Chapter 40: A Wedge

March 30, 1994, Chicago, Illinois

“A girl,” Jamie said when I answered the phone on Wednesday evening. “Patricia Jacquelyn Ferguson.”

“Congratulations! How is Jackie?”

“Tired, but otherwise OK. No issues with the labor. I’ll be taking the rest of the week off. Thad Baker will handle anything that comes up with the case.”

“Thanks, Jamie. Tell Jackie we all love her. I suppose you should give me the details. If I announce this to the women in the house without them, I’ll be severely reprimanded!”

He laughed and gave me her weight and length. I thanked him for calling, then went back to the great room to let everyone know the good news.

“Kathy must be tearing her hair out,” Jessica said.

“She doesn’t have any I care about,” I chuckled.

“What is this obsession with her pubic hair?” Michelle asked.

My wives and Elyse all laughed.

Kara answered.

“Steve believes Kurt asking Kathy to shave her ‘shocking red’ pubic hair is a crime against humanity! He’s never EVER complained about any OTHER girl shaving.”

“What can I say?” I grinned. “I’m partial to redheads!”

“Certain redheads, anyway!” Kara laughed. “Otherwise, I thought it was strawberry blondes!”

“Or Irish brunettes with red highlight,” Elyse smirked.

“Katy?” Michelle asked.

“Katy,” Elyse confirmed. “Steve might have been the one guy on the planet she could have been with permanently, if he could have accepted an exclusive relationship.”

I shook my head, “No, that would have gone the same way as it would have with Jennifer. Both of them needed a spouse who is a woman.”

“Which do you prefer?” Michelle asked.

“Women, of course!” I smirked, causing the girls to laugh hysterically.

“No, silly!” Michelle said, recovering, “I meant THE HAIRSTYLE!”

I shrugged, “So long as it’s neat, I’m OK with whatever the girl decides.”

“Except with Kathy!”

“Except with Kathy,” I confirmed.

April 3, 1994, Chicago, Illinois

“I got my boy!” Kurt said excitedly when he called on Sunday afternoon.

“Congratulations. Did you go with Keith for his name?”

“Keith Jacob Jaeger. Would you let me talk to the girls? I think they’ll be OK with it!”

I chuckled, “Being an older sister seems to be OK. It’s having an older sister, or one who THINKS she’s an older sister that creates problems! How is Kathy?”

“Beat. It was a long labor and Keith is a bruiser! 9 pounds 1 ounce!”

“Well, convey our love and bring the family by the house once Kathy is up to it. We’ve really missed you guys, especially on the trip to Vermont.”

“We really wanted to go, but no airline would have let my wife near a boarding gate, let alone on a plane!”

“True. We made reservations for next year for you guys. Katy is expecting the gang.”

“Tom and Bethany, Bo and Gina?”

“Yes. And Birgit, of course.”

“Of course,” Kurt laughed. “She always did like Katy a lot.”

“And still does. Will we see you on Saturday?”

“Probably. At that point, Kathy will probably want me out of the house!”

“You’re taking the week off?”

“Yes. Fortunately, I’m at a point where an unscheduled week off isn’t going to impact my project.”

“Enjoy the time off and I’ll see you on Saturday! Let me get the girls for you.”

I went into the sunroom and asked Katherine and Kristin to come to the study. I put the phone on speaker and let Kurt know the girls were there.

“Mommy had the baby! You have a new brother!”

The girls squealed and hugged and asked to speak to their mom. Kurt told them she was sleeping and that he’d come get them in the morning. They told him they loved him and he told them the same. They ran out of the room and I said goodbye to Kurt. I hung up and then went to tell everyone the good news; only to find the girls had beat me to it!

“Bethany is next, right?” Michelle asked.

“Yes. Then my sister. Well, there are a couple of employees who are pregnant or have pregnant spouses, but they aren’t close friends.”

“Did your sister finally agree to invite your parents?” Kara asked.

“Yes. We talked at lunch and I talked with Ed. She sent them an invite. She added a note explicitly excluding my brother.”

“I don’t want that man anywhere near any of our kids,” Jessica said firmly.

“Nobody here disagrees with you, Babe. I’ve made that point clear to my dad, just as you, Kara, and Jennifer have to my mom. And trust me, whoever checks for invitations at Arrowhead will not let him in if he tries to crash the party.”

“Good.”

“Who wants to help make the family dinner?” I asked.

“Me!” Kara said.

“Me!” Birgit said, coming into the room just as I asked the question.

“Well come on, both of you,” I said, then added, “Birgit, Aunt Kathy had a baby boy. His name is Keith!”

“Can I call her and go see the baby?”

