Her mother nodded. “Yes, we have a few small things to work on, but we’re not busy by any means.”
“What if I did that temp job? It’s just for a few days and maybe I can learn something by being there.”
“You can go undercover, I love it!” Mickey said.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” her mother said.
“If you could do that, I’ll really owe you one. We have a shortage of good people right now,” Rachel said.
“I’d love to do it.” Emma was excited about the idea of going undercover.
“All right, I’ll email you the address. Plan on being there Tuesday morning at eight-thirty sharp.”
Chapter 8
Emma didn’t have time for her morning beach walk on Tuesday because she spent twenty minutes trying to decide what to wear for her first day of the legal temporary assignment. She finally settled on a pair of navy pants, matching blazer, and a simple white jersey shirt.
She hadn’t worn any of it since her last temp job a few months back. It was all from Banana Republic—simple, clean separates that managed to be somewhat casual but corporate enough for any office. Once that decision was made and she ran an iron over the pants and jacket, she made a mug of coffee and took it to the deck to get a few minutes of beach time.
The air was slightly cool and there was a heavy, misty fog that gave the whole beach a dreamy, semi-transparent look. Almost no one was walking the beach today other than a few diehard regulars and their dogs.
Emma’s stomach felt a bit restless. Nerves, she guessed, and made herself a quick peanut butter sandwich, which always seemed to help. She used to eat one before her auditions.
In a way, this was like an audition, as she was going to be playing a part and had to be convincing. She wasn’t worried about being able to do the work, as she knew her office skills were pretty good. She was just slightly nervous about anyone making the connection to her father and Court Street Investigations. Though, as Mickey tried to assure her, no one really knew she was working there yet.
“Meow.”
Emma turned at the sound and saw a skinny orange cat staring at her. He was sitting on the deck, facing her, and she looked at him in surprise. He meowed again, walked closer and rubbed his cheek against her leg.
“Well, hello there. Who are you? And where do you live?” She reached over and scratched the cat behind the ears, and he started to purr loudly. The cat had moved so quietly, as cats did, that she hadn’t even noticed that he’d walked onto the deck. He wasn’t wearing a collar, and he was very thin. But he was a big cat too, one of the biggest she’d seen. She guessed he was close to twenty pounds.
She broke off a piece of her sandwich and held it out to him. He sniffed and took a tentative bite, then twitched his tail and walked off. The sandwich was apparently not acceptable. The cat turned back for a final look before disappearing down the stairs. Emma wondered if he lived nearby and maybe just didn’t have a collar. She’d never seen the cat before. She decided to pick up a box of dry food, in case he dropped by again.
She glanced at the time on her phone and realized she needed to get a move on if she was going to be at the law firm by eight-thirty.
She dressed quickly, then headed out and arrived at Foley, Watson, and Powell five minutes early. The law firm was located in a big, brick building in the Plymouth Industrial Park, just off Resnik Eoad. It wasn’t far from the Colony Place shops and lots of fast-food places like Chipotle and Chick Fil A, so she had options if she wanted to zip out on her lunch break.
She’d done her research on the firm and knew that they were the largest in the area and had twenty lawyers covering the South Shore and Cape and Islands as well as Boston. She didn’t know how many support staff, but guessed at least ten to fifteen, maybe more, depending on if attorneys shared or had their own assistants.
Rachel had told her to check in at the front desk and ask for Sheila, the office manager. She was the woman she’d seen crying at the funeral. Nancy’s best friend.
Emma took a deep breath, then grabbed her Kate Spade navy and cream-colored purse and went inside. A young blond woman was just settling into her chair at the front desk and looked up in surprise when she saw Emma. Apparently they didn’t get a lot of foot traffic first thing in the morning.
“Hello, can I help you with something?”
“Hi, I’m Emma McCarthy, from the temp agency. I was told to ask for Sheila?”
“Oh. Of course. Please have a seat. I’ll let her know.”
Emma settled into a leather padded chair, one of about a dozen in the waiting area. She looked around the large lobby. It was elegantly appointed, with lots of dark leather, and a glass and chrome table with a stack of legal magazines and a copy of People. The walls were a soft ivory and there were a half dozen paintings, all seascapes of Plymouth Harbor. There were also a few photographs of Justin Powell with well-known figures like Tony Robbins, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
She was just about to reach for the People magazine when Sheila walked into the lobby and smiled at her. “Emma McCarthy?”
Emma stood. “Yes, nice to meet you.”
“Come on back with me and I’ll show you what you’ll be working on.”
Emma followed her down a hallway to a small office adjacent to a much bigger one.
“That’s my office there. If you have any questions, just come find me. You’ve transcribed dictation before?”
Emma nodded. “Yes, many times.” Listening to tapes made by attorneys and typing it up was something she’d done at most of her temp assignments with law firms.
“Good. Have you used BigHand?”
Emma nodded. It was a common dictation service.
“Excellent. Here’s the login information and you can use this headset.” She handed a newish looking pair to Emma. “You’ll see a bunch of recordings in the queue—all the lawyers here use it. We have a bit of a backlog now. So we’ll have you focus on that for most of today and have you cover for Alyssa when she goes on lunch break at noon. Then you can take your break at one. Sound good?”
