Page 37 of Maddy's Justice

“Yes, sir,” the man said answering the phone. He didn’t even know his employer’s name. Just that he was headquartered in Chicago. The man also owned his own island, Isla Cantador, that the transcriber had been to when he was originally recruited.

“How is it going?” Evan asked.

“Coming along,” he answered. “As I told you before, by mid-afternoon. I’m doing my best. I’m being careful to be accurate which is why it is taking me so long.”

Two hours later he was almost finished except he had hit a minor snag. The woman had asked her partner if he knew the judge.

She had mentioned his name, but it was not clear on the recording. He replayed it three times before realizing she had called him Kendall Jacobson. He typed it onto the Word document on his computer and moved on. Less than a minute later he cursed himself when he clearly heard the man admit he knew Ken Jacobson. Another moment of patience and he would have heard the name clearly.

He finished the transcription on schedule. After saving the document to the file in the laptop he emailed it to his employer. He made a call to him––answered by a security man––to let him know it was sent.

A half-hour later, his phone buzzed again. When he was finished talking to the man calling for his boss, he called the lawyers. A few minutes later, with several copies of the transcription, he was leaving his rented house for downtown Minneapolis.

* * * * * * *

“Chicago is getting,” the CIA man began speaking then paused at this point while looking over the men in the room, “concerned.”

He was in the huge, corner-office of Brandon Stafford. In attendance were Stafford, Gavin Blake, Cliff Spenser and three other lawyers. Most of the firm’s management committee. There were seven members of that committee. Six men and one woman, Melanie Stewart. Melanie was the only one not in attendance.

The six lawyers were all seated looking up at the CIA man. They had read the transcript and were waiting to hear why Chicago was concerned. A phrase that caused all of them a bit of trepidation.

“What did you say your name is?” Cliff Spenser asked.

“I didn’t, Mr. Spenser. If you must, you may call me, David. I’m here on behalf of…well, you know who I’m here representing.

“What he wants to know is, is this lawsuit under control? You were supposed to have hired lawyers that would not dig too deep.”

“How did you get this?” one of the management committee members, Frances Byrne asked.

“Oh, for God’s sake, Frank,” Brandon Stafford blurted out. “How do you think they got it?”

“You bugged the offices of these lawyers? Is there nothing private anymore?” Byrne asked.

“No,” Cliff Spenser replied. “There really isn’t.”

“Are we being bugged?” Byrne asked looking at David.

“No. If you were, I would know about it,” David replied. As far as he knew that was true, as of today.

“Chicago is concerned about some things these lawyers may be poking their noses into. Get a handle on it.”

“And just how are we supposed to do that?” Brandon Stafford asked.

David stared at Stafford for several seconds easily intimidating him.

“We’ll think of something,” Stafford managed to squeak out.

“I knew this was a mistake,” Gavin Blake said. “Hiring outside council was a bad idea. We should have handled this ourselves.”

“Stop whining, Gavin,” Cliff Spenser said. “You didn’t object at the time so don’t start now. In fact, it was your idea.

“I have an idea,” Spenser continued. “Let’s bring them on board. Show them the surface of Stafford, Hughes. Make them believe we are totally transparent and have nothing to hide.”

“Why? That’s nonsense, Cliff,” Bruce Hecht, another senior partner and member of the management committee said. “We need to make it clear they are to keep their eye on the ball: the harassment suit. That’s their job. This Kadella seems to understand that.”

“Cliff, why don’t you get together with Kadella. Have a meeting with just him. Tell him you’re hearing rumors about questions they’re asking, things they’re looking into. Ask him about the suit. How does it look, things like that," Stafford said.

“I could do that,” Spenser agreed. “What about Melanie? He made it clear he only wants to deal with her.”

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