“She needs to rest, Pumpkin. We’ll call in a couple of days and see if Kathy is OK to have visitors. Otherwise she’ll bring the baby here soon.”

“OK,” she said, sounding disappointed.

April 7, 1994, Chicago, Illinois

“No, Mr. Littleton, I won’t grant this discovery without the agreement from the law firms involved.”

“But Your Honor, they’re trying to hide behind attorney-client privilege when none exists!” Brandon Littleton protested.

“No, Sir,” the judge said firmly. “You’re asking for records from other law firms. If you want them, you’ll need to either get their signatures, or agree to an evidentiary hearing for each firm where they have representation. No court I’m aware of has ever authorized the kind of fishing expedition you’re engaging in here.”

“The only way to do that is with the client list, and Mr. Ferguson is objecting to that as well.”

“I’ll hear arguments both ways, please. Mr. Ferguson?”

“As Your Honor has said, this is a fishing expedition. Mr. Littleton wants the list simply to try to interfere in the relationships that Mr. Adams’ firm has with his clients.”

“The court isn’t in a position to assess Mr. Littleton’s motives, Mr. Ferguson. His request isn’t out of line.”

“He has no evidence to suggest any form of billing fraud except for a simple dispute about the bill and a contract dispute. That puts it in the same ‘fishing expedition’ category as Your Honor’s previous ruling, and the cases I’ve cited support our position.”

“That’s true. Mr. Littleton?”

“We believe there is a pattern, but we’re unable to prove it without the ability to talk to other clients.”

“At this time, I’m inclined to grant Mr. Ferguson’s motion to limit discovery. I’m going to hold this particular matter over until you have a chance to review the materials they’ve agreed to turn over. Is two weeks sufficient?”

“Yes, Your Honor,” Littleton replied.

“Then I’ll see you both back here on the 21st. Mr. Littleton, unless you can show me something, I’ll grant Mr. Ferguson’s motion.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

The judge banged the gavel and we walked out. Jamie pulled me into a conference room.

“We’re going to lose this motion once Littleton reviews those documents and brings what he’s going to insist is intentional over-billing. Unfortunately, one of them is a law firm.”

“So now what?” I asked.

“He has his wedge. But he’s going to do something else, I can almost guarantee it.”

“What’s that?”

“Turn it over to the US Attorney and Postal Inspector and ask for a mail and wire fraud investigation. Or, more likely, ask the court to do it, as that carries much more weight.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? He’s going to go down that route? The Firm?”

“Just because it was in a movie, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. I’ll bet you dinner at Shaw’s he does that.”

“And THEN what?” I asked.

“With the Feds, we argue that it wasn’t fraud, it was error. An error that was immediately corrected. None of those clients actually paid the erroneous charges. But his point is to cause you as much trouble as possible. I once warned you about tweaking him.”

“You did,” I sighed. “But we’ll beat the rap, as they say.”

“Yes, of course. But he’s counting on us not wanting the bad press and offering a BIG settlement. I also give you odds that a few days after he wins the motion in two weeks, we get a substantial demand.”

“No bet, Jamie. How do we beat him?”

“I think we can win the contract dispute and defeat any attempt to bring charges, which I think is unlikely. But your reputation will suffer. You can safely bet Littleton will make sure everyone knows. And if the Feds DO begin an investigation, he’ll try to piggyback on their warrants and subpoenas.”

“How do we get out in front of that?” I asked.

“Normally, I’d say call Lomax and work out a deal. But given that Milton is related by marriage to Littleton, I’m not sure that would be possible.”

“John Milton. I should have known better.”

“Milton? The poet?”

I nodded, “The war between heaven and hell in Paradise Lost. Looks like I’ve stepped right into it this time.”

“Let’s see how things go. We’ll work up a strategy for each contingency we can think of.”

“You know, Jamie, a thought just crossed my mind. Carla didn’t have the kind of money she would have needed to be able to pay Littleton.”

“He’d have taken that with the expectation of winning and having you pay his fee, but I can’t imagine he took that on contingency. The law in Illinois is clear and he couldn’t get any portion of her award for child support. I mean not a dime. It would all have to come from an award of fees from you.”

“Would he have taken a case like that pro bono?”

“Could he? Sure. Would he? Why?”

“I think the answer to that question might be instructive. Is there any harm in me asking Carla about it?”

“Not that I can think of,” Jamie replied. “You two are on reasonably good terms now, right?”

“Cordial, and compared to the past, that’s a night-and-day difference. Rachel and Birgit are becoming close friends. What about Callie Shepherd?”

“That would have been contingency for sure. A big settlement or big judgment and he’d get his 30%. The same would have been true with BLS, though I suspect they paid a retainer there against the judgment.”

