The Associate Read online

  Chapter 8

  Harper

  I stayed late in the office after Damien left. Sophia was watching the girls, and I just needed some time to myself. Time to decompress. Time to reflect on what was going on. My headspace was always threatening me and I always had a tough time turning off the negative voice.

  The lights were off in the suite, so my office was the only light that was on. I turned to the window, looked at the people below, and, as always, I wondered about them. They were down there on The Plaza, shopping and going to restaurants and bars and maybe to the movies. I wondered if they were as free as I thought they were, or maybe, like me, they just had on a really good façade.

  I swiveled around to my desk and looked over the prosecutor’s file for Erik Gregorian. The Statement of Information, the pictures of Shelly, pictures of the car, the police report, and the transcript of Erik’s statement to the police. Erik’s rap sheet was also included in this initial discovery, and, of course, it was a long one. Mainly petty theft, a few burglary charges here and there, but nothing major. That was because Erik, after he became the leader of his clan, was protected by the soldiers beneath him. They did the dirty work. When he was coming up, he was a soldier, even though Sargis was his father, so he was convicted for minor things. I knew that he was good for much more than what his rap sheet indicated, but he was just never caught for those things.

  Until now.

  I read Erik’s statement to the police, found no confession, and moved on. He professed his innocence to the cops, even though the cops were hammering away at him, apparently, for hours. The transcript was that long.

  There were also some witness statements in the file, and I read them too. They were mainly people who were at the scene of the accident. They all said that Shelly was going at a high rate of speed on I-70, and then she crossed the median and hit a semi head-on. The highway patrolmen cut her out of the car, but there was very little of her to cut out. Her body, like the car she drove, was completely mangled. It looked like a tragic accident until the car was examined and it was found that her brakes had been tampered with. That, of course, was why she was driving at such a high rate of speed.

  Or was it? That actually made little sense to me. Yes, she had no brakes, but didn’t anybody ever teach about what to do in that case? Take your foot off the gas and pull up on the emergency brake. You don’t hit the gas harder. That made little sense that she would have been driving so erratically, tampered brakes or no.

  Maybe she just panicked when she figured out she didn’t have brakes. That was the most likely scenario. She panicked and hit the gas when she should have been doing just the opposite.

  Just then, I looked up and saw a familiar figure coming through the door. Sargis Gregorian. My nemesis. He was the one who threatened me into taking this case. He was the one who made me afraid for my life. Yet, he had an odd charisma. When I was in his presence, I somehow forgot just what he was – a thug, a kidnapper and a killer and an overall bad guy.

  He came into my office and sat down across from me, his pale green eyes – the same color as Erik’s – framed by long, dark eyelashes. His dark hair was still cut very short, and he was dressed the same as he ever was. A perfectly tailored suit in charcoal, a silk lavender shirt underneath, a tie and perfectly buffed leather shoes. Because it was starting to get cold outside, he was also dressed in an overcoat and a fedora on his head.

  He took off his hat and coat and smiled. “I have to say, I always forget how cold it can get in this part of the country. I’ve been spoiled living in Southern California all these years.” He shook his head. “But even this weather is nothing compared to Armenia in the mountains.” He visibly shuddered. “That’s why our people settled in Los Angeles. We were tired of the freezing weather.”

  In spite of myself, I smiled. It was the middle of October, for the love of God! It was probably 40 degrees outside, maybe a bit less, as it was unseasonably cold. But it was hardly a reason for complaining. Just wait until December, I couldn’t help but think. Then you’ll know what cold is. “Sargis Gregorian,” I said. “You’re actually just the man that I wanted to see.”

  He shrugged. “I wanted to drop in and see how things were going with my son’s case. See if you’re earning your keep here.”

  I bit my lower lip. “What keep? I’m not getting paid on this case, remember? I’m doing it as a favor to you, so that you don’t kill me and kidnap my girls. Or is that fact lost on you?”

