Equivocal Death (3 page)

to be nice as well. In theory, Kate was supposed to share her ser-32

vices with a first-year associate named Terry Creighton. But for the 33

past six months, Creighton had been in Nebraska, where he spent ort 34

his days in an unheated warehouse, poring through corporate files.

reg 35

Kate could barely remember what he looked like.

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“You must’ve had a good vacation,” Jennifer said. “You look 1

great!”

2

Kate gave her a distracted smile. “It was fine. Relaxing. But it’s 3

good to be back.”

4

Jennifer looked at her, incredulous. “I don’t believe you guys.

5

The hours that you put in here. And then you don’t even like va-6

cations. Boy, if I ever went to the Caribbean, I don’t think I’d ever 7

come back.”

8

Kate glanced anxiously back at the papers on her desk. “I’ll tell 9

you about it later. Right now, I have to get ready for a ten o’clock 10

meeting with Carter Mills.”

11

Jennifer’s eyes widened at the mention of Samson’s presiding 12

partner. “Wow. Good luck. Listen, I just wanted to say that there’s 13

a message from Tara on your voice mail.”

14

“Thanks,” Kate said. She’d been right not to pick up the phone.

15

Tara was her best friend and college roommate. It would have been 16

hard to cut short the conversation.

17

“Let me know if you need anything,” Jennifer said, closing the 18

door behind her.

19

Returning to the complaint, Kate glanced back at the caption to 20

find out the plaintiff’s name. Stephanie Friedman. Briefly, Kate 21

wondered what she looked like, this woman behind the lawsuit.

22

But her thoughts quickly moved on. Where would things go from 23

here? Of course, everyone knew that sexual harassment cases were 24

notoriously easy to file and hard to get rid of, making them a fre-25

quent weapon of choice for disgruntled employees. In her year of 26

legal practice, Kate had already seen more than a few such suits 27

filed on tenuous facts in hope of a speedy and substantial settle-28

ment, a sort of legal blackmail. Who knew what had really hap-29

pened? Still, it didn’t take hours of research to know that Thorpe 30

and WideWorld had a mess on their hands. There was nothing 31

subtle about the allegations.

32

Thorpe routinely referred to women as bitches, cunts, whores.

33

He demanded that the women who worked for him wear short 34 sh

skirts and tight sweaters.

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He interrogated female employees about their sex lives, de-2

manding detailed descriptions and subjecting them to elaborate 3

dissections of his own encounters.

4

He’d threatened to fire several women if they refused to sleep 5

with his music producer pal Ron Fogarty.

6

It went on from there.

7

Kate tried to remember what she knew about Thorpe. With her 8

eighty-hour work weeks, she had scant time to keep up with cur-9

rent events. But it would have been impossible to miss the media 10

frenzy that broke out several months back when
Catch
weighed in 11

on sexual harassment. The magazine’s glossy cover featured a par-12

ody of
Hustler’
s famous meat grinder shot, a woman’s legs thrust 13

high in the air as her body disappeared in the utensil’s gears. But on 14

the
Catch
cover, the head disgorged by the grinder was that of 15

feminist icon Anita Hill. Smaller photos inside paired head shots 16

of prominent female activists with bodies from lasciviously posi-17

tioned porno pix.

18

By all accounts, the credit for the uproar was entirely due to 19

Thorpe, a flamboyant entrepreneur whose editorship of
Catch
had 20

made him a household name. A North Carolina native, Thorpe 21

had started
Catch
straight out of college with money raised from 22

wealthy classmates. Kate recalled him from television interviews, a 23

compact, powerful figure who pulsed with contained energy. He 24

seemed to take a grim delight in baiting the talking heads who 25

grilled him. “I respect women,” he said repeatedly, in an exagger-26

ated Southern drawl. “In fact, my mother was one. My sister, too.”

27

Intriguing legal issues, celebrity scandal — what more could a 28

young lawyer want?

29

She couldn’t wait to begin.

30

31

32

Rounding the corner outside Carter Mills’s office suite, Kate 33

slammed into the portly figure of Bill McCarty, who was charging ort 34

in the opposite direction. Her notebook and pens scattered to the reg 35

floor.

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“Excuse me,” she gasped, bouncing back from the impact.

1

McCarty, red-faced and breathing hard, responded with a short 2

grunt and continued full-speed down the hall, his short arms jog-3

gling at his sides. As she gazed after the stout, balding figure, Kate 4

rubbed her shoulder and wondered what had him so upset. While 5

she’d never worked with McCarty, she knew him by reputation as 6

diffident and unassuming. McCarty was a workhorse, not a show 7

horse. Rumor had it that his election to the Samson partnership 8

stemmed from his willingness to endure crushing workloads with-9

out complaint. Fits of temper seemed entirely out of character.

10

Kneeling to pick up her things, Kate heard a clipped British ac-11

cent behind her.

12

“No need to bow before entering. They did away with that
years
13

ago.”

14

Kate looked up to see Peyton Winslow. Not that she’d had any 15

doubt who was speaking. Despite three years at Yale Law School 16

and six at Samson & Mills, Peyton’s Oxford intonations only 17

seemed to grow stronger with each passing year. Today, he sported 18

a large pair of red-framed glasses. The glasses were Petyon’s signa-19

ture; he had a wardrobe of different styles, all slightly eccentric by 20

office standards.

21

“Very funny,” said Kate, clambering back to standing position 22

and smoothing her gray wool skirt. “I was just cut off at the pass by 23

Bill McCarty, and everything went flying. He seemed furious about 24

something. Any idea what?”

