The Namedropper

Sixteen

The surprise wasn’t that the New York meeting was in Beckwith’s office but that Alyce was again ahead of him. And that Jordan was pleased to see her. He said, ‘Hello, yet again,’ and she smiled, very briefly, but didn’t speak. To the two lawyers Jordan said, ‘I’m sorry to be late. I allowed myself forty-five minutes! I don’t know how you manage to work at all in Manhattan.’

‘It’s an art form,’ said Beckwith.

‘So how bad is it that we got Pullinger?’ asked Jordan, as he sat.

Beckwith sighed. ‘You want coffee?’

‘I’d rather catch up on what I’ve missed.’

‘You haven’t missed anything,’ said Reid, as irritated at Jordan’s impatience as the other lawyer. ‘We small-talked, waiting for you.’

Jordan was aware of Alyce smiling again and this time wished she hadn’t. ‘Thank you. Coffee would be good.’ As well as his not appearing so anxious would have been good, he realized. He’d been thoroughly pissed off by the gridlock and the time it had taken him to stash his bank account money into the safe-deposit boxes, neither of which were causes for him flustering in as he had. He smiled his thanks to Suzie when she came in with his coffee, which he didn’t really want, wondering how she managed to breathe in her second-skin virginal white trousers and top.

‘So let’s pick up on your question,’ began Beckwith. ‘We’re stuck with Pullinger, which is bad luck but something we have to live with. What we really have to do is use the cantankerous old son of a bitch more to our advantage than to Appleton’s – ’ he turned to Alyce – ‘I guess we’ve already covered the ground but we’re going to have to talk about your husband as if he’s the enemy, OK?’

‘As far as I am concerned he is the fucking enemy. So let’s stop apologizing for something that doesn’t need or deserve apology,’ responded Alyce.

There was a brief, although not actually shocked, silence and Jordan was glad that her impatience had risen to match his, hoping she took his smile as appreciation, not condescension. As in Raleigh they were away from an official working area. There were more polished plants than in Reid’s annex and a skyscraper view uptown towards the unseen park. All the sepia photographs on the wall were of early American settlers and Native Americans, most in full tribal regalia, which Jordan supposed was fitting for someone of Alyce’s ancestry and Beckwith’s dress code.

‘Let’s do just that,’ said Beckwith, recovering. ‘I got the formal notification on Monday and the same day filed for a pre-trial dismissal hearing on our part. I haven’t yet got an acknowledgement, obviously…’ He paused, gesturing to Reid.

‘And I’ve filed for court acceptance, to be party to each and every pre-hearing application. As well as making our own applications. The first is for court enforcement of our being supplied with Appleton’s medical records. The second, again against Appleton – which is the only legal way open to me – is to enforce Leanne Jefferies, upon risk of contempt, to comply with the demands of Alyce’s damages claim by providing an attorney reference. Once I have her lawyer through whom to work I can apply for her medical records, to establish if she was a sufferer from chlamydia-’

‘What about the other admitted mistress, Sharon Borowski?’ broke in Jordan, his script – as well, he hoped, as its presentation – well prepared during the preceding day and a half.

Reid frowned, appearing irritated at having been interrupted. ‘I already told you, she’s dead-’

‘The result of a car accident, not a sexual disease,’ broke in Jordan again, looking directly at the North Carolina lawyer. ‘Bad luck, Sharon, rest in peace. But if Appleton caught it off her, not Leanne, got himself fixed, and Leanne is provably clean, who gave it to Alyce? I didn’t, which we can prove. Which leaves your case that Alyce didn’t have any lovers previous to me shot to bits before you even begin, don’t you think, Bob?’

From the reaction from both lawyers Jordan thought it was turning into a conference without words: clearly it was a possibility neither had considered.

Eventually Beckwith said, ‘That’s a damned good point.’

‘I suppose Pullinger could order the production of Sharon Borowski’s medical records,’ said Reid, although doubtfully. There was an asthmatic catch in his voice.

‘Do doctors keep medical records of people who’ve died?’ asked Alyce, quietly. ‘I wouldn’t have thought so.’

‘What I do think is that it could be one great big problem for us,’ finally admitted Reid.

‘Doctors might not keep medical records,’ Jordan pointed out. ‘Police or coroners might. If she died in a traffic accident there would have been an autopsy, wouldn’t there? With a pathology report?’

