Lethal Lawyers

by Dale E. Manolakas

  “The Management Committee or Roger,” Sophia concluded. “When he came by my office, he told me he had talked to the Management Committee and Roger earlier.”

  “That explains it,” Paul replied. “He knew about Doug being squeezed out, why Jim Henning was ‘deranged,’ and about Taylor’s little group.”

  “If he knew all that, what else could he possibly want to know?” Tricia asked.

  “He’s fishing for witnesses to put his case together. But he won’t get me on the stand,” Paul declared.

  “I’m safe,” Tricia added. “I know nothing that’s not hearsay.”

  “I know a lot, but won’t rat on my friends, especially Taylor,” Paul added. “He’s helped me so much.”

  “Why is he asking you about Taylor?” Sophia asked.

  “Don’t worry. I didn’t say anything bad about ‘your’ Taylor.”

  “He’s not ‘my’ Taylor,” Sophia protested.

  “Not yet,” Tricia teased under her breath.

  “This whole thing sucks,” Sophia blurted out.

  “Shh. Relax. We’ll be fine. Taylor will be fine too,” Paul calmed her. “This detective is crazy. We don’t murder each other. Come on. We murder our opponents.”

  “Yeah,” Tricia laughed.

  “He just wants to make a name for himself,” Paul said. “The only thing Taylor is doing is trying to get this firm to treat all of us fairly. With the legal actions Taylor and his friends have planned, they don’t need to kill anyone.”

  “That’s right,” Tricia agreed. “It’s all ridiculous.”

  Paul cautioned, “But we have to be on our guard. Don’t forget about all the innocent men convicted and in prison just because some over-zealous cop wanted to throw his weight around.”

  “The detective confuses everything,” Sophia said. “He wants me to put Roger with Frank together on that corner. Why should I help him? I didn't see Roger do anything. I’m not talking to that detective again.”

  “You may have to. Just be careful.” Paul pushed away his unfinished bread pudding. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “Yes,” Tricia said. “I have at least three more hours to bill today and I have to get home. It’s Jay’s birthday and we’re going out with all his U.S. Attorney friends.”

  “Sounds like fun,” Sophia said.

  “Do you want to come? There are some single guys. You’re welcome also, Paul.”

  “I’m not interested in single guys,” Paul replied.

  “I’m working late, but I’ll take a rain check for next time.” Sophia knew that Taylor had mentioned dinner again.

  On the way back, she erased Detective Rutger from her mind. He had nearly dragged her back into the blue-collar world she came from. She decided if Taylor didn’t call her for dinner, she would call him.

  ⌘

  Chapter 53

  Blindsided

  At her desk, Sophia was alert and could bill again after the coffee and sugar influx.

  She read about the effectiveness of motions for the summary adjudication of issues. If an issue was pivotal, or it elicited jury sympathy for your opponent, you tried to knock out the issue. Interestingly, she realized the short deposition Frank was planning to take in San Francisco was key to knocking out a central and very sympathetic issue in his case. Frank was brilliant. Sophia could have learned a lot from him, but he was gone. Roger was in charge.

  To organize her review of Toak’s summary judgment, Sophia turned to a “to do” list in a basic guide to summary judgments. The first item was to check for your party’s standing to bring the motion. Sophia smiled. That was first year law school stuff. No one needed to be reminded that a party had to have an interest in the litigation in order to litigate. But Sophia decided she would start on the checklist with number one, standing, just to be thorough. She wanted to bill the hell out of Toak’s client, anyway.

  It was late. Sophia had billed nine hours for the day. She input the hours into the computer program. She hadn't heard from Taylor. She decided she would bill more and wait for him to call. She opened her remaining can of diet cola from lunch and settled into reading more of Toak’s actual motion.

  Ten pages later, the phone rang.

  “Hello, Sophia speaking.”

  “Hi, ‘Sophia speaking’.” Taylor chided. “What are you doing?”

  “Is that a trick question? I’m working.”

