Chapter 7
Forty-eight hours after the girls had returned from Washington, Charles called a dinner meeting to further strategize about Garland Lee’s mission. The girls were cleaning up with their usual zest and thoroughness. “We shaved off a second,” Yoko giggled as she hung up the dishcloth to dry. The others high-fived her, laughing as they always did over their impeccable timing where cleanup was concerned. Yoko was last in line to exit the kitchen for the trip down the moss-covered steps that led to the war room.
As was their custom, they all turned silent as they saluted Lady Justice in all her majesty. They took their seats and started to chatter nonstop, bringing everyone up to date on what each one knew and didn’t know.
Nikki spoke first. “I’m taking ten days off. I’m between cases, and there is absolutely nothing urgent that the others can’t handle. I’m available for whatever I can do.”
“I’m with Nikki,” Alexis said. “I won my case yesterday, and the rule at the firm is ten days off to celebrate. I’m also available.”
“I got a text from Kathryn, who said she’s rolling into town tomorrow for ten days. Ten days must be our magic number. She has to have her rig overhauled. She said she might even be here two full weeks. As for me, I’m good. My college boys finished up and are available twenty-four/seven,” Yoko said happily.
“I don’t exactly have ten full days, but I can guarantee seven,” Isabelle said. “My project is ahead of schedule. I do have to be available, however.”
“I’m good for whatever I can do, as long as Annie cuts me some slack,” Maggie said.
“You have all the time you need, my dear,” Annie said generously.
“I think I speak for Annie, as well as myself, by saying we’re here to do whatever is needed, and we don’t have any time constraints,” Myra said.
Charles and Fergus walked down the three steps to the main part of the war room to stand behind Annie’s and Myra’s chairs. “We’re here for Avery Snowden’s report. He should be checking in momentarily. I do believe he has some information that will aid us in our next moves. He’ll be on speakerphone and answer any and all questions you might have. Please hold your questions till after he has given his report. While his report will be verbal for now, he’s overnighting a full written report. He also said we might want to arrange a face-to-face with Ms. Lee after we hear the report, since he said he picked up some information she either forgot to mention or doesn’t want to talk about.”
Myra and Annie looked at one another.
“Garland seemed very forthcoming when we visited her. We kept asking if there was anything else, and she said no. She’s not the kind of person who would knowingly withhold information. I think we’ll find out it is just an oversight, whatever it turns out to be,” Myra said. Annie nodded in agreement.
No sooner had the words rolled off Myra’s tongue than the phone in the middle of the table shrilled to life. Nikki reached out to click it to the ON position, and then hit the SPEAKER button. The sisters leaned forward, not wanting to miss a single word of Avery’s verbal report.
“Evening, all. Let’s get right to it. Some of what I have to tell you is good and some not so much. All of the listening devices we planted are prime and working well. I’ve spent the past two days listening to conversations among all parties. For starters, let’s go with the device Maggie planted at the firm. I was able to listen to the entire meeting the partners and their malpractice lawyer had with Mr. and Mrs. Forrester. That meeting did not go at all well. In fact, the partners did not say a single word the whole time the Forresters were in the room. They left it all up to Juan Lorenzo, the malpractice attorney. And that’s the way it should be.
“Mrs. Forrester reared up and spoke her piece and left the meeting, saying she was not going home. One of my operatives followed her, and she took a cab, by the way. She and her husband had taken the train into Union Station. The cab took Mrs. Forrester uptown, where she entered a doorman-monitored building. My operative logged the address, but was unable to garner any information on who lives there or whom she is visiting. More on that later.
“Lorenzo presented Mr. Forrester all the information the partners had shared with him about Countess de Silva’s account possibly coming their way. He spoke about Nikki and Maggie and how Nikki was named Lawyer of the Year several years in a row. He spoke about her firm to show that this was serious business and, of course, Maggie’s role as the former editor in chief of the Post. Forrester made no comment. In point of fact, he was pretty much silent, till the very end.
“I think it’s safe to say the meeting was intense. Forrester said he had earned the millions being held in escrow. Lorenzo said all he did was plug in numbers and change the dates, yada yada yada. Forrester countered, and they argued back and forth, until Lorenzo zapped him with some movie deal he tried to get going about Garland Lee’s life, which she knew nothing about. It sounded like Mrs. Forrester didn’t know about it, either.