  He smiled and laughed lightly. “Oh, don’t worry about that. Check your bank balance. Your trust account balance. You’ll see that you’ve been handsomely rewarded for this case after all.”

  I was skeptical, but I booted up my laptop and checked my bank account. I gasped as I saw that my trust account was flush with cash – somebody had made a $100,000 deposit in there, dated today. I cocked my head. “Okay, now we’re talking. I’m glad that you’ve made this more of a real attorney-client thing, and not some kind of blackmail thing.” I got out my standard contracts, which explained that I billed $400 per hour for my time, $150 per hour for paralegal time and $250 per hour for associate time. “Since we’re making this more of a business arrangement, I’d like for you to review this contract. It will explain my billable hours.” I had to admit, I felt a sense of relief that Sargis actually was going to pay me. I was fretting, just a little, about how I was going to keep the lights on. Running a law practice wasn’t cheap – there was always money going out the door for experts, personnel, rent and utilities. Now I had an associate and a full-time investigator working for me as well. Add that into the fact that I still had two girls at home, both of whom were in private schools, both of whom had ambitions of going to an Ivy League college, and money was a bit of a worry for me. The last thing that I wanted to do was take a full-blown murder case pro bono.

  Sargis looked at the contract and nodded his head. “This looks pretty standard,” he said, and then he signed it. I took the contract and made a copy of it and handed it to him.

  “What made you change your mind about paying me?” I asked him.

  “I always intended to pay you. I just wanted to see if you would actually accept my terms. And you did.” He nodded approvingly, and I suddenly understood. He was testing me, just like Damien thought. I wondered if the other parts of this deal – that if I lost this case, I would lose my life and my girls would be kidnapped – was also a part of the test.

  Then again, after what Erik told me, it was entirely possible this entire case was nothing but an elaborate mind-game for Sargis. If Erik was telling the truth, and Sargis did actually clear Shelly to work for the Gregorian clan, then that raised some huge red flags for me. It did for Damien, too.

  I leaned back in my chair. Sargis had already found out that he had the upper hand on me. I went along with the case, thinking that I wasn’t going to be paid, because I was frightened. There had to be some way that I could regain control. Some way that I could ensure my safety if things went south with this case, as it looked like it was going to. “So,” I said. “You were testing me, and I guess I flunked. Is that it?”

  “Something like that.” He smiled. “I’m a great student of human nature. I can pinpoint just how much I can get away with. I do that with everyone I meet. And I see fear in you, Harper. I see a woman who is unsure of herself, which makes you assume the worst about everybody you meet. I don’t pretend to know where your deep well of insecurity comes from. I only know that it’s there. You’re easily exploited.”

  “That’s not a very good trait for a defense attorney – easily exploited.”

  He shook his head. “On the contrary, it’s an excellent trait for somebody who is in the business of defending criminals. Your clients can manipulate you into thinking that they’re innocent, when they really are not. That helps you defend them and it gives you an air of believability to the jury. I can tell that you are really the kind of person who believes it when a man tells you that he didn’t kill somebody or that he
didn’t break into somebody’s house.” He nodded his head. “In your case, I would have to say that your certain naïveté is a great asset. Now, if you were a prosecutor…” He shook his head.

  For some reason, Sargis’ words were cutting me to the core. I couldn’t believe that I was so transparent to this man. It was like I was made of glass, and this man was able to see straight through me. “What about your son? Is he manipulating me? Does he also think that I’m weak and easily exploitable?”

  Sargis laughed. “You’ll have to ask him that question.”

  “What about you? You’ve already targeted my weaknesses. You already seemed to have figured me out. At least you believe that you do.”

  “I do.” He smiled. “Rest assured.”

  “The reason why I ask you that question,” I said to him, “is that I have some real questions about your son’s case.”

  “What are they? I will answer any question you have.”

  “Why would you have cleared Shelly to work with Erik? Erik told me that he asked you directly about her, and you assured him that she was clean. She wasn’t clean, of course. She was trying to infiltrate Erik’s organization. I’m quite sure that you would have known about that before telling him that she was clean. Or, at the very least, you should have known about that.”

