by Dave Derin
I took the Commerce Street exit and slowed down a little as I headed into downtown. I definitely didn’t need a ticket right now. “And what?” I questioned.
“Well, it’s just been rough. The lead investigator, Agent Dodson, is a handful, to put it nicely. You’ll see what I mean when you get here. Where are you, anyway? Swinger’s going to shove his pointed, polished shoe right up your ass if you don’t get here soon.”
“I’m almost there. Tell him to relax.” I turned into the parking garage closest to the office. Luckily, it was nearly abandoned at this hour.
Elizabeth laughed, “Yeah, no. We all know how well that would go over…”
“I’m walking up now. See you in a few. Get some coffee going, will you, please? I have a feeling we’re going to need it today,” I said as I parked my car.
“You got it, boss,” Elizabeth sighed, and I touched my car’s screen to end the call. I grabbed my phone and briefcase and walked briskly to the street toward my office. The air was thick and muggy, a little unusual for Texas, but the heat and near daily rain lately was a perfect recipe for sticky, humid weather in July. My pants began to stick to my legs almost immediately. I wiped the sweat that gathered on my forehead with the back of my hand and made my way down Commerce toward Main as I cursed the heat under my breath.
I rounded the corner of Commerce and Main. Elizabeth stood on the sidewalk in front of the office doors, cell phone in hand as she frantically looked around. A wave of relief washed over her face when she saw me.
“Oh, thank god. You’re here. Come on, we’ve got to move,” she announced.
“What? What’s going on now? Did something else happen?” I demanded. “Please tell me there wasn’t another explosion.”
“No, luckily no more explosions, but yes. Something new has happened. I’ll let Swinger tell you.” She sighed and grasped the brass handle of the 8-foot-tall glass doors that led into the offices. “Just... prepare yourself.”
She opened the door, and I followed her through the dark, empty reception area. She led me straight down the hall to the large conference room where every member of the firm’s counsel sat around a stately oblong table.
Richard Swinger, an imposing man who stood slightly over six feet tall, stared blankly at me from the corner of the room, his beefy arms crossed over his chest.
“Oh. Hey, everyone. I guess my invitation was lost in the mail?” I joked as I tried to relieve the palpable tension in the room.
I looked around in an attempt to read the room, but no one would look me in the eye. I noticed Sullivan Ames, my mentor, the named partner of the firm, and my friend since I was in high school, sat at the head of the table, his gaze rested on a piece of paper on the table in front of him.
“What’s up, Sully?” I smiled and expected a witty retort from him as always.
Sully cleared his throat. “Well, John, there comes a time in every man’s life…”
“Oh, come on. The birds and the bees talk? This is what you woke me up for?” I tossed my briefcase down, sunk into the only remaining empty chair, and reclined into the plush leather.
“This is no time for jokes, John.” Sully’s usual rich baritone voice seemed weak this morning.
I sat up straight, folded my hands together, and placed them on the table in front of me.
“Alright, then. All joking aside, please tell me why I’m at work so early in the morning?” I shifted my gaze to Swinger to see him staring straight at the ground. “Sully? What’s going on?”
None of the other attorneys were speaking, and I felt my stomach begin to twist.
Sully took a deep, labored breath and stated, “I’m retiring. Official as of today. You have first pick of all of my cases… including the new one. Swinger will get you up to speed.”
I felt my mouth drop open as I realized what Sully was saying. “Are... are you offering me the promotion to senior associate?”
“Yes. That’s what we’re doing, John. Do you think you’re up for it?” Sully lounged back in his chair, placed his hands on his belly, stared intently at me, and awaited my answer.
I looked over at Swinger, who had placed his head in his hands.
“What do you think about this, Richard?” I asked as I sensed his unease.
“Everything will be fine. It will. We just have to get moving on this new case, so let’s just all sign the paperwork and have the party planning committee take care of the retirement details later.” Swinger uttered huskily and leaned against the green Carrara wet bar behind him.