“Perfect.”
“All right. If you have any issues, like I said, come find me.” Sheila walked off and Emma put the headphones on and fired up the computer. She signed into BigHand, opened the first file and started typing. She typed all morning, until Sheila popped into her office at a quarter to twelve and suggested she sit with Alyssa for a few minutes, so she could show her what to do at the front desk.
“It’s really not hard,” Alyssa said, when Sheila walked off. “The phone system here is simple. You just answer when it rings and put the caller on hold for a moment while you check and see if the attorney is available for the call. If they are, click transfer and punch in their extension number. Here’s the list.”
It seemed straightforward enough. Emma just hoped she wouldn’t accidentally disconnect instead of transferring. It had happened before.
“Why don’t you take this call?” Alyssa suggested when the phone rang.
Emma answered and managed to transfer the call successfully.
“See, told you it was easy. Okay. I’m off then. See you in an hour.” Alyssa scampered off, grabbing her coat and purse and heading out the front door.
Sheila came back a few minutes later with a thick manilla folder full of legal documents.
“These have all been scanned. In between calls, can you run these through the shredder please? I’ll have more for you to scan then shred tomorrow once you get through the dictation. I took a look at what you’ve done so far and you’re going at a good clip. Nice job.”
“Thank you.” Sheila walked off as the phone rang and Emma hurried to answer it.
“Justin Powell in? Jake Gregory here.” The voice was commanding. It sounded like he was used to people jumping when he spoke.
“I’ll check for you, please hold a moment.”
Emma punched Justin’s line, and he picked up immediately, “Who’s looking for me?”
“Jake Gregory is calling. Would you like me to put him through?”
“Yes! Of course.” He sounded impatient, as if Emma should know Jake Gregory.
She quickly transferred the call and then answered two more in quick succession. A few people walked in after that, and she called back to let the attorneys know their clients were in the waiting room. It stayed steadily busy at the front desk. Emma didn’t have a lot of time for shredding, but did what she could when the phones were quiet.
At twelve thirty, four attorneys walked out together, probably going to lunch, Emma assumed. One of them was Justin Powell. He did a double take when he saw Emma and came over to talk to her.
“I didn’t realize it wasn’t Alyssa calling me. You must be the temp Sheila brought in for a few days?”
Emma nodded. “Yes, I’m Emma McCarthy.”
“So, you probably won’t be at the front desk much, but just so you know, Jake Gregory is one of our best clients and I will always take his call, so just put him right through. The four of us are heading out to lunch at the 110 Grill around the corner.” He introduced Emma to the other three attorneys, and she jotted down all their names so she could just take messages for them if anyone called while they were out.
Sheila walked up to the desk a moment later, with a sad look.
“I forgot to tell you this. It’s unlikely as I think just about everyone knows by now, but in case anyone calls looking for Nancy Eldridge, please put them right through to me and I’ll handle it.”
“Of course. I’m so sorry. I read in the paper that she’d just recently made partner here,” Emma said.
Sheila sighed. “It still doesn’t seem real. She was a good friend of mine. My best friend, actually.”
“Do the police have any idea what might have happened?” Emma asked.
The phone rang then and Emma held off answering for a moment, waiting for Sheila to speak.
“They don’t seem to know much at all. They just keep asking all of us questions, but they don’t seem to be getting anywhere, as far as I know. None of it makes any sense. Everyone loved Nancy.”
Emma reached for the phone as Sheila walked away.
The hour went by quickly and at a few minutes before one, Alyssa returned.
“How did it go?” She asked as she settled into her chair and cracked open a can of Diet Coke.
“It was fine. Busy, so time went by fast.”
Alyssa grinned. “It’s better than way. The slow days are boring. But it’s not slow around here often. I can take over now if you want to head out.”
Emma stood. “Oh, by the way, Justin Powell and three other attorneys went to lunch. I would think they’ll be back soon.”
“Did they go to the 110?”
Emma nodded.
“I don’t expect them back for at least another hour then. They like to take their time and have a drink or two, especially when they go there, as it’s so close.”
“I think if I had a drink at lunch, I’d want to take a nap after,” Emma admitted.
Alyssa laughed. “You and me both.”
Emma decided to get tacos from Chipotle and ordered on the app, then drove the short distance to pick it up. She thought about walking there, but since she had an hour for lunch, she had time to do a little shopping at Colony Place after she ate.
Her order was ready when she walked into Chipotle and as she left, she glanced next door at the 110 Grill. Justin Powell and the other attorneys were seated outside with a few other men. They were drinking martinis, talking loudly and laughing. There was no food on the table yet, so she guessed that Alyssa was right and they wouldn’t be coming back any time soon.
She ate her lunch in the car, bought a new lip gloss and blush at Sephora, went through the drive-thru at Starbucks and was back at the law firm a few minutes before two. The rest of the afternoon was uneventful, and she got most of the dictation done. There were just a few tapes left to finish in the morning. Sheila seemed pleased when she stopped by at five thirty to let her know they were done for the day.