  “Come by.”

  “Give me a few.”

  Sophia grinned ear to ear. She got her purse and went to freshen up. Her freshen up this time was in anticipation of another dinner with Taylor and hopefully more. She washed her face, brushed her hair, and redid her makeup, including mascara, a touch of eyeliner, fresh blush, and a bronze shimmering lipstick. She stood back and looked.

  “Not bad!”

  On the way to Taylor’s office, Sophia decided Paul made sense when he said the detective was just out to make a name for himself. Sophia’s allegiance was with the firm, and she was excited to see Taylor.

  * * *

  Sophia knocked on Taylor’s office door.

  “Come in,” Taylor called out.

  When she stepped in Taylor greeted her, but then she saw Roger, Joe, and Marvin seated in three black leather chairs at Taylor’s office table. There were two empty chairs nearby also.

  “You’re busy. I’ll come back.”

  “No. No. Come in. Actually, we’re here to talk to you.” Roger gestured to the one empty chair.

  “Excuse me?” Sophia looked at Taylor, realizing he had completely blindsided her.

  “Come on in, Sophia.” Taylor shut the door and marshaled her over to the table.

  “Hello,” Joe said with a friendly smile. “Are you billing this late?”

  “It’s only seven thirty.” Sophia sat.

  She tried to catch Taylor’s eye, but he was avoiding her look of desperation.

  “That’s the right attitude,” Marvin said sarcastically. “It’s never too late to bill.”

  “Marvin, lay off.” Taylor sat next to Sophia. “Sophia, the guys wanted to straighten out some things. They heard Detective Rutger was making some absurd accusations around the firm.”

  “Outrageous accusations.” Joe leaned forward, studying Sophia intently.

  Roger took the lead. “We want to explain some things to you because you are new and we think you may have the wrong impression about our small group. About what we are trying to do for everyone here at the firm. We want you to know about us, from us.”

  “It’s really not my business, and I don’t know if it’s anything I should be involved in,” Sophia objected again, looking at Taylor for help getting out of there.

  Taylor ignored her obvious discomfort. “Sophia, the guys are worried that you may have heard the wrong things and then jumped to conclusions about other things. Can they have a minute? Please? For me? Before we go to dinner.”

  “A minute.” Sophia capitulated, knowing she could not artfully get out of there anyway.

  “They are concerned about the detective making things up,” Taylor continued. “When . . .”

  “Come on, Taylor, she’s smarter than that. Stop hiding the ball,” Joe interrupted. “Sophia, we know that the detective is trying to prove Judith and Frank were murdered, and he’s pointing the finger at Roger, for one. We want to tell you he’s wrong. You have worked with Roger. He’s a family man. He’s a good guy. He has a lot to lose if the detective keeps on treating him as the number one suspect. Go on. Tell her, Roger. Tell her you didn’t hurt anyone.”

  “I didn’t.” Roger took the cue. “The detective wants to ride to glory at my expense and destroy the firm. I bought some gifts for my kids that morning and was on my way back here when Frank died.”

  Sophia looked directly at Roger. He was lying. Or, maybe technically, he was on his way back before Frank was pronounced dead. But that was hairsplitting. She had seen Roger at the intersection. Since he had lied, she lied back.

  “Look, Rog
er, there’s a lot of misinformation here. I told the detective I was back in the crowd and didn’t see what happened.”

  Sophia held her breath to see if what she said would fly with these men. She would say anything necessary to end this meeting quickly and peacefully.

  “See?” Taylor said to Roger. “I told you.”

  “What about the detective implicating anyone in Judith’s death and calling it murder?” Marvin asked. “Judith was a bitch. She fought with everyone. So what if the day she died I fought with her? Don’t think that I don’t know what that detective is saying, Sophia. The trouble is, you haven’t heard that half the firm fought with her and told her off at one time or another, including Frank!”

  “I understand.” Sophia was frightened.

