Thriller Box Set One: The Subway-The Debt-Catastrophic

by Dustin Stevens

  Shane preferred to say they were pricks, occasionally bastards, once in a great while assholes.

  It didn’t bode well for this guy already.

  “Like I said, all the moving parts are still being parsed out. On the med-mal portion we’re looking at a company called SynTronic out of New Jersey. Big place with a lot of money, experts on staff, and no doubt a top flight legal team.

  “On the contract portion, we’re looking at none other than Ohio Tech University.”

  The last statement was meant to be a grenade, and it landed with exact precision. Within seconds the air seemed to suck out of the room, many faces averting their gaze to avoid eye contact. One young woman even went as far as to push a low shrill whistle out between her teeth.

  Shane scanned the faces once more. “I’m fully aware that this might be more than some of you bargained for, and believe me, I understand. For that reason, we’ll now take a quick five minute break. Anybody that wants to leave may do so, no questions asked, no hard feelings.

  “Thank you all for coming.”

  With that, Shane shifted his focus to his briefcase, removing a legal pad, a pen, and over two inches of research he’d already printed out. Around him he could hear chairs sliding and people moving about, but he made a concerted effort not look up.

  Despite appearing immersed in the papers before him, Shane did little more than count off seconds in his head as the time ticked by. At the conclusion of five minutes he raised his gaze to assess who would be in the trenches with him for the next several months, helping him navigate what could well be a landmark case.

  His hope was to pull as much as twenty percent from the crowd that had gathered, enough to have a half dozen gophers running after everything he needed.

  What he got were two people, both looking terrified.

  The deserted room, just a moment before filled, jarred Shane and for a moment he stared, his lips parting in an involuntary expression of surprise. Both stared back at him before lowering their gaze, one fidgeting in place while the other looked down at a blank legal pad.

  Shane blinked hard twice, drew in a deep breath and moved to shut the heavy oak door. “Alright, if you would both please come down here to the end of the table, we’ll get started.”

  This was his first time leading a legal team of any kind before, but he’d seen Hartman do it enough over the preceding six months to know how and how not to interact with people. Besides, one of the few upsides to working with first years was it would be a lot like his teaching experience the year before.

  Shane returned to his chair as the two of them rose and slid their belongings to the end of the table. He waited for them to get seated before turning over his shoulder to say, “Professor Prescott, I can’t thank you enough for your help and I realize I have already taken up a great deal of your time. If it’s alright we work in here, I won’t bother you any longer.”

  Prescott stirred his tea once more, tapped the spoon against the rim of the cup and placed it on the table behind him. “If you don’t mind, I would like to stick around. You said you are in need of help and I intend to give it.”

  Shane’s mouth fell open, his second round of shock in as many minutes.

  “Do bear in mind,” Prescott cautioned, “I am an academic and have been for many years, I’m not even bar certified in Ohio. I won’t be of much aid in the courtroom, but anything else please do not hesitate to ask.”

  “Thank you very much,” Shane said and stood up from his chair, extending a hand towards it. “Please.”

  “Nonsense,” Prescott said, taking back up his tea. “Like I said before, this is your room Counselor.”

  Shane lowered himself back into the seat and regarded the two new recruits in front of him. “As I said before, my name is Shane Laszlo, undergrad and JD both from OTU. I’ve spent my time since working for Webster, Banks & Cohen in Boston.” He left the year of his graduation and the length of his tenure with the firm both vague on purpose. “And you are?”

  They both sat in silence a moment as Shane kept his head pointed forward, his gaze flicking from one to the other. The young man to his right spoke first, nodding his head to each person in the room.

  “Heath Wilson, grew up on a farm in southern Ohio. Studied mechanical engineering in undergraduate here, ended up in law school after all the fuss over genetically modified products almost bankrupted the farming industry.”

  Shane nodded his head and studied Heath for a moment. He was of average size with close cropped hair and a skin tone that made him look very tan. His voice held a bit of both a drawl and a reserved nature.

  “Welcome,” Shane said, shifting his attention to a young lady to his left. She was several inches shorter than Shane and had a slight build, her sandy brown hair rail straight. It fell just past her shoulders and framed simple features, free from any sort of cosmetic enhancement.

  “Hi,” she said with a partial smile, “Abby Hill, from Coshocton. I graduated from Kent State last year with a degree in early childhood education and decided to come here after my grandfather passed. He was a longtime lawyer in our community.”

  Shane waited a moment to see if she would continue, but just as fast she retreated back into silence.

  As far as first impressions go, Shane was at least glad he wouldn’t have any gunners to deal with. On the flip side, it appeared that he would be doing all the talking in every meeting they ever had, internal or external.

  Shane nodded. “Thank you both for being here, and for having the courage to stick around. I know this is all very last second and a pretty daunting task, so I appreciate the help.

  “First and foremost, I was being a little dramatic earlier. We have no intention of going after Ohio Tech for contract fraud. Given the circumstances, it wouldn’t be a very good use of our time or limited resources.

