Hell, thought Ivan. I should have billed the lawyer’s family for his cremation.
The wake had started at dusk, and Ivan had been glad for the shadows. He liked doing his work in the dark. In another hour, family and friends would be leaving port to go and dump the lawyer’s ashes. They wouldn’t be going very far, and Ivan had scouted out a potential listening post over Carson’s Cove, but he didn’t think it would be worth his time going there.
He brought a night vision scope up to his eye and scanned the dance floor. There was a hot number shaking her stuff, and Ivan watched her in action. Her assuredness, and the way she took control of her partner and the dance floor around her somehow reminded him of his old history teacher, Miss Wagner. He wondered what Miss Wagner was doing these days. Ivan had heard she was no longer teaching. Everyone was always talking about how the lessons of a good teacher stayed with you for the rest of your life. Ivan was lucky to have been the recipient of some of those lifelong lessons.
Reluctantly, he turned the scope away from the dance floor and looked around the area. He had heard the sound of some small craft approaching him and thought it was just another boat docking in the harbor or some fisherman going out at night to try his luck. What he didn’t expect to see was a Zodiac coming his way. It had to have been moored to the Jean Louise, Ivan thought, or else it wouldn’t have been able to get on him so quickly.
As the Zodiac continued its approach, Ivan took the precaution of gathering his gear, which he stowed in his combination pack/bait box. He could leave behind the pole; Ivan had wiped it clean just minutes before. When the operator of the craft made his landing, there was no question that he had targeted him. As soon as Ivan saw the man’s silhouette, he knew his pursuer had to be that hot lawyer’s new bodyguard, the guy he thought of as Chief. No one else at the party was that big.
Instead of coming right at him, though, Chief was charging up the hill at a diagonal. The big man was a lot faster than Ivan would have expected, and his strategy had caught Ivan flat-footed. Because he’d delayed, there was actually a chance that Chief could beat him to the high ground.
Ivan adjusted by pushing off and upwards a few steps. His move forced Chief to go all in with his upward sprint. That’s when Ivan pivoted and headed for low ground. It was almost like a cartoon, with the two characters racing opposite ways.
The sandy soil leading up the bluff had challenged Chief’s big body. Getting footing was difficult, and as the ground had opened up beneath his feet his momentum had slowed. Ivan wasn’t having those problems going the opposite way. As he moved downwards he used his skateboarding skills, running and sliding until reaching more level ground. When he looked back he saw that Bennie had reversed his field and was coming down the hill after him. With every step, though, the man’s higher center of gravity was being challenged. For Ivan, it was like watching a tree fall over. Chief’s fall, and his momentum, caused him to tumble down the hill. Ivan took advantage of his adversary’s misfortune, running up the bluff as fast as he could. As he neared the top, Ivan paused to wave at his downed opponent.
It wasn’t the smartest move, he realized. The bear of a man roared and then came after him again. Luckily for Ivan, he was far enough ahead to reach the sidewalk before Chief could get his hands on him. Once there, he hurriedly pulled his skateboard from his pack and then rocketed off. He was hell on wheels, and within seconds was out of sight.
Bennie returned carrying a fishing pole. He made sure he wasn’t contaminating the evidence by using a glove he’d fashioned from a trash bag. Deke was waiting for him near the boarding ramp to the Jean Louise.
“Catch anything?” Desk asked.
“A pole,” said Bennie. “We’ll have it dusted to see if there are any prints.”
“Did you get a good look at him?” asked Deke.
“White kid,” said Bennie, “probably around eighteen. I’d put him at five and a half feet and no more than a buck forty. He’s got a military crew cut. And he’s damned fast.”
“Are you sure you haven’t lost a step since your gridiron days?” teased Deke.
“I’ve probably lost two steps,” said Bennie, “but I can still run a helluva lot faster than you ever could.”
“It’s my mouth that has to be fast, Bennie, only my mouth.”
“You got no worries then, Deke.”
