Reilly 13 - Dreams of the Dead (14 page)

Stamp had been in practice in South Lake Tahoe for twenty years and had served as a city councilman for twelve of those. He had attended law school at UC Davis, and before that he had been an undergraduate track star at Cal State Hayward. He had a new baby and a lot of business clients who paid their bills. He was on his third wife, and his quest, Nina believed, was to be forever young. She got along with him and had never thought he was dirty, but now he had produced these papers, and that was making her wonder.

Brinkman, Paul, and Philip Strong sat together behind the lawyer’s bar, the two PIs flanking Philip like bodyguards. Philip seemed to languish between the younger, bigger men, and Nina wondered if he had some illness he wasn’t telling her about. Maybe it was the chronic emotional turmoil his son had put him through. She found it hard to look at him without feeling a pang of empathy.

No testimony would be taken today—the judge would make his decisions based solely on the paperwork filed by Lynda and Michael Stamp, and on legal arguments.

Through the tall windows a few stubborn snowflakes drifted through the firs. The courtroom was drafty and yellow-lit. At eight thirty in the morning, almost all of them had brought in a mug of coffee, including the judge. Nina began scanning Lynda’s responsive papers again. They were fine, no technical problems, and Lynda had left Nina plenty of room to wiggle through the legal argument; that was the main thing.

Stamp got up and in conversational tones made his argument. Jim Strong, son of Philip, owned a one-sixth interest in Paradise Ski Resort and had apparently belatedly learned of the plan to sell it. He had gone to a Brazilian lawyer named Kraft, who had advised him that, due to the extradition treaty between Brazil and the United States, he should not provide any information regarding his location and business in Brazil and should submit all paperwork through his counsel. This had been accomplished by associating in the South Lake Tahoe, California, law firm of Caplan, Stamp, and Powell.

“As you can see from our Points and Authorities, Judge, his attorney has opened a bank account for him in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where the sales proceeds can be wired. The corporate papers as well as the copy of the probate-proceeding papers clearly establish his ownership interest—there can be no issue about that.

“Therefore, an order is respectfully requested confirming the ownership share based on the corporate papers submitted previously, and further ordering that the net proceeds be distributed by wire to the bank account as stated.”

And, of course, if these orders weren’t forthcoming, the abyss would open. Nina watched Philip and Kelly Strong blanch as Mike led up to this point and highlighted it. In the galley behind, Marianne Strong and Gene Malavoy reacted, letting out subdued bleats of unhappiness. A good lawyer makes things sound so simple, so reasonable, as if no other interpretation of reality is possible except the one he’s selling on a particular morning halfway between winter and spring in a small mountain town.

Nina’s turn. She stood up behind the counsel table. “Let’s return to Earth, Your Honor. We are talking about two and a half million dollars, most of which should actually go to the rest of the Strong family and an address in some remote corner of the world where a dangerous fugitive may or may not have found refuge. Let’s keep in mind that Jim Strong can’t set foot here without being arrested and very likely convicted of multiple murders, and—”

“I need to interrupt here, Judge,” Stamp said. “Yes, there are charges against him, but he hasn’t been convicted of anything at this point. He has a legal right to make this claim and to receive these proceeds. He may be innocent of the crimes he is charged with. The charges are irrelevant to this proceeding.”

Flaherty said, “He’s playing a dangerous game here, isn’t he, Counsel? Aren’t the American authorities interested in extraditing him?”

“It is my understanding that the American authorities don’t have any way of extraditing him, even if Brazil allows it, because Mr. Strong’s location remains unknown. Brazil is a big country, Your Honor.”

“But he’s an American citizen. He can’t be that hard to track.” Stamp said, “It’s possible Mr. Strong is concealing his identity from the authorities in Brazil.”

“You can bet he is,” Nina interrupted. “Let me go on. Let’s talk some more about what Mr. Stamp said. If Jim Strong were alive, he’d obviously be residing illegally in Brazil, probably under an assumed name. Even if he weren’t wanted for murder here, common sense has to put us all on our guard. If he’s alive in Brazil, he is devious; he’s a liar, and he’s faked an identity, Your Honor.