Swinger’s brusqueness surprised me, but really, what should I expect from someone like him? The only thing my boss seemed to care about was the bottom line and owning the fastest, most expensive sports cars just to impress the most elusive clients. I couldn’t give him too much credit.
I theorized that he’d only hung around with Ames because he was a brilliant litigator, and Swinger was really more of a salesman; he was a bright guy, but a genius he was not. He’d needed Ames’ intelligence and experience to get him by all these years, and now that Ames was leaving, ol’ Dick Swinger seemed a little stressed.
“Well? What do you say?” Sully questioned me as he bored a hole in my face with his intense gaze.
I did not hesitate, “Yes, of course! I’ll take on any cases you need me to, Sully. Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”
“Oh, I’m not worried. You’re the most brilliant litigator I’ve ever worked with. I know you’ll do just fine,” Sully boasted. I shot him a smile across the room. Sully was always a sort of second father to me after my own dad passed away when I was a kid, so hearing him compliment me in front of the whole firm was reaffirming.
“This is what I’ve always wanted,” I said as I met Sully’s eyes, then glanced around the room to see that everyone smiled back at me.
“Good,” Swinger declared and rubbed the back of his thick neck. “Now that everything is settled, let’s get going on this new case.”
“Alright, let’s get crackin’!” I announced as I pushed my chair away from the table and stood up. I reached down for my briefcase and stood back up to see Swinger’s sweaty face only a few inches from my own.
“Let’s go, Stone,” Swinger growled and stalked out of the conference room as the other firm members trailed out behind him.
“Yes, sir,” I muttered under my breath and gave him a sarcastic salute.
“Kid, you’re too much,” Sully chuckled as he slowly shook his head, then started to stand up.
“Actually, Sully, do you have a minute?” I checked to make sure everyone had cleared the hallway, then walked over to the far side of the table where Sully sat motionless. He stared straight ahead as I pulled out the chair next to him and sat down.
“Congratulations, young man,” Sully said when I was seated, then flashed me a toothy smile.
“Thank you, sir. I’m so flattered by the promotion, but I can’t help but have a weird feeling about this meeting. What’s really going on around here?”
“We will discuss that later, John,” Sully said curtly and gazed toward the conference room door. I could tell I wasn’t going to get any information out of him here.
“Okay, well I better get going before Swinger comes looking for me. We’ll have to get together soon to talk about this,” I said as I stood up from the table.
“You got it, son,” Sully said with a smile and a fatherly wink. I grinned back at him and then hustled down the hallway to Swinger’s office.
If there’s one thing I knew for certain, Richard Swinger did not spare any expense when decorating his office. Floor-to-ceiling windows lined the left wall of his office and displayed a breathtaking view of downtown Dallas. Behind his stately antique oak desk were engraved oak built-in bookshelves lined with only the legal publications he found to be worthy. Two beautifully carved antique chairs with burgundy velvet cushions faced his desk.
I entered his office and stepped cautiously on the lush Persian rug he had laid across the cherry wo
od floors. I once heard he had it insured for over a million, but who really knows when it comes to Swinger.
“Get off the rug!” He spun around in his black leather chair to glare at me.
“Whoops,” I chuckled as I stepped off the rug.
“Take a seat, John,” Swinger said as he motioned to the chairs in front of him.
“Sure,” I replied, then placed my briefcase beside the left chair, unbuttoned my suit jacket, sat down, and leaned against the supportive backing. The soft velvet melted under my touch as I ran my hand down the cushioned arm of the chair.
“This case is really big, okay? It’s huge, John. The firm cannot afford to screw up this case,” Swinger said, then looked down and released a deep sigh. “Now that Ames has retired, you’re one of the best litigators we have, but we’ve still got to hit this case hard from the get-go.”
“I’m ready to get started now,” I stated and leaned forward in the chair.
Swinger looked me up and down, “Glad to hear it. A word of advice, John, you may want to get some nicer suits. You’re a senior associate now. You need to start looking and acting like it when you represent this company.”