“Gina is already onboard,” said Deke. “She and Bryan decided to hole up ahead of everyone else. Now we’re gathering up the others for Angus’s last cruise.”
“I’ll see you inside,” said Bennie, and began walking up the ramp.
Jean Louise was referred to as the Bergman-Deketomis “company boat.” It was actually Deke’s 120-foot yacht that he made available along with its captain for employee weddings, birthdays, and anniversaries.
This would be its first funeral run.
There were around forty passengers aboard, a mixture of Angus’s family, old friends, and his closest work friends. Most of the passengers were taking advantage of the balmy weather on deck, but Gina was resting her leg in the cabin along with Bennie, Bryan, and Cara.
“Was Jean Louise the name of Deke’s mother?” asked Bryan.
Both Gina and Cara burst out laughing.
“My dad didn’t really have a biological mother to speak of,” said Cara. “She gave him up to foster care when he was ten. Over the course of eight years, he had eight different foster mothers. Then he aged out of the system.”
“That doesn’t sound like a storybook childhood.”
“It wasn’t,” said Cara. “Maybe that’s why my dad has been looking after lost kids all his life.”
She thought about that for a moment, and then said, “Maybe in a way Jean Louise was his mother.”
Cara turned to Gina. “Do you know I was reading that book to you just a few weeks ago? My dad told me it was your favorite one, just like it’s his.”
“What book?” Bryan asked. “And who is Jean Louise?”
“Everyone knows her as Scout,” said Gina. “She’s Atticus Finch’s daughter and the narrator in the book To Kill a Mockingbird.”
“And here I always thought her real name was Scout,” said Bryan. “But then again I’ve only seen the movie. I’ve never read the book.”
Deke and his wife, Teri, entered the cabin and walked over to join the group. The couple had been with Cathy and Alicia on the starboard deck, but had left them so that Angus’s friends could have private time with them.
“We were just talking about you, Dad,” said Cara.
“I wanted to know who this Jean Louise was,” said Bryan.
“And whether mom should be jealous of her,” said Cara.
Teri bared her teeth and looked fierce, making everyone laugh.
“I actually was going to name this ship ‘Teri Time,’” said Deke, “but your mom insisted that I name her after something, or someone, that had to do with the law.”
“You picked the next best name to ‘Teri Time,’” said Gina.
“To Teri and Jean Louise,” said Bryan, raising his glass.
Everyone but Bennie lifted a glass; since he wasn’t drinking he raised his hand. “Here, here,” said a slurred voice from the back of the cabin. Peter had slipped into the cabin and was helping himself to the open bar—again. Gina knew her brother was not a circumspect drinker. Whenever he drank too much he became chatty, but not in good way. There was always an edge to his words. Too late, Gina wished she had been more closely monitoring his drinking.
“Peter,” said Gina. “I was hoping you’d come around. Why don’t the two of us go out to the deck?”
“You mean the four of us?” he asked. “There’s me and you, and your big shadow there. And let’s not forget Tarzan. He doesn’t go anywhere without his Jane either.” Peter snickered. “I guess that makes me Cheetah.”
“It sounds like you’ve had enough to drink, Peter.”
“Ever the big sister,” said Peter. “I think it’s kind of funny that you have a bodyg
uard, big sister, especially since you were always my bodyguard.”
“That’s ancient history,” said Gina, trying to change the subject.
Peter continued, undeterred. “It’s nice to have an avenging angel for a sister. When I was thirteen, dear old Dad must have decided he didn’t like the look on my face, or maybe he just needed to feel a little better about himself. So he cold-cocked me. Along with breaking my nose, he also managed to cut open my face. When I got to the hospital—silly me—I told everyone I had fallen down the stairs. By then the staff there was getting to know how clumsy I was, because they had to see on the charts how only a few years before I had accidentally broken my arm.”
“No one wants to hear this, Peter,” said Gina.
