Wearing the Spider (A Suspense Novel) (Legal Thriller) (Thriller)

by Schaab, Susan

  “You mean spy on my firm?” She looked at Michael, then at the two agents, then back at Michael.

  “Well,” said Agent Harrison, “our investigation will go forward with or without you. If you work with us, you will be immune from prosecution, even if we find something incriminating where you’re concerned. You’re not a suspect, you understand, it’s just that you may have inadvertently committed a technical violation of law or become an accessory by certain actions or failures to act. You will have the comfort of knowing that you will not face criminal charges if any such evidence comes to light.” Evie flashed on those surreptitious email intercepts and spyware dumps.

  Weber added, “We will also provide an agent to shadow you, providing protection until the culmination of any involvement in the case.”

  Evie responded, “I’m not sure I still have enough standing in the firm to be of much assistance. I’m on a leave of absence, and I’ve been under reprimand for some negative performance reviews. I don’t think I’m in the running for partner anymore, and even though I’ve been given the option to stay with the firm, under the circumstances, it wouldn’t necessarily be on the same level of professional respect that I had a few weeks ago.”

  “We know about your sexual harassment claim. It may actually be a catalyst for realizing a greater degree of information,” said Weber. ‘They’re going to be overly sensitive to your needs until that claim is settled.”

  “But I haven’t made a claim, yet.”

  “You will be.” Michael smiled broadly.

  “What about immunity from state criminal prosecution?” Evie spoke to the agents, but then looked to Michael for an answer.

  “Evie,” said Michael, “we’ll have to negotiate our own deal with state prosecutors, but the Bureau has agreed to support our efforts for state immunity as well. That’s assuming you’ve done anything that the state would want to pursue. Chances are that even if any of your actions were unlawful, they would be interested in the big fish here … Alan Levenger and, of course, Senator Arbeson.”

  “What about attorney-client privilege? I’m not at liberty to discuss client information without the client’s waiver of the privilege.”

  Weber spoke up, “There’s been at least one murder. You’ve been threatened by telephone. When you’re in physical danger, I think the privilege is obviated.”

  “I don’t have the liberty to discuss Senator Arbeson’s other matters since there’s no way to know if they’re related. They’re still protected under the privilege. And, I’m not absolutely certain he’s involved with this Gerais Chevas deal.”

  The two agents signaled acknowledgement with silent acquiescence and waited.

  Evie looked at each agent squarely in the eye. She studied each of their faces, then looked back at Michael who was nodding at her. Michael doesn’t know how hard it is to betray Jack Hanover and the firm I’ve worked so hard for, she thought.

  But Project Neon was going to play itself out to closure and leave her name fermenting in its wake. There was just no way to avoid the fact that this mess would have to be cleaned up. It was not biodegradable.

  “I’m ready to tell you everything I know,” she said.

  32

  This is the real turning point, she thought as she sat down at a round cocktail table in the FiftySevenFiftySeven Bar at the Four Seasons hotel. The agent assigned to protect her sat at a table not far from her, sipping a water and lime. She positioned herself in the tan leather armchair facing the entry stairs, drinking a Vodka spritzer, feeling more vulnerable than she had ever remembered feeling in her life.

  She looked across the room toward the bar and to the mirrored wall to her right. The room was more generously lit than the typical bar. A quartet of geometric-shaped chandeliers balanced overhead. As she ordered her second vodka spritzer, she felt her eyelids began to sag.

  Then, at 6:20 p.m., just as the waiter deposited her second vodka spritzer on the table, she saw Joe. She actually saw his reflection first, in the mirrored wall, then she turned and he was walking toward her table, smiling. He was clean-shaven, his wavy hair was fittingly combed into place and he was wearing a tailored gray Italian-cut suit. Only his clothes indicated the time of day. The jacket was open, his black-and-gray-striped tie loosened, and his white shirt was showing the wrinkles brought on by a day of meetings. He carried a leather portfolio. He leaned over to kiss her before taking a seat.