  Sargis smiled and shook his head. “I do not want to impugn my son’s integrity,” he said. “But I am afraid that I will have to on this point. I can assure you that Erik never asked me about Shelly. That is not something that happens between my son and me. I gave him his territory to run, and that means that I am hands-off. I am not a micromanager. I have my own territory to run, Ms. Ross, and how am I supposed to advise my son about personnel decisions from 1,500 miles away?” He stared at me, his smile having disappeared. “Ms. Ross, your common sense should have told you that Erik was lying when he told you that I approved of Ms. McMason’s hiring.”

  I bit my lower lip, now trying to figure out who was lying – Sargis or Erik? What Sargis was saying made sense – how would he necessarily know if Shelly was on the level or not? Sargis was in Los Angeles. Erik was here in Kansas City, as was Shelly. The only way that Sargis would know about Shelly’s background would be if Sargis himself sent Shelly in to infiltrate Erik’s clan. And why would he do that? That didn’t make a lick of sense to me.

  I wasn’t just going to let that point go, however. Somebody was lying. I just didn’t know who.

  “So, you’re telling me that you didn’t know Shelly. Is that right?” I leaned back in my chair and tried to read Sargis. It was impossible to do, but I was going to try.

  “Yes, that is correct. I had never heard of Ms. McMason before my son was accused of murdering her.”

  “Okay, then,” I said. “If you say that you didn’t know her, and that you didn’t approve of her working for Erik, then I guess that’s the only real question that I have for you.”

  Sargis cocked his head. He apparently was surprised that I didn’t want to press the issue. Then he appeared to shrug. “Very well. How is this case coming along? What have you done for the case?”

  “Nothing yet. I just spoke with your son today to get his story. I will tell you that the case will go through the Grand Jury process, because that’s how it’s done in the 16th Circuit. Murders are one of many cases that go through the Grand Jury process, as opposed to going through the Preliminary Hearing process, so I’ll have to say that Erik most likely will be formally arraigned for Shelly’s murder.”

  “And you’re not going to try to fight that?”

  “No. There’s no reason to. I’m sorry to say, Preliminary Hearings just aren’t available for murders in this circuit. And I’m sure that you know about Grand Juries – they indict, 99 times out of 100. I don’t have any say on whether or not they indict, either. They’re conducted in secret, so I don’t even know when your son’s case will be presented to them.”

  Sargis looked as if he disapproved. His lips were pursed, and his pale green eyes were trained on my face. “What kind of motions will you be presenting to the judge? What kind of pre-trial motions do you foresee?”

  “Well, I’ll obviously present a pre-trial motion to examine the car that Shelly was driving. There’s some questions I have about that car – apparently the witnesses who saw her driving said that she was driving at a high rate of speed. I’ll have an expert evaluate that car. Other than that, I’ll have to delve more into the case to see if there is anything else that should be addressed pre-trial. There’s the possibility that I’ll be filing a motion to dismiss if I get the report back from my investigator and I don’t see that there is any evidence that Erik was involved in Shelly’s murder. At the moment, though, I don’t anticipate filing a Motion to Dismiss. Even if Erik didn’t kill Shelly, there’s reason to believe that he might have ordered it. He had motive to kill her. He had opportunity to kill her. He had the means.”

  “And you are so sure that he had the motive, means and opportunity to murder Ms. McMason?” Sargis asked me.

  “Yes. I do. He has an entire network of soldiers who are assigned to kill. That takes care of both means and opportunity. And he certainly had the motive – Shelly was going to expose his network to the entire world. From where I sit, Erik looks like he certainly committed this murder. I won’t lie.”

  Sargis just nodded his head. “That is what it looks like right now, perhaps. But I believe that, once you get more into the facts of the case, you will find that there is a different story. I have confidence that you will work your magic on the jury just like you always do. Just like you always have.”