“We need our own wedge, Jamie,” I said. “Let’s find it. Something that will make Littleton back off for good.”

“Be careful. A lawyer doing what he’s doing is within the law. You, on the other hand, need to be very careful before you make any accusations. You don’t have the same protection an attorney does.”

“I have a mouthpiece, Mr. Ferguson. And I pay handsomely for the privilege of having YOU say the things that might get me into trouble.”

Jamie laughed, “OK. Just don’t go off on your own here. Clear it all through me, please.”

“You don’t have a problem if I bounce this off Ben Jackson, Ben van Hoek, and Ned Jenkins, do you?”

“Not at all! If you want a strategy conference call, just let me know.”

I shook my head, “Not yet. I am going to call Patrick Shaughnessy and talk to him as well.”

“No actions without clearing them with me, Steve.”

“I heard you the first time, Counselor. I’m not twenty-two.”

“No, you aren’t. But you might be the one on tilt this time.”

He had a very good point. It was time to focus and make sure that I outplayed the man, even if he had better cards. I did it all the time at the poker table. Now it was time to do it in business.

April 8, 1994, Chicago, Illinois

“Jamie is right. The Feds will never bring charges for four instances of errors on bills,” Ben Jackson said. “The fact that you corrected the invoices before they were paid is likely sufficient to get any charges dismissed before you even went to trial. Any of the federal judges I practice before would toss the US Attorney out on his ear if he brought something so flimsy before them.”

“But could they use those to get a warrant to search for more billing errors?”

“They might, but I don’t think they’d try. I suspect that your nemesis is simply trying to threaten you with potential bad press.”

“On the theory that the investigation or charges make the front page, and us being cleared makes page 30, if even that.”

“Exactly. Given your clientele, even a whiff of a federal investigation could cause you significant trouble. And we know that’s what he’s counting on here. Have you talked to Ned Jenkins about this?”

“Not yet. He’s next on my list.”

“I’m pretty sure there are no tax or other implications here, but better to cover all your bases up front, if you can.”

“Thanks, Ben.”

After I hung up with Ben, I called Ned Jenkins who confirmed what both Jamie and Ben had told me, and suggested that I speak with Bruce Grady. I thanked Ned and dialed Bruce’s number. He confirmed what I already knew, that our books were in good order and that our internal processes exceeded GAAP. From his perspective, there wasn’t anything to really worry about except for the reputation hit. Finally, I called Patrick Shaughnessy.

“I’m not sure what else you can do at this point. He’s a thorn in your side, but from what you’ve said, not enough of one that you can really take any action against him. Slimy, bottom-feeding lawyers are a curse on society, but being slimy, bottom-feeding, or even a curse on society isn’t illegal.”

“Maybe I should talk to Katya Sergeyevna,” I chuckled.

“I don’t think Katy does those kinds of things any more, if she ever did!”

I chuckled, “We never discussed it, but she was part of diplomatic protection details, so I seriously doubt she got into ‘wet work’. But with the KGB, you never know!”

“Nah, they farmed all that stuff out to the Bulgarians. Even they wouldn’t take some work, which says something! They had to hire Mehmet Ali Ağca to try to kill Pope John Paul II!”

“I do have some Italian friends,” I chuckled.

“THEY might do it,” he laughed. “But the price you’d pay would be pretty steep. Isn’t your Chairman Italian?”

“Indeed she is, but she’s the last person I’d suspect to be in La Cosa Nostra!”

“Which is exactly what they WANT you to think!” Patrick laughed.

“Do you know Aimee’s travel plans?”

“She believes she’ll be in Ohio by May 2nd. She was hoping to come to Chicago the following weekend, which would be the 7th.”

“She’s more than welcome. Just have her call me when she can. And say ‘hello’ to Katya for me.”

“I will! Let me know if there is anything we can do for you.”

“If I need an investigator, you’re the first person I’ll call.”

After I hung up with Patrick, I called Carla at her photography studio.

“I paid him a small retainer but the rest was supposed to come from you when we won. He said that was normal in a case like the one I was bringing.”

“That makes sense.”

“Why are you asking?”

“He’s causing me trouble again.”

“Not about me?”

“No; sorry. It’s about some work stuff. I was just doing a bit of background checking on him.”

“He did seem to have a very serious dislike for you.”

“That’s an understatement if there ever was one.”

“Were you looking for my help with something?”

“No; just confirming something I was fairly sure I knew. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

We hung up and I turned back to my keyboard.

“You know, if you just let me kill him...” Penny growled.

“Then you’d be in jail.”

“He’s a lawyer! There should be a bag limit, you know, like deer! They cull them up in Wisconsin. We could do the same with lawyers.”