“The deal would have him, had it worked out, getting the lion’s share of the profits, had a movie been made. He had himself down as manager and any other titles he could give himself. Plus his twenty percent, plus his hourly legal fee, and the guy was going to make out like a bandit. Had the deal come off, the guy would be living on Easy Street for life. So, when Lee nixed the deal, he went nuclear on her. I’m not sure of the timing, exactly, but I think that’s when things started to go south.
“Then there was the book deal, the memoirs he tried to peddle, that Lee shut him down on, too. I don’t remember exactly where I heard this, but it was a ten-million-dollar deal, with him getting his twenty percent, or two million dollars, plus his hourly rate, plus his percentage of the royalties, if there were any. Any foreign rights percentages were on top of all that. Lorenzo made it sound as if Forrester had already spent the money when Lee shut him down.
“The man is beyond bitter. The more Lorenzo tried to talk him into dropping the case or trying to settle, the more it made Forrester dig in his heels. To me, and this is just my opinion now, it’s all about vengeance and getting back at Garland Lee for ruining the good life he had planned for himself. His parting shot to Lorenzo and the partners was to go to hell and to kiss his ass on the way. Then he stormed out of the room and took the train back to Riverville. The operative who followed him said he burned up his phone. I assume he was trying to reach his wife, but was apparently unsuccessful, because he just kept doing it, one call after the other. I’m sure the wife turned off her phone, because she sounded way beyond angry when she left.
“After Forrester left the office, the partners talked, and they’re going ahead with their threat to sue him for anything they can. They told him in no uncertain terms that he would spend the rest of his life defending the suits. That’s it on that part. We can move on now to what transpired in Riverville as all that was going down.
“Sasha, one of my best operatives, and I managed to get into the Forresters’ condo. We planted four listening devices, copied everything off his hard drive, and took photos of everything we saw in his office. We ran into a bit of a diversion because the maid was there, but we made that right with the proper gratuity and a thinly veiled threat. We also copied her key, so we have access to the condo whenever we want to go in there, providing no one is home. We had her call Mrs. Forrester to say she was leaving and wouldn’t be back, but no one answered. She left a voice mail for her. And she promised to call if there was any kind of blowback. Since she was positive that the Forresters did not even know where she lives, blowback is unlikely. I think she’ll keep her word, and, of course, the gratuity helped with that a bit.
“We’ve been on the job almost six days now. I still really don’t have a feeling for the guy. It’s like he’s a robot. Usually, by this stage of a mission, I’ve figured things out. They’re an odd couple. They do not appear to be close to their children. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that’s how it appears. The maid said she heard the wife refuse to give her husband money, or to let him use her money, because it was for her children and the children helped by her charity. She said the Forresters argued behind closed doors, but she could still hear them. She’s the one who tipped us off that a phone call came in for Arthur to come into the firm for a meeting. Stat. They dropped everything and left. The missus didn’t want to go, but she did end up going. They took the train into D.C., then took a cab to the office building.
“The condo has been silent the past two days. Arthur did not go out to play golf today. He did go to the market and brought food home. He has not spoken to anyone on the phone, so if he has been in touch with anyone, it is via e-mail or texting. He does not talk to himself, sing while he shaves, or anything like that. I do not know what he’s been doing, so all we have at the moment is dead air coming out of the condo.
“My operative told me that the first night of our surveillance, Mrs. Forrester and a female friend went to dinner at a little café around the corner. An Italian place. They drank two bottles of wine and had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. They had to hold on to each other for the trip home. Mrs. Forrester cried in her wine. They were there three hours. They do not go anywhere during the day. The second night, they went to a different place, a bistro, where they only drank one bottle of beer each and just had appetizers. They were steady on their feet walking home.
“One other thing. It’s my opinion that Forrester is doing the nitty-gritty on a lot of his legal work, and his attorney here is signing off on it. To keep the bill down, I would assume. You did tell me, Charles, that Annie got a copy of his financials. I’d like to know how much he’s actually paid out in legal fees. I know the malpractice guy, Lorenzo, is paid by the insurance company.
“That is pretty much my report, and you can ask me questions now. I’ll do my best to answer them.”
The sisters looked around at each other, their eyebrows raised. They shrugged their shoulders at the same time.
“So he’s not willing to settle, and he refuses to drop his suit against Garland. That’s a given, right?” Annie said.
