“This is Arthur Forrester. Please put me through to Henry Ballard.”
“One moment, please.”
One moment turned into a full five minutes before Henry Ballard came on the phone. “Arthur, what can I do for you on this miserable rainy day?” Henry Ballard’s flat-sounding voice suggested he would rather be talking to anyone other than Arthur Forrester.
“Actually, Henry, there’s quite a lot you can do for me on this miserable rainy day, and you can do it all without moving from your desk. So let’s get to it. I know that you arranged to plant that story about Garland Lee in all the papers, so do not think I am going to do something stupid in response to it. I am also aware that you spirited Matthew Spicer out of town. My guess would be you sent him out of the country last night. Or maybe you sent him to the Hawaii hideaway, which you think no one knows anything about, while, in reality, everyone in the firm knows about it and how you use it. But I’m not calling you to talk about real estate. I just wanted you to know that I know about Matthew Spicer. Just for the record, I have his Social Security number. If I need to find him, I will have no trouble being able to do so. You know the old saying ‘You can run, but you can’t hide’? Well, this is a perfect example of that little ditty.
“This is what I want you to do, and I want you to start on it the minute we disconnect from this call. Call the court and tell the judge we have all come to a settlement. That will put an end to the summary judgment motion that has still not been ruled on. You are to call Garland Lee’s lead attorney to tell him two eyewitnesses have just come forward with damaging information concerning Garland Lee. So damaging that she will never be able to show her face in public again. Where you find these two eyewitnesses is up to you. Maybe wherever you found Matthew Spicer. Make them available to Garland’s attorney at some point. I don’t have to tell you what and how to do it, Henry. You’re a pro. Just look at what you did for the Odens in Tram v Oden. They do say practice makes perfect.
“This business with Matthew Spicer is just a pimple on your ass, Henry, compared to what I am prepared to do to you and the firm if you don’t come through. I do not want to hear any bullshit, any excuses. The only thing I want to hear from you is that you have two sterling witnesses ready to go on my behalf.
“If I don’t hear from you in the affirmative, I will proceed with social media. Within forty-eight hours, your firm will be down the legal drain. The truth is more like twenty-four hours. Every client you have handled in the last fifty years will be screaming for your blood. You’ll never be able to come back from that. Never. Every lawyer in the firm will be tainted. No one will hire them. You’ll be defending yourself and the firm in the courts for the rest of your life.
“I think that about covers it. Do you understand everything I just said? Just say yes or no.”
“Yes” was the weary-sounding reply.
“Can you do this by the end of the day? Yes or no?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Not good enough, Henry. Try again.”
“Yes.” The single word was a snarl sound.
“Good, good. We’re on the same page. I’ll expect your call soon.”
Arthur Forrester replaced the receiver clenched in his hands into the cradle of the phone. Well, that went rather well. He frowned as he tried to imagine what Henry Ballard was doing right this very second.
* * *
What Henry Ballard was doing was crying. At that moment in time, he didn’t know if he had the strength to call out to reception to call his brother and Robert Quinlan. God Almighty, how did it come to this? “Tell them to meet me in the garage immediately.”
Henry Ballard felt every single one of his years as he tottered to the door that would take him to the service elevator and down to the garage, where he found both his brother and Robert Quinlan waiting for him, their expressions a mixture of panic and fear.
Henry took a deep breath and let it loose as he recounted the entire conversation he’d just had with Arthur Forrester. He steeled himself for the recriminations he feared were forthcoming. He was stunned when his brother just said, “So what’s our game plan here?”
“What? Do you think I carry around a list of people who are willing to perjure themselves just because I ask them to? I don’t know what to do. Arthur is right, we’ll be ruined. Every case will be open for scrutiny. The lawsuits alone will be a tsunami. We could never, ever recover from something like that. Either we do as he instructed . . . or we shoot ourselves and leave the mess behind for someone else to clean up. To be honest about it, I don’t know if I’m ready to give up the ship just yet.”
“Where are we going to find two stupid people willing to perjure themselves? We didn’t have to look for Matthew Spicer. He came to us because he couldn’t decide if the information he had was valuable. All we did was steer him the way we wanted him to go, and he followed our lead. He never thought he was perjuring himself. What you’re talking about now is out-and-out. . . evil. That’s not who we are, Henry. And yet, I don’t see any other recourse. We have to do it, but how?” Alvin said.
Robert Quinlan jerked at his tie. Then he took off his jacket and laid it on top of the hood of his car. “I might have an idea. How about we hire two actors. We set them up in the conference room and pretend we’re doing a scene. We do the script. We tell them we’re going to present it in court when the case comes to trial. Like in a few years down the road. We’ll pay them well. Really well. Since we will be videoconferencing it, we can show it later to Garland Lee’s lead attorney. Once he sees it, he’ll know he has to convince his client to drop her case. In turn, the management company holding the escrow monies will release them to Arthur. That’s all he wants, the escrow monies.”
“Henry, did you record Arthur’s call? By any chance, did you mention that we found the listening device he planted?” Alvin asked.
“Hell no. I didn’t get the part about the newspaper articles on Garland Lee. Arthur accused me of being responsible for them, but as he said, he wasn’t buying into it. Whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.”
