Faye Kellerman - Sanctuary

Correspondence-the letterhead stating it was from The VerHauten Company, Inc. Dated over two years ago. Marge read the contents, Decker peering over her shoulder.

Dear Mr. Yalom:

Kindly note that all future correspondence shall be conducted through our attorneys: Kronig and Dekker, Inc. Any future inquiries or business you may have with The VerHauten Company should be forwarded to them.

Sincerely,

Kate Milligan

Senior Vice-President,

Overseas Marketing and Sales

“I like the name of the law firm,” Marge said.

Decker smiled. “Yeah, Dekker spelled with double K is a Dutch name.”

“Who’s VerHauten?” Marge asked.

“The largest diamond company in the world. About four billion’s worth of assets.”

Marie whistled. Decker had forgotten about her. He held up a stack of rumpled papers. “You know, Marie, to go through this mess thoroughly…” He plopped the papers on the built-in desk. “It’s going to take an awfully long time.”

“I’ve been instructed to wait with you.”

“I bet your boss said wait for us, not wait with us.” Decker gave her a big smile. “I can’t imagine they’d want to tie up your valuable time, having you just sit back and twiddle your thumbs.”

“Yeah, they know how long a proper investigation can take,” Marge chimed in. “It’s hours of tedium and you know how these corporate types can be. Time is money.”

Decker opened the door. “We’ll call you when we’re done. Thanks for all your help.”

With a dubious look, Marie didn’t budge.

Decker let out a small laugh and held out his hands. “Hey, you can stay if you want. I, for one, certainly don’t object to the scenery.”

Marie lowered her head and stifled a smile. “I think I’m being conned.”

“By moi?” Decker said. “Heaven forbid.” He bowed and showed her the door. “Thanks for your cooperation.”

Marie paused, shook her head, then left with a smile on her face.

Marge whispered, “If some guy pulled an aw shucks stunt like that on me, I’d pop him.”

“Dunn, you would have made a piss-poor Southern belle.” Decker examined the next bit of mail. “Take a look at this, Margie. VerHauten again.”

Dated before the first piece of correspondence, the letter was single-spaced, the language and legalese complex and long-winded. Decker read it to himself. Marge scanned it silently as well, then began reading snippets out loud.

“Disputed certificate of ownership…unauthorized land parcels…international trade violations…” Marge raised a brow. “Looks like our boy Yalom was taking on the big boys.”

“To hear Gold talk, Yalom couldn’t compete. But damned if he couldn’t threaten.”

“And without benefit of an attorney.”

“That’s not as unusual as you think.”

“What do you mean?”

“There is a certain tiny percentage of the population that thrives on sticking it to major corporations. They usually file the motions themselves and become real gnats…gadflies. They wear the corporations down. Often the companies will settle just to get these nutcases off their backs.”

“You think Yalom was a nutcase?”

“From what we’ve heard, Yalom sounded like a pretty independent thinker. I can see him trying to handle something by himself. What I can’t understand is why a VerHauten representative answered Yalom personally in the first place. Someone should have smelled problem with a capital P. The complaint should have immediately gone to the corporation’s lawyers.”

“You’re the attorney,” Marge said. “Use your three years of night school and tell us why.”

Decker smiled. “Offhand, I’d say someone was attempting to manage Yalom with kid gloves. They didn’t want the lawyers involved right away because they didn’t want him to freak.”

“Meaning Yalom probably had something the corporation wanted. And VerHauten was attempting to keep the guy calm until they could figure out how to get it.”

Decker nodded. “You just summed up my thoughts.”

“So what was VerHauten after?”

Decker shrugged. “Let’s keep reading.”

Marge said, “Whatever it was, according to this letter, VerHauten eventually did hand the problem over to its lawyers. I wonder if eventually Yalom engaged an attorney of his own.”

Decker took out another piece of paper from the stack and unfolded it-a preprinted certificate. It looked to be a deed of trust for land in Angola. He showed it to Marge.

She said, “VerHauten wrote about ‘unauthorized land parcels.’ This could be the disputed certificate of ownership.”

“It could be one of many.”

“So Yalom was still investing in Africa. Do you have any idea where Angola is in relationship to South Africa?”

“Northwest,” Decker said. “The two countries are separated by Botswana and Namibia. I looked at a map of Africa after you found Yalom’s passport.”

“Does Angola have diamond mines?”

“I don’t know,” Decker said. “But the countries are contiguous. They probably have similar terrain.”

Marge said, “Maybe Yalom was cutting some sort of side deal with VerHauten, leaving Gold out on ice. That’s why Gold freaked when he found out about Yalom’s passport.”

“But the letters were hostile. If there ever was a deal, something soured pretty quickly.”

They both were silent.

Marge said, “I brought some yellow stick ’ems. Why don’t we tag the papers we’ve gone through.”

Decker said, “Good idea. I’ll take a pile. You take a pile. We’ll write notes, then compare when we’re done.” He fished out a handful of papers.

Marge pulled out her notebook. “I know this sounds farfetched, but do you think that the boys might be in Africa?”

“I suppose it’s a remote possibility.” He sorted through some papers. “After we found the bodies, Davidson assigned a crew to check out the airlines, the cabs, and the buses…free up our time to investigate the murders. I hope they find something soon. I know we haven’t ruled out the boys as suspects. But finding stuff like this…reading Yalom’s hostility and threats…”

“Guy probably made lots of enemies,” Marge said.

“I’m sure.” Decker paused. “If only Arik Yalom had been killed, I wouldn’t be as worried about the kids. But someone also popped Dalia. If someone blew away one innocent bystander, are the boys far behind?”

“If they’re even still alive.”

“A sobering thought.” Decker picked up another batch of correspondence. “One thing at a time.”

He returned his attention to the paperwork. Lots of letters, lots of angry correspondence between Yalom and VerHauten, between Yalom and VerHauten’s lawyers. Decker never did discover an attorney for Yalom.

There were also lots of stock certificates: Consolidated Gems, Southwest Mines, West African Consolidated. Yalom’s stocks added up to thousands of shares in each company. Decker read on. He eventually found a letter to Yalom from Southwest Mines.

The company was announcing bankruptcy.

Digging deeper, Decker found another round of angry letters from Yalom to VerHauten-Yalom accusing VerHauten of illegal stock manipulation. Still no indication that Yalom ever hired an attorney to represent him.

Decker kept reading and hunting.

Marge said, “Look at this, Pete. A whole stack of land deeds in Angola, Mozambique, and Namibia.”

Decker looked at them. They were dated two years ago. “I wonder if they’re still valid.”

Marge said, “I wonder if they were ever valid.” She kept reading. More letters-the gist of the irate exchange had to do with who officially owned stock and land in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, and Botswana.