Page 141 of Maddy's Justice

“Get a recorder down here,” Carvelli said to the ceiling.

Two minutes later, Conrad Hilton, wearing a nylon ski mask, arrived with a sophisticated, portable recording machine.

They set it up on a small table in front of Troy. Conrad got it started after showing Carvelli how to run it.

Carvelli took the microphone and made a short statement. He gave the date and time, then said, “Troy McGovern, a partner in the Stafford, Hughes law firm is going to give a statement regarding the multiple criminal activities and conspiracies that his employer, the law firm of Stafford, Hughes is involved in. He is doing so of his own free will without any coercion and under no duress.”

Carvelli shut off the machine and Troy started to say, “I am under duress…”

Sorenson leaped up and prepared to slap him again.

“Okay, okay,” Troy quickly said flinching away from the expected strike. “No duress, no coercion.”

“We want it all. We can get you a deal, but you cannot leave anything out or lie. If you do lie or hold back information, no deal and you go to a ‘stay out of the shower’ federal prison,” Carvelli said. “No country club for you. Got it?”

Troy nodded his acknowledgement

“And the boys are gonna love you,” Sorenson added.

“Who are you?” Troy shakily asked.

“Friends of people in authority,” Carvelli said. He then decided to take a chance.

“When I say we want it all, we want the money laundering, drug smuggling, political corruption and most of all, the child sex slave trafficking.”

“Oh my God,” Troy said. “How do you know…”

“It doesn’t matter how we know. We do and we want every detail,” Carvelli answered.

FORTY-FIVE

While Carvelli was beginning his chat with Troy McGovern, Marc was entering his office. He barely nodded a hello to the staff before entering Connie’s office without knocking. He found Connie on the phone. She motioned to a client chair indicating he should take a seat.

“Okay,” Connie said. “I’ll let them know right away and get back to you.”

She listened for a moment then said, “I’ll advise them to take it. Marc just came in. I’ll tell him what you came back with.”

Connie said goodbye, hung up her office phone, looked at Marc and said, “Twenty million. That was Lori Quinn. What do you think?”

“That’s a lot of money,” Marc said. “You know what I mean? Lori Quinn’s getting a helluva a payday. Would they get that much at trial?”

Connie thought about the question for a moment before saying, “Honestly, I don’t know. If we keep going, we’ll have to go to mediation. The first thing the mediator will ask is what was offered? We’re at sixteen, they’re at twenty. Seems to me there’s a number between those two that a mediator would get us to.”

“Eighteen,” Marc said. “Three million each. That’s not terribly out of whack with whatever we have for the present value of lost earnings and some for punitives.”

“And you can bet Lori has an expert that will come up with a higher number for lost earnings,” Connie said.

“But now that we have Melanie Stewart stashed away, who do we go to and what are we doing? I haven’t been able to get a hold of either Tony or Maddy. And what are the Hennepin County sheriff’s detectives doing?”

“Investigating an attempted murder, I hope,” Connie answered. “Cliff Spenser called this morning. He told me about Melanie’s accident and that she’s missing. I played dumb––don’t say it smartass––and acted like it was all news to me.”

“We need to tell our client about Quinn’s offer,” Marc said. “But who do we tell?”

“Cliff said he’ll be the point person until further notice. I’ll call him back,” Connie said.

Marc looked like he wanted to say something else, so Connie said, “What? You want to say something?”

“Yeah. I don’t know why, but this morning, on the way here, I had a feeling I was being followed.”

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