“Then he will still have a hold on us, even after it’s over,” Alvin said.
“Not if Henry tapes the next call,” Robert said. “We need to go back to the office. You two, Alvin and Henry, start to work on the script. Don’t call the court just yet. Time enough to do that after I lock down my idea. I’ll call the dean at Georgetown I did some work for him, and he owes me. I’ll ask him to pick two of his best and brightest from the drama department and send them over ASAP. Once we lock that down, we should be good to go. When and after we pull this off, and we will succeed, only then will we deal with our consciences and Arthur Forrester. If it is humanly possible, we will make it right. If not, we will stand up and take whatever comes our way because we own it. This might be a good time for the three of us to think about stepping down permanently. We’re too old to be dealing with bullshit like this.”
Henry Ballard squared his shoulders, his face grim. He stomped his way to the elevator, his brother and partner behind him. “Once we hit the office, be careful what you say. We’ll make our last call of the day to Arthur from here in the garage. My phone will record it all.”
“Let’s do it!” Alvin and Robert said in unison.
Chapter 13
The sound of the shrill landline’s ringing in the quiet kitchen at Pinewood startled both Charles and Myra. It was rare that the house phone rang, and when it did, it was mostly the feed store or someone confirming an inspection for something or other. Husband and wife looked at each other. Myra threw her hands in the air as Charles swiveled around in his chair to reach for the phone. Myra did a double take when she heard Charles say, “Avery, why are you calling on this phone? Oh. No, it isn’t a problem. You usually call on my cell phone, but, yes, I understand the weather is playing havoc with all things electrical, so I guess that is true of cyberspace as well. Myra and I are just trying to decide what to have for lunch. We’re waiting for Annie and
Fergus. The good news is that the rain finally stopped last night.”
Myra threw her hands in the air again, her expression clearly saying, Get to the point of the call already, Charles.
Charles listened to the old spy for ten solid minutes. Finally he said, “I must say that surprises me, but yet it doesn’t. If that makes any kind of sense. The girls will go over the moon when I tell them. Keep up the good work, mate. I love solid intel like this.”
“What! What!” Myra shouted. “What did he say that will put us ‘over the moon’?”
Charles was about to expound on the phone call when Annie and Fergus whipped into the courtyard, sending Lady and her pups into a frenzy of barking.
“Why don’t we wait for Annie and Fergus, so I don’t have to repeat myself. Two minutes, Myra! Can you wait that long?”
Myra opened the door wide for the dogs to barrel through; then she stepped back as Annie and Fergus did the obligatory ear scratch and belly rub. Everyone hugged, even though they had seen each other less than twelve hours earlier. As Annie put it: “We’re huggers.” And that was the end of that.
“Hurry, hurry, you two! Charles has news. Avery just called, and Charles wouldn’t tell me anything when he saw you drive through the gates, because he simply does not want to repeat whatever it is twice,” Myra said as she handed out treats to the clamoring dogs.
“Well, we’re here now, Charles, so spit it out. By the way, the water on the roads is gone, just so you know. That means we can go out and about. Well, Charles, what is it?” Annie demanded, her tone as impatient as Myra’s.
Charles grinned. “I was just waiting for you to stop talking long enough so I could tell you.” He then proceeded to repeat, virtually verbatim, everything Avery had told him about Arthur Forrester’s phone calls to Henry Ballard at the firm.
“And Henry Ballard, pillar of the community that he is, agreed to find two people willing to perjure themselves,” Fergus said, his voice full of shock. “What kind of lawyer would do something like that?”
“Why not? He did it once before, so why should this time be any different?” Annie snapped back.
“It’s not the same thing, Annie. You read all the filings. Ballard, the firm, didn’t hire Mr. Spicer to perjure himself. He came to them. They steered him, guided, if you prefer that word, to their way of thinking. In a way, it’s really apples and oranges,” Charles said. “What Arthur Forrester is telling them to do, mind you, telling, not asking, is to go out and find people who will outright perjure themselves for money. Standing in their shoes, they see their life’s work going down the drain. They probably think Garland Lee has more money than God and won’t miss those escrow monies. They get Forrester out of their lives, and the firm remains intact.
“If they do not agree to do what Forrester wants, too many people get hurt and have their lives ruined. They’re between a rock and a hard place, and I would not like to be one of them. To see your life’s work destroyed by one evil, angry, blackhearted man is, I’m sure, more than they can bear. I’m sure they weighed it all very carefully and decided to go along with him as the lesser of two evils.
“I find it very telling that Arthur is accusing the partners of being responsible for the newspapers’ headlines this morning concerning Garland. And the partners are blaming Arthur for planting the listening device in the conference room. We need to thank the powers-that-be that Arthur did not discover the bugs in his own condo.”
Annie looked at Myra.
Myra looked at Annie.
Myra reached for her handbag on the clothes tree by the back door as she followed Annie out the door.
“Love, where are you going?” Charles called out.
“To take care of business,” Annie shot back before Myra could respond.
“That was a really stupid question to ask, mate,” Fergus said. “What’s for lunch?”