“But let me now take this further. What if, as seems possible, someone else has faked his identity? It’s not as if this fugitive goes to the same church every Sunday, coaches Little League, says hi to the neighbors. This is a shadowy man on the run. How do we know the signatory on this affidavit is in fact Jim Strong? Did Jim Strong actually execute this affidavit? Or did some third party learn of the proposed sale and his disappearance and try to defraud the Strong family? Enough money is involved that this is an enormous risk. The Strong family cannot permit millions of dollars to be wired to Brazil because somebody down there rigged up an official-looking piece of paper. It’s a joke. Plus I’ve just provided the court and Mr. Stamp with information that Jim Strong may have been stealing from the resort. How is it fair to
ask that he receive monies based on the sale, when Paradise Ski Resort is unable to at the same time to make counterclaims against Mr. Strong?” She had taken a risk here. Philip had not authorized her to make that allegation in court. She threw a glance at him. He appeared unhappy but not particularly surprised by her release of this information publicly.

“She’s ignoring the fact that a duly appointed Brazilian notary examined his identification and determined that it was Jim Strong,” Stamp said. “The affidavit is duly witnessed. We have made a
prima facie
showing that he is alive, and there’s no countershowing.”

“Has Mr. Stamp spoken to his client by phone or used some Internet program such as Skype to permit him to personally interview the signer of this affidavit?” Nina asked, turning and looking directly at Stamp.

His face reddened. “I can’t answer that and she knows it. My contacts with my client are—”

“I thought not,” Nina said. “Your Honor, the Strong family has retained a private investigator, Mr. Eric Brinkman. He’s here in court today—please stand, Mr. Brinkman. He’s prepared to go to Brazil, interview the author of this affidavit, and get to the bottom of this. The buyers are willing to allow an additional two weeks for this purpose. Surely this Court will let no stone”—ugh, clichés, so important in this business—“remain unturned.” She had carefully chosen the word
author
, too. It reeked of fiction.

“But we have a presumption of regularity and you have made no evidentiary rebuttal, Counsel,” Judge Flaherty said. “Why hasn’t this trip already been made? It’s not enough to opine that the man is dead and that this is a fraud.”

“It’s not like a trip to L.A., Your Honor,” Nina replied. “It takes sixteen hours on a plane, and then a long ride to the coast to an area near the border of Argentina. Mr. Brinkman has a ticket to leave tomorrow. We’re not asking for anything unreasonable when we ask for a little more time to investigate this matter, Your Honor. Millions of dollars are—”

“There isn’t a shred of hard evidence that this affidavit is faulty in any respect,” Stamp said. “Families get greedy. In this case, they don’t want any money to go to Mr. Strong because they want to believe the charges. They prefer to believe the hype.”

“Hype? This isn’t hype. How about arrest warrants? How about—”

Flaherty held up a hand to stop Nina.

“They want Jim Strong dead. He’s an inconvenient truth, Judge, and they have written him off. But have they come up with one single piece of evidence that—”

Angry, Nina interrupted again personally and sharply. “Mike, you seem to have forgotten that I was present when Jim Strong started an avalanche that killed my husband.” She wouldn’t let the lawyer talk bullshit on that point.

Stamp stopped, had the grace to look chagrined. Then, doggedly, he said, “But the fact is, he was never tried on that charge or on any other. He remains innocent in the eyes of the law.”

Reason struggled for dominance but failed. “Innocent? He killed his brother, Alex; he killed his wife, Heidi; he killed my husband, Collier.” Some shred of sense made Nina leave out that he had come to her house that night to kill her, too. Paul was shaking his head slightly at her. Calm down, she told herself. It had been more of an emotional risk taking this case than she’d realized.

Stamp turned back to the judge. “There are no convictions. Counsel practices a lot more criminal law than I do, and she knows she shouldn’t be making all these prejudicial statements, which I’m sure the Court in its wisdom will disregard. He’s innocent until—”

Now Flaherty held up his hand, palm first. “We’re talking about a lot of money, Counsel, and a man who has led his family to believe he’s dead, a man who may have murdered several people. His character’s dubious; I don’t think what you offer is enough.”

“I agree, Your Honor,” Nina said quickly.

“We object to a continuance. We request a ruling today, Judge,”
Stamp said. “We’re entitled to it. We have met the burden of showing he’s alive.”

