PRIVATE
AGENDAS
Katherine Smith Dedrick
"Everything you want is on the other side of fear."
~Jack Canfield
Copyright © 2019 by Katherine Smith Dedrick
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. While references may be made to actual places or events, the names, character, incidents, and locations within are from the author’s imagination and are not a resemblance to actual living or dead persons, businesses, or events. Any similarity is coincidental.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2019
Aggressive Publishing, Inc.
Distributed by Bublish, Inc.
ISBN: 978-0-9965195-3-3
CHAPTER
1
WILLOW KNEW HOW to make herself feel better. She needed only a needle and the liquid gold inside. It was her salvation, her savior. “It does a body good.” She cracked up and rolled on the soiled sheets at that one. “Get it?” she said to no one. “You know, like milk does a body good?” She shrugged her shoulders at the lack of response, laughing so hard she almost fell off the bed.
Sometimes, she fleetingly remembered a different time, long ago, when someone had told her to stay away from drugs, that they could ruin her life. The image always presented vaguely as a boy and left her feeling oddly sad. Who was that? Someone I had feelings for? She hated when these thoughts and emotions danced around the fringes of her mind. They always left her with a raging headache.
She hurried to tie the tube around her arm. In a few minutes, she would have the cure. The memories and whatever or whoever that was in the fringes, would be silenced and she would find peace again. Jabbing the needle into her vein, she smiled as she felt the warmth spread. There was nothing to worry about now. As she began to doze off, she heard a loud rap on her door. Opening her eyes just a smidge, she saw Madame poke her head in.
Thank God, Madame thought. At least this one still groomed herself. The ones from America are always the cleanest, but they’re the hardest to break. “Willow, you have a visitor. He’s ordered the special. Make sure he’s happy when he leaves.”
Willow looked up briefly to see a male figure enter her room. She no longer cared what they looked like. She tried not to register reality or think during these times. Instead, she focused on the warmth of the liquid gold, knowing the visit would soon be over and she could once again slip into her private world.
CHAPTER
2
“POOR BASTARDS. THEY’RE using them—the same way they used me. It’s quite impressive, really.” Victoria paced around the conference room, speaking with grudging admiration. “They’re willing to sacrifice two of their best and brightest to convince the judge there’s no systemic problem at the firm.”
“Victoria, will you please sit down. You’re making me nervous.” Robert’s eyes followed her as he sat at the expensive, hand-carved mahogany table, rapidly tapping his pen on his legal pad. “You should feel incredibly satisfied.” He hated when his clients acted nuts. Calm and orderly, that’s the way he’d practiced law for the past twenty years and it had worked out incredibly well.
“I like to move while I think. And, for the record, one thing I hate more than a man telling me to smile, is a man telling me how I should feel,” Victoria snapped. “But since you opened that door, don’t you men ever stop to think before you say that kind of crap? You have no idea how we feel, and maybe we don’t want to smile.”
“Don’t pull that male-female BS with me, Victoria. You know that’s not what I meant.” Robert held up his hand to prevent her from interrupting. “Let me remind you that since last year, you and Kat have accomplished a great deal. You’ve opened your own firm; Kat’s been placed in charge of her family’s development projects; and together, you’ve successfully forced the insurance company to pay more than half its hurricane claims.” Robert counted each accomplishment on his fingers for emphasis. “As if that wasn’t enough, you’ve shone such a bright light on the company that the feds are investigating its former board. So, at the risk of having you jump down my throat again, you should be at least somewhat satisfied that you’ve moved the needle in a positive direction.”
“Of course I am. But none of those things have moved my lawsuit any closer to resolution. It’s been a whole year and we have no substantive evidence, no admissions, and no clear path forward.”
“It’s coming, Victoria. These cases take time. Just like dead fish eventually float to the surface, evidence of bad conduct always makes its way to the sunlight.”
“Yes, well while that’s a fabulous analogy and likely does the trick with your other clients, I’m not like your other clients.”
Robert snorted as he got up to make a fresh pot of coffee at the fancy barista bar he’d installed last year to impress his high-end clients. “That’s the understatement of the year.”
“You know, I never realized what a wonderful sense of humor you have,” Victoria said sarcastically, “but back to my point. I don’t like where my case is headed. What happens if the judge believes Billy, Trever, and Adam when they argue that the only documents in their files having anything to do with discrimination and harassment concern the two sacrificial lambs they’re offering up at her judicial alter?”
Robert shook his head. “I know this judge. She’s smart. She’s been around the block. She won’t simply take their word. She’ll order them to produce relevant personnel files for review, and she’ll allow us to depose witnesses. Trust me.”
“Really?” Victoria asked as she changed her pacing stride and direction. “Billy, Trever, and Adam are incredibly powerful. The Troika carries a lot of weight in this city. On any given day, one of them is having his picture taken with the mayor or some other Chicago heavyweight. The judge is certainly aware of their clout. If we’re not careful”—Victoria caught a glimpse of her frenzied expression in Robert’s obscenely ornate wall mirror—“they might just convince her to limit our access to evidence. If that happens, our case will be in the shitter.”