  “Settle down, Marvin.” Joe narrowed his green eyes and glared at him.

  Joe paused, looked back at Sophia, and then said with equanimity, “That’s what we are trying to tell you, Sophia. There’s not one person at this firm who has not had words with the Management Committee. You will too, eventually. This is a tough business.”

  “She knows that, Joe. And she’s tough and smart. She wouldn’t have the qualifications to get hired here if she wasn’t both those things,” Taylor said. “Get on with it. I thought you guys wanted to tell her what our goal is? How we are trying to make things better, so she understands?”

  “Right,” Marvin agreed. “Sophia, all we want to do is make the firm fairer. Help the associates and junior partners keep their clients on their own tapes. Stop the full partners and especially the managing partners from poaching.”

  “But,” Joe interrupted. “To do this, we are not murdering managing partners. We are using peer pressure and the threat of bad publicity, and, yes, the courts if we must. It’s no secret that the full partners poach the clients, drive protesting lawyers out, and keep the clients by undermining us. We want a rule that the senior partner has to remove himself as lead and from your client’s billings when you make junior partner. There’s nothing radical about that. It doesn’t call for murder.”

  “We are lawyers with other avenues,” Taylor added. “Sophia, you know about Jim Henning going bonkers and Doug leaving and now the pressure on Roger. What the guys are trying to say is that it can happen to any of us. You see that, don’t you?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Well, our goal is to take away that power. We have a court action, an injunction, set up to file soon. We have our ducks in a row. There is no reason for anyone here to murder anyone. It’s absurd. We all have a bright future at any firm we choose.”

  “Do you understand?” Roger asked.

  “Yes, I really do,” she repeated with as much sincerity as she could muster.

  Sophia knew they were feeding her misinformation. These junior partners’ future at another firm was not bright, or even possible, if they did not take clients with them. More than that, Paul had intimated that the Management Committee had something on the singled out junior partners that could cost them their bar licenses or put them in prison. Sophia didn’t know what that might be, or even if it were true. It probably didn’t matter because the threat of financial ruin was enough for a man with a family. For anyone, really—even her.

  “I think she gets it,” Taylor stated with finality.

  But Taylor knew Sophia well enough to understand she didn’t believe this rosy exaggeration of their futures at other law firms. He saw he had to end the encounter because the guys' credibility was sinking fast.

  Sophia wanted to end it even more than Taylor did.

  “I understand what’s going on, and I never thought any of you would murder anyone. I think the detective is just confused and I told him that. I don’t know what else to say. What you are all doing will be good in the end. Good for all of us.”

  “Anything else, guys?” Taylor asked.

  Everyone was quiet.

  “I think I’d better go finish my project before I am forced to stay here all night.”

  Sophia took her leave quickly and unceremoniously.

  As she shut the door behind her, she could hear Roger’s raspy voice say, “That was too easy.”

  * * *

  Sophia walked down the hall knowing that she had only temporarily appeased these junior partners, junior sharks, who tore people apart every day for a living, and apparently planned to do the same to her. She thought she could have been more convincing if she had known what was coming. If Taylor had only warned her. Too late now.

  As Sophia made her way to her office, she was enraged at Taylor for blindsiding her. He should have asked her if she wanted to meet with those men. At least given her a hint on the phone of what she was walking into. They were not her friends. They meant nothing to her. Taylor had meant something to her, but evidently the feeling was not mutual. He had chosen his friends.

  Sophia held back her tears until she got back to her office. She shut the door, locked it, and turned off the lights so no one would know she was there. She sat in her coveted chair and cried quietly, mascara and eyeliner dripping down her cheeks. She had put on her makeup for nothing.

  “Damn,” Sophia laughed as she took at her compact mirror and wiped under her eyes with a tissue. “I’ll have to get waterproof mascara.”

  She couldn’t get control of herself. The phone rang and she let it go to message. The phone rang again. She knew it was Taylor and didn’t care. Then her cell rang. The screen showed it was Taylor. Almost simultaneously a text came from Taylor: “R U there?”