“Ms. Reilly?” Flaherty said.

“Give us a week, Your Honor. Jim Strong’s a murderer, and as I said, recent revelations have given us reason to believe he was also an embezzler from his family business.” Repeating the allegation, she remained unsure about this tactic. She didn’t like giving Stamp a heads-up on what she knew, but she didn’t know what he knew and what he was prepared to do to win his case, so the previous insomniac night, she had decided to go all out.

She went on, “No one has heard from him for years. If by some wild happenstance he’s alive, he has incredible gall trying to take advantage of his family’s hard work after gutting the family business, almost destroying his family emotionally, and putting them in this position. Technically he owned a one-sixth share of Paradise. We can’t permit him or much more likely some other criminal agency, to cause further harm.” Nina said these strong words with absolute conviction. Even Stamp seemed affected. There was no point in being mealymouthed about any of it.

Judge Flaherty said, “So you think it’s some con artist from Porto Alegre trying to make big bucks?” He seemed fascinated with the idea.

Nina nodded at the judge. “Exactly. You have your finger right on the problem, Your Honor. As usual.”

Stamp saw that it was time to switch tactics. “If the Court is inclined to give the Strong family more leeway here, there’s no need for a continuance. Lynda Eckhardt and I have already agreed the sale could go through and the money could be placed with Tahoe Sierra Title Company here in town pending any further investigation of this claim. We would then request that the Court order the money be placed in such an account pending a final determination of this issue. If the two and a half million is safe in a trust account, that serves the interests of the Strong family, in that they can still complete the sale in a timely fashion.”

“We object to the placement of that share of the proceeds into trust, Your Honor,” Nina said. She explained what it would mean for Philip, Kelly, and Marianne. All debts of the resort would then be paid from their shares, leaving them nothing to start new lives, while the net proceeds might sit in the trust account moldering for a long time. Nina stressed that the buyers were willing to wait until Brinkman could get down to Porto Alegre and investigate the matter, and that the Strong family would pay all expenses.

“Maybe,” Flaherty said. “I won’t make that order until we find out a little more. Now, then, Mr. Stamp, you have asked that this Court appoint a conservator for Mr. Strong, as he is officially a missing person pursuant to Probate Code section 1845. I have no problem with setting it up as you suggest, with Nelson Hendricks acting as conservator, with the view that if I do order the opening of an escrow, Tahoe Sierra Title, where Mr. Hendricks is an escrow officer, he will also be appointed to handle the escrow account.”

“No objection, Your Honor, the family doesn’t dispute that Mr. Strong is a missing person and that a conservator should technically be appointed.” Nina didn’t want any legal mistakes to allow any further complications down the road.

Flaherty made some notes. The courtroom was quiet. The judge pooched his cheeks as he thought.

“Let’s give her a week so her investigator can travel,” Flaherty told Stamp finally. “Why complicate things further? What’s a week for confirmation?”

Stamp took on the rigid-jawed look of a loser. Nina knew it well. There was a stir in the audience.

“Thank you, Your Honor,” Nina said. “What’s a week? We’ll be back in court lickety-split, and Mr. Brinkman will have more information for us. Give us a chance to show this whole thing is a con—”

“I take that personally, as impugning my character and the excellent reputation of my—”

“Oh, can it, Mike,” Flaherty said. “One week. What date is that, Madam Clerk?”

O
utside in the courtyard, Philip Strong shook hands all around. He looked ghastly, and Nina had a feeling he wouldn’t sleep until Eric Brinkman came back from Brazil.

“Who is that, Philip?” Nina nodded toward the man who had been texting in court. He walked with urgent speed toward the parking lot, now muttering into his phone.

“Nelson Hendricks. He’s the escrow officer at the title company.” They both watched as Hendricks, distracted by his conversation, slipped on an icy patch of concrete and barely recovered himself. “Poor guy,” Philip added as they watched him climb into an old BMW. “I see him at Chamber of Commerce meetings. His wife was recently diagnosed with MS. He almost cried when he told me, and he isn’t the type to be crying in the office.” Kelly caught up to Philip, thanked Nina, then walked near her father toward the parking lot, not with him, Nina noticed, but a few steps behind, as if she was watching him. The rift between them was wide.