  He motioned at the waiter, who walked over in five-star cadence to take his order. Joe ordered a Macallan scotch whiskey. He looked at the empty Vodka glass from her first drink that the waiter was carrying away and glanced at the over-stuffed briefcase and laptop case sitting beside her.

  “How did it go?”

  “I’m now a government witness in the witness protection program.” She nodded her head toward the agent, eating peanuts between sips of water. “And, I’m about to go to work to destroy my firm.”

  “Good. I know this is hard for you, but I want you to see your name cleared. Those partners don’t deserve to have you working for them. And they certainly don’t deserve to have you join their partnership.” Joe stood and took off his jacket, revealing dark suspenders joined to the tops of his suit trousers. As he sat back down, the waiter placed the glass of scotch in front of him.

  “I found out today that Alan was in Dallas the same time I was. I bet he was directing the woman who was impersonating me and I’m sure he was the one who made and received all those Brazilian calls. I don’t have any proof of it, just secretary-to-secretary talk.”

  “Greg has a ‘smoking gun’ piece of evidence for you.”

  “Really? What?”

  “On your harassment claim. The Chicago hotel … The Claremont … they have video cameras on every floor.”

  “You mean? They have a video of Alan kissing me?”

  “Yes, and his less-than-gentlemanly push of you into your room.”

  “Oh my God! That’s amazing! I didn’t even think about that. I can’t believe they would still have it. That was months ago.”

  “It seems they have this policy of filing away copies of video where it looks like there may be some possibility of foul play. Sometimes, of course, they’re misinterpreting a situation, but they keep the copies until they feel certain that whatever was recorded is not going to be pertinent to some police investigation.”

  “That’s … that makes my case. Concrete proof that Alan harassed me and that he’s a liar! Michael’s going to love that. And, it couldn’t come at a better time. We’re about to meet with Paul and Alan to discuss the settlement offer.” Evie felt a wave of relief and calm that had nothing to do with the alcohol.

  “This should go a long way toward clearing your name, Eves,” Joe said as he pulled a videotape out of his portfolio and slid it into her briefcase. “The partners who doubted your story will have to eat a little crow and figure out what to do with Levenger. He’s going to cost them some serious money if you sue.”

  “I don’t really want their money, I just want to clear my name.”

  “Take the money. You’ve earned it. Do something for yourself you’ve always wanted.”

  “I’m not sure what I want, other than to prove I had nothing to do with arranging Project Neon.”

  “Well, this should destroy what little credibility Alan has left. I think your version of the story will carry much more weight than his.”

  “He’s not going to fold that easily. He’s had trouble keeping his hands off women before and he’s always managed to convince the partners to look the other way. He’ll draw a line between the incident between us and this deal he claims I’m running. I’m sure he’s polished his speech about a renegade associate acting beyond the scope of her authority with the firm. The electronic paper trail is ‘proving’ that I ‘acted alone,’ just the way he planned.”

  “Diabolical. But, the question remains—how deep in the mud is Arbeson?”

  “I don’t think anything would surprise me now. Alan is
apparently not content to lawyer. He wants to create business leverage, even if it’s just illusory.”

  Joe sipped his scotch.

  Evie continued, “GC Quadra’s principal asset was apparently that statistical software package. I guess that’s what gave Alan the idea that the promise of a U.S. government contract award to GC Quadra would cement the deal’s appeal to Romez Nuevo.”

  “The feds will harvest some good material from Levenger’s computer. Even as computer-savvy as he is, he probably doesn’t realize how much of his computer activities remain etched on his hard disks. Even deleted and scrubbed disks can yield valuable evidence, given the right tools and a nice broadly-worded warrant. If it turns out that there’s NOT a statistical-software defense contract in the pipeline, that information alone should go a long way toward securing a warrant.”

  ~~

  The next morning Evie was in Michael’s office by 9:30 a.m. He greeted her and they sat down in one of his firm’s conference rooms to await the arrival of Paul Wayford and Alan Levenger. Evie’s protection agent sat in Michael’s office reading, standing by in case he was needed.

