He let out a roar of laughter.
‘She said that?’
‘Yeah. She said you learned how to argue in the playground and haven’t stopped since.’
‘She would know. She came out of my grandmother ready to contradict anybody and everything.’
‘Takes one to know one.’
He laughed again. ‘Yes, it certainly does. Well, the real reason I became a lawyer is . . . okay, you got me. Your grand-mother is absolutely right.’
We burst out laughing.
‘So, was it a good case?’ he asked. ‘The one you just finished?’
‘I guess,’ I said. ‘Is it true judges take months to give their decisions?’
‘It can take a long time, yes. Who was the presiding judge?’
‘Monahan.’
‘Oh you’ll get judgment a lot sooner than usual. She’s going to Tahiti for her daughter’s wedding in two weeks and is frantically dictating her judgments so that she can have them all finished before she leaves.’
‘So we could get a decision in the next two weeks?’
He nodded.
‘How do you know?’
‘I had lunch with her the other day.’
‘You have lunch with judges?’
He gave me a funny look. ‘They’re people too, you know. As a matter of fact, they’re mainly ex-barristers. If you’ve been at the bar as long as I have, it’s highly likely that the judge presiding over your matter once worked on the same floor as you.’
‘Doesn’t that bother you, though? You’re a QC. Shouldn’t you be on the bench?’
‘I’ve been approached but turned it down. I like the flexibility of the—’
‘You were approached to be a judge?’ I couldn’t believe it.
He shrugged and looked at me calmly as he dipped his bok choy in soy sauce. ‘Yes, I was. Twice, in fact.’
‘But why on earth would you turn it down?’
‘Because the hours would be even worse than they are for me now. It’s hard enough as a single dad. I would like to spend time with my children, as strange as that may sound to you.’
I was shocked. Dad had never spoken so openly with me before. I never thought that he considered himself a ‘single dad’. Sure he worked crazy hours during the week and on most weekends. How he felt about it had never even crossed my mind. I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure how to respond without sounding corny.
Luckily for me the heart-to-heart was interrupted by a phone call from Dad’s clerk. We needed to leave as he had an urgent meeting with a client. I didn’t mind. I was stuffed and ready to roll out the doors.
‘Too bad it’s your last week at Aunt Nirvine’s,’ he said, when we approached his building. ‘We could have done this again.’
‘Yeah,’ I said, and he smiled. ‘See you at home, Dad.’
‘You’ll probably be asleep by the time I get back,’ he said. ‘I’ll be working.’
‘Okay, well, enjoy looking at my photos. And get rid of the braces photo.’
‘Never,’ he said with a grin, and walked into his building.
Dad was wrong. Judge Monahan delivered judgment that Thursday. She must have inhaled helium before dictating her decision.
It was bigger than Casey expected. Most of us were in the staffroom when she came back from court. She slammed the judgment down on the table and, for the first time in my life, I saw her beam as she announced the amount of damages awarded.
‘Seven hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars plus costs!’ she said.
Aunt Nirvine let out a whoop and reached for the judgment. ‘Are you kidding?’
‘No I am not,’ Casey said, victory flushing her face.
The other lawyers surrounded her, offering their congratulations, patting her on the back.
She caught my glare but ignored me. I left the staffroom in disgust.
The next day’s newspapers had a field day.
JUSTICE PREVAILS! EMPLOYER’S NEGLIGENCE ‘A DISGRACE’!
JUDGE AWARDS WIDOWER $722,000
EMPLOYERS TAKE NOTE: PROTECT YOUR STAFF FROM HARM
It was maddening. I read through one of the articles and it made me want to puke.
‘It Was Never About Money,’ Widower Says, ‘It was the Principle of the Matter!’
By Carly Spotten
Bernie White wipes a tear from his eye as he shows me a photograph of his late wife, Maureen White. ‘She was the love of my life,’ he tells me. ‘She didn’t reject me after I suffered my workplace accident. She loved and cared for me. She never made me feel useless, although I was ashamed by my disability.’