  “How do you know so much about me and the cases that I’ve tried?”

  “Ms. Ross, do you believe that I would entrust my son’s case to just anyone? Of course not. I’ve done my research. I have found that you have had an extraordinarily high percentage of wins in court. You seem to have the magic touch with juries. Again, I believe that your success comes, at least in part, because of your naïveté. You are a true believer. Now, I do not believe that your associate, Mr. Harrington, is the same. But perhaps that’s a good thing – the Yin and the Yang, as one might say. His cynicism might balance out your naïveté. The two of you might make a good team.”

  “How do you know about Damien?” I asked Sargis.

  “I’ve done my research on him. I know more about him than you do, I’m quite sure.”

  “What kind of background research have you done on him?”

  “I’ve spoken with his colleagues at the Public Defender’s Office. And it turns out that I know some of his personal friends. They all, to a man, tell me that Mr. Harrington is a ethical and moral man. They all tell me that he’s also a skeptical man. I believe that he has had a rougher background than you know about.”

  I wondered about exactly what Sargis was talking about, and I wondered how he knew. “What does that mean? I admit, I don’t know much about him aside from his professional life. I know what cases he has won, and I know what cases he has lost. I know what clients he has had. But I don’t know much more about him. Perhaps you can fill me in?”

  Sargis shook his head. “You can’t get every answer you seek from me.” He stood up. “Now, I must leave you. I came into town mainly to see how Erik’s organization is functioning without him. I will have to appoint a new boss, at least temporarily, while Erik is absent. I understand, of course, that he is out on bail, but I also understand that a condition of his bail is that he cannot work with his organization. Believe it or not, Ms. Ross, I try to stay within the bounds of the law as much as I can.”

  I tried to suppress a smile when he said that. Sargis might be many things, but a law-abider wasn’t one of them. “Please shut the door behind you,” I said.

  “I will. I will just show myself out, if you do not mind.”

  At that, he turned and walked out of the suite, shutting the door behind him.

  Chapter 9

  Damien

  “Hello, Sarah,” I said, lookin
g her right in the eye. I looked at John, who looked embarrassed. I raised my right eyebrow and crossed my arms in front of me. My insides were coiled, completely coiled, like a snake ready to strike.

  Sarah looked me in the eye as well. “You’re here,” she said, her words slurred. “And where is Nate?”

  “Nate is at home. Emily is watching him.”

  “Why would you just leave our son at home like that?” Sarah seemed indignant, which I felt was rich, considering the fact that she, too, was in a bar while our son was at home. And, unlike me, she apparently was up to no good. “Nate needs you to be with him at home.”

  I looked over at John who looked like the weasel that he was. “Sarah, we’ll talk later,” he hastily said, and then walked rapidly towards the door. In a second, he had disappeared into the night.

  I was happy that he left, but, at the same time, I really wanted to punch his teeth in. I used to work with John at the Public Defender’s Office, and I was never that friendly with him. But I had never found him to be a rat or a weasel. Those were two animals that he resembled to me at the moment.

  Now, it was just Sarah and me, face to face. Garrett was still sitting down at the table.

  “That’s really rich,” I said to Sarah. “That’s really rich of you to be accusing me of being neglectful to our children. Considering the fact that it’s been me who has been at the hospital every single evening with our daughter, and it has been me who has come home to an empty house, night after night. I mean, it’s not empty – Nate is there. But you haven’t been there. I’ve been helping Nate with his homework. I’ve been picking him up from basketball practice.” Our son was playing in a Junior League, and his coach was telling me how much potential Nate had. “I’ve been the one who has been constantly trying to quell his fears about the possibility that he is going to lose his sister. And where have you been this whole time? Apparently at a bar, or maybe you’ve just been with John Gibson in some hotel room somewhere. What I do know is that you don’t get home until after I’ve gone to bed. It’s been going on for weeks, Sarah, and it ends tonight.”