  “Okay Evie, we want to apply some pressure, but we don’t want to show our hand yet because the deal with the feds requires you to be able to continue your association with the firm. At least for a bit longer.”

  “How much are we going to reveal?”

  “Well, for one thing, we’re going to play dumb on Gerais Chevas. Try to get them to give us what they’ve discovered, if anything. We’ll play a little settlement poker and see how cocky they are.”

  Michael poured some coffee for Evie and for himself and, wearing a sly grin, pulled out some old copies of the tabloid, Spellbound! from an envelope.

  “Where did you find those?” Evie said, her eyes sparkling with amusement. She flipped open to the pages where photos of Alan and various women captured indiscreet moments—a dossier of bad behavior to set the mood for the discussions.

  “Just something to have visible on the table.” Michael chuckled. “Just want Alan to know I’m doing my research on his background.”

  Evie laughed and sipped her coffee as she pulled out copies of the emails she’d tried to send Paul. The timeline of her client work over the summer, she left on the table, but the Neolactin trademark message, she put back in her file deciding it would be a distraction. Michael saw the file and said, “Let’s have my secretary make a few copies of all the stuff you’ve accumulated so we can get our background discovery work going here at my offices.”

  She handed the file to Michael who buzzed his secretary to come and get it, which she did in record time.

  “Are we going to reveal that we have that video from the Claremont?” Evie asked.

  “Not yet.”

  At ten minutes after ten o’clock a.m., the appointed time for their meeting, Paul Wayford and Alan Levenger appeared in the doorway of the conference room escorted by the receptionist. Michael stood and welcomed them in, showing them to two seats opposite Evie. Evie stood when they entered, but the temperature seemed to drop in the room as they approached the table so she took her seat again. After introducing himself and shaking Michael’s hand, Alan was quiet and wore a controlled confident smirk.

  Paul spoke first, “Evie, I’m surprised you’ve taken this step … to hire your own counsel. I thought we’d worked things out between us.”

  Evie started to speak, but Michael stepped in. “Evie has done what anybody worth their salt would do and that’s get an independent opinion about her situation. She has every right to evaluate her options.”

  “Absolutely,” answered Paul as he took a seat, “I’m not suggesting that she’s done anything wrong or is not entitled to outside opinions, I just thought she would get back to me directly.”

  Evie glanced at Alan, but spoke to Paul, “Paul, I appreciate your settlement offer and your time today for this meeting. The fact is, I don’t know much about this type of situation so I sought some outside advice. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to work things out with the firm.”

  As Evie finished speaking, she saw peripherally that Alan had noticed the copies of Spellbound! laying on the table. She thought she could see him bristle as a flash of anger passed over his features, but he quickly regained control and the confident smirk reappeared.

  “Okay,” said Paul, “what are your feelings about continuing your association with the firm?”

  “I’m not finished thinking things through,” said Evie.

  Michael interjected, “Evie is considering your offer, but is concerned about a few matters.”

  Paul nodded, but Alan remained stoic.

  “As an example, she has been checking her email as part of her efforts not to let any client issues drop while she’s on leave. She noticed that she has not received any new email over the last few days. Is this intentional? Has the firm changed her access level to the network?”

  “No, not that I’m aware of,” said Paul.

  “She’d like to know whether this is just a technical glitch or whether it amounts to some type of constructive termination.” Evie looked over at Michael and let him continue uninterrupted.

  “She would in fact like to keep coming in and using her office while on leave, if that’s acceptable.”

  “Definitely, absolutely.” Paul took the bait. He did not want to appear to have authorized or acquiesced to any sort of reduction in Evie’s status. He looked at her. “Evie, please, as I said, use your office freely, your laptop, come and go as you please. Nothing has changed other than we’ve given you paid time off and relieved you of the pressure of meeting client deadlines for a couple of weeks while you think things over.”