Victoria lingered at the mirror. When she’d first met Robert, he’d taken her and her mother, Sophia, on a tour of his office, and made a point to stop at this same mirror. He’d explained his belief that the eyes are windows to the soul and noted that he studied himself in this mirror before every court appearance to ensure he had the right look for each matter. At the time, Victoria had thought Robert was nuts with his gobbledygook about eyes, souls, and mirrors, but Sophia had been enthralled. In the end, Sophia’s opinion and his sterling reputation had far outweighed his mirror fetish—as Victoria now called it when she wanted to yank his chain—and she’d hired him that day. Over the past year, he’d become not only a trusted advisor, but also one of her closest friends.
Looking at her reflection, Victoria thought that if her eyes were indeed the windows to her soul, then hers was probably manic. She took a deep breath to shift her energy. She’d read something about calming yourself by breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth, or was it the other way around? Whichever, it never worked for her. She sighed, scooted up onto the corner of the conference table, and leaned down toward Robert. “Here’s the deal. I’m no longer interested in playing by the rules. You know how highly I think of you. You’re one of the best employment lawyers in the country, but the Troika is pulling every string da
ngling from this judge’s robe to try to unravel my case. We need to shake things up before one of those strings catches and she’s reminded of—oh, I don’t know—a large campaign contribution she got from their firm. We need to do something they’re not expecting. They’re no longer worried. It’s been a year, we have little proof, and so far, Adam, Billy, and Trever have remained untarnished.”
“What are you suggesting, Victoria? I’m not putting my law license on the line for a case—not even yours.”
“Of course not, and I would never ask that of you. I am, however, suggesting we color right to the outside edge of that line.”
“My question stands, Victoria. You’re stalling.” Robert was clearly annoyed with her critique of his litigation strategy. “You’re not going to like it—at least, not at first—but hear me out. I’ve thought this through, and I think it will work. Don’t be insulted…but…you’re fired as…”
Robert shot up and glared at Victoria, his pale, Irish complexion now beet red. “You’re joking,” he growled menacingly. “Fired? Surely, you wouldn’t fire the one guy in the city who helped you when you were booted from the only job you’d ever had. I stopped the Troika from publicly trashing you in the press and helped you start your law firm. Have you forgotten all this? Have you forgotten how you and your mother came to my office stressed out of your minds? I cleared my calendar to meet with you, dry your tears, and prevent you from jumping into the river. That’s not someone anyone in their right mind would fire.”
Victoria scooted off the table and walked calmly over to the coffee bar to refill her and Robert’s cups. “You didn’t let me finish. You’re not fired—as in off the case,” Victoria responded trying her best to ignore his drama while turning to replace the pot. “But—you’re no longer my only counsel. I’m bringing Kat and also Jenny Acker onto the team. I want one of them at every deposition you take of these assholes.”
Victoria heard a grunt and a thud and turned to see coffee splattered across Robert’s white shirt and dripping from his right hand. The cup was lying on its side, trickling black liquid onto the formerly pristine carpet. She grabbed a cloth and pitcher of ice water from the coffee bar and wrapped a cool, wet cloth around his now red and swollen hand. “I knew you wouldn’t be happy about this, but I didn’t think you’d try to scald yourself to death. If you would calm down and just give me a minute, I’ll explain. You’re not off the case, Robert. You’re just not lead counsel, at least not to the outside world.”
“Victoria, I don’t co-counsel with other lawyers, and I certainly won’t work with two lawyers who have little, if any, litigation experience. Have you forgotten that neither of them sat for the Illinois Bar? They’re not licensed to practice here. Besides, no judge in his or her right mind would allow a defendant’s mother to be on the opposite side of her son’s case.”
“Oh, please, Robert. Their being admitted to practice law in Illinois is a minor detail. File a pro hac vice motion. You’ve filed dozens of them to handle matters for clients in other states. As for Jenny being related to Billy, so what? She never worked at Acker, Smith & McGowen, never represented his firm, and has no confidential information. There should be no problem. You must admit”—Victoria paused and flashed Robert a wicked smiled—“it would be unexpected and, at the very least, it should give Billy pause. The local press would have a field day, and the longer the case is in the press, the more difficult it will be for the boys to ignore us.”
“What about their lack of litigation experience?” Robert snapped. “What are they going to do during the depositions? Shop online?”
Victoria became still. “Be very careful, my friend. You’re about to cross a line. I’ll assume that comment slipped out because you’re upset and in some sort of shock after your unnecessary self-scalding. Did you forget Jenny is a former prosecutor? She had an impressive career until her ex-husband forced her to give it up. She went to trial in over one hundred criminal cases, and her conviction rate was one of the highest in Georgia.”
“Victoria, seriously? Her ex-husband is the former chairman of the board of Highline Insurance, one of the guys you and Kat sicced the feds on! Jenny’s presence will just muck this up. She also thought she had information that might help our case. Are you forgetting that little detail?”
Wanting to give each of them a chance to cool down, Victoria walked over to the window and looked down at the Chicago River. It was packed with sailboats waiting for one of the bridges to open so they could reach winter storage before the river froze. She watched in appreciation as the blinking and clanging railroad-like guardrails on either side of the bridge slowly lowered, the congested afternoon traffic came to a halt, and the bridge split in the center slowly lifting its massive arms into the air. Feeling a semblance of control return, she turned back toward Robert.