I ask Mr White what his generous compensation figure will mean to him. ‘Well apart from the obvious benefit, which is that I will have something to live off now that my main financial support has been taken away from me, the damages payout is a message to Jenkins Storage World and employers like it to look after their staff or they’ll feel it in the hip pocket, where it really hurts them. So I guess what I mean is that this was never about the money. It was the principle of the matter.’
What was even more frustrating was that there were still so many unanswered questions. Why had there been two people at the scene of the crime? Why had Webb denied his statement? Who was going to profit from this damages award? Where was the getaway car and who did it belong to?
We couldn’t confront Webb or we’d risk putting Claudia in danger. Bernie had been paid out. There was nothing we could do now. I’d lost the war. I was beginning to doubt whether I wanted to be a lawyer after all.
Jacinta and I were jogging around the Botanic Gardens during our lunch break. She was fit but I was managing to keep up with her. We were turning the corner near Lady Mac-quarie’s Chair, talking about our favourites movies, when my phone rang.
‘Just ignore it,’ she said.
‘I can’t,’ I said, stopping and taking the phone out of my pocket. ‘Amit said he’d call to arrange where we’re meeting after work. I’ll just be a sec.’
I took the call and Jacinta moved out of the path of other joggers to do some lunges.
‘Listen here, you little shit.’
It was Bernie.
My pulse quickened.
‘A little birdie told me about how Humphries got an anonymous call suggesting he speak to Claudia.’
‘Yeah, so?’ I said, trying to sound like I didn’t care.
‘And another little birdie with shit for brains told me how Claudia’s bloke was paid a friendly visit by an insurance investigator.’
‘Am I supposed to know what you’re talking about?’ I said.
‘Shut up, idiot. It took me a while but I finally figured out that you must have been behind it all.’
‘I don’t know what you’re on about. You can’t even prove a thing.’
‘I’m not interested in proof. Just look at my case. Proof means nothing. Anyway it doesn’t matter. We both know it was you.’
I laughed, trying not to sound nervous. ‘And everybody says I’m the one with the wild imagination.’
Jacinta took a step towards me, a confused expression on her face. ‘Who is it?’ she asked.
‘Bernie,’ I mouthed.
She frowned.
I took a punt. ‘So when are you and Annie moving in together?’
He paused, then said in a low voice: ‘You need to learn how to mind your own business. You don’t want to cross me.’
‘I suppose that’s a threat? Can I just ask you, how much did you and Rodney get? And what about Webb? Was he in on it?’
He hung up the phone.
We returned to the office and I went into the men’s room, washed up and changed. When I walked out Jacinta was waiting for me in the hallway.
‘You have a telephone message,’ she said quietly, looking around to make sure no-one was within earshot. ‘Annie.’
Recognition dawned on my face. ‘Annie?’
Jacinta nodded. ‘Let’s call her from the spare office. We can shut the door and p
ut her on speaker.’
Things were getting stranger by the hour. I dialled the number Jill had written down. A woman answered.
‘Is this Annie?’
‘Yes.’
‘This is Noah Nabulsi, returning your call.’
‘Just a second.’ She put me on hold for a few moments then came back on the line. ‘Can you meet me in half an hour with that lawyer, Casey Williams, at the McCafe on George Street?’
‘Why?’
‘I have information.’
‘About what?’
‘I can’t say now.’
‘Well you’re Bernie’s girlfriend, how can I trust you?’
‘I’m his ex-girlfriend as of this morning. He can go to hell for all I care. Now are you going to meet me or not?’
‘Yes.’ I was going to drag Casey kicking and screaming if I had to. I needed an adult involved now. We couldn’t do this on our own anymore.
‘I’ll come with you to speak to Casey,’ Jacinta said. ‘She hates you. Maybe she’s more likely to take you seriously if I’m there too.’
‘But this is my last week here. You need to keep this job.’
‘Stuff it. This is important. Stop bloody arguing, will you? Come on, let’s go.’
Casey was at her desk, hunched over a folder of documents.