“You did a great job. When you finish these up tomorrow, I’ll have some scanning and file projects for the rest of the day. There might be some more work in a few weeks too, if you’re interested. One of our assistants will be out on vacation.”
Chapter 9
Thursday morning, Cindy stopped by The Market on her way into work and picked up some more coffee for the office and, while she was there, a box of freshly made raspberry crumb donuts caught her eye. She knew both Mickey and Emma would help her out with those.
Emma’s car was already in the parking lot and Mickey pulled in right behind Cindy. They walked in together and Cindy set the box of donuts on the coffee table. Emma and Mickey immediately grabbed one, and as soon as Cindy made herself a cup of coffee, she took one as well and settled at her desk.
“So, fill us in on the law firm, Emma. How did it go?” Cindy took a bite of the raspberry-filled donut—it was just as good as she’d imagined.
“It was fine. It’s a nice office, actually, as far as temp assignments go. But, I didn’t learn a thing. Sheila told me that she and Nancy were best friends, which we already knew. And Justin Powell is a big spender that takes long lunches and likes to drink martinis. How he gets anything done after that is beyond me.”
“How do you know he drinks martinis at lunch?” Mickey asked.
“Alyssa, the receptionist told me. And I saw him come back louder than when he left and saw one of their lunch receipts. He always picks up the tab and puts it in as an expense, and I scanned it into the computer. I took a look at it first and they all had several martinis.”
“Well, he is a big guy. He probably ate a lot of food too and is used to handling his liquor,” Cindy said.
“Maybe he’s an alcoholic. One of those functioning ones. I read about that… they drink every day, and can handle a lot more alcohol than most and still get their work done,” Mickey said.
“I can’t imagine,” Cindy said. If she had more than two glasses of wine, she’d feel it the next day and getting any work done after drinking like that would be impossible.
“Have I missed anything? Do we have any new cases?” Emma asked.
“No, you didn’t miss anything. It’s been slow. Mickey and I both took yesterday off and I just checked messages. We do have some new things to work on, though. We have a reverse alimony situation to investigate. Claire Sturgess is going through a bitter divorce with her deadbeat husband, Owen. He hasn’t worked in over twelve years and has spent his time golfing and talking about starting some kind of business. He actually told her that he wants a divorce, which shocked her, and he’s demanding 90,000 a year in alimony.”
Mickey almost dropped his donut. “Is he out of his mind? He expects her to pay him? Why so much?”
“Claire has basically been the breadwinner since they got married. He quit his job six months later, and she never pushed him to find something because her job pays so well. She’s in software sales and is a VP with stock equity and a mid-six figure salary.”
“He doesn’t work at all?” Emma sounded just as surprised as Mickey.
“Well, now he is. But it’s for a start-up, and he’s claiming that he has an equity-only arrangement. He won’t get anything until the company sells. But Claire thinks he’s full of it and once the divorce is final, he’ll start taking a salary.”
“Won’t that change what she has to give him for alimony, then?” Emma asked.
“Yes, but he still might find a way to hide it. Claire doesn’t trust him.”
“So, what can we do to help?”
“Claire thinks he has a girlfriend and that things are pretty serious. He pretty much admitted it to her and told her that he never loved her. And that he was just biding his time.” It had totally disgusted Cindy, and she hoped that they’d be able to help.
“So, he’s pretty much a con man then. He deliberately didn’t work so that when they got divorced, there’d be a
precedent and she’d have to pay him. It doesn’t seem fair. I mean, it happens all the time with women, but usually it’s because they are taking care of children, not something like this,” Emma said.
Cindy nodded. “Right. So, here’s what Claire is thinking. If we can get evidence that this girlfriend is staying with Owen, that might help her be able to dismiss the alimony claim or at least get it significantly reduced.”
“What do we know about the girlfriend? Have they been together long?” Emma asked.
“Claire’s not sure how long they’ve been seeing each other. She said she’s a lot younger though, just twenty-four. Owen is forty-eight.”
Emma groaned. “Ugh. What does she see in him?”
Mickey chuckled. “If I had to guess, she probably thinks Owen is the one with the money. Where do they live?”
“You’re probably right, Mickey. They have a huge waterfront house on Priscilla Beach. It’s on a double lot and they had it custom-built a few years ago. He’s twelve years older than Claire too. He likes younger women,” Cindy said.
“What are their living arrangements, now?” Emma asked.
“They are taking turns with the house, spending alternate weeks there. Claire has another house, a rental cottage on White Horse Beach that has been in her family for years. So she’s spending a lot of time there, but she doesn’t want to give up the main house to him. He’s supposedly just renting a room at the Pilgrim Sands when he’s not there.”
“So where do we start?” Emma asked.
“This one will take a while. We’ll need several weeks of surveillance to establish a pattern of them being together. If she just sleeps over one night, that’s not as strong as if we can show them together more than that. He’s at the main house this week and next week he’ll be at Pilgrim Sands. Maybe you can go by early morning and watch to see them leave for work. The start-up he’s working at is in the industrial park. The morning will be the better proof, I think. But maybe tail him all day today, to see where he goes at lunch too. Could be they meet up then as well.”
Plymouth Undercover Page 6