“That’s what I got out of it, yes,” Snowden responded.
“So what happens now? When do they set a date for the trial?” Yoko asked.
“I have no clue,” Snowden responded.
“Probably whenever the judge rules on the summary judgment,” Alexis and Nikki said in unison.
“When you say the condo is dead air, does that mean no TV, no stereo, no phone calls where he left messages for his wife?” Isabelle asked. “Seems to me if the TV or the radio was playing, maybe he made calls and your device didn’t pick up on it.”
“Good point. Yes, he does keep the TV on—all night, as a matter of fact. He has it set to the Fox cable network. It’s very muted. I could hear fine. My bad here. He did make one phone call the night he got back after his meeting in Washington. He called his wife, but he had to leave a message, which he did, and it was not very nice. Not very nice at all. He chastised her, and also said if she didn’t return home ASAP, he was going to file a missing persons report on her. That, I believe, was an idle threat, which I’m quite sure she recognized. Because, for all intents and purposes, it looks like she’s hunkered down at the current location for the foreseeable future.
“Before you ask, the woman she’s visiting appears to be the same size and build as Nala Forrester, so I assume she’s lending Mrs. Forrester clothes. My people are trying to find out the name of the person who either owns or is leasing the apartment. We have to comb through all the tenants, and even then, we don’t know which floor she lives on. The doorman is exceptionally tight-lipped, and bribes don’t work.
“My next question to you all is, do you want us to check out the kids? I know your rule on that, but I still have to ask.”
“Our rule has always been, and always will be, that children, no matter their age, or grandchildren, along with animals, are off-limits. Even if they know something, we leave them alone,” Annie said forcefully. The others nodded in agreement.
“Anything else, ladies?”
“What about the e-mails back and forth with his attorney up there in Riverville and the ones to Lorenzo?” Nikki asked.
“I’m wading through them now. I’ll report first thing in the morning. What I’ve seen so far is that they are not nice. Forrester is very demanding. He wants what he wants when he wants it, and not a minute later. From the way they read, I would surmise that his attorney up here is just a puppet, and the guy resents it. I saw a few in which he dared to offer advice, and Forrester shot him down. There was one very personal one where he blamed Forrester for breaking up his marriage, to which Forrester replied that his wife was a big girl and could make her own decisions. He obviously has no remorse whatsoever that the woman was terminated for helping him file suit against Garland Lee. Knowing what little I know of him, he probably views it as acceptable collateral damage, though I suppose that he would consider any damage to others perfectly acceptable. He is not a nice guy. If there’s nothing else, I need to get back to work.”
The girls agreed that they had no more questions. Charles terminated the call and waited for the comments to come.
“What do you think, Charles?” Myra asked.
“Fergus and I are going to need a few more days to go through all the bank records. We need to take our time and make sure we get it right the first time. The minute Avery sends me his written report, we’ll make up copies for everyone. I’d say three days. By then, Kathryn will be back, and we’ll have a full house.”
“Tomorrow, first thing, Myra and I will pay Garland Lee a visit and ask about the movie deal that she forgot to mention. We’ll get more particulars on the book deal, too. I think it will help us a great deal if we can come up with numbers, to determine how much money he thinks he lost because Garland fired him.”
“So what you’re saying is once we get everything all nice and neat, we have two choices. We either wait for that judge to rule on the summary judgment to set the trial date, or we snatch Mr. SOP and end it our way, right? But, I think before we make that decision, we should ask Garland’s opinion. I know she said she doesn’t have the stamina for a full-blown trial, even knowing she’ll win. She doesn’t want to go public and have that circus all over the media, and I can’t say that I blame her,” Nikki said.
“What I don’t understand is why Mr. SOP would want to put himself out there for the world to see. Doesn’t he care about what that will do to his family and his reputation? Not to mention what it will do to the firm. Where is that man’s head?” Alexis barked angrily. “What kind of person is this we’re dealing with?”
“A greedy son of a bitch with absolutely no conscience,” Annie said. “Add that to the fact that he is just not a nice person, and I think we need to teach him a lesson. So I’m all for the snatch. From here on in, we’ll make all his decisions for him.”
“Damn straight,” Nikki said.
The sisters banged their fists on the conference table, shouting, “Hear, hear!”