“Okay. No problem, I’ll buy nicer suits,” I said as I tried to keep from eye rolling. I wore some of the best suits in the firm. “Is that really what you’re worried about right now, Rich?”
“I’m sorry, John,” he sighed and then passed a hand over his face. “It’s just, with Sully leaving and all, it’s just going to be different around here. That’s all.” He rested his elbows on his desk and placed his head in his hands. “He was really the glue that held this place together. You’ve got some big shoes to fill here, kid. You really think you’re ready for it?”
I looked Swinger directly in the eye, held his gaze, and confidently answered, “Yes. I know I’m up for it. This is what I’ve always wanted to do. My father was once a partner in this firm, and I’m proud to put my name on that wall just as his once was. I’m honored to be offered this position. I guess I never said thank you earlier, but thank you. I know you could have appointed someone else and Ames probably pulled some major strings to get me this job, but I appreciate your willingness to work with me. I respect you for that.”
Swinger raised an eyebrow. “Well, let’s not get all mushy now. Liz has all the files. Get to work.”
He swung his chair back around to his computer and waved me off with a grumble. I left his immaculate corner office and practically jogged down the hall to my office. Excitement hummed through my body as I rounded the corner and entered my modest office, John P. Stone, Esq. engraved on the brass plaque on the cherry wood door.
A threadbare path from the door to my desk was worn into the thin, light gray carpet installed on my office floor. A modern, light-grain oak desk sat in the center of the room and faced the doorway. A matching oak bookcase filled with inherited books stood against the right wall. A short, beige, Dutch-style couch rested under a rectangular window on the far wall of the office. Two oak armchairs with navy blue cushions faced the desk, and a round, black table with four matching chairs sat in the front right corner of the space.
My paralegal, an intelligent and intuitive young professional named Elizabeth, sat in one of the black chairs at the small meeting table in the corner of my office. Her long, wavy honey-blonde hair hung loose around her face and framed her oversized tortoiseshell rimmed glasses. She wore her standard work attire of black slacks, flat black shoes, and a pastel cardigan. Today she’d chosen a pale yellow shade and paired it with a string of pearls.
She looked up at me with round blue eyes. Her face was twisted with anxiety. “The feds finally left with CUSA’s board members. They wouldn’t tell me anything, but I snagged one of the agent’s cards, a Special Agent Meryl Lee Dodson,” she explained as she removed a card from her pocket and studied it. “She’s… a character.”
She handed me the card, and I slid it into my wallet. “I’ll call Dodson as soon as I get a grasp of the case. Please start from the beginning and walk me through it.”
Elizabeth cleared her throat and opened the top file. A thick stack of photos and documents with hand-scrawled notes were stacked inside. “The first explosion occurred on the second of June. It was a Walford 480, just like the most recent one. The second bomb went off on the seventeenth, but it was a different type of passenger plane, a Getzo 390. We don’t know yet if that’s important, or just what they could get access to.”
“Okay, so the second, the seventeenth, and then the most recent explosion was on the third of this month, correct?” I confirmed.
“Yes, correct. I researched the dates and couldn’t find any correlation between them,” she explained as she ran her fingers through her dark-blonde hair.
I leaned over the table and surveyed the spread of files across it. “Do you mind getting us some coffee? I want to go through every single file before I speak with Dodson.”
“You got it, boss,” Elizabeth replied as she turned on her heel and headed down the hall to the kitchenette.
The hard wooden back of the chair dug uncomfortably into my shoulders as I sat down and began to work my way through every piece of paper in the files. “No detail will escape me,” I said under my breath, and Elizabeth and I continued to comb through the detailed files until lunch time.
She yawned and checked the time on her phone. “John, I’ve got to eat. You need to as well. I’ll go grab us some sandwiches.”
I leaned back and reached my arms above my head as I breathed in deeply and stretched. “Sounds good, Liz. I’m just going to rest my eyes until you get back.”
