Craven Conflict

by David Cooper

  Dawn reached for her wine glass once more. She wondered how Brian would react if the complete version of the photo ever saw the light of day. Would he let it go, as the momentary lapse of reason that it quite clearly was at the time, or…

  Her mind raced further, fearful of the thought that Avery might give the photo an even wider audience online. But it slowly sunk in that it would be pointless for her to duck out of helping Karen and risk regretting the decision for evermore, merely out of hope that Avery would then keep the image to himself. He had promised long ago that he would destroy it, and he had not kept his promise. He was not to be trusted. She would face him down and call his bluff.

  “I take it I’m driving tonight, darling?”

  Lost in her inner turmoil, Dawn had not heard Brian return. Thankfully her phone was now back in her handbag, switched off and out of sight, even if the wine glass and the open bottle were plainly visible.

  “Hope you don’t mind.”

  Dawn tried her hardest to enjoy the meal, but found her mind constantly wandering. Determined as she was to rise above Avery’s latest underhand attempt to throw her off balance, she was in turmoil. Would she need to share her further troubles with Karen as soon as the weekend was over, or could she simply sign the final version of the statement and keep everything else to herself? She shuddered at the near certainty that she would be flooded with vulgar text messages from Avery’s friends and contacts, as they chose Reply All to let every recipient know what they thought of the image.

  Monday 3 rd June

  When Craven arrived at work just before nine o’clock, keen to make a start on his month end billing despite the target being just out of reach, he was pleased to find an unfamiliar folder of papers on his chair awaiting his attention. On closer examination, he discovered that Squire had passed him a newly revived file. It bore a yellow sticky label with a handwritten message ‘Please deal with this case. Court hearing next Wednesday. RS.’ The lack of further explanation was annoying, but he was anxious to stay in Squire’s good books. In marked contrast, his path had not crossed with Finnie’s ever since the previous week’s encounter on the rear staircase, and he felt that the chance of salvaging any kind of decent working relationship with Finnie had become distinctly remote.

  He noted that the newly delegated file was one of the last cases that Caroline Shore had been handling before her maternity leave, and that the court appearance involved an application for a compulsory winding up order against an insolvent debtor. The client, a local company by the name of Edgborne Materials, was a supplier to the building trade. He had not encountered the client previously since joining the firm.

  Craven went off in search of Squire in the hope of eliciting more information. But Squire was nowhere to be found, and Sheila Driver was evidently in no mood to be helpful.

  “Why don’t you read the intranet diary before you come out here bothering people? He’s in a meeting downstairs.”

  Craven was surprised at the dismissive response.

  “How long will he be?”

  “I’ve absolutely no idea. Read the diary and you might find out.” Craven realised that further conversation was futile, and made to hurry back to his office. “And try not to go past my desk so quickly. You create a draught.”

  Craven stared at the exasperated secretary. He was at a loss to understand how anyone of her seniority could have chosen to find fault with him over something so petty, and do so in front of onlookers. As the first giggles broke out from one of her colleagues, Craven stalked off in frustration. It took him ten minutes to regain his composure before he could start familiarising himself with the new file.

  In all his years of experience in debt claims, Craven had never had to deal with a winding up petition before. At his previous firm, although he had regularly instructed bailiffs, one of his more specialist colleagues had always handled cases of outright insolvency.

  Craven was grateful to find that Caroline Shore had left a procedural checklist on the file, along with a note of what had happened when she had attended the previous hearing in the third week of March. There was no doubt that the underlying debt was due and uncontested. The petition had been properly served and advertised through the necessary official channels prior to the first court appearance. But the debtor company had managed to obtain a last minute adjournment by producing evidence that a major new sales order was imminent, which would enable the debt to be paid. The judge had been amenable to the plea for leniency, but had made it clear that this was the debtor’s last chance.

  Craven looked through the most recent correspondence. He realised that almost as soon as the fresh hearing date had been confirmed, shortly after he had joined the firm, the debtor had conceded that the new order had irrevocably fallen through, and was evidently accepting its fate. The client’s managing director had written to Caroline Shore to acknowledge the fresh hearing date, emphasising that it would now be vital for Edgborne Materials to obtain the winding up order no later than the end of June, in order to secure a corresponding tax concession that ran into many thousands of pounds. Since then, the file had lain dormant in Squire’s office until he realised that the hearing was imminent, and decided that he did not after all wish to dirty his own hands by attending at court himself.

  It seemed plain to Craven that the petition would be unopposed, and that he only needed to report the loss of the debtor’s lifeline and then ask the judge for the winding up order. Satisfied with his assessment and with Caroline Shore’s checklist, he made a note of the time and date of the hearing before putting the file away and turning to his month end administration.

  Craven soon completed the task of reviewing his time records, and collated a set of billing templates for Squire’s approval. The arrival of an internal memo headed ‘Fee Earner Appraisals’, confirming a round of meetings over the course of the coming Thursday and Friday, was the only interruption. He quickly noted that his name was missing. Squire had told him, shortly after he had started at the firm, that his first three months would end with a probation review. Craven concluded that this meant he would fall outside the scope of the general appraisal programme. With Finnie all set to be in charge of the litigation fee earners’ appraisals, Craven felt all the more relieved that he would be exempt, and he fervently hoped that Squire would deal with the probation review.