‘Let’s hope there was and that the medical examination went beyond finding the immediate cause of death,’ said Reid. He was talking now with a discernible wheeze.

The lawyer was embarrassed by his oversight, Jordan knew. As the man deserved to be. Jordan didn’t expect any more criticism from his own attorney for playing amateur advocate. ‘Could Pullinger refuse to hear a dismissal submission?’

‘If he did we could appeal over his head. So he won’t,’ said Beckwith. He looked towards Alyce. ‘I’m going to need to call you, of course.’

‘Of course,’ she accepted.

‘It’ll be an opportunity to bring out things that Appleton’s attorney might object to being introduced during your full hearing,’ picked up Reid, talking to his client. ‘That’s why I want participation access.’

‘Like the missing three years?’ questioned Jordan, seizing the obvious opening. They’d judge him a total smart-ass after today. But Jordan didn’t give a damn because it was his own ass he was trying to save and that was his only consideration.

There was none of the earlier initial irritation at Jordan’s intervention from the two lawyers, although Beckwith said, ‘Why do I think we’re going to be found wanting again?’

‘I’ve got little else to do here but read the statement exchanges and think about what’s there and what’s not there,’ said Jordan, weighing each word before he spoke, determined against being caught out himself. ‘I’ve spent some time in the library, reading reference books: there’s a lot about the Appleton and Bellamy families and their lineage. Appleton left Harvard a golden boy, no suggestion of a job apart from representing his country in the Olympics and being part of the 1992 America’s Cup team. It wasn’t a question of “if’ he’d be selected. It was a done deal. Except it didn’t become that. Appleton withdrew, for “personal reasons”, from any consideration of selection, for either the Olympics or the America’s Cup.’ Jordan was talking to Alyce now. ‘You any idea what those personal reasons were? Here’s a guy, always in the papers, society superstar and then abruptly, nothing for about three years until he joins his first Wall Street brokerage firm before breaking away to set up his own commodity businesses about six months before marrying you.’

For several moments Alyce remained looking contemplatively into her lap. ‘I didn’t know him in the early nineties, although I knew of him, of course. And you’re right, he was the golden boy and there was the expectation of him sailing in the Olympics and for the Cup. No one ever really knew why he pulled out of either.’

‘ He pulled out?’ pressed Jordan. ‘Weren’t there any rumours. Didn’t you ever ask him, after you got married?’

‘I can’t remember them all but there were a lot of rumours,’ said Alyce. ‘There was something about a girl, but that was an obvious speculation: he had the pick of the crop. And I did ask him, after we got married. He said he didn’t want to talk about it but that he’d had a nervous breakdown that had to be kept under wraps, that no one would trust a nut who’d needed psychiatric treatment to handle their money …’

‘What’s the point you’re getting to, Harvey?’ queried Beckwith. ‘As Alyce says, it was before she knew him. Where’s the relevance with what we’re dealing with now?’

‘Maybe there isn’t any,’ conceded Jordan at once. ‘But doesn’t character and morality and integrity feature a lot in what we’re dealing with now? Why would a man guaranteed to feature – to represent his country – in the two most outstanding events of his chosen sport abruptly back off?’

‘Because he got sick, like Alyce just said,’ suggested Reid.

Jordan stared at the lawyer, letting the seconds build into minutes. ‘Don’t you think it’s worth having your enquiry guys poke around a little, ask questions? Find out if it’s true? I do.’

‘So do I, for whatever’s discovered,’ said Alyce. ‘You’ve forgotten the conversation we had in Raleigh, about my believing he had a mental problem? It could account for a lot of his behaviour. Still could.’

‘Like suggesting Alyce’s family might need his financial support when from what Alyce tells us was the reverse, when he set up on his own,’ said Jordan, snatching for another point. ‘Didn’t he have family money of his own? You establish he’s a fantasist, you establish he fantasized about Alyce having affairs, to excuse his own.’

‘You seem to have been working hard on this,’ accused Reid, irritation returning. ‘Harder than me or the people I employ to find out things for me.’

‘I’m not in any sort of contest with you or anyone you employ,’ rejected Jordan. ‘And I’m not trying to prove anything. I’ve got every good reason to work harder than anyone else and you can count them all in dollars. Your enquiry people letting you down? Fire them and get better ones.’

