Peter Spiegelman - Death's little helpers

“The point Dennis is making, Mr. March, is that Pace-Loyette takes its responsibilities to its shareholders and clients and employees very seriously. And it will react seriously to anything that impedes its ability to serve those constituents.” It was impressive lawyer-speak- a gentle threat, a claim to the moral high ground, but oblique and ultimately elusive in its meaning. And Jan Carmody delivered it well: polite, reasonable, and serious, and without a hint of Turpin’s posturing. I nodded at her.

“About Danes…?” I said. Carmody looked at Turpin, who’d come off the boil.

“I assume you got your client’s say-so to talk to us,” Turpin said. I nodded. “And? Who are you working for?”

I smiled. “Before we get to that, I need some assurance that I’ll get my questions answered.”

Turpin leaned forward in his chair. He pointed again. “That depends on your questions, doesn’t it? Don’t think you’re getting a goddamn blank check here.”

“I don’t. But I want to know that you’re willing to talk about certain things- like when you last saw Danes, or when anyone here last spoke with him, or what his mood was- that sort of thing.”

Carmody answered. “And in turn, Mr. March, you’re authorized to tell us what?”

“I can tell you who I’m working for and what I’ve found so far.” Carmody and Turpin looked at each other and reached some sort of agreement. Turpin nodded.

“All right,” he said, “you first.” I told them who had hired me and what I knew so far. It was a short story and they were silent when I finished, as if they were waiting for something more.

“That’s it?” Turpin said. “That’s what you’ve got? There’s nothing there I didn’t already know.” I shrugged. He knitted his thick brows. “How do I know you’re not feeding me a line of crap, anyway? You have proof you’re not working for someone else?”

“Who else would I be working for?”

“How the hell should I know? There are plenty of plaintiffs out there.”

Jan Carmody interrupted with a cough. “We have Ms. Sachs’s number. Why don’t we call and verify.” She slipped a cell phone from her pocket and stepped out of the room. She was gone less than five minutes, during which time Turpin and I sat silently, looking at nothing. Carmody nodded at Turpin when she returned; he looked at me. My turn.

“Has anyone at Pace heard from him since the day he stormed out of here?” I asked him.

He leaned forward and his color began to rise again. “Who the hell says he stormed anywhere?” he growled. “Who’ve you been talking to?”

I looked at Carmody. She sighed.

“As far as we know, Danes has not been in touch with anyone at the firm since he left,” she said. Turpin smacked his palm on the desktop.

“What the hell are you doing, Jan? Why should we tell him a goddamn thing if he’s not willing to play ball?”

Carmody looked at him. “He is playing ball, Dennis. He’s held up his end of the bargain. Now he’s asking his questions and doing a little fishing in the process. There’s nothing wrong with that. And there’s nothing that says we have to take the bait, either.”

Her voice was calm and level, and I smiled at her. While Turpin might have been- and maybe still was- a high-powered securities lawyer, it was clear he hadn’t spent much time in court. And it was just as clear that Carmody had.

Turpin’s mouth got tight and his nostrils flared, and I could see him talking himself down.

“So this business of his being on leave…?” I asked.

“Technically, he is on leave,” Carmody said. “That’s the status he was placed on when he didn’t return from vacation.” Turpin shot her an annoyed look, but it passed.

“When did he tell you he was taking vacation?”

Turpin answered this time. “The last day he was in the office- or that night. He left a voice mail with his number two in research, saying he was taking three weeks. She got it the next morning.”

“He say anything about where he was going?” Turpin shook his head. “And he hadn’t mentioned this vacation to anyone beforehand?” Another no. “That didn’t worry anybody?”

“I thought a vacation was a good idea,” Turpin said. “He had a lot on his mind.”

“Like lawsuits and arbitration claims?” I asked. “Like the SEC?”

“That’s something we’re not going to talk about today, Mr. March,” Carmody said. I nodded.

“Anybody he’s particularly friendly with here at the office?” I asked. They looked puzzled.

“Not that I know of,” Turpin said.

“Have you been looking for him?” I asked.

“We’ve made some calls,” Turpin said.

I nodded. “Calls to whom?”

Turpin stiffened visibly and looked at Carmody.

“We’ve spoken with his lawyer, Toby Kahn,” she said. “He hasn’t heard anything from Danes since he left. On the other hand, he wasn’t expecting to. The cases are moving to settlement, and there’s nothing happening now that requires Danes’s input.”

“And that’s the extent of your search- calling his lawyer?”

Turpin’s face darkened. “What the hell would you have us do?” he said.

I shrugged. “You’re not worried about him at all?”

“We’d like to know if he plans on coming back,” he huffed. “We’d like to-”

Carmody cut him off. “Do you have reason to worry about him, Mr. March?” she asked me. “If so, you should take your concerns to the police. That’s what we would do.”

“But you haven’t yet?”

She shook her head. “As Dennis said, we’ve made some calls. But we haven’t found out any more than you have, and nothing that would lead us to bring in the police.”

Turpin checked his watch. “I think you’ve hit your limit here, March,” he said.

“Just one more thing. What were you and he fighting about the day he walked out of here?” Turpin may have had a short fuse but he wasn’t completely stupid, and this time he managed a respectable lie.

“I don’t know who you’ve been talking to, but whoever it is they’re not reliable. Gregory Danes is a smart guy, with firm opinions that he defends vigorously. I can respect that- I’m that way myself. Sometimes Greg knocks heads with people- and so do I. Occasionally, we’ve knocked heads with each other. Voices get raised, doors get slammed. It happens in business; sometimes it’s even healthy. Creative tension, they call it.” His smile was crooked and disturbing.

“And what were the two of you creatively tense about that day?”

Turpin’s face got tight, but Jan Carmody spoke before he could. “I think Dennis was right when he suggested we wrap this up, Mr. March. Thanks for your time today.” She didn’t wait for a response but pulled a date book from the briefcase at her feet and began leafing through it. Turpin was perfectly still. His thick brows were knit together, and he stared at me as if I’d stolen his last banana. I left.

I waited alone for the elevator, and it arrived empty. I knew from the directory Neary had given me that Danes’s department, Research, was on 22. I rode down two floors.

The reception area was unattended when I passed through, and for no good reason I turned left. The color scheme on this floor was slate blue and white. Otherwise, it was nearly identical to 24: cubicles and thick carpet, telephones and computers, bent heads and hushed tones. The people in the cubicles paid me no heed as I walked by.

I turned a corner and came to another acre of blue and white cubicles, bordered by offices and conference rooms. But in this neighborhood, instead of bland corporate art on the walls, there were long chrome racks stocked with Pace-Loyette research reports. The cubicles here were larger and equipped with more imposing computers, sometimes several of them, and the stacks of paper and periodicals rose higher. There was a big glass room along the rear wall, outfitted like a library. I figured this was Research. Although it was well past lunchtime, there were few people about. If any of them noticed me, they didn’t seem to care. I went looking for the biggest office.