I dragged myself from the chair at the meeting table to the small, beige couch under the single window of my office. Then I slumped onto the firm cushions of the short couch. I was so exhausted that the stiff couch cushions made me feel like I was surrounded by a pillow of clouds. My eyelids were so heavy I couldn’t keep them open longer. “I’m just going to close my eyes for a min…” I mumbled, and then the room went black.
Chapter 2
“He hasn’t been out for too long. I’ll have him call you later,” I heard a timid voice whisper. I drowsily opened my eyes and yawned. As my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I saw Elizabeth seated at the meeting table, one knee pulled up against her chest, a half-eaten sandwich in front of her.
She had removed her pastel yellow cardigan and laid it over the back of her chair so that she now wore only a white spaghetti-strap tank top and short pearl necklace with her black slacks. Her dark blonde hair fell past her shoulders and draped in front of her face as she leaned over the table and skimmed over the file in front of her.
I sat up straight and stretched my stiff neck. “Man, that felt great,” I grunted as I got to my feet and joined her at the table. She jumped, startled, and removed tiny pink earbuds from her ears.
“Sorry, boss. I was trying to let you sleep,” she apologized as she pulled her dark blonde hair into a ponytail and adjusted her glasses on her nose.
“No, it’s fine. I needed to get up anyway.” I unwrapped the sandwich she’d gotten for me. Ham and cheese, my favorite.
Liz always took good care of me.
I sat down and took a large bite of my late lunch. I was starving. The stale white bread stuck to the roof of my mouth, so I grabbed my coffee mug and took a swig of the tepid black liquid to wash it down. A few drops splashed onto my white shirt.
“Fantastic,” I uttered as I dabbed at it with one of the restaurant napkins. “How long was I out?”
“Only about three hours. You obviously needed it,” she responded with a smirk and a sideways glance. “Ames just stopped by to check on you before heading home.”
“Yeah, I need to call him. Remind me to set up a meeting with him, please?”
“You got it. So, speaking of meetings, when do you plan on meeting with Dodson?” She asked as she ran her fingers through her hair.
I looked down at my crumpled, stained shirt and the suit coat that was splayed
across the arm of the couch, then heard Swinger’s voice in my head, “You’re a senior associate now, act like it.”
“I need to go home and change before meeting with her. I can’t go looking like this.”
I quickly scarfed my sandwich and gulped down the rest of the cold coffee. I picked up my suit coat and slipped it back on before I grabbed my keys and briefcase. I placed the most pertinent files in my briefcase and locked it.
“You should go home and get some rest,” I told Elizabeth. “This day is only going to get longer, and you’ve been here for almost eleven hours. Go home, Liz.”
She immediately jumped up, put on her cardigan, and scooped her purse from the ground next to her. “You don’t have to tell me twice, boss,” she grinned as she swiftly walked toward the door. “Keep me updated, okay?”
I stood there for a moment and contemplated my game plan. I needed to set up a meeting with Dodson, run home and change, and probably make some more coffee while I’m there. I ran my hands through my thick brown hair before I picked up my briefcase and headed toward the front door. I pushed through the large glass door and walked as fast as I could to my car. When I got there, I swung up the door, threw my briefcase on the passenger seat, and pulled the FBI agent’s card from my wallet.
“Meryl Lee Dodson,” I spoke aloud as I dialed her number from my car.
“Dodson,” a woman’s voice answered after one ring.
“Yes, Agent Dodson? This is Jo--” I began.
“Special,” the stern voice interrupted.
“Excuse me?” I questioned as I raised an eyebrow.
“It’s Special Agent Dodson. With whom am I speaking?” The voice replied curtly.
“Oh, okay then,” I said as I tried to keep the amused smirk off my face. “Special Agent Dodson, this is John Stone. I’m with Swinger and Ames. We represent CUSA in the ongoing investigation regarding the recent bombings. I’d like to schedule a--”
“Be here at 4:30 p.m. sharp. I’ll let someone at the front know to let you in,” she barked and hung up the phone before I could confirm the appointment.