Reid flushed, his face hardening further. ‘I’m not trying to get into an argument with you here.’

‘I just told you, neither am I,’ insisted Jordan. ‘I thought this was a conference to exchange ideas to help all of us.’

‘Which it is,’ Beckwith hurried in. ‘You got any other specific thoughts or ideas?’

‘Nothing specific,’ said Jordan. There might even be a benefit from upsetting Reid; assessed from the preceding hour the lawyer certainly needed to try harder than he appeared to have done so far.

‘We’ve started to get the media approaches,’ disclosed Reid, anxious to move on. ‘I’ve had calls from the News and Observer and from NBC 17.’

‘They’ve tried to reach me, too, at the house in Raleigh,’ said Alyce. ‘I haven’t returned the calls, obviously.’

‘I told them it was a closed matter,’ continued Reid. ‘Nothing’s appeared so far. The uncertainty is what Appleton’s side will say publicly. I’ve told Bartle I’m going to file for a closed court. Confirmed it in writing, too, in the hope that will restrict whatever Appleton’s people might say. If they make a statement ahead of my application, knowing that I’m going to make it, Pullinger might consider it contempt, which would be in our favour.’

‘You spoke to Bartle by phone first?’ asked Beckwith.

‘Yes,’ nodded Reid.

‘Didn’t he give any indication if they’d oppose it?’

‘He said he hadn’t been called by the media but didn’t know if Appleton had, that he hadn’t heard from him. And that they’re having a meeting today, as we are. They’ve received notification of Pullinger’s appointment, as we have.’

‘How’d he sound?’ asked Jordan.

Reid humped his shoulders, frowning. ‘We’re on opposing sides. He didn’t sound like anything. If you mean did we talk in any detail, we didn’t. I made it sound like I was offering a favour, warning him about Pullinger’s possible reaction.’

‘Which I might reinforce,’ said Beckwith, contemplatively. ‘I haven’t informed Bartle I’m filing for dismissal. Pullinger could consider it contempt if either Bartle or Appleton spoke in advance of that hearing, too…’ He smiled around the room. ‘In fact that’s what I will do! Telephone him today and follow it up with a couriered letter he’ll get before today ends.’

‘He’s meeting Appleton today,’ reminded Jordan, unnecessarily. ‘You do it right now you give him the opportunity to warn Appleton off from saying anything.’

Now it was Beckwith who let the seconds build before saying, ‘Thanks for the prompt, Harvey. We’re all of us anxious to button down on publicity. Right now was exactly when I was going to break off to make the call: leave Alyce and you and Bob to maybe have some more coffee, talk among yourselves.’

Fuck you, thought Jordan, refusing the intended intimidation. ‘It’s good to hear we’re all moving in the same direction, Daniel. I’ll pass on more coffee, though.’

As Beckwith left the conference annex Alyce said to her lawyer, ‘How long before we actually get to court? Get to the end of it all?’

‘We get to the end when we get to the end,’ said Reid, clumsily. ‘I’m not going to agree an actual hearing date – I don’t mind how many postponements I get because of Appleton’s awkwardness – because every difficulty he creates is to our advantage with a judge like Pullinger. I let one thing go, because we’re in too much of a hurry -’ he was talking not to his client but directly to Jordan – ‘through impatience and the wish to get everything out of the way as quickly as possible, the more you’re at risk, both of you, of coming out the guilty parties. And like you’ve already told me, Harvey, you’re counting that risk in dollar signs.’

He had to allow the other man some recovery, Jordan decided. ‘Take as much time as is necessary to get it absolutely right.’

‘That’s precisely what I’m going to do,’ insisted Reid. ‘What Dan and I are going to do between us, get everything absolutely right.’

Reid had recovered enough, thought Jordan. To Alyce he said, ‘You living permanently back in Raleigh now?’

‘Mostly. I might stay over a few days here, having come up for this. Check the apartment out. There’s got to be a lot of mail.’

‘I postponed going back to London because of today. I’ll probably go back in a day or two. And I’m sorry about before, that day in Raleigh. I was out of order.’

Her obvious surprise matched that of her lawyer. Alyce said, ‘You already apologized for Raleigh.’

