And that was the moment that Noelle really knew she had won the chess match. Check. Checkmate.
Now Napoleon Chotas sat at the long wooden lawyer’ s table thinking about the battle that was about to take place. Chotas would have much preferred that the trial be held in Ioannina rather than in Athens, but that was impossible, since by Greek law a trial could not take place in the district where the crime had been committed. Chotas had not the slightest doubt about the guilt of Noelle Page, but that was unimportant to him, for like all criminal lawyers he felt that the guilt or innocence of a client was immaterial. Everyone was entitled to a fair trial.
The trial that was about to begin, however, was something different. For the first time in his professional life Napoleon Chotas had allowed himself to become emotionally involved with a client: He was in love with Noelle Page. He had gone to see her at Constantin Demiris’ request and though Chotas had been familiar with the public image of Noelle Page, he had been totally unprepared for the reality. She had received him as though he were a guest paying a social call. Noelle had showed neither nervousness nor fear, and at first Chotas had attributed it to her lack of understanding of the desperateness of her situation. The opposite had proved to be true. Noelle was the most intelligent and fascinating woman he had ever encountered and certainly the most beautiful. Chotas, though his appearance belied it, was a connoisseur of women, and he recognized the special qualities that Noelle possessed. It was a joy for Chotas merely to sit and talk with her. They discussed law and art and crime and history, and she was a constant amazement to him. He could fully appreciate Noelle’ s liaison with a man like Constantin Demiris. but her involvement with Larry Douglas puzzled him. He felt that she was far above Douglas, and yet Chotas supposed that there was some unexplainable chemistry that made people fall in love with the most unlikely partners. Brilliant scientists married empty-headed blondes, great writers married stupid actresses, intelligent statesmen married trollops.
Chotas remembered the meeting with Demiris. They had known each other socially over the years, but Chotas’ law firm had never done any work for him. Demiris had asked Chotas to his home at Varkiza. Demiris had plunged into the conversation without preamble.“ As you may know,” he had said,“ I have a deep interest in this trial. Miss Page is the only woman in my life I have ever truly loved.” The two men had talked for six hours, discussing every aspect of the case, every possible strategy. It was decided that Noelle’ s plea would be Not Guilty. When Chotas rose to leave, a deal had been agreed upon. For undertaking Noelle’ s defense Napoleon Chotas would be given double his usual fee, and his firm would become the major legal counsel to Constantin Demiris’ far-flung empire, a plum worth untold millions.
“ I don’ t care how you do it,” Demiris had concluded, fiercely.“ Just see to it that nothing goes wrong.”
Chotas had accepted the bargain. And then, ironically, he had fallen in love with Noelle Page. Chotas had remained a bachelor, though he kept a string of mistresses, and now when he had found the one woman he wanted to marry, she was out of his reach. He