  “I only said that because I didn’t have the time to conduct a formal interview process for over two dozen people. Instead, I thinned the crowd by dropping one little hint of adversity and seeing who ran away.”

  He paused, cracking a half smile. “Wasn’t expecting it to work quite that well, but here we are.”

  Heath kept his gaze locked on Shane, while Abby offered a half smile in response.

  “Make no mistake though, I wasn’t kidding when I mentioned SynTronic and their endless resources. There’s a chance this could get quite ugly before it’s all over.”

  Shane glanced back at Prescott, who nodded. He was off to a good start.

  “Alright, let’s get started,” Shane said, clapping his hands in front of him and rising. Heath and Abby both sat back in surprise as he stood and walked to a bank of controls on the wall, turning on the overhead projector. A blue square appeared on command from it, illuminating the far wall across from them.

  Shane returned to the table and pulled his laptop from his bag, booting it to life and running a long cord from it into a wall jack below the bank of switches he was just using. His computer desktop sprang up on the wall, the three others watching in surprise as Shane connected to the internet and opened a video chat program.

  Less than a minute later, the face of Tyler Bentley filled the wall.

  The image caused Shane to take pause for just a moment. It had been not quite a year since he’d last seen him in person, significantly less since he’d seen him on television, but already he looked like a different person. His eyes were sunken back into his face, his cheeks hollow. A few days of growth was spread across his jawline.

  Shane blinked himself back into the moment and turned to the others in the room. “Lo-tech video conferencing,” he said with a smile, dimming the lights so Tyler’s face was more visible.

  “Can you hear me alright?” Shane asked, raising his voice just a bit for effect.

  “Sure can,” Tyler responded, a thumb-up appearing in the corner of the screen below it.

  “Tyler, I am here with Professor Prescott from the law school and Heath Wilson and Abby Hill, both students here.
I apologize that you can’t see us but my web cam is still in a box somewhere. I promise you’ll have video before next time.

  “Everyone, meet Tyler Bentley.”

  Tyler waved a hand in front of the screen. “That’s alright, I’m just sorry you all have to look at me right now. My mother always said I have a face for radio.”

  Everyone at the table chuckled.

  “No, but seriously, I appreciate you doing this and I’m glad to know all of you.”

  “Okay,” Shane said, “we’re all here, legal pads out and ready, recorder on the laptop running. I know you’ve already gone through this once in the last few days for me, but would you mind doing it again?”

  “From the top?” Tyler asked.

  Shane paused and considered the question. “Tell you what, why don’t you cut to the punch line here at first, then go back and start at the beginning. Might as well get the shock factor out of the way and let everybody know what they’re working with.”

  Tyler nodded his head and pushed himself back from the computer. As he did, his voice grew further away, the sound of movement masking some of his words.

  “I don’t know if any of you folks are football fans, but up until recently I played for Tech. I don’t know how true it is, but I’ve been told I was pretty good.”

  Heath snorted and whispered, “You could say that.”

  Shane nodded and watched as Tyler rose from his wheelchair and pulled back the leg of his gym shorts to reveal the stump of his left leg. The skin of his thigh was pale white, ending in a twist of scar tissue several inches above the knee.

  “Of course, that was before the Centennial Bowl. Since then, with more than a little help from the folks at OTU Hospital, this is what I’ve been working with.”

  Tyler remained balanced on one leg, wagging the stub at the camera so everybody got a good look at it. Shane was past the point of being surprised, but he could tell his two new cohorts weren’t there yet. To his right, Heath stared at his legal pad, glancing up every few seconds as if seeing something he shouldn’t be. Across from him, Abby sat in muted silence, her face so pale it was almost translucent.

  Behind them Prescott took in a sharp breath of air, but said nothing.

  Once everybody had gotten a good look, Tyler lowered himself back into the wheelchair. Shane reached out, muted the microphone on the computer and asked, “Does anybody have anywhere they need to be today?”

  Heath and Abby both shook their heads from side to side.

  Shane turned the volume back on as Tyler repositioned himself in front of the camera. “Alright, now start at the beginning. Everything you say here is confidential, so take all the time you need and spare no details.”

  It took almost two solid hours for Tyler to relay back everything that happened, starting with the hit on New Year’s Eve and ending with his conversation with Coach Valentine a couple days before. On a few occasions Shane or Prescott interjected clarifying questions, but for the most part everyone listened in silence, taking notes.

  Despite already having a complete copy, Shane again transcribed every word that was said. If there was additional information the second time through, he wanted to be sure to have it. If there was any discrepancy between the stories, he needed to be sure to clarify that as well.

  Several times throughout the call Tyler’s voice broke and once he even had to look away for a moment, but he managed to hold himself together. When he was done, he looked exhausted, dotted with perspiration.

  Shane thanked him for his time and told him they had more than enough to begin with before letting him go.

  Just after noon, Prescott excused himself to prepare for a class. Heath and Abby broke for lunch before returning to find Shane in the law library, the results of his weekend efforts spread across the table. They both settled in across from him in silence, waiting as he typed on his laptop.

