Page 94 of Partner Pursuit
“Thanks. That should help me sleep betterat night.”
“I’ve got another solution to help you sleep better at night.” He rubbed her shoulders. “Yes, your muscles are tight.” He maneuvered onto his knees so he was in a better position to massage her shoulders. “Here, you can practice with me. I only know what I’ve read in the news about your case, but I can be the slimy investor plaintiff.” He leered at her in a mocking fashion and sat back across from her on the couch. “So, pretty lady, what do you want to know about me? I’m a simple man, you know, and your company recommended this fund. I put all my life savings into it. And then it dropped. Just dropped. How am I going to retire now?” Jake ended with awail.
That wasn’t exactly the allegation, but more practice would be helpful. Two could play atthisgame.
“You seem like a smart man—you know that stocks are not a guaranteed investment and that they can fluctuate in value?”she asked.
“Yes, but my financial advisor fromyourcompany recommended Popflicks, and I relied on his advice. I didn’t expect ittodrop.”
“And you didn’t put all your life savings into it,didyou?”
“Well, maybe not all,” hesaid.
“You seem like a man who does his research before he buys something.”
“Yes, normally, but I don’t know anything about stocks.” He shrugged hisshoulders.
“Nothing?”
“Nothing.”
“Please show the witness Exhibit A.” She grabbed a napkin and presented it to him. “Isn’t this your research folder?”
“It does look like something I often write my research on,” he said with a straightface.
“And that is your handwriting?”
“Shucks,yes.”
“With all your notes on various stocks?”she asked.
“That looks like my handwriting, but maybe it’s my wife’s. After a while, when you’re married, your handwriting looksthesame.”
“Your wife wrote this note about investing in internet stocks, citing thisBusiness Weekarticle?”
“My wife is a brilliant woman.” He winked at her. “But I think I wrote that particularnote.”
“Is this your handwriting and your note?” she asked. His foot was tickling her leg.Playing dirty. So distracting. More distracting than I would’ve thought possible.She looked away from his face and at the painting on the wall to collect herthoughts.
“Yes.”
“There are pages of notes, aren’t there?” She took more napkins from the coffee table and showed them to him. He examined the napkinsseriously.
“Yes.” He shuffled the napkins, took one out, and peered at it closely. “But those are my notes from listening to the investment advisor. I just wrote down whathesaid.”
“Really? It doesn’t look like that. It looks like these are your own research. See this notationhere.”
“Yes, I did researchthat.”
“And did you invest in all the stocks the investment advisor recommended?”she asked.
“I think Idid.”
“It looks like he recommended some energy stocks, and you didn’t investin those.”
“I didn’t?”
“No, you didn’t,”shesaid.