‘I’m busy,’ she said, before we could speak.
I closed the door.
She arched an eyebrow. ‘Now what?’ she said in a harassed tone.
‘Bernie’s ex-girlfriend just called. She wants to meet us in an hour at the McCafe on George.’
‘You have got to be joking.’
‘Do I look like I’m joking?’ She was infuriating!
‘You have to go,’ Jacinta insisted. ‘Annie has information about Bernie that she wants you and Noah to hear.’
‘The case is over.’
‘So what?’ Jacinta said. ‘Not everything comes down to billable hours.’
‘Don’t take that tone with me, Jacinta.’
‘Don’t you get it?! This is important. Things have gotten . . . ugly . . . Threats have been made. We can’t tell you any more but people’s lives might be at stake here.’
‘I know you’ve had your doubts about Bernie,’ I said. ‘I’ve seen it in your eyes.’
Casey stood up. ‘Oh for God’s sake, Noah, you continue to act like this is all part of some B-grade telemovie.’
‘Aren’t you even curious?’
She picked up her handbag. ‘Fine. I’ll come, if only to put a stop to all this nonsense once and for all.’
Jacinta insisted on coming along. She had just as much right as I did, she argued.
I spotted Annie in the back corner of the McCafe.
‘How do you know what she looks like?’ Casey asked as we walked over to the booth.
‘I’ve seen her with Bernie.’
‘So you were spying on him?’
‘Yeah.’
Casey rolled her eyes. ‘I knew it.’
Annie saw us and I nodded. She motioned for us to take a seat. Jacinta slid in, and I followed. Casey remained standing.
‘Aren’t you going to sit down?’ Annie asked.
Casey heaved a sigh. ‘Secret meetings in McDonald’s of all places. How tacky. My God, this is ridiculous.’ She sat down and fixed her eyes on Annie’s face.
‘Well, what’s all this about?’
‘Bernie dumped me this morning. We’d had plans to buy a house together, get married. I’d even had my leave approved for a holiday we were planning in June. But he dumped me! He said he was a new man now and he wanted to start fresh. I stuck with him as his bloody mistress when Maureen was alive and he used to sponge money off me and her.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ Casey said, not sounding sorry at all. ‘But what has this got to do with us?’
Annie opened her bag and took out a plastic wallet of documents.
‘Bernie staged this whole case with Maureen’s boss, for the money.’
‘See!’ I cried at Casey. ‘Now do you believe me?’
‘This is insane,’ she said angrily.
‘So you never had any doubts about him?’ I pressed. ‘Even after I told you I saw him with Rodney?’
‘Well, I doubted he was a genuinely grieving widower but to pull off something like that . . .’
‘Rodney was in on it,’ Jacinta explained. ‘Don’t you see? It must have been Rodney who made up all that evidence. He needed to lose so that Bernie would get paid and they’d share the payout.’
‘What proof do you have?’ Casey asked Annie.
‘Emails between Bernie and Rodney. Look, here’s one from Bernie to Rodney: “I spoke to Legal Aid. The Compensation to Victims Act is the way to go. I’ll find a lawyer who’ll suck up the story. If you play your part right, admit the negligence from the start, we can settle quickly and split the dough.” ’
Casey was speechless. Annie continued.
‘Here’s another one: “Her name’s Casey Williams. She’s apparently one of the top lawyers at this firm. And they’re not too expensive. Word is she’s tough. She’ll bring you down (ha ha, that’s what we want!). Anyway, the bitch had it coming. She’s gone and no-one ever needs to find out about the workers’ comp payments.” ’
‘Oh my God . . .’ Casey’s voice trailed off.
‘How did you get these emails?’ I asked. ‘Are Rodney and Bernie stupid enough to just leave them saved in their inbox?’
‘I’m a legal secretary. I retrieve deleted emails all the time. They didn’t permanently delete the emails. So I managed to find them. Anyway,’ she said, turning to Casey, ‘I knew they were in on something together. And I know that puts me in a bad position. But now he’s dumped me and I want my revenge.’
