41

TOM CONCANNON WALKED INTO CONNOR’S OFFICE AND CLOSED THE door behind him. “Connor, we need to talk right now.”

Connor was on an international conference call, but one look at Tom’s face convinced him to end it immediately. He made his apologies and said good-bye. Tom seated himself in one of Connor’s guest chairs and watched with a stone-faced expression. Whatever was coming, it was bad.

Connor hung up the phone. “What’s up, Tom?”

“Carlos Alvarez called. He’s suing the firm and one of your clients, Devil to Pay, Inc.”

“Suing us? Why?”

“Abuse of process. He claims that you and Devil to Pay intentionally filed a false complaint against a company called Deep Seven. He says you fabricated evidence and lied to the Department of Justice in order to extort a settlement from Deep Seven.”

“That’s nuts! That’s absolutely stark raving insane!” Connor jabbed the air with his finger. “We’ll file a motion for summary judgment right off the bat. He’ll have to show his evidence— which he won’t have. Then we’ll get him and his firm sanctioned for filing this kind of crap.”

Tom’s expression didn’t change. “Connor, I’ve known Carlos Alvarez for nearly twenty years. He is many things, but he is not a liar.”

Connor stared at his friend. “Are you saying I am?”

“Of course not, but this situation is…” He frowned and shook his head. “Well, it’s perplexing.”

“So let’s get it resolved quickly. Let’s file that summary judgment motion.”

Tom looked skeptical. “What will DOJ say? Will they back you up?”

“I’m sure they will.”

“Have you asked?”

“No. I didn’t have any reason to until about two minutes ago. Why?”

“Carlos says they won’t.”

Would Max really leave him hanging like that? He couldn’t believe it. But then a few days ago he would never have believed that Allie would betray him either. “I find that very hard to believe, but I’ll let you know what they say.”

A slight frown creased Tom’s forehead and the corners of his mouth. “I’d like to be on that call.”

That hit Connor like a kidney punch. “Of course.” He sat back in his chair and looked out the window. “You need an independent witness on the line.”

“It’s not that we don’t trust you, Connor. I—”

“Don’t lie to me, Tom.” He turned and looked his friend— no, the office managing partner—in the eyes. “I thought you were better than that.”

Tom reddened. “Don’t push it, Connor.”

“Just play it straight with me.”

Tom took a deep breath and blew it out. “You want it straight? All right, I’ll give it to you. The Executive Committee held an emergency meeting over lunch to talk about this. They’re taking it very seriously, and they voted to put me in charge of the firm’s internal investigation. I’ll make my preliminary report in two days. Whatever I say, you’ve got a problem.”

“Even if you say that I’m telling the truth? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Oh, it makes sense, Connor. You may not think it’s fair, but it makes perfect sense. Let’s say I tell ExComm that you’re clean as a surgeon’s scalpel. The bottom line is still that you got us sued. The firm still has to report this to our malpractice carrier, still has to deal with the bad PR, and still has to spend time and money investigating you.”

Connor shook his head in disbelief. “But that could happen to anyone, Tom. Besides, shouldn’t that be weighed against everything I’ve done for the firm?”

“Like refusing to represent an important client you didn’t think was up to your moral standards?” Tom’s face was hard and unforgiving. “They took their business to another firm. Did you know that?”

So that’s what this was about. Now he understood why the Executive Committee was looking for an excuse to punish him. “I didn’t. I’m sorry to hear about it.”

“Are you sorry that you refused to represent them?”

Connor chose his words carefully. “I’m sorry that my refusal to represent them hurt the firm.”

“So am I. So is ExComm.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “All right, are you ready to call DOJ?”

Connor felt cold and numb. “Sure. The guy you’ll want to hear from is Deputy Attorney General Max Volusca. Let’s give him a call. I’ll put it on speakerphone.”

Connor pushed the speakerphone button and a jarringly loud dial tone filled his office. Connor hurried to turn down the volume. “Sorry.”