‘Today it’s my idea to do so.’

Alyce smiled, uncertainly. ‘Thank you.’

Daniel Beckwith returned noisily from his outer office, his jacket discarded elsewhere, yellow legal pad notes bunched in either hand. ‘Bartle isn’t seeing Appleton until later this afternoon, so the timing was perfect. He took the point of the call. Several points, in fact. Told me he’d obviously be at the dismissal application, anticipating that he’d be instructed to oppose it.’

‘He mention my call?’ asked Reid.

‘Not a word about it,’ said Beckwith.

‘What impression did you get?’ asked Jordan, inferring that this latest legal exchange had been more productive than that with Reid.

‘That neither he – nor Appleton – had expected you to defend the action,’ replied Beckwith, smiling. ‘I played it for him to come to me. Which he did. He seemed surprised that you were here in New York, that I wasn’t representing you in absentia.’

So surveillance still hadn’t been re-established, Jordan immediately deduced. ‘Is that good or bad?’

‘Good, for us. Opens the door for me to challenge everything that’s claimed against you as well as against Alyce, if my dismissal is rejected and the main hearing proceeds with Leanne Jefferies additionally brought into the action. We don’t actually have an outright defence: you’ve both admitted the adultery. But it strengthens the point – provides the strong mitigation – that Bob hit on in Raleigh, that as far as you were both concerned Alyce’s marriage to Appleton was over.’

Jordan hesitated, his mind on what he’d illegally read in Patrick O’Neill’s report of the Watchdog agency’s failure to find any evidence of Alyce having lovers in Manhattan or Long Island. ‘You know who Appleton’s enquiry agency is?’

‘Still waiting to be told,’ said Reid.

Jordan held out a calming hand towards the North Carolina lawyer. ‘We’re not in competition, remember? But whoever they are they must have been watching Alyce here, in America. And found nothing. Which they would have done, if there was anything to find, judging from the completeness of their observations in France. That’s surely in Alyce’s favour: part of the mitigation even?’

‘I’m not sure it goes as far as the mitigation, but it’s a point I thought we’d already touched on,’ said Reid. ‘Nothing’s going to go unchallenged but there’s a danger in the very word you used – completeness – in what they achieved in France. It’ll be a narrow path to walk. But I’m obviously going to walk it…’ The man paused, looking at the other lawyer. ‘I’m not sure whether it does more harm than good to your case.’

‘Neither am I,’ agreed Beckwith, philosophically. ‘But the rules are the rules. Your primary responsibility is to your client, my primary responsibility is to mine. We both do what we have to do.’

That hadn’t ended up as he’d intended, acknowledged Jordan. There was still more than enough time to improve upon it. He was encouraged at Appleton’s lawyer being wrong-footed by him personally contesting the claims, if indeed Bartle had been wrong-footed; he only had Beckwith’s impressions from one end of a telephone conversation.

The two lawyers had continued talking during Jordan’s reflections, but to all practical purposes they were technically establishing between themselves – although always consulting Alyce and Jordan on their availability – the precedence of prehearing submissions and unfulfilled exchange demands to Bartle to be made individually between the two of them. Twice, when they weren’t part of any discussion, Alyce smiled at Jordan, on the first occasion mouthing ‘thank you’, which Jordan didn’t understand.

It had gone six before they finally broke off, Jordan holding back for Alyce and Reid to leave the building separately and ahead of him. Still in the annex, Beckwith said, ‘I thought everything went very well.’

‘I want everything to go better than very well,’ said Jordan. ‘I want everything to go completely in our favour.’

‘He’s an arrogant son of a bitch,’ accused Reid. ‘Suddenly he’s a trial lawyer!’

‘I told you he was arrogant before you met,’ reminded Beckwith. ‘The points he made were valid, though.’

They were eating in a restaurant in Little Italy, a cavern filled with noise making it difficult for them to hear each other and impossible to be overheard by others.

‘We’d have got it covered,’ insisted Reid.

‘He covered it first,’ said Beckwith. ‘I prefer clients who think for themselves instead of expecting me to do everything for them.’

‘You really think Bartle was surprised at your third-party involvement?’

‘I even thought at one stage he was going to suggest a pretrial consultation between us.’

‘To slim down the claims to an agreed settlement?’ guessed Reid.