‘Why’d you call me though?’ I asked.
‘Bernie had a fit this morning, right before he dumped me. He said that Rodney had told him someone had tipped off his lawyer about Claudia and that was why she’d been called to the stand. He was furious. Claudia’s evidence could have damaged his case. Maureen had been threatening to leave Bernie before she died. Personally I was ecstatic that Maureen would finally be out of the picture.’
I noticed Jacinta flinch. As happy as I was that Annie was talking to us, I had zero respect for her. Not only had she been having an affair with a married man, that married man had been Bernie: a dog-ugly, sleazy, dirty scumbag. Annie looked pretty decent, if you ignored the massive mole sprouting hairs on her wrist. I wondered what the hell could have possessed her to fall for a grub like that?
Annie continued, forcing my attention from the mole (it was fascinating in a gruesome kind of way) to her face instead. ‘But Bernie was worried that Maureen would rat him out to the workers’ comp insurer.’
‘Why would she do that?’ Casey said, looking confused.
It was all I could do to stop from rolling my eyes. Casey noticed the look on my face. ‘I didn’t represent him on his workers’ comp claim,’ she said defensively. ‘I suppose that was a big lie too? Oh don’t be so smug about it,’ she snapped at me.
‘All right,’ I said, with a half-smile.
‘Bernie was exaggerating his injuries to claim ongoing workers’ comp,’ Jacinta explained.
‘And how do you know that?’ Casey asked. Then she quickly raised a hand. ‘Actually, don’t answer. I can only guess this was another instance of information being obtained through illicit and questionable means?’
‘You bet,’ I said proudly. ‘You refused to listen to me. What choice did we have?’
Annie interrupted before Casey could reply. ‘Perhaps we could focus here? I haven’t finished.’
Casey gestured at her to continue.
‘Bernie paid Claudia a visit. I went along. Bernie was acting more aggressive than I’d ever seen him. Her guy was there too. Barry or—’
‘Harry,’ I corrected.
Casey’s head turned. ‘And how—’
‘Don’t bother,’ Jacinta sang out.
‘Claudia and Harry were pretty shaken up. Webb, who worked with Maureen, had threatened Claudia to keep her mouth shut on the stand.’
‘No wonder she clammed up,’ Casey said.
‘She had to,’ Annie continued. ‘Anyway, Bernie accused Claudia and Harry of trying to sabotage his case. Harry said he felt he had no choice but to talk when the insurance investigator visited.’
‘Insurance investigator?’ Casey repeated.
I bit my lip.
‘Bernie quizzed Harry about the insurance guy – what was his name, what did he look like, that stuff – and then something must have clicked. He suddenly started swearing. He went off his nut, yelling about a guy called—’ She pointed to me and I grinned.
Casey let out a harsh laugh. ‘Why am I not surprised?’
‘Anyway, we left. He knew Claudia and Harry were too scared to say anything to anyone. They clearly wanted to put the whole thing behind them.’ She locked eyes with me. ‘So that’s how I found out about you. When Bernie broke up with me, I thought of you. You obviously had it in for him. Why else would you have gone to those lengths?’
‘You’ve got that right,’ Jacinta said knowingly.
‘But I need to take a step back. You see, even before this morning, Bernie had been acting funny. Now I’ve read the emails I know that Webb was blackmailing him, calling him and sending him emails saying that he wanted a cut or he’d talk. I found emails from back before the trial started. Here, have a look.’
From: [email protected]
Cut me in 1/3 or your compo payment is going down the drain. I can ruin you.
From: [email protected]
Youre one stubborn guy. I’m being called to give evidence. I can forget all about my conversation with Maureen. It will be like it never happened. I can forget about the fact that your WorkSafe meeting minutes were bull. But I want in on it. 1/3 and no less. Ive got emails from Maureen to her sister that she left on the work computer. She was going to leave you. She was going to tell Workers Comp how you were rorting the system. And like I told you on the phone I KNOW A WHOLE LOT MORE!
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