“Anyway,” Peter said, speaking over his sister’s objections, “Gina got home later that night. The future valedictorian of Ridge-wood High was always busy doing school activities. She saw my stitches and my nose and didn’t have to ask me what happened. That’s when she did an about-face and stormed off. I ran after her. The only stop she made was in the hall closet where I kept my sports stuff. And then it was on to my father’s room.
“My mother’s room was as far away from my father’s as our big house allowed. The two had their special relationship: Dad would beat up Mom, and then she would self-medicate. I don’t know if Gina watched cop shows back then, but she kicked open the double doors to my father’s room better than any badass cop ever did. Boom! The doors flew open and two naked women popped out from under the covers. It was one of those nights Father referred to as his ‘ladies in waiting evening.’ The two hookers knew to scatter, but dear old Dad wasn’t as fast on the draw. He stayed in bed.
“‘Gina!’ he screamed, but she wasn’t in the mood to listen. She came at him and swung my Louisville Slugger. And then my father did one thing right: he ducked. For a valedictorian, Gina had a great swing. She missed his head by less than inch, but took out most of the headboard.
“Then she came after my father again. For the fat, old, mean bastard that he was, Eddie Romano proved to be light on his feet. Gina shattered lamps, vases, and mirrors as she tried to find the sweet spot on his head. And then fat Eddie was able to duck under one of her swings and managed to run out of the room. He and the hookers took refuge behind a locked bathroom door. I’ve always wished I could have seen them cowering.
“And after all that, Gina went to the door of the bathroom. You would have expected that she’d be huffing and puffing, but she was barely even breathing hard. And in an amazingly calm voice she said, ‘If you ever touch Peter again, I will kill you.’
“I think the smartest thing Eddie ever did was to believe her threat. He never hit me again because he knew Gina would do just as she promised. That’s why I find the idea of her having a bodyguard funny. You’re worried that someone might try and hurt her? I’d be more worried about Gina going after that someone.”
Peter finished his rant. Absolute silence followed until Gina finally spoke.
“It’s time you listened to me, Peter. And I would suggest you listen as well as Father did. I want you to put your drink down now and not have another drink while you are aboard this ship. And for the rest of tonight I expect you to speak only when spoken to, and when you do I expect you to respond graciously. “Tonight we are here to honor the memory of one of the best individuals I have had the good fortune to know. From this moment forward you will be respectful of the widow and her daughter and all the good people on this ship. If you can’t do that, Peter, I will . . .”
Everyone was afraid Gina would say the same thing she had to her father, but for Peter her threat was even worse.
“. . . stop being your sister.”
Peter nodded to show he understood. Then he walked out of the cabin, but wasn’t able to navigate a straight line.
Teri came over and draped her arms around Gina, pulling her close. “I’m sorry you had such an awful upbringing,” she whispered. “But despite that, you turned out to be a remarkable person.”
As others closed in on her to offer similar sentiments, Gina held up her hands. “I appreciate the group hug, everyone, but I’m okay. Please forgive Peter’s airing of our family’s dirty linen. These days Peter and I have a bit of a strained relationship because he’s not sure if he should treat me as a sister or as the mother who raised him.
“Anyway, this isn’t my night. I would ask you to please put the last five minutes behind you, and let’s go out on the deck now and get ready to say goodbye to our good friend, Angus.”
16
WITHOUT JUSTICE
Three days after Angus’s ashes were scattered, Martin Bergman received a phone call from Eva Trench at the Department of Justice. The firm had been pushing hard for Justice to make a decision as to whether they’d be joining them in their action against Arbalest. Justice’s straddling of the fence had put Gina in a bind; she needed to know what the five-hundred-pound gorilla would do before proceeding with the case. At the moment, she was planning on how to proceed by employing two strategies: “with Justice” and “without Justice.”
Eva Trench had been born and bred in Queens. As an undergrad she went to City College of New York before getting her degree from NYU. Afterward, she had gone to law school at Columbia. Her New York City roots could be heard in her every syllable.