“Whatever you make. I’m allowed a stupid question from time to time, Ferg,” Charles said defensively.
“Yes, but that was a really stupid question. You should know the minute those two women hear something like what you just told them, they have to share it with the others. I hope you also realize that they did not invite us to go along with them—nor did they leave us with any instructions. Having explained all that just now, I ask you, what’s for lunch?”
“Of course I realize that, Ferg. We’re chopped liver. They’re probably hatching a plan as we speak. By the time they get into the District, they’ll have it down pat. Do not be surprised if we don’t see them for a few days.”
Fergus poked his head into the refrigerator and quickly withdrew it when he didn’t see anything to his liking. “What do you think the plan will be?”
“They’re going to move up their timetable and go to Riverville and do the snatch right away.”
A look of horror crossed Fergus’s craggy features. “Without Avery in the background? Don’t tell me that. That’s . . . That’s . . .”
“Dangerous is the word you’re looking for,” Charles muttered.
“Then we need to call Avery right now.”
Charles looked at Fergus. “Think about what you just said. I wouldn’t want to be you when Avery tells Annie you called him to step in.”
“Ah, yes, I do see your point, Sir Charles. Some things I’m thinking are better left alone. Which brings me back to this. What’s for lunch?”
“And my answer is the same as before—whatever you decide to make.”
Fergus paced the vast kitchen, his face a mask of worry. He mumbled something that sounded like he did not, he absolutely did not, want peanut butter and jelly for lunch. Then he mumbled again about the best-laid plans of mice and men.
“Be serious here, Charles, what do you think they’re going to do?”
“God only knows, Ferg, but whatever it is, it won’t bode well for Arthur Forrester. That’s a given. Stop fretting, those women can take on an army and come out winners.”
“Uh-huh. Is that why you look so worried?”
“I was born to worry, Ferg. How about a ham-and-cheese omelet for lunch? Will that satisfy you?”
Fergus turned wily. “That depends on what you plan for dinner.”
“I thought we’d go into town and have dinner. We haven’t been anywhere in a few days, and I’m starting to get cabin fever. So an omelet or not?”
Fergus opened the refrigerator and reached for a bowl of brown eggs and handed it over to Charles. “I’ll grate the cheese and chop the ham.”
Charles nodded, his thoughts on his wife and Annie and what they were planning on their trip into the District. He told himself, over and over, till he was almost convinced, that perhaps it was better that he didn’t know.
* * *
As Charles cracked eggs into a bowl, Myra and Annie were rattling on ten miles to the minute. Myra was so engrossed in their conversation, she didn’t bother to chastise Annie for her hair-raising driving.
“I called Yoko, and she’s calling the others to meet up at the nursery. At first, I thought about calling the meeting at Nikki’s law office or the Post, but negated that almost immediately. We don’t want anyone to pay attention to us as a group. The nursery is the perfect place. Do you agree, Annie?”
“Absolutely. This is the part I like the best, Myra, when we all get together, forge the deal, and make our move.
“I keep thinking about the name partners at Forrester’s old firm, and what he’s forcing them to do so he can get all those escrow monies. I’m trying to put myself in their place and wonder what I’d do if I was up against it. It has to be a nightmare for them. I’m willing to cut them some slack with that case of Tram v Oden. Mr. Spicer went to them, and they, in turn, merely made it work to their advantage. I think it’s even possible that no actual perjury was committed if Spicer believed what he testified to. So I’m not sure I wouldn’t have done the same thing in that case.
“This, though, is a horse of a different color. This is deliberate subornation of perjury—
I think that’s the fancy lawyer’s jargon I once heard Nikki use—on Forrester’s part and the partners’ as well. Plain and simple, he’s blackmailing his former partners. What would you do, Annie, if you were them?”
Annie eased up on the gas pedal, turned on her signal light, and moved cautiously around a moving van that wasn’t driving fast enough to suit her. Back in the right lane and cruising at a speed of seventy-five miles an hour, she said, “I’d like to believe I’d own it and step up to the plate. I’m not sure I would, though, if there was a threat to, say, you, the girls, and Fergus. I’d want to protect you at all costs. And myself as well. I don’t know what I’d do, Myra, to be absolutely honest with you.”
“I feel the same way. We can do something about that, Annie. We can do it right now, from this car, before we get to Yoko’s nursery. We have the power to put the three partners out of their misery, and you know this thing is eating away at them. Their lives will be ruined, the firm will be in a shambles, and all sixty of the associates and partners of the firm will be tainted forever. The big question right this very minute is, do we do it on our own—without consulting the others—or do we wait and do it later? What do you think?”
“I think we should wait and put it to a vote. I know I’d get downright cranky if one or two of the girls did something without consulting us. I think you’d feel the same way. What we have going for us works because we work as a team.”
“You’re right, Annie. As usual. I guess I’m just anxious, and I so hate injustice. Not only is Arthur Forrester a sack of putrescence, but he’s an evil little weasel in the bargain. I want to pull the skin right off his face and pour vinegar over him.”
Annie laughed. “Why don’t you tell me how you really feel about him. That’s a joke, Myra. Do you think we’ll be leaving for Riverville today or tomorrow?”
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