Page 63 of Maddy's Justice

“Could be. Some women get ashamed, simply go away, and keep it to themselves. Management, in any business, isn’t always told,” Melanie said. “I’ll get you the information you need. For now, though, just names and addresses.”

“And if they quit or were fired,” Connie said.

“Okay. You’ll get that, but employee records are confidential. We have to be careful. Even with our own lawyers.”

“Plus, we don’t want it to be discoverable,” Marc added. “Tell me something. You’re an attractive woman, weren’t you ever…”

“Nothing serious. Sure, I was hit on and asked out for the first few years I was here. Nothing of a harassment nature. In fact, some of it was flattering. Nice guys, good-looking, meant no offense. There’s a big difference between that and being harassed and having your job put on the line.

“I was married at the time and didn’t know he was gay. When I got divorced, I made up my mind not to date at work. Plus, I was made partner and got the reputation as the Ice Queen.”

“Ouch,” Marc said. “You don’t seem like a, well, pardon me but, a cold bitch.”

“There are times when it serves me well,” she replied with a smile. “Like now. I’m going to go neuter a few of the boys. At least Gavin Blake.”

“Can I watch?” Connie asked. “I could take notes.”

“You don’t need any lessons,” Marc said. “We should go.”

On their way out of the office, as fortune would have it, they almost ran into Dalton Turner coming out of a men’s room.

“Hey, Dalton,” Marc said. “Good to see you again.”

“You’re here?”

“Yeah, we had business with Melanie. Why?” Marc said.

“You, ah, could’ve saved me the bother of driving to your place this morning,” he said with a touch of rudeness in his voice.

“Gee, I didn’t think of that,” Marc said.

“Besides, it gave you a chance to see our plush offices,” Connie said.

“Well, we gotta go,” Marc said. “Nice to see you again, Dalton.”

“How much does he hate you right now?” Connie asked.

They were at the elevators waiting for one to arrive.

“Who cares? He could use a little humbling,” Marc answered.

The elevator bell chimed announcing the arrival of their car, as Connie asked, “When do we tell Melanie that it was Faye Hayden who was date raped?”

“After Maddy talks to her again. Maybe. We’ll see.”

TWENTY-ONE

“It’s been a week since we got the list from Melanie,” Connie said entering Marc’s office without knocking.

“Come in,” Marc said.

“Carvelli’s guys having any luck?”

“There’s almost a hundred women, both former and still with the firm,” Marc said. “He had Paul run them through his search, but it was a little limited. All he had was names and addresses. A lot of them have moved. It would help if we had social security numbers. So far, they’ve talked to about thirty of them. Those that were willing to talk to us all said they had no problems. At least nothing more than being hit on a bit. Asked out, stuff like that.”

“Any lawyers?” Connie asked.

“Funny, you should ask,” Marc said. “Eighteen, total that left the firm. We’ve only been looking into the Minneapolis office. We found eleven of them. Seven claim they didn’t make partner when their time came, and they were gently pushed out. At least that’s the way a couple of them put it. The other four won’t talk to us.”

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