Motion to Kill

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Angela was planted at the receptionist’s desk, reviewing bills between phone calls, when Mason arrived at the office.

“How’s the radio traffic and troop movements?” he asked.

“Vic Jr. left with Scott about ten minutes after you did.”

“That kid is like a pimple on your butt. He’d be a lot less irritating if you could just squeeze him until he popped. Where’s Sandra?”

“Locked in on thirty-one.”

Mason took the stairs two at a time. Sandra was leaning back in a chair, feet up on the conference room table, staring out the window. He sat next to her, propping his feet alongside hers.

“Your eyes look fixed and dilated.”

She turned to him, frowning. “And you are positively glowing; hardly the look of a man whose partners are being picked off one by one. Tell me, Lou, is it her uniform or her handcuffs that have turned you to jelly?”

Mason laughed with none of the nonchalance he wished he had. “I’ll let you know when we get past the initial frisking. We’re having dinner tonight.”

“Does this mean you’re going to stand me up again this weekend? I’ll wear a uniform too if that will help.”

He was still trying to figure out Sandra’s interest in him. Mason was willing to believe that any woman could be attracted to him, but Sandra wasn’t on his list of Most Likely to Swoon. Maybe a murder investigation was the key to her heart. He enjoyed the attention, but Sandra had an air about her that said “look before you leap.” Still, the leap was very tempting.

“Come on, Sandra. Things have gotten pretty crazy around here lately. I don’t know if I’m coming or going.”

“Well, I definitely recommend coming before going.”

“Yeah, well, that’s good advice, but we better sort out this firm scandal before we start on the next one.”

Mason walked behind her, forcing her to change positions. She made him wait but finally put her feet down and swiveled her chair toward him. He gave her the rundown on the charges against Pamela.

“And she wanted you to represent her?”

“Until I told her I couldn’t and introduced her to B.J. Moore.”

“Just as well. Mooning over the finest sheriff from the Ozarks in front of the jury would look bad.”

“Okay, okay! Our partners are being knocked off like Kewpie dolls on the midway while gorgeous women beat a path to my door. I don’t know why the fantasy has to be screwed up by the nightmare.”

“Sometimes that’s the difference between dreaming the fantasy and living it.”

“So, you’re a philosopher and a tease. A combination not found in every law firm.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Believe me, it is. I like you. You’re smart, you’re tough, and your legs make it very hard to concentrate. But there’s only so much I can deal with at one time. Let’s stay on track and figure out the rest when this is over.”

“Well, I’ll consider that a ‘not now’ instead of a ‘no.’ Fair enough?”

“Fair enough. So where are we?”

She switched from shameless flirt to killer litigator without breaking stride.

“We know that O’Malley has the loan limit problems, but it seems like there should be something else to bring all the feds’ firepower down on us.”

“I think you’re right. Maybe there’s some overall picture we’ve missed. Where are Diane’s summaries?”

Diane Farrell had written summaries of the O’Malley transactions on poster-sized post-its, one for each of the seven years they were investigating. Sandra stuck them to the walls in chronological order.

The summaries set out the date each transaction closed, the name of the project, a description of the assets involved, and the Sullivan amp; Christenson lawyer who handled the deal. She highlighted in yellow each deal involving Quintex.

“Who are the shareholders, officers, and directors of Quintex?” Mason asked.

“Vic Jr. is the president, Harlan was secretary, and Scott is treasurer. Father and son are the only shareholders and directors.”

He noted her correct usage of the past tense to describe Harlan.

“Were they the original officers?”

“I’ll have to check.” Sandra leafed through the Quintex corporate minute book. “The corporation was formed in 1984. Daddy was the sole shareholder, director, and president. Sullivan was the secretary, and there were no other officers. Fast-forward to 2008 and the current slate is swept into office.”

“Look at the transactions since then. Sullivan was the lawyer on almost all of them until early 2008. Then Scott took over and all the transactions are fixtures deals. What are they about?”

“Quintex bought fixtures and leased them back to someone else.”

“What kind of fixtures?”

“According to the lease documents, display racks, countertops, stuff like that. Phil Rosa did an analysis of the key deal points.”

She handed him Rosa’s memo. He studied it and the summaries on the wall.

“That explains what but not why or who. Quintex bought from one corporation and leased back to another. All those companies have alphabet soup names like NKC Corporation and EPT Enterprises.”

“I’d say that someone on one end or the other, if not both ends, wanted to make it hard to trace the connection between them.”

“We’re focusing too much on the deals and not enough on who was making them. I want to know who the real players are, and I’ll bet the O’Malleys know.”

“The two might not have anything to do with each other. Vic Jr. may be doing his own deals just to prove to his father that he can make it on his own. Vic Sr. may not be involved in or know much about what he’s doing.”

“Yeah, but Scott and Harlan were involved and they would be a direct pipeline to O’Malley.”

“Not necessarily. Scott wants out of Sullivan’s orbit. Harlan’s slipping further behind Sullivan every year in the amount of business he’s generating for the firm. They both need a boost. Maybe they’re working with Vic Jr. and don’t want Sullivan or O’Malley Sr. to know what they’re doing.”

“If you’re right, there’s no connection between Senior’s loan problems and Junior’s fixtures deals.”

“No intentional connection-but remember chaos?”

“God and bumper cars.”

“Exactly. We know St. John is investigating Quintex, but we don’t know if it’s Sullivan’s side or Scott’s side or both.”

“Meaning anything is possible. Great theory.”

“You don’t get it, Lou. We’re assuming that things are happening for reasons we understand. But we may be completely off base.”

“And we don’t know what Sullivan knew and we don’t know what Harlan knew, since they are both conveniently and permanently unavailable.”

“All I’m saying is we have to be willing to look at things a little differently,” she said. “We have to look for the unintended connections, not the grand conspiracies.”

“Fine, but I’m sticking with what we know and what we don’t know. And we don’t know enough about the fixtures deals, and I’m going to change that.”

Mason called Angela. “Find Diane, Phil, and Maggie. I want them back down here as soon as possible. Tell them to plan on a long night. Then call Victor O’Malley and tell him I’ll be in his office in twenty minutes.”

He hung up before Angela had a chance to remind him that she wasn’t his secretary, and gave Sandra her instructions.

“Tell the troops to peel the onion and find out who owns those corporate layers and what kind of businesses are using those fixtures. I want you to talk with Vic Jr. about these deals. We’ll compare notes in the morning before the partners’ meeting.”

“Don’t you think we should synchronize our watches, Commander?”

“I’ll settle for as close to seven as you can make it. Listen, Sandra, two people are dead already. We may step on the wrong toes with all of this, so please be careful.”

“Lou, I’m touched.”

“Let’s just say that beautiful legs are a terrible thing to waste.”