|
 Welcome
to my website.
Yes, I
know that you’re here because you think this is Linda O. Johnston’s
website, and I’m just along for the cyber-ride. But just because both
she and I are both lawyers, and we adore Cavalier King Charles Spaniels,
and each happen to own a tricolor Cavalier named Lexie, doesn’t make us
twins.
No way.
So who
am I?
You
know, I’ve been asking myself that lately. But not too hard.
The
thing is, did you grow up knowing exactly what you wanted out of life?
I did.
Or at least I thought I did.
Okay, here is the lowdown: I’m Kendra
Ballantyne, age thirty-five, a lawyer. Happily single, since my taste
in men sucks--at least until lately. Maybe.
I’ve been practicing law for nearly ten
years, and I am--was--a civil litigator with one of the most prestigious
firms in Los Angeles: Marden, Sergement & Yurick. A damned good
litigator, one who won nearly all my cases. I love my life… or at least
I did, till shit started happening all around and--worst of all--to
me.
I grew up in L.A., led a boringly normal
childhood. I’m the daughter of two successful lawyers who split up as
soon as my brother Sean and I were both in undergraduate school and no
longer needed daily parenting. My dad is happily remarried and lives in
Chicago with his wife and my multiple half-siblings. My mom’s a happily
unmarried lawyer in D.C. These days Sean’s a motel mogul in Dallas.
And I followed my dream and became a lawyer.
Only those childhood dreams of mine
never suggested I’d get my license to practice law suspended.
Especially not for ethics violations. I mean, I’m not perfect. I’ve
brought home the occasional pen or pad from a hotel where I was staying,
though I draw the line at towels. I speed on the freeway and surface
streets and pray I don’t get caught--and have been known to charm
certain officers of the law when I do get pulled over. I sometimes park
longer than the posted times. You know, the normal stuff that people do
to test the system. But really unethical? No way.
Yeah, tell that to the California Bar
Association. They’re the ones who lifted my law license. And that
after a hearing in which I was permitted to present evidence in my
favor. I even hired my own lawyer to represent me. And lost… to the
very system of putting on a case in front of the triers of fact and law
that I believed in so wholeheartedly.
Not long ago, I bought an absolutely
gorgeous showpiece of a big home, on the San Fernando Valley side of the
Santa Monica Mountains. And did I ever have a view from there--lights
at night, greenery, buildings and smog during the day--perfecto! Of
course it came with a mortgage… and, fortunately, it also came with an
apartment over the detached garage. That’s where I live now with Lexie,
since I can no longer afford the life of luxury I led when my law
license remained intact. I’ve had to rent out the main house just to
support the mortgage.
Without living the life of a super
litigator--with its commensurate more-than-comfortable remuneration--I
needed an income. That’s when I turned to my good friend and owner of
the Doggy Indulgence Day Resort Darryl Nestler for advice--and then
turned myself into a pet-sitter.
And damned if I didn’t love it as much
as I’d adored being an attorney.
So that’s it, at least until my
pet-sitting clients started dropping dead just before I was scheduled to
drop in and take care of their animals. Dropping dead? Hell, they were
murdered.
Did I turn to my favorite pet-sitting
client--and more--Jeff Hubbard, a security consultant and private
investigator, for help? Kinda, but--
Why don’t you just read
SIT, STAY, SLAY
if you’re really interested in what happened? It’s a bit of an invasion
of my privacy, but this Linda O. Johnston’s damned good at that. In
fact, she’s written more books about me. I still don’t have my law
license back in
NOTHING
TO FEAR BUT FERRETS, but by
FINE FEATHERED DEATH
it’s finally been restored. Even so, I love pet-sitting, so I’ve kept it
up even as I started a new phase of practicing law. And soon
MEOW IS FOR
MURDER will tell about another aspect
of my life.
You know what? Each one of those darned books is a murder mystery. Yes,
you guessed it. I’ve become a murder magnet. And Linda O. Johnston
spills all.
Maybe one of these days I’ll write a
book about her…
Kendra
Ballantyne
To find out what's happening in Kendra's life, send an email to
KendraBallantyneMysteries@yahoo.com.
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