“If she had information and might be a witness, then I wouldn’t be suggesting we bring her on as co-counsel. All she had was a vague recollection about Adam and some prostitution arrest he had more than ten years ago when they were all in law school together, and a comment she overheard him make about the firm hiring only female lawyers with certain personality traits. The prostitution bust isn’t relevant, and even if it was, no judge would allow it in court this many years after the fact. The comment, without more, will get us nowhere. And the feds going after Jenny’s ex-husband, Big Bill, doesn’t matter one whit either.”
“I couldn’t disagree more,” Robert replied, still nursing his scalded hand. “Jenny’s the one who found his notes about stalling insurance payouts. She’ll be called as a foundation witness in Kat’s case.”
“So what? That presents zero impediments to her working as my counsel.” Robert opened his mouth to speak, but this time Victoria mimicked his earlier movement and put her hand in the air. “And since her divorce, she’s focused her career on women’s issues, with an emphasis on sexual harassment and gender discrimination. She also volunteers at a shelter helping abused women. She’s ready for this.”
“But—”
“Let me finish. This suit is bigger than just salvaging my reputation. It’s about stopping the false narrative Acker, Smith & McGowen has been championing for years. The fact is they don’t promote women. They have zero women partners, yet Billy gets award after award for his work with women in the law. It’s absolute bullshit! I know. I was there. What the firm does do, however, is work the women to their respective bones for six or seven years, assigning them to mundane cases while giving the meatier ones to the men. Then, when it’s time for partnership, the women are passed over and labeled unqualified because they haven’t yet handled complex assignments, or they leave ‘voluntarily,’” Victoria said, using air quotes, “or they’re shoved out the door on some pretext.” Pausing to read the text on her phone, Victoria gave a self-satisfied smile and continued. “So, why haven’t any of these women filed complaints? Why would they just fade off into the sunset after years of hard work? Why wouldn’t at least one of them have fought back?”
“You know why, Victoria. Hell, you almost took that same path! When we first met, your main concern was if you filed suit, you’d never be hired by another firm and your legal career would be over. So I understand how you feel about where we sit now with evidence, or the lack thereof...I really do, but let’s be realistic. The Troika has built an internationally renowned, powerful law firm. They’re going to fight hard and dirty to protect it, doing everything they can to shut down this idea of yours to bring Jenny and Kat on board.”
Victoria walked confidently toward the conference room door. “That, my friend, is exactly the point.” She opened the door, and as if on cue, in walked Jenny and Kat.
CHAPTER
3
“WHERE IS HE?” Victoria asked, leaning out the door and looking up and down the hallway.
“At the last minute, his father dragged him into a deal that needs to be wrapped up within the next forty-eight hours. He asked me to extend his apologies a
nd said he’d catch up with us soon. And hello to you too!” Kat said, as she gave Victoria a hug and kiss on the cheek. Turning to the elegant woman behind her, Kat asked, “Victoria, you remember Jenny?”
Victoria was disappointed that Armond had not made the trip. She would have liked his input at their strategy sessions over the next few days, and if she was being totally honest, she wanted him there to back her ideas. Tilting her head and fixing a smile on her face, she shook Jenny’s hand and said, “Of course. It’s been a while, Jenny. You look fabulous. Something’s different, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“Victoria! It’s so nice to see you again. It seems like for-
ever since our last meeting. And yes, something is different. I colored and cut my hair, lost weight, and got a divorce! The Botox doesn’t hurt either. All that adds up to a new me!” Jenny’s excitement was infectious. She reminded Victoria of a puppy making everyone it met feel instantly better.
“Well, it certainly works for you.” Victoria laughed, nodding toward the far side of the table. “Jenny, this is Robert, my lawyer and close friend. Robert, meet Jenny.”
Robert walked around and extended his good hand. “Jenny, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I followed your divorce closely, as did half of America. Congratulations on crossing the finish line.”
“Robert, I’m so pleased to meet you. I’ve heard so many great things about you. I look forward to being part of your team.”
“Yes, well, I’ve just been advised of Victoria’s plan. I need to be straightforward with both of you,” he said, nodding at Kat and Jenny. “I’m not on board. In fact, I’m actually quite opposed, for a number of reasons. First of all—”
Sensing Robert was about to launch into a tirade, Kat walked directly up to Robert and gave him one of her signature hugs. “Robert, you know I can’t stand being ignored. It’s good to see you again. I’m sure we’ll get into all the details of V’s plan soon enough. The good, the bad, and the ugly. For now, though, let’s all get to know one another a bit more. I’ve taken the liberty of reserving a private room at that fabulous restaurant down the street. We’ll be able to air all our opinions over dinner and a good bottle of wine or two. I’m in the mood for a big piece of meat. Shall we?” Kat asked as she crooked her arm through Robert’s. “Tell me, what on earth did you do to your hand?”
Private Agendas: A Victoria Rodessa Legal Thriller Page 1