Fergus shivered. Charles trembled. He knew what those words meant. If he needed any additional proof, all he had to do was look at the gleeful expressions on the women’s faces.
Not a single one of the sisters felt the least bit sorry for what was going to befall Arthur Forrester.
* * *
Myra eased up on the gas pedal as she approached the entrance to Garland Lee’s property. “Annie, do you see what I’m seeing?” she asked in awe.
“I do, I do. How did she do all this? Granted, she has a gardener, but still.... We were just here a few days ago, and now the place is an oasis covered in flowers. Acres and acres of flowers, as far as the eye can see. Every color of the rainbow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as beautiful as what we’re looking at. There must be like . . . I don’t know, fifty thousand plants with flowers on all of them. Shangri-la, a tropical paradise, I don’t know what to call it. Imagine waking up each morning and looking out the window to see all this,” Annie said, waving her arms about.
“Garland did say her gardener was a magician when it came to plantings. I assume Yoko’s people did a lot of the work. Before we leave, we have to take pictures. The girls will love seeing this magical place, and it is magical,” Myra said.
“Look! Garland is walking down to meet us. Look at that grin on her face!” Annie laughed.
“How do you like it?” Garland asked.
“It’s magnificent,” Annie said.
“Come along. I was so happy you called. I made us some lunch. I like talking over lunch. I don’t know why that is.”
“We do, too. You shouldn’t have bothered, but I have to admit I am hungry,” Myra said.
“Shrimp scampi, salad, and some garlic twists. Iced tea. It was no trouble. I don’t get much company, and, believe it or not, I do like to cook. So you have me all atwitter. What brings you out here in the middle of the day?”
“A number of things. We wanted to bring you up to date, ask your opinion on a decision we need to make, and ask you some additional questions.”
“Sounds serious, but I’m your girl. Lunch is ready, so if you want to wash up a bit, the powder room is off the hall. While you’re doing that, I’ll get things ready.”
Seated at the table, Annie said, “If this tastes half as good as it smells, we’re going to want seconds.”
Garland beamed her pleasure at the compliment. “Talk to me,” she said.
Annie and Myra brought her up to date, with Annie going first, then stopping to eat as Myra picked up. Finally, when their plates were empty for the second time, Myra wound down by saying, “We have to make a decision, but we don’t want to do that until you tell us what you want. But before we get to that, we have to ask you a question. When we were out here the first time, why didn’t you tell us about the movie deal that never materialized?”
All the color seemed to drain from Garland’s face. She wore the look of a startled deer caught in the headlights. “Because until just this minute, I haven’t allowed myself to think about that. When I found out what Arthur had done, I had a meltdown. A real meltdown. I had to see a therapist for a while. The movie people tried to sue me, and I didn’t even know what they were talking about. I had to hire a boatload of entertainment lawyers to make it all go away. It was all Arthur’s doing. It was a very, very bad time for me. Even now, when I think about it, my heart starts to race, and I break out into a cold sweat. I didn’t deliberately withhold the information. I just never allow myself to think about it, so I won’t have to talk about it.
“The book deal was bad, but the movie deal was much worse. I don’t know what to tell you. I have everything boxed up in the closet in my room. All the therapist’s reports, the lawyers’ reports, affidavits from Arthur. That was the beginning and the end of him with me. I fired him right after the book deal went sour. He dived into that project immediately after the lawyers shut him down on the movie deal. The canceled tour was in between the two. I was out of it for a while. Otherwise, I would have fired him on the spot. I guess that’s no excuse to your way of thinking, but had you been me, you might feel different.
“The last thing in the world I would ever want is for a movie to be made of my life. I am no different than anyone else where their private life is concerned. I have my skeletons I don’t want to share with the world. Let’s just say I was not always the person I am today. I want to keep it that way. The money . . . the money that could have been made was so astronomical, I couldn’t believe it. It seems like I would have been a big box-office draw. I found out later that Arthur was planning to buy a brewery with his share of the money. Actually, he had invested heavily in it, even before, but planned on buying out his partners with his share of the movie rights. At least that’s what my lawyers told me when everything was said and done.” Garland pushed her plate to the side and gulped from the glass of iced tea. “I think I just lost my appetite.”
“Then what happened?” Myra asked.
“From there, he tried to arrange a tour to recoup the monies he lost on the movie deal. I said no. Then he went for the book contract. I said no again. That was the end. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I just . . .”