  “So here’s the plan, for the time being,” Shane said, never taking his gaze from the screen. “Keep track of every hour you spend working on this case. You don’t have to be as scrupulous as writing down every minute you’re even thinking on it, that can wait until you start firm life in a couple of years, but keep as accurate a running count as possible.

  “You’ll be paid $20 an hour and I’d prefer to keep it under-the-table if that’s alright. Save you both a lot in taxes and me a ton in paperwork.”

  He paused and flicked his gaze to each of them, both nodding in response.

  “Good. Heath, you have an engineering background, so I’d like you to start digging on the KnightRunner and other similar implements. Composite makeup, manufacturing design, whatever you think we can use. I’m more concerned with content than aesthetics here, so package it anyway you feel best conveys the information. Don’t worry about drafting a memo, none of that IRAC stuff, you got me?”

  For the first time, Heath smiled. “Got it.”

  Shane slid a piece of paper across the table with a name and pass code scribbled onto it to Abby.

  “This is the LexusNexus login for my former law firm. Trust me, they hand this thing out like Halloween candy, so it’s not a big deal.

  “Start with SynTronic. Pull everything you can find on them. Cases they were a plaintiff or a defendant in, cases where they acted as an expert witness, cases where they settled out of court, cases where they got their milk money stolen from them on the playground. I don’t care, if it had their name on it, print it out.”

  Shane continued pecking away on the computer in front of him, his fingers flying across the keyboard in a vain attempt to keep up with his mind. “Right now I am drafting our initial complaint, listing Tyler as the plaintiff and SynTronic as the defendant. I know it’s a little bit premature, but the idea is to get us on the court docket and get the clock moving. The faster we can strike on this the better.”

  Without waiting for a response, he slid a pair of business cards across the table to them. “About the only things that are still valid on these are my name and phone number, but that’s all you’ll need for now. Anything comes up, day or night, don’t hesitate to call.”

  They both nodded in understanding and rose to go, pausing to make sure they were being released.

  “Oh, one more thing,” Shane said, drawing them both back to the table. “Thank you both in advance for doing this. If at any point this summer things are moving too fast, I’m not making any sense, or if I just flat become a dick, please tell me. This is my first time handling something this enormous, so I can pretty much promise in advance there are going to be sticky moments.”

  Abby smiled, her teeth somehow even whiter than her complexion. Beside her, Heath did the same before both departed.

  Shane didn’t see either one of them for the next four hours. In fact, he didn’t see much of anything. His focus was locked in on the screen before him, his fingers drafting and redrafting the complaint that could well direct how the next few months, and the rest of Tyler’s life, played out.

  At fifteen minutes past four he made the last revisions and printed it out, returning from the printer to find Abby sitting across the table from his laptop. She offered a half smile as he approached, a stack of research in front of her.

  Shane dropped the pleading down on the table and slid into his chair. She pulled the document over and thumbed through it, scanning the pages.

  “Is this the complaint?” she asked.

  “We can amend it later if we need to,” Shane said, “but for the time being that’s what we’re going with.”

  Abby read through a few sections of it, more than once casting a glance up to Shane as she went. Whether or not that was out of respect to or in question of his work, Shane wasn’t sure. When she was done, she closed it up and pushed it back over to him.

  “Looks good.”

  Shane checked the clock hanging above the library reference desk and said, “I now have forty-three minutes to get that over to the clerk’s office and filed.”

  “Where’s that at?”

/>   “Just down the street, shouldn’t be a big deal.”

  “Ah,” Abby said, nodding. “I just stopped by to let you know I was going to get out of here. I have a few things to do this afternoon but I’ll start in on this pile later tonight.”

  Shane smiled and waved a hand at her. “Abby, this is a job, not indentured servitude. You don’t have to check in with me. Just so long as everything gets done, we’re good.”

  Abby nodded and began to rise, but lowered herself back into her seat. She cast a glance in either direction and chewed on her bottom lip, clearly wanting to ask something.

  Shane beat her to it.

  “You found the case.”

  Abby exhaled, relief on her face. “How did you...?”

  “It was to be expected.”

  “And was it...?”

  “Yes.”

  There was just enough finality in Shane’s voice to let her know he wasn’t angry, but he wasn’t open to discussing the topic further. She sat for another minute before bobbing her head and rising. “Well, see you tomorrow.”

  “See you tomorrow,” Shane said, giving a half wave as he leaned back in his chair and watched her depart. Once she was gone he packed up his things and took them out to his car before walking the complaint down to the courthouse and filing it.

  On the walk back he let the warm late day sun splash across his face, walking slowly as afternoon traffic trudged by on the freeway just a few blocks away. For a moment he considered joining the throngs of people eager to get home, but decided there was nothing waiting for him at the Comfort Inn that necessitated rushing back to.

  The thought of returning to the library and continuing to work also entered his mind, but he opted against that as well. Now that the complaint was filed, Syntronic had two weeks to respond, another few weeks beyond that for discovery, assuming the court pushed the case through fast. Otherwise, the entire process could lag on for months.

  That last thought stuck with Shane for a moment. There was only one thing for him to do.

  It was time to call Christine.

  Chapter Twenty-One