He pushed the speed dial button for Max Volusca, and a few seconds later the deputy attorney general’s deep voice boomed from the phone. “Department of Justice, Max Volusca speaking.”

“Max, it’s Connor. I’m here with one of my partners, Tom Concannon. Do you have a minute?”

“Sure.”

Tom leaned forward. “Thank you, Max. We’d like to talk to you confidentially about a company called Deep Seven. You’re familiar with them, I take it?”

“We investigated them not too long ago. Connor can tell you all about it.”

“Actually, I’d like to ask you a few questions about that investigation.”

“We don’t normally reveal what happens during investigations, but you’re welcome to ask. Fire away.”

“Do you know a lawyer named Carlos Alvarez?”

Max’s chuckle rumbled through the speaker. “Oh, yeah. I know Carlos Alvarez.”

“Did he ever make any allegations to you about the, ah, candor of this firm and one of its clients?”

Max’s voice turned serious. “Why do you ask?”

“Because he made such allegations to me, and they touch on this firm’s relationship with the Department of Justice.”

Long seconds ticked by. “I’d rather not get involved in this.”

There was a roaring in Connor’s ears. Tom shot him an accusatory look. “I’m sorry, Mr. Volusca, but this is a very important matter. Deep Seven has threatened litigation and we need to be able to accurately evaluate their claims.”

“I’ll tell you what I told the other side: we don’t comment on the reasons why we don’t intervene in cases.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Carlos seems to think that we turned down the Deep Seven case because we decided that the disclosure statement and complaint we received were full of lies. He called me up and wanted me to confirm that to him. I told him to go pound sand.”

The tight lines on Tom’s face began to smooth. “So you didn’t decide that our submissions were fraudulent?”

“Look, I just said that we don’t disclose why we make our decisions. Maybe we declined to intervene because we didn’t think there was much money involved. Maybe we thought you guys could handle the case fine without us. Maybe it was a Monday and we didn’t feel like taking on another new case. Or maybe we decided your client was lying to us.”

Connor leaned forward and cleared his throat. “Max, you told me that your investigation only found three fraudulent invoices from Deep Seven and that they only totaled around twenty thousand. That’s not a lot of money, is it?”

Max grunted and Connor heard his office chair creak. “It’s smaller than your other cases, I’ll give you that. A lot smaller.”

The knots in Connor’s stomach started to untie themselves. He glanced at Tom, who looked almost friendly again.

Connor looked at the phone and debated what to do next. Quit now? His friendly cross-examination of Max had probably scored enough points to slow down ExComm’s witch hunt. But Connor’s gut told him he could get more. “Max you performed an in-depth investigation into the allegations in the complaint and disclosure statement, didn’t you?”

“Of course. The Government Code requires us to.”

“And if Carlos Alvarez was right, if we really had told a bunch of lies to DOJ, your investigation probably would have uncovered that, right?”

Another silence long enough to make Connor sweat. But then Max said, “Yeah, probably.”

“Thanks, Max. That’s all I wanted to know. Tom, did you have anything else you wanted to ask?”

He shook his head. “No, that covers it. Thanks for your time.”

Connor pressed the “Call End” button on his phone and the light for the line they had been using went out. “So, are you satisfied?”

Tom shrugged and examined his Montblanc pen. “He didn’t exactly back you up.”

Connor slapped his desk. “Oh, come on! You heard him. If we had lied to him, he’d know it. And if that was the case, would he have made it sound like they declined because the case was worth peanuts?”

“Relax, Connor. No, he didn’t sound like he thought you’d been lying to him, but that’s not quite the same thing as saying you hadn’t.” He held up his hand to forestall Connor’s objection. “I heard what he said about DOJ policy. I know he can’t proclaim your innocence. Maybe he would if he could. Off the record, I’m guessing he’d probably like to. That’s all good. All I’m saying is that it’s not enough. And as long as there’s still a lawsuit pending against you and the firm, it can’t be enough. You understand that, don’t you?”