  * * * * *

  Two floors below, Avery had come in for a meeting with Wagstaff to deal with the next round of the court timetable, and he was discussing the contents of his own witness statement. Squire had decided to sit and observe, indirectly sparing himself the immediate need to help Craven with the file he had just delegated, and Wagstaff had done nothing to deter him. It was of no concern to Squire or Wagstaff that the BLH file would be double charged for the meeting, including a charge for Wagstaff’s travelling time to the city centre office. If Avery’s insurers challenged any specific item of costs, instead of simply imposing an overall reduction on what would end up as a well padded file in any event, it was in the two partners’ minds a small price to pay for Squire’s continuing engagement with what he still believed would be Karen’s ignominious retreat or downfall.

  “Looking good, Wayne. I think that just about covers most of the main points.” Whatever Wagstaff might have thought privately to himself about the likely impact of Avery’s phone and bank records being forced into the open, and about Avery’s side of the story in general, he was in little doubt that the defence to the claim was still good enough to stand up and fight. If the case was reasonably arguable on paper, and if there was no major flaw that might surface early on, it would go the distance and the firm would be paid for the full trial. Even if Avery came off worse under cross-examination and ended up losing. It was never going to slip Wagstaff’s mind that trials were the most expensive stage of any litigation, and the most lucrative for the law firms conducting them.

  “Now, let’s just see if we can firm up your case that you never destabilised Dawn Vallance. I
know you’re convinced she’s not going to be giving any evidence, and I hope you’re right, but we’re better safe than sorry…”

  When Avery first discovered that his exchanges of text messages with Dawn had been formally disclosed and were going to form part of Karen’s case, he had initially given Wagstaff little more than a short and evasive account of how he had come to be corresponding with Dawn in the course of the weekend before he jumped ship. The weeks that had passed by since then had given him more than enough time to think of a further twist. He quickly ran through the extra points for Wagstaff’s benefit.

  “OK, Wayne, we might be best holding some of that back for cross-examination. Right, Gemma Gabriel’s evidence…”

  “I don’t think we’ll have to worry too much about her.” Avery answered, seeing no need to disguise a self satisfied smirk.

  “What makes you say that?”

  Avery explained. Wagstaff and Squire exchanged beaming smiles.

  “Nice one.” Wagstaff eventually replied. “That’s going to come as a shock, if they don’t already know. It also means that your secret weapon is likely to get even more of a free ride. So, if you’re OK leaving us to take care of that, we’ll soon be all set.”

  Avery left the meeting, and the two solicitors spent a further hour working on the remaining evidence that would be advanced on his behalf at trial.

  “The things we have to do for money, eh, Rufus?”

  “Or for revenge. That woman cost me thousands, and a very sore head, when I had to come clean about my family trust. Any chance I get to help somebody else destroy her, I’ll take it.”

  * * * * *

  “Your client’s arrived, Neeta. He’s in the meeting room. I’m just about done for the day. Karen’s probably going to be here a while.”

  “OK, thanks.”

  With her last task finished, Dawn was about to turn her computer off and leave, when she heard an alert from her mobile, confirming the arrival of a new text message. As she touched the screen, she was startled to see that the sender was ‘Wayne’ and quickly realised that it was a further message from Avery to the same circle of recipients from two days earlier. Fearing the worst, she read on.

  ‘Today’s Horoscope. Sagittarius. Trust your instinct and let your spiritual assets be uplifted. You have two good reasons to cleave a path away from unrewarded loyalties.’

  Dawn reeled in horror. She was in no doubt about the sinister game that Avery was playing. The expected trickle of replies from Avery’s friends to everyone who had received the previous message had hurt her enough already, easy as it was to delete them unread as soon as they appeared. But the latest one made it plain that he was turning up the heat.

  Earlier that afternoon, Dawn had signed the final version of her statement, ready for their mutual exchange two days ahead. She had chosen not to tell Karen about Avery’s message from the previous weekend, deciding that it would be preferable to keep it to herself. But she realised that this was no longer the sensible option. She went off in search of Karen and calmly told her about Avery’s scheming.

  “Christ, Dawn, how could he stoop so low? I’d better see what Lennie thinks. Are you sure you’re OK about the statement? I really don’t want to make things difficult for you, but…”

  “I’m perfectly OK. To be honest, that bloody selfie was my own stupid mistake in the first place. I’ve dreaded the thought of Brian ever finding out about that evening. But I suppose I’ll have to live with it if he does.”

  “That’s good of you.” Karen gestured towards her computer screen. “Would you believe what I found out earlier? Another of the solicitors we lost to Wayne has just been snapped up. Stephanie Russon, straight in as an associate at some up and coming firm in Oxford. More big fees heading in Wayne’s direction, at our expense. Something else for Lennie. Another last minute edit to my statement, for a start.”