“Mr. Bergman? Thank you for taking my call. As you know, we have been considering the merits of your Arbalest case for some time now. And while your brief makes some good points, we still came away unconvinced. Those in my office agreed with me when we unanimously decided to pass on Arbalest.”
“It would have been nice if you had communicated that to us a month or two ago,” said Martin, “instead of making us wait.”
“Like I said, we spent a lot of time discussing the case’s merits. Overall, though, we had to conclude it was a loser.”
“That’s an interesting conclusion,” said Martin. “One day I would like to hear how that was reached.”
“We’ll have to talk,” she said. “In the meantime, you got any idea what you’re going to be doing now?”
For the moment, Martin decided he didn’t want to tip his hand. He wanted to keep Trench talking. “I am sure whatever conclusion we reach,” he said, “will be unanimous as well.”
“If I were you,” she said, “I’d drop it like a hot potato.”
“And if I were you,” said Martin, “I would have embraced this case knowing it was the right thing to do.”
“Without us, it’s doubtful you can win.”
“Is that so?” said Martin. He had been practicing law for more than thirty years longer than Trench and hated being talked down to.
Trench didn’t pick up on his sarcasm. “The odds are certainly against you,” she said. “And since your lead attorney died in that DUI crash, pursuing the case becomes that much more problematic.”
Martin bit the inside of his cheek. He resented Trench’s bringing up the death of Angus, and worse, her presumption that he’d been drunk. His first impulse was to tell her what he thought of Justice and how it only liked picking the lowest of low-hanging fruit. He wanted to upbraid her for not taking action in a case where a corporation was selling a dangerously defective and murderous product while making taxpayers foot the bill. But instead of saying those things, he did his best to be deferential and charming.
“Ms. Trench, I’m so sorry to hear you will not be participating in our case against Arbalest. I’m sure working with Justice would have made a huge difference for us in the courtroom. But nonetheless, I think we’ll try and plod on without your expertise.”
“I’m afraid you’ll be throwing good money after bad on this one, Mr. Bergman,” she said, “but proceeding, of course, is your prerogative.”
“Thank you,” said Martin.
“But since you insist on continuing,” Trench said, “I’ll want to monitor the proceedings. Who will be the lead lawyer for your firm?”
Martin knew Trench w
as hedging her bet. Her “monitoring” would allow her to know which way the wind was blowing. The DOJ had been known to jump in on cases at the last minute where they “helped” settle multimillion-dollar actions after doing virtually no work and after initially refusing to help prosecute the case.
“Gina Romano will replace Angus Moore as lead counsel on the Arbalest case,” said Martin.
“Gina Romano?” said Trench. “I don’t know her.”
“You will,” Martin promised.
17
WHISTLING A DIFFERENT TUNE
Martin delivered the news to Gina in person. Now that she had her walking cast, she was back working in the Bergman-Deketomis building. When she was told that Justice wasn’t coming aboard their Arbalest case, Gina didn’t even blink hard.
“Good,” she said to Martin. “That means we can proceed in a hurry-up offense. I want our opposition off-balance and on their heels. I am going to see about scheduling everything as quickly as I can which will mean spending a lot of time in Chicago. Cara will be helping me with briefing and discovery requests.”
“She’ll like that,” said Martin. “She’s been chomping at the bit to be thrown into the fray.”
“The first thing I want to do is to meet with our whistle-blower,” said Gina. “I need to be comfortable with Robert Diaz and make sure he’s the horse we want to ride. Since Ned’s already met with him, I am going to ask him to try and get Diaz to fly down today or tomorrow.”
“That is fast,” said Martin.
“Put on your seatbelt,” said Gina.
She regretted the words even as they came out of her mouth because it made her think of Angus. Her gut burned. In a way, she was glad it hurt. It was motivation for her to take that pain to others.
Robert Diaz eyed Gina skeptically as she hobbled into the conference room where he was waiting. She returned the same look to him. Neither one of them, she was sure, was experiencing love at first sight.
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