“Mason, I just got your client’s message,” I said.
“What? What message?”
“The little break-in at my office last night.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Of course not.”
“Look, never mind that, we have to meet.”
“About what?”
“We have a new offer. A final offer.”
“You know how to make a federal judge mad as hell? You settle a case after she’s spent two days picking a jury.”
“Doesn’t matter. When can you meet?”
“Marcus, what happened to ‘I’m going to tear you apart next week and love every minute of it’?”
“I would have. But the company wants this over. Too much at stake to put the outcome in the hands of twelve idiots. When can you meet? Where?”
“I’m not meeting you, Marcus. I’ve got too much to do today.”
“It’s your obligation to listen and deliver a settlement offer to your clients in a timely fashion.”
“We don’t have to meet. Give it to me and I’ll deliver it. Simple.”
There was a long pause as Mason decided what to do.
“Fifty million,” he finally said. “Your clients decide how to chop it up. The company doesn’t care. Same conditions as the previous offers.”
Now I paused. I felt ashamed because my first thought was about what my cut of fifty million dollars would be. Mason seemed to know this.
“What’s that mean for you, Haller?” he asked. “Twenty million? You should be able to convince them to take it for that.”
I actually had a sliding scale. The higher the settlement, the lower my percentage went until it hit 20 percent. In this case, that meant I’d get ten million if my clients took this deal. It was more money than I’d earned in my entire career. It would be more than enough to retire on and to build back better Maggie’s home.
I shook off these thoughts and regained focus.
“What are they scared of, Marcus?” I asked.
“I told them I have this in hand,” Mason said. “But they just want it to go away.”
I said nothing for a long moment.
“Take it to them, Haller,” Mason said. “You have just over six hours. The offer expires at five. All parties must agree. No split settlement. You understand?”
“I understand,” I said. “Put it in writing and email it to me so I have something to show them.”
“I just did.”
“Then I’ll review it and—”
Mason disconnected.
“Fuck you too,” I said.
I opened the email app on my phone and saw the offer on top. I read it, looking for any discrepancy between what Mason had just said and what he had written. There was none. The email was a duplicate of the previous settlement offer except that the number had changed and it contained the additional line about the clients deciding how to divide the money. I wondered what was behind that line. Had the Masons been back-channeling with the Coltons? Did the opposition think that giving the Coltons the possibility of a bigger chunk would help bring the sides to agreement?
There was a single knock on the door and Lorna walked in.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Are they gone?” I asked. “The cops?”
“Yes. Cisco walked them out. We can start our meeting when he gets back. Should I call Jack?”
“I just talked to him. He’s checking on Naomi and then he’ll call back.”
“Challenger.”
Lorna pointed to the ceiling as if that might be where Tidalwaiv had planted listening devices.
“Tidalwaiv knows about her from court,” I said. “No need for code words anymore.”
“Right,” Lorna said. “What is Jack checking on?”
“I don’t know. We had a break-in here. I just want to make sure she’s okay up there.”
“Mickey, you really think Tidalwaiv is behind this? It’s not the greatest neighborhood, you know.”
“If it had been a real break-in, we would have noticed things gone. The place would have been torn up. There’s two thousand dollars in copper netting over the cage, plus the laptops are in there. This was Tidalwaiv, Lorna. They were looking for something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know. Or maybe they were just trying to send a message.”
“What message?”
“That they’re playing hardball? I’m not sure.”
“And they call it civil court.”
“Ain’t that a joke.”
I heard the front door of the warehouse close and soon Cisco entered the office.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“Cisco, I want you to sweep the warehouse again,” I said. “If they didn’t take anything, then maybe they left something behind.”
“On it,” Cisco said.
“And we just got another settlement offer from Tidalwaiv,” I said.
“How much?” Cisco asked.
“Fifty million,” I said.
“Holy shit!” Lorna said.
“Yeah,” I said. “I have to tell our clients.”
Cisco dropped into the chair across the desk from me.
“Think they’ll go for it?” he asked.
“I think I would if I were them,” I said. “Too bad, though. It would have been a fun trial.”
“But hard to walk away from fifty mil,” Cisco said.
“No,” Lorna said. “Brenda’s going to say no. She’s a rock.”
I nodded. Lorna was probably right. My cell buzzed. It was McEvoy. I answered.
“Jack, you’re on speaker,” I said. “Things have changed.”
“Fucking A, they have,” he said. “Naomi’s backing out.”
“What happened? Why?”
“She’s a mess. Her daughter called from school. A man came to her dorm room last night and scared the shit out of her. He told her that if her mother testifies, her mother dies. That’s all he said, but it was enough.”
I saw Lorna bring her hand to her mouth.
“Goddamn them,” I said.
“What should I do?” Jack asked.
I stood up because I couldn’t sit anymore. I put both hands on the desk and leaned over the phone.
“Listen, things are happening here,” I said. “We might be settling this today.”
“They can’t fucking settle!” Jack yelled. “Not after this.”
“It’s the clients’ call,” I said. “I need you to stay up there until we know. Are you still at Naomi’s?”
“No,” Jack said. “She told me to get the hell out. She blames us for this.”
I nodded. Naomi was right. We had brought all of this to her door.
“Okay, just stand by,” I said. “We’ll know what’s happening soon.”
“Got it,” he said.
I disconnected and stood up straight. I started pacing, trying to think how I should present the offer. I would go to the Coltons first, then Brenda Randolph. I saw a stack of file folders on a side table near the safe.
“What’s all of this?” I asked.
“That’s the Snow case,” Lorna said. “Yesterday I went down to archives under the CCB and copied what they still had.”
I had been so consumed by jury selection that I pushed Cassie Snow and her father’s case completely out of my head.
“Were any of the exhibits still there?” I asked.
“Some,” Lorna said. “Like what?”
“Cassie Snow’s X-rays.”
“Yes, I made copies, though they aren’t as good as the real things. They’re in one of those files.”
“We’ll have to petition a judge to let us have the originals.”
“No, what I mean is I made copies of copies. The original X-rays weren’t there.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Where are they?”
“I don’t know. Could they have been filed with the appeals?”
“Maybe. We’ll have to deal with that later.”