attitude toward women hadn’t improved. But at least when he left jail and went to prison, he’d have more space to move around in, more comfortable quarters than he did in a jail cell with a roommate. He was getting no special treatment whatsoever in jail.
Five days before the trial, he finally pled guilty to all the charges. The district attorney’s office wouldn’t make a deal with him to reduce the charges. The judge was going to sentence him. Steve was in heated negotiation with his attorney over the civil suit for Jane, Julia, and Francine’s benefit. The civil suit allowed them to negotiate a financial settlement. Steve wanted to get them the best deal he could. Dan had to disclose his full financial statement, and Steve was basing his demands on that. Steve wanted his clients to at least have financial compensation for their pain.
There was a formal court appearance to change his plea, and Steve asked all three women if they wanted to attend. Francine was hesitant and didn’t really want to, but she decided to go in the end. Jane was adamant that she wanted to be there, and Julia decided to go with her, although the offenses against her were the least onerous. Francine’s was the worst case of all. But none of that testimony would be heard when he pled guilty.
They would all go back one last time for the sentencing, and then it would be over and he would be gone forever. Francine could hardly wait for that to happen.
All three of Dan’s victims went to the formal plea change. Hailey and Phillip went with them for support. Merriwether and Bob went too. Jane’s parents offered to fly in for it, but Jane said it wasn’t necessary and would be brief, so they didn’t come. She had grown up during her time in New York, and they were acknowledging it and treating her like an adult. Allie decided to go at the last minute, and David asked Jane if she’d like him to go with her. It was a piece of the agency’s history that predated him, but he’d had a nice evening with Jane at the ballet and dinner afterwards, and he was happy to offer his support, since there would be no graphic testimony to embarrass the three victims.
All of them were shocked at how old and broken Dan looked when he shuffled into the courtroom in a jumpsuit, leg irons, and handcuffs. He could hardly walk in the leg irons, and he looked at where they were sitting with hatred in his eyes. It tore Bob’s heart out to see him. He was a ruined man.
The three women were talking softly before the judge entered the courtroom, and Francine had been saying how much she loved her new job, and her kids were doing well. They had moved to an apartment in Chelsea a few weeks before, and were happy with their new home and fresh start. And so was she.
They talked about the changes in the office, and Jane introduced Francine to David, since he now had her old job. There was a sense of the agency continuing, despite all the terrible things that had happened and the people who had left. There was a continuity to it nonetheless.
“Merriwether and Bob?” Francine asked with a look of surprise, and Jane nodded with a smile.
“And Hailey and Phillip?” Francine smiled. Allie was alone without a partner in the courtroom, and Francine didn’t want to ask about Eric. She had heard that that was dead and buried. Allie looked as young as ever, but Francine noticed that she didn’t look happy. Her eyes were sad.
The judge arrived finally and mounted the bench. They all stood, and then were told they could sit down again.
The judge addressed the defense lawyer and said that he understood that the defendant wanted to change his plea, and the attorney said that was correct. As Francine listened, she could suddenly remember all those terrible nights when she arrived at the borrowed apartment on Central Park West and did whatever Dan wanted her to, and then she left, like a hooker who had done her job, and went home to her children feeling filthy. She used to scrub herself in the tub or the shower for half an hour on those nights and emerge red from the friction of whatever brush she used. She could never feel clean after she’d been there, and then she’d have to go back again to keep from losing her reputation and her job.
Dan stood and said guilty when the judge asked him how he pled to the charges. The judge pointed out that, in addition, Dan had been guilty of abuse of power, which made it all seem worse, and would increase his sentence. Then he told Dan and the attorneys that sentencing would be in thirty days, and from there he would go directly to prison.
Steve conferred briefly with Dan’s attorney as he was led away. Dan glared viciously at his victims and looked as though he would have liked to kill them, but fortunately that wasn’t possible. He was trussed up in chains. He could have been out on bail for all this time if he’d behaved, but he hadn’t. He had come back to try to bribe Jane and threaten to kill Francine if she talked, so he went back to jail. As Bob said, he was his own worst enemy.
There was a brief exchange of papers between Steve and Dan’s attorney, and then they all disbanded and went their separate ways.
With a guilty plea, Steve could conclude a settlement of the civil case, and it strengthened their position immeasurably. There was no debate now as to whether he was innocent or guilty. With the charges leveled by all three women, he was going to prison for a long time. None of Dan’s family was at the hearing, neither his wife nor his daughters.
On their way back to the office, Merriwether was thinking about how drastically their lives had changed in the time since Dan’s crimes had come to light. Francine and Hailey no longer worked at the agency, both had new jobs—Francine was delighted with hers, and Hailey had been given an extraordinary opportunity, with a man to go with it. She was working for one of their biggest and most successful clients now. Merriwether herself was involved with the boss, and they were both getting divorced. Jane was a full agent, and had stood for principle to the fullest degree in exposing Dan for what he was. She had been fearless about it. Allie had the same job, but had lost the man she loved. So some of them had been winners, and some losers, but most of them had benefited in some way from their jobs and their circumstances. The torture Francine had lived through had been stopped, thanks to Jane’s courage and her own willingness to speak up finally because Jane and Julia had.