  She knew he would come to her office next, so she grabbed her purse and quickly left, not caring what he would make of her absence.

  ⌘

  Chapter 54

  Trip, Stumble, and Fall

  The next morning, Friday, when Sophia transferred elevators in the building lobby, she didn’t look at the marbled beauty or the sweeping staircase. She didn’t want to be there anymore. Taylor had hurt her deeply. She was embarrassed to tell Paul and Tricia. Besides, she suspected now that Paul was telling his friend Doug what she shared with Tricia and him. Then it was getting back to Taylor and his band of brothers.

  Sophia decided only Tricia was safe with her secrets because she had no cross allegiances.

  Sophia pushed the elevator call button and forced her mind to organize her billing day. After all, that is why she was there, to bill, for a nice, fat bonus. The elevator came and she took a deep breath as she walked in. She focused on the fact that today she would get her first big paycheck.

  The elevator door was almost shut when a hand reached in and stopped it.

  “Sophia!” Taylor jumped in as the elevator door closed again.

  “Good morning.” Sophia pushed the button for her floor repeatedly, as if that would give her a fast ascent to get away from Taylor.

  To her, a simple good morning was all that Taylor deserved. It was what office automatons dialogued in the morning. It meant, “I’m here; let’s get along for a paycheck” or “let me needle you because I can tell you really want to be left alone and I won’t respect that.” Sophia’s subtext was the former.

  “Don’t wear the button out.”

  Sophia looked over at Taylor, dimpled and with a bright-toothed smile, but somehow it reminded her now of a shark, its smile revealing razor sharp teeth. It showed he wanted to attack and feed rather than charm and disarm.

  “I called your office last night, but you were gone. You didn’t answer your cell either. I had to eat alone.”

  “I was tired.”

  “I wanted to explain about yesterday.”

  “Yesterday?”

  “Come on, Sophia. I know you’re mad. I would be, if I were you. But it wasn’t planned. I didn’t even know they were going to be there when we spoke.”

  “Right.” She got off the elevator on her floor.

  Taylor followed her to her office. It was early; the hall was empty and the secretaries were absent, because they were not due at their desks until nine, nine-fifteen or n
ine-thirty, depending on whom they were fucking. God forbid any of them, at least on Sophia’s floor, would come one minute early.

  “Sophia, please, we need to talk.”

  “In my office.” She knew Taylor was going to talk to her, whether she liked it or not, and at least she would make it private.

  “What is it?” Sophia shut the door behind the two of them. “What is your justification for blindsiding me like that? You knew how upset I was sitting there, and you just let it go on!”

  “It wasn’t on purpose. They were leaving my office. They heard me ask you down and then they decided to stay. I didn’t think it was that big a deal.”

  “If you think I believe that it was happenstance, then you don’t think much of me.”

  “Okay, I’m sorry. Sophia, listen. I’m trying here. They wanted to take you into their confidence and let you know what we were about. I did, too. It was a compliment.”

  “A compliment? A veiled threat, you mean!”

  “No, an offer to join us. At least help us. To let you know firsthand about our plans. How Roger and I are trying to change the future here for everyone. Roger said if you understood, you’d realize the managing partners are using ‘your’ Detective Rutger like a puppet to break up our momentum.”

  “Roger? ‘My’ detective? ‘MY’ detective? Are you kidding?!” Sophia caught herself imprudently shouting and stopped.

  “We all agreed you’d be on our side if you knew the whole story.”

  “Well,” Sophia lowered her voice. “I hope all of you don’t agree with everything. Because ‘your’ friend Roger was there when Frank was pushed, or fell, or jumped, or whatever, in front of that truck. He was right there. I saw him. He did nothing to help Frank. Nothing. Or worse . . . maybe he did more. I don’t know, but I do know that after I called to him, and I know he heard me, he looked in my direction and kept going.”

  “But you said . . .”