‘There’s an argument for doing so. As you said at the meeting, the adultery is admitted.’

‘Do you think Jordan would go for it?’

‘He’s made the point a few times that gamblers don’t gamble. If he got the possibility of millions pared down to a few thousand – but with the guilt legally established – it might appeal to him.’ He gestured towards the other lawyer. ‘You just dropped spaghetti sauce down your tie.’

Reid scrubbed at himself with his napkin. His head still bent he said, ‘That would kind of divide us, wouldn’t it?’

‘And be a clever legal move for Bartle to make.’

‘What are you going to do?’

‘Nothing. Wait for him to come to me. Like I told you, it’s only my guess.’

‘When are you going to file your dismissal submission?’

‘Tomorrow. Everything’s ready.’

‘So we could get a submission date set as early as next week?’

‘Not if Bartle hasn’t complied with all the exchanges. And we’re still waiting on Leanne Jefferies. I really can’t see why he’s holding back on Appleton’s medical stuff.’

‘Unless it proves Appleton was or is infected.’

‘If it does, Appleton’s case is holed below the waterline,’ insisted Beckwith. ‘It can’t be that simple.’

‘Then why?’ demanded Reid.

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Beckwith. ‘When I file for dismissal I’m going to make the point that if I lose the submission I can’t proceed to full hearing until I’ve received everything that’s legally got to be exchanged.’

‘Did you tell Bartle that?’

‘It was when I told him exactly that I thought he was going to offer negotiation.’

‘Maybe you’ve put a fox into the hen coop?’

‘Rather me doing it to him than the reverse, his doing it to us.’

‘You going to mention it to Harvey?’

‘Not unless I get the approach from Bartle. There’s no point until I do.’

‘I’d like to hear, the moment you do. It could affect everything as far as I am concerned.’

‘Of course you’ll know. If it happens…’ Beckwith pointed across the table. ‘You’ve dropped some more sauce.’

Jordan recognized Alyce’s voice the moment he picked up the telephone in his Carlyle suite. ‘Hello,’ he said, in reply to her opening, pleased the curiosity didn’t sound in his voice.

‘I want to say thank you again, for what you did today, said today. A lot of things wouldn’t have been brought out if you hadn’t been there.’

‘Change your lawyer if you’re not happy,’ offered Jordan.

‘He’s the best there is in Raleigh.’

‘Which doesn’t say much for Raleigh.’

‘From being with you in France I wouldn’t have thought you were this ruthless.’

‘This isn’t France and we’re not having an adventure. This is reality with blood on the floor.’

‘I wish it wasn’t,’ Alyce countered.

‘You and me both. How did you know I was here, at the Carlyle?’

‘Bob told me. He showed me your statement, too. Why did you tell me you were an investment banker when you’re not?’

‘I thought it sounded better: more respectable.’

‘We weren’t being respectable.’

Jordan hesitated, considering his reply. ‘And now look where we are.’

‘If you don’t get dismissed from the case I want to take full responsibility in court.’

‘You discussed that with Bob?’

‘No.’

‘Don’t you think you should? It might screw up the way he’s going to argue your case.’

‘I did use you, to get my own back on Alfred.’

‘And told me as much in France. You didn’t know all this was going to happen.’ He’d have to tell Beckwith what she was saying: offering. It might do more to harm than help his defence, although he couldn’t think how.

‘We’ll see. You going to make the trip back to England?’

‘I think so. You going to stay on here in Manhattan?’

‘I think so. When will you be back?’

‘I don’t know. I shouldn’t need more than a day in London. I can fly back here on the last flight the second night.’

‘I want it all to be over soon.’

‘You said.’

‘You don’t mind my calling?’

‘Of course I don’t.’

‘I’m sorry you got caught up in everything like this,’ Alyce apologized.

‘You said that, too. More than once.’

‘Take care.’

‘And you. Try to think more about the three years immediately after your husband left Harvard.’

There was a pause from Alyce’s end of the line before she said, ‘You have this number?’

‘No.’

‘You have a pen?’

‘Yes.’

She dictated it and added, ‘Call me when you get back?’

‘I will,’ promised Jordan. He knew from accessing the computers of Appleton and his enquiry agency that they weren’t under surveillance any more, so they didn’t have to bother about their lawyers’ warnings about being together.