“It’s okay. We know now, and it certainly answers a lot of our questions. We’re not blaming you. We just need to know everything, Garland,” Myra said soothingly.
“We certainly know now what and whom we’re dealing with. As Myra said, you just cleared that up for us. I’m sorry if we upset you. That wasn’t our intention.”
“Oh, I know that. It’s me. It’s just that I hate to remember and realize how stupid I was back then. Thinking about it now is like reliving it all over again. So what is the decision you want me to be part of?”
Annie peered at Garland, glad to see the color returning to her face. She appeared calm now, her hands weren’t shaking, and her eyes were clearly focused. At that moment, Annie knew that she was capable of strangling Arthur Forrester for what he’d done to this kind, wonderful lady sitting across from her.
Myra took a deep breath. “Here it is in a nutshell, Garland. We told you what went down at the meeting at the firm yesterday. Mr. Forrester said in no uncertain terms that he was not going to settle or drop the case. That means that unless you get a summary judgment, there will be a full-blown trial, probably six or eight months down the road. Possibly, a trial date could even be set for early next year, maybe sooner. We just don’t know at this point. It depends on how crowded the court calendars are.
“Here are your choices, and you do not have to make a decision right this minute. Take as much time as you need. Talk to your family about the trial only, nothing where we’re concerned before you make a decision. Do you understand what I just said?”
“I understand completely. What is my second choice?”
Annie laughed out loud. “I think you will like the second choice.”
Garland smiled. She adored these two women sitting at her kitchen table. Her eyes sparkled. “Lay it on me, ladies,” she quipped.
“We do a snatch. We’ll make all his decisions going forward, and it will be over for you, once and for all,” Annie said.
“That’s a no-brainer. Count me in for the snatch. Are you sure you can actually do that? Arthur is a wily little bugger, just so you know.”
“Does the pope pray? Of course we can do it, and we’re going to love every minute of the time we spend doing it,” Myra said.
“Do you need me to do anything? I’m up for . . . whatever.”
“I think we have it covered. We’ll update you in a few days. We’re still working on things. In the meantime, all you have to do is enjoy all those wonderful gardens you have out there. You should let them feature your grounds in some garden magazines.”
Garland shook her head. “No. If I did that, it wouldn’t be mine alone anymore. This is my sanctuary, one I share with only family and one or two good friends. I hope you understand that.”
“We do,” Annie said agreeably. “We should be getting back. You said you had a box to give us.”
“Yes. I’ll go and get it.”
When the kitchen door closed behind Garland, Annie looked at Myra, and said, “I’m okay with how this all went down. I believe everything she said, and I understand her completely. You?”
“Absolutely. Oh, Annie, I cannot wait till we have Mr. SOP in our clutches.”
“We aren’t making any money on this mission, you know that, right?” Annie said wryly.
“Annie, some things are just more important than others. I think we can make do. Our coffers are full. Pro bono is a wonderful thing sometimes. Shhh, I hear Garland on the stairs.”
“Here you go, ladies,” Garland said as she reentered the room, carrying a large box. “I have to be honest with you—I am so glad to turn this over to you, so glad to get it out of my house. I don’t know why I never burned it. I wish I had, but if I had done that, I wouldn’t be able to turn it over to you. When you’re finished with it, you have my permission to burn the whole darn thing. That’s when I’ll know it’s finally over, and I can have peace in my life again. Come along, I’ll walk you out to your car.”
The good-byes were warm and sweet, with hugs and promises to stay in touch. They were five miles away when Myra said, “I forgot to take pictures.”
“In the scheme of things, I don’t really think it matters much, Myra. Just concentrate on your driving. It would be more than okay with me if you sped up a little. This is a sixty-five-mile-per-hour stretch of road, and you’re only doing forty.”
“Suck it up, Annie. At least I’ll get us home in one piece. Those hair-raising rides you force on me leave me traumatized for weeks on end.”
“Once a complainer, always a complainer. That really was a superior lunch, wasn’t it? Watch that truck!”
“Shut up, Annie!”
Annie clamped her lips shut and looked out the window. She later told Fergus that if she’d wanted to, she could have reached out and plucked the leaves from the bushes because that’s how slow Myra was driving.
Fergus knew better than to comment on his beloved’s daredevil driving feats. All he said was “Uh-huh.”