25

Peyton gave her a skeptical look. “Interesting,” he said. “I 26

thought he was computer-generated. It never occurred to me that 27

emotions were part of the package.”

28

Kate grinned. She was always surprised by Peyton’s bouts of ir-29

reverence. A rangy figure in his early thirties, Peyton often seemed 30

younger than his years, all eager legs and feet. But appearances could 31

be misleading. Everyone knew that Peyton was a rising star. He was, 32

in the Samson vernacular, “highly regarded.” Affectations aside, 33

he was incisive, hardworking, and an excellent manager. He’d be 34 sh

up for partner in two years and was widely viewed as a shoo-in.

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Together, they proceeded into Carter Mills’s reception area. His 2

secretary, Clara Hurley, was immersed in dictation, her fingers fly-3

ing across the computer keyboard. She jumped when Peyton 4

tapped her on the shoulder.

5

“You
scared
me,” she said reprovingly, pulling the Dictaphone 6

headset off her tight gray curls.

7

“Sorry ’bout that,” said Peyton. Clara visibly softened. Peyton 8

had clearly gotten on her good side. Smart move, Kate thought.

9

When you were trying to get a brief out on time, a good relation-10

ship with the person typing it was at least as important as your le-11

gal skills.

12

“Have a seat, and I’ll see if Mr. Mills is free,” she said. Clara’s use 13

of Mills’s last name sounded quaint to Kate’s ears. Except for the 14

most inveterate old-timers, everyone at Samson was on a first-15

name basis. But of course, Clara had been with Mills for decades.

16

Waiting outside the closed office door, Kate felt shy and very 17

young. She could feel her heart beating faster. From the corner of 18

her eye, she saw that Peyton was working. His features were locked 19

in concentration as his pen flew across some junior associate’s 20

draft. Kate envied him his seeming calm.

21

For what felt like the fiftieth time, Kate turned back to her 22

notes. If even a fraction of the allegations were true, Thorpe and 23

WideWorld had a major problem. And even if they
weren’t
true, 24

the case had all the earmarks of a public relations nightmare. The 25

timing — right on the heels of Thorpe’s splashy attack on the very 26

laws under which he was sued — couldn’t have been worse.

27

“Come in, come in.” Carter Mills was standing in the doorway.

28

As she jumped to her feet, Kate felt a subtle change in the atmo-29

sphere, a sort of electric charge. Up close, Mills was even more im-30

posing than she remembered. He was tall, well over six feet, with 31

penetrating slate-blue eyes. Despite gray streaks in his thick dark 32

hair, he gave an impression of youthful vigor. Everything about 33

him — his voice, his bearing, the aristocratic cut of his features —

ort 34

seemed to exude authority. Mills’s grandfather, Silas Mills, was one reg 35

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1 7

of the firm’s two founding partners. Yet family connections were 1

the least of Carter Mills’s credentials. He was widely regarded as 2

one of the nation’s leading trial lawyers, the subject of countless 3

feature stories and news reports and a perennial fixture on top-ten 4

lists. Mills was, Kate thought, a rare blend — a scholar who could 5

still woo a jury, a $600-an-hour mega-lawyer who could roll up the 6

sleeves of his $300 shirts and speak directly to the people.

7

Mills gestured them into his office. Peyton slipped into a chair.

8

Kate sat down beside him. As Mills returned to his desk, Kate took 9

a quick look around. Several large abstract paintings. A black 10

leather sofa. The decor took Kate by surprise. There were, to be 11

sure, some traditional touches. Family photographs. Harvard diplo-12

mas. An impressive grandfather clock. But it was not what she 13

would have expected. She was intrigued by the room’s appearance, 14

intrigued and also pleased. It seemed to affirm Mills’s uniqueness.

15

“Madeleine Waters will be joining us shortly,” Mills said, after 16

buzzing Clara for water. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment.” He was 17

already back at work.

18

The words pulled Kate back to the present. Another intriguing 19

surprise. Madeleine Waters, the acknowledged beauty of the Sam-20

son fold. Madeleine wasn’t the first female partner at Samson & 21

Mills — there was Karen Henderson in the tax department and 22

Michelle Turner in trusts and estates — but she still stood in a 23

class by herself. The first female partner in the litigation depart-24

ment, a club within a club at Samson, she was a role model for 25

younger women. She seemed to embody a bright new world, a 26

place where power and femininity could coexist.

27

Kate briefly wondered if Madeleine could be working on this 28

case and then rejected the thought out of hand. Madeleine Waters 29

working with Carter Mills? No way. While Mills had once been 30

Madeleine’s mentor, they were now said to be barely on speaking 31

terms. Something to do with a failed love affair, if firm gossip was 32

to be believed.

33

A rustle at the door. Clara Hurley appeared with a crystal water 34 sh

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pitcher and glasses. The perfect secretary of the old school. Care-2

fully setting down the tray, Clara poured water for Mills, her stolid 3

features suffused with a maternal glow.

4

Without looking up, Mills accepted the glass.

5

“Clara, could you see what’s keeping Madeleine. Tell her we’re 6

ready to meet.” Beneath the sonorous calm of his voice, Kate 7

sensed an edge of irritation.

8

“Yes, Mr. Mills.”

9

And then Madeleine was standing in the doorway, a slim figure 10

in a jade silk dress.

11

“I’m sorry I’m late,” she said. Her voice, slightly breathless, was 12

lower than Kate had expected. Madeleine sat down on the black 13

leather couch, a little apart from the group.

14

Peyton jumped up and motioned toward his empty chair.