The Hate Crime

by Rachel Sinclair

  I reached into my drawer, and brought out a contract. “I do have a paralegal, her name is Heather. For her work, I bill at the rate of $200 per hour. I have investigators. They, too, bill at the rate of $200 per hour.” Ordinarily, I would bill at the rate of $100 per hour for Heather, and that same rate for the investigators, who were Tom Garrett, Nick Savante and Jack O’Brien, who were my investigators and friends. They did a very good, thorough job. I also had Anna, who was our hacker. She was able to get records that I was unable to get through more legitimate means. For her services, I also usually billed $100 per hour. However, for this case, I was going to bill all of their services at $200 per hour. This guy apparently was willing to pay any amount, so I might as well put a premium on everybody’s work.

  He looked over the contract thoroughly and signed it. “So you’ll start getting to work immediately?”

  I nodded my head, and said nothing. I was nonplussed about the fact that he was so willing to pay such a higher dollar amount for my services. He didn’t question it. He didn’t even blink. I was charging him as much as a white shoe firm would charge, and I was far from being a white shoe lawyer. Granted, any amount of money he was going to pay me was going to be a drop in the bucket for him, but still.

  I crossed my arms in front of me, and wondered what his game was. “As I told you before, I’m going to find out anything that you’re not telling me. So if there’s something I need to know, about why do you want me so badly to represent you, then you need to come clean about it right now.”

  He simply put his checkbook back in his jacket pocket and stood up. “I can certainly come to visit you anytime you need me to speak with you. As you might imagine, as a condition of my bail, I am not to leave the country. In fact, I am not to leave the jurisdiction. So, I have assigned my international travel to my deputy. That means that I will be at your disposal. I will be in my office, as I plan on keeping a full work schedule. But, I will make any time that you need me to make to speak with you.”

  “Okay. I appreciate that.”

  He tapped his fingers on my desk again. “Is there anything more that you need from me right now?”

  “At the moment, no. Although I’m sure that once I start getting into the investigation of this case, I’m going to have to speak with you.” I had a feeling that when I spoke with her parents and her friends, I was going to get a very different picture then what Silas was telling me as far as how their relationship went.

  He stood up. “Very well then,” he said. He gave me his business card. “I know that I filled out a client intake sheet, however, I still want you to have this. I need for you to call me anytime of the day or night if you need to speak with me. I have nothing to hide. I hope that you know that.”

  As he walked away, I did wonder about that. Briefly. I wondered if it was true that he had nothing to hide. My gut was telling me that he had a lot to hide.

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