Connor could feel the dynamic changing. Tom was mollifying him now, explaining why the firm really had no choice. The accusatory, look-what-you’ve-gotten-yourself-into tone was gone. Good.

Connor decided to press his luck. “I understand, but…” He sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know. This conversation makes me wonder whether I really fit in here. You basically told me that ExComm is uncomfortable with the way I practice law. And just between you and me, that makes me uncomfortable with practicing here. Maybe I should go someplace else.”

Tom instantly went into damage control mode. “Whoa. Slow down, Connor. You’re completely misreading the situation. The firm isn’t happy about this lawsuit Carlos Alvarez is threatening, but let’s keep things in perspective. We value you. A lot. Yes, your principles sometimes, ah, create complications, but we know it’s an important part of you, and you’re an important part of us. You’re a tremendous asset to the firm, Connor. We’d hate to lose you.”

Translation: as long as he was profitable for the firm, he was safe. ExComm thought he needed to learn a lesson about being a team player, but they weren’t going to let that come between the firm and the money he brought in. As long as Alvarez’s lawsuit ultimately failed, no one would be pushing him toward the door. How nice.

Connor gave a knowing smile and nodded. “Thanks, Tom. I appreciate that. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some calls I need to make.”

“No problem.” Tom stood and smoothed his slacks. “Not to any of our competitors, I hope.” He grinned and chuckled, as if he was making a little joke.

Connor grinned back. “Keep me in the loop on your investigation, okay? I’d rather not get surprised again.”

“Sure thing,” he said as he sauntered toward the door. “Say, are we still on for golf on Saturday at the Marin CC?”

“Absolutely. Say, could you shut the door on your way out?”

Tom’s smile wavered for an instant as he stepped out into the hallway, as if he was wondering whether Connor really was about to call the hiring partner at a competing firm. Well, let him wonder. The door clicked shut behind him.

Connor chuckled, but not for long. The whole thing bothered him. He’d won a round, but he never thought he’d be fighting against his own firm. Maybe he really should start looking someplace else.

He picked up the phone and dialed. “Department of Justice, Max Volusca speaking.”

“Hey, Max. It’s Connor. Thanks for helping me out.”

“Do you know how much I helped you out?”

“Uh, what do you mean?”

“So you don’t know?”

Connor’s spine tingled and he lowered his voice even though the door was shut. “Max, you’re starting to scare me.”

“That’s what I figured.” He dropped his voice to a gravelly whisper. “I’m about to go off the reservation, so keep this strictly to yourself. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“All right. I sort of implied that we declined because there’s not much money in this case. That’s true, but there’s more. You know those invoices you sent us? The ones Allie swore she downloaded from Deep Seven’s computers?

“Sure. Of course.”

“Fakes.”

Connor closed his eyes and slumped in his chair. “You’re sure? How do you know?”

“Sorry, I can’t open the kimono that far. All I can say is that after you and I talked, I had our auditors and our IT people look at this again to see if they could figure out whether there was anything illegal going on at Deep Seven. So they went over the package Allie gave us—and they’re 99.99% sure those aren’t real invoices. Somebody—and I think we both know who—fabricated all three and uploaded them into Deep Seven’s system.”

Connor’s stomach revolted and he swallowed back bitter bile. “I had no idea, Max. None at all.”

“I believe you. If I didn’t… you know how I feel about liars.”

“I do.” The image of him and Allie in handcuffs flashed into his mind. “Is there going to be a criminal referral?”

“Sorry, I can’t comment.”

Connor took a deep breath and stared out the window. Brilliant white gulls rode the breeze between the azure dome of the sky and the deep blue floor of the bay. A line from Forrest Gump appeared in his mind: Dear God, make me a bird so I can fly far—far, far away from here.

“Connor, are you okay?”

“No.”