  “Okay,” said Michael. “I’m glad we have that straight. So you’ll check and fix the technical problem with the email.”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, next, Evie wants to know the status of your evaluation of these complaints against her. Apparently, Jack Hanover expressed a different opinion to her about their significance.”

  “By the way,” interjected Evie, “how is Jack?”

  “He’s still recuperating in the hospital, showing steady improvement, but not able to lead the firm at present. I do speak with him almost every day and he has conferred with me on these matters. Now, before I continue, I need to get your agreement that what I’m about to discuss with you is not to leave this room.”

  Michael looked at Evie. They both nodded and held Paul’s gaze.

  “Howard, Rolland & Stewart is in merger discussions with Newly, Boyce, Tate and Wells. It is not public knowledge, of course, and we would not want it revealed that we are engaged in these discussions until we’re ready to make a formal announcement.”

  Michael scribbled some notes on a pad as he nodded.

  “Anyway, with Hanover’s medical challenges and the merger discussions, it is a sensitive time for the firm. Perceptions in the marketplace are so important and, well, it goes without saying that a sexual harassment claim would be very damaging at this juncture.” Alan swallowed perceptibly as Paul was speaking, but remained silent. Evie wondered if he had been instructed to keep his mouth shut.

  “We understand the situation very well,” said Michael, “and we certainly have no intention of gratuitously and unnecessarily causing the firm damage. Now, about those complaints against Evie?”

  “We’ve looked into those and of the ones that we’ve been able to confirm, there’s no real damage to any client relationship so those have been dropped. We still don’t know what happened with Sangerson. The breach of confidentiality was not Evie’s fault. A recent inquiry with Adam confirmed that Evie was not the source. Gooseneck-dot-com seems to be a similar situation to Gerais Chevas—Evie says she never worked on those matters, but some electronic data conflicts with that conclusion.”

  Evie spoke up, looking directly at Alan, “Alan, you said you’d fixed those records on Gooseneck. It was not me who worked on that deal either. You admitted to me that my name being li
sted on that matter was a mistake.”

  Alan stared, with glib expression painted on his face, his eyebrows stretching upward.

  Paul looked at Alan, paused, took a deep breath and wiped his brow before speaking. “Let’s assume Evie was not involved with Gooseneck. Let’s just give her the benefit of the doubt.”

  Michael continued. “In the interest of shortening this meeting and avoiding a prolonged settlement negotiation, we’re wondering if the one and a half million dollar number is the firm’s final offer?”

  Evie thought she saw Paul deliver a slight kick to Alan under the table. Alan registered no reaction and continued to stay silent.

  Paul spoke again. “Well, what do you have in mind?”

  “We haven’t settled on a figure, but would very much like to hear the firm’s final offer before providing any sort of definitive reaction.”

  “Alright. I will discuss this with Jack and the rest of the partnership. Of course, there would be certain conditions attached to any settlement arrangement. We would not admit any wrongdoing and the terms would remain confidential indefinitely, to name a few.”

  Evie felt a slight pang of regret knowing Jack would be facing this unpleasantness while trying to recover, but then again, this situation wasn’t her doing.

  “I’m sure we can work through all those terms,” said Michael. “One other thing, though. Have you been able to determine who has been at the helm of this Gerais Chevas transaction?” said Michael, purposely avoiding eye contact with Alan.

  “That has been a troubling situation,” said Paul. He glanced at Alan and looked back to Evie and Michael, focusing on Evie. “One evaluating the correspondence and document drafting would have difficulty believing you were not involved, Evie.”

  “Since there’s a technical glitch with my email, I assume you didn’t receive the last messages I sent you. I sent you a timeline showing my client service over the summer months. Gerais Chevas has never been included on any time report I drafted.” As Evie spoke she pushed the timeline copy across the table. “And, I alerted you to a change in one of the Gerais Chevas documents. Conveniently, after I left the office, Schedule B7 changed dramatically. You might want to take a look.”