Page 13 of The Suit

He looked at me like I was a simpleton, which to his brain I probably was, even though I’d gotten a 179 on my LSATs, and graduated top of my class. “You know, the email network, the servers all this information is from, they’re not using it...”

I frowned. “So how do they get their emails?”

He rolled his lips as he thought for a second. “I’ve seen it before; they’ll have a totally separate network which all the business will be done from. It won’t be traceable or linked to anything they’re doing elsewhere. Usually, it’s housed in a separate area where they’re air-gapped so there’s no chance of crossover, no outside access to Wi-Fi or internet, no ability to tap, modem only. That sort of thing. It’ll be run as a totally separate and untraceable business within the business.”

Diego’s cracked his knuckles loudly. “Seems extreme.”

“Maybe, but I’ve dug through some of their clients. They might have the façade of running everything above board, but there’s a whole division for Central American representation, and they’re not funneling billions and billions of dollars from banana exports alone.”

Diego started nodding and rubbed his thigh subconsciously, because he knew all too well what else came out of Central America, having busted more than anyone’s share of cartels operating in the city.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ve only just started, don’t worry, there’ll be something. I’ll find it this afternoon, after I’ve had my lunch.” He winked.

His confidence was well earned; he’d never failed yet, and considering he was smarter than everyone else, it was only a matter of time before he tracked something down. The niggle I still felt in my belly wasn’t worry that he’d wouldn’t deliver.

“Okay, what else did you find?”

My jaw clenched involuntarily as a horrifyingly large image of Beulah Holmes filled the screen, larger than any dart board, and as high definition as she’d been yesterday in person. My blood automatically started racing through my veins until I’d taken enough deep breaths to slow it.

“This is Beulah Holmes. She’s lead council. Now this one is interesting…” Cody started, neither of them noticing my erratic breathing.

Diego’s soda doubled up as his laser pointer again. “Hold up. Beulah? Like Ferris?”

I grinned; she’d definitely heard that once or twice at college. And given how pissed she used to get, she’d probably be able to do some real damage to him if he ever had the chance to ask her himself.

“Yeah…” Cody continued, “from what I can tell she doesn’t work in the divorce division, but instead they bring her into certain high net worth cases. Her win record is ninety-eight percent, and the only time she lost was because the client died, so it doesn’t really count. She has her own team in the firm, and everyone wants to be on it…”

“She’s their closer…” interrupted Diego again before I could.

“Fuck!” I pushed my chair back and stood up, not caring that the pair of them were now staring at me with identicalwhat the fuck is wrong with you?looks, because it was rare that I had an outburst of any kind. Up until four weeks ago, they’d only known me as their unflappable, cool-calm-collected boss. I hadn’t shared with either of them the history I had with Beulah Holmes, mostly because every time I thought about her, I wanted to punch something, and I hated feeling out of control almost as much as I hated her.

The fact that she was the root cause only made it worse.

I’d been surprised that she’d become a divorce lawyer, mostly because it seemed too provincial for her ambitious and cut-throat ways, even if divorce lawyers had a reputation for being exactly that; but it didn’t suit her. Not for a second had it occurred to me that she was working this in a similar way to me – brought in so the other side didn’t lose. I hadn’t kept track of her since we’d left college, only made sure she was far enough away from me that I didn’t need to bother, and I was beginning to wish I’d paid more attention.

“What’s that?” Cody gaze switched between mine and Diego’s.

Diego answered seeing as I was still quenching my rage. “A closer is someone who comes in and wins the hard to win cases. They tend to be brought in mid-way, but if a closer has been brought in early, then you know it’s a big deal.”

“Oh.” Cody started tapping away on the keyboard again and the screen changed once more, thankfully removing her face.

“Wait, Code, did you say she’s never lost?”

“Yeah, according to the cases that have her name against them. Except one where the client died.”

“Did she murder him?”

“Not that I’ve found,” he replied, and even though I was joking - on some level - the fact that he’d already looked made me feel a little bit more reassured that I wasn’t going crazy.

“So the options are lose or die? Fuck that.”

“Yeah. Guess this will be the first case she loses. Unless she does actually murder you.”

“I know she’s definitely considered it,” I mumbled.

“Wait, what?” Diego’s usually deep gruff voice went up a pitch. Considering he was the epitome of health and had never touched a cigarette in his life, it was one of those unexplained oddities that he sounded like he’d been smoking a hundred Marlboro Red a day since he was in diapers. “You know her?”

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