  Karen was not wrong. With the amendment in hand, Lennie made a note to ask for the disclosure of Avery’s fee invoice, and turned his attention to Dawn’s unwanted text messages and their veiled threat. He assured Karen that there could be serious consequences for anyone who tried to interfere with witnesses in any court proceedings, not only criminal cases. In his view, even someone as unscrupulous as Avery would realise that he ought to steer well clear of making any use of the offending image. Karen thanked him for the advice and hoped that it would prove to be accurate.

  Tuesday 4 th June

  Lennie looked again at the set of statements that had just been served on Avery’s behalf. He could scarcely believe who had made a last minute entry into the parade of witnesses coming to Avery’s defence.

  Half way through the afternoon, he had unexpectedly heard from Wagstaff. His opponent was evidently already in a position to go ahead with mutual exchange of witness statements via email. Lennie had not expected to be invited to do so until ten o’clock on the following morning, consistent with the extension of time that they had both agreed. He was grateful to discover that his opponent was not going to leave everything until the last minute merely for the sake of doing so. But this was soon displaced by shock.

  Service of a further statement in Avery’s name was only to be expected. Over and above this, the three paralegals who had defected from Ripple in the early days were all now personally confirming the evidence that Wagstaff had submitted on their behalf earlier in the proceedings. Lennie was not at all troubled by their common theme and the specific line that they were collectively taking. They were all now claiming to be friends of Avery, rather than simply professional contacts who knew him personally and liked and trusted him. To Lennie’s mind, the phone traffic still left everything to play for. He knew it would ultimately be an issue for Soraya to explore, when she had the chance to question them all at trial.

  But the final statement had been a bolt from the blue. The last of Avery’s witnesses was Rufus Squire.

  In isolation, by reference to the local newspaper article that had reported on BLH Solicitors’ new recruits two months earlier, Squire’s evidence was not greatly controversial. He had started by confirming that he had signed off the press release underpinning the article. He then stepped back in time to cover how he had offered Paul Craven a position following Avery’s efforts to introduce Craven to the firm, then in its last days as Bastable & Co before the merger with Lewis Hackett.

  Squire had continued with lavish praise for Avery’s role in the introduction, and had mentioned his productive prior working relationship with Avery, but had not let matters rest there. Moving to the Bastables internal memorandum that had confirmed meeting rooms to be off limits on the computer induction day, he had loftily dismissed it as an instruction to staff rather than partners. He then finished off with an oblique comment to the effect that he would never have been prepared to deal with either Karen or Ripple again, in consequence of ‘a past incident of a personal nature that I would rather not dwell upon, but will if necessary’. Lennie thought grimly of how Karen had courageously shared some of her most painful inner secrets with him, when the dispute was still in its early stages, and how she might now need to rake over those episodes once more.

  It did not escape Lennie’s attention that one key point missing from Squire’s statement was any express confirmation of the date when he had actually interviewed Craven. Squire had smoothly glided past the interview itself to focus on the offer letter and its date. The point remained crucial. Karen’s case for catching Craven’s introduction within the scope of her claim was still turning, in somewhat speculative fashion, upon an ambiguous entry in Avery’s diary, Dawn’s recollection of a kind act that she had performed, and an item of fringe evidence provided by Gemma Gabriel, a candidate who had a mild grudge against Avery.

  But Lennie’s main concern was over a different issue altogether. Squire was not only a witness, but also a litigation partner in the firm that was conducting the defence of the claim on Avery’s behalf. And Squire’s new found status as a witness brought sharp focus t
o the potential conflict of interest for BLH Solicitors that Lennie had highlighted six weeks earlier, when he had served Karen’s Particulars of Claim upon them.

  How on earth can BLH carry on representing him? When one of his witnesses is a partner of the solicitor in charge of the file? Their Chinese wall isn’t that impenetrable, surely?

  Lennie put in a call to Soraya’s clerk, hoping for an immediate second opinion, only to find out that she was dealing with a London court application and unlikely to be available until very late. He decided that he would take the initiative and fire off a robust complaint while the exchange of statements was still warm. But first he would have to bring Karen up to speed. Pausing only to forward the covering email from Wagstaff that had been accompanied by Avery’s statements, he picked up his phone and was soon giving Karen prior warning of what she would be in for once she read them.

  “Oh, bloody hell…”

  * * * * *

  “Oh, bloody hell…”

  “Rufus, I know. If it hadn’t been for this Dawn Vallance statement, your evidence would have been home and dry, and Wayne wouldn’t be in for any grief over Craven at all. Now we’ve got first hand evidence of that damned desk diary and that bloody flower delivery to deal with. Not forgetting those lovey dovey text messages.”

  “I just don’t get it, Tony. I really don’t get it. Wayne was as sure as he could ever be that the bloody Rutherford woman was never going to get that PA of hers to back her up. You know as well as I do that we’re treading on some very thin ice here.”

  “I know. I’m waiting for an urgent return call from Grant Collins. I’m just thinking of an idea he had when I last spoke to him about who we’d need as witnesses. He’s not remotely troubled about you taking the stand, of course. He knows what he needs to know, and he’s still up for it…Hang on a moment. Something from Rose just coming in.”

  Wagstaff paused, read the incoming email and sniggered.