Page 55 of Maddy's Justice

“She’s really marrying a lawyer? A defense lawyer on top of it,” Sorensen said shaking his head.

“A defense lawyer who has provided you with a lot of work. Speaking of which,” Carvelli said to get to why he was there.

Craven, Sorenson, Franklin and four other retirees were the ones doing the surveillance of the six women plaintiffs. To avoid written reports that could be discovery for Lori Quinn, Carvelli kept their reports strictly verbal.

“What do you guys have?” Carvelli asked.

“Nothing,” Sorenson said speaking for all of them. “At least nothing out of the ordinary.”

“In fact,” Tommy Craven spoke up, “these women lead more boring lives than we do.”

“They work a lot,” Franklin said.

“Makes me glad I decided not to go to law school,” Sorenson said.

“Really? I thought it was because they sent your application back marked, return to sender, don’t bother us again,” Carvelli replied.

“Very funny, smartass,” Sorenson said while the others laughed.

“Now what?” Craven asked. “You want us to keep watching?”

“I don’t know,” Carvelli said. “It seems to be a waste of time. I know this client of Marc’s, this law firm, Stafford something, can afford it, but…”

“What did you say the name was? The client?” Sorenson asked.

“Stafford, something,” Carvelli said.

“Stafford, Hughes?” Waschke asked.

“Yeah, I think that’s it. Why? They a customer?” Carvelli asked.

“Yeah, they are,” Waschke said as he pulled up their account on his office computer.

“I had a trip with them last week,” Sorenson said. “I picked up three of them downtown and drove to the downtown airport in St. Paul.

“A private jet came in and delivered one guy. The three guys who were waiting were senior partners at Stafford, Hughes. I’ve driven them before. The guy who flew in was obviously a big shot of some kind.”

“Did you listen in on them?” Waschke asked.

“What do you mean, listen in on them?” Carvelli asked looking at Waschke.

“We, ah, sort of…”

“Had Conrad place a bug in all of your cars so you can listen in on your customers,” Carvelli said referring to Conrad Hilton, a well-known electronics surveillance guy.

“Not all of the cars. Just the ones with partitions,” Waschke said.

Carvelli looked at Sorenson and asked, “So what did you hear?”

“Not much that made much sense. They were all very cryptic. They talked about someone they called the outside lawyer…”

“Marc and Connie,” Carvelli said.

“And someone, I think it was a woman, snooping around asking questions about missing lawyers.”

“Maddy,” Carvelli said.

“Okay, yeah, that makes sense,” Sorenson agreed.

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