James Sheehan - The Law of Second Chances

“Where’s your truck?” he asked before allowing them to inspect the contents one final time.

Jack was getting very tired of Hector’s demands. “It’ll be here in a few minutes,” he said. “Just open the truck.” Hector bristled for a moment, then noticed Henry standing right next to Jack. The look Henry was giving Hector assured him that opening the truck would be beneficial for his health.

Hector unlatched the back and swung open the doors. His jaw dropped when he looked inside and saw that it was completely empty.

“What’s going on here?” Jack yelled. “Where are the documents?”

“I have no idea!” Hector replied. “They were here last night, I swear. You saw for yourself.”

“They’re not here now,” Jack shouted. “What the hell kind of game are you playing?”

“I’m not playing a game, I assure you. The records must have been stolen. I’m going to call the police myself right now. You can watch me call. You can be here when they come. I’ll get the night watchman in here as well. We’ll get to the bottom of this.” The man was clearly in a panic.

“You’d better,” Jack told him. “I need those records today. I don’t have any time to hang around here. I’ll be back in two hours, and you’d better have some answers for me.”

He and Henry got in their rental car and drove off, leaving the bewildered Hector Fuentes scratching his head.

“All right, Henry, tell me how you did it.” They were back on the FDR Drive headed uptown.

A smile broke across Henry’s face. “I simply negotiated a price with the night watchman last night while you were making small talk with the rest of them. We picked up the boxes at about one o’clock this morning. They’ll be at the lake house in another hour or so.”

Jack just looked at him. “Are you sure you were just a small-time crook?”

“I was young, Jack. I didn’t know my own potential.”

Jack smiled. As they drove, he kept running through all the details in his mind. “I don’t like the fact that he’s making a police report, though.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll call in an hour or so and say there was some sort of mix-up and we have the records. They’ll know we pulled a fast one, but it won’t go any further than that. Remember, whoever is behind this is a hell of a lot dirtier than we are. And that’s where your real problem is, Jack.”

“I’ve been a couple of steps behind you for a while now, Henry. I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

“Look,” Henry replied, “I’ve been thinking about this over and over-who ‘they’ are. We still don’t know who engineered the plan to follow the records to their ultimate destination. We do know, however, that the attorneys for the telephone company and the estate had to be in on it. What did you tell me about that hearing-that they were in cahoots with the DA?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So the DA may be involved. Theoretically, the estate might have something to hide, and I guess they could be engineering this on their own but I don’t think so. This is too coordinated an effort.”

“Henry, do you realize what you’re saying? You’re at the very least implicating an assistant district attorney in a plot to commit murder.”

“That may or may not be true. I don’t know what the big picture is. I’m just trying to add the facts up as we go along.”

“Look, the attempt on my life was right after the hearing to get the records. They want to follow that truck to get to my expert, you said so yourself. How did you put it? They want to kill two birds with one stone. I don’t understand. Why would the DA, with such a strong criminal case against Benny, be involved in a murder plot? It doesn’t make sense. It’s preposterous.”

“Do you see it any other way, Jack? Do you see this whole thing going down without the DA knowing about it?”

Jack thought about it for a moment. “Maybe it’s not the DA. It could be Spencer Taylor acting on his own. I don’t think scruples would get in that guy’s way. I’m positive that he orchestrated the last hearing.”

“Hopefully when Charlie sorts through those records we’ll find some answers,” Henry told him. “In the meantime, what do you think the DA will do when he learns that you got the records and he doesn’t know where they are?”

“Well, if I was him, I’d try to get this case over before anyone has time to review the records. Charlie couldn’t get through all those boxes in a month. If Spencer Taylor plays his cards right, this trial could be over in a week.”

Charlie called Jack at his new number on Monday night to let him know she got the records. “Jack, this house is beautiful, and so is the lake. And Joaquin and Dick are perfect gentlemen. I feel totally secure. Unfortunately, I can’t enjoy the house or the lake or the company because I’m buried in paper. Did you see the volume of documents they sent?”

“I did.”

“It will take me months to get through this stuff, let alone make any sense out of it.”

“Just remember what we discussed, Charlie. Find the telephone records first. I’m really only looking for the last month or so there. With the financials, work your way backward. See if anything grabs you in the last six months to a year.”

“I’ll give it my best shot, Jack, but finding the telephone records may take a week all by itself.”

“Your best is all we can ask for, Charlie.”

Jack spent all of Tuesday at Mike McDermott’s office working on the case. Mike set him up in a spare office and showed him where the copier and the fax were in case he needed them. Then he left Jack to himself. There was no way Jack could ever repay Mike for his hospitality, but when Mike came to check on him at lunchtime, Jack insisted on treating him to dinner that night.

On Wednesday, Jack and Spencer Taylor appeared before the judge in his chambers for an impromptu status conference. The judge had called them personally, so there was no formal notice and thus no press.

“I just want to get a few things straight and get the preliminaries down before the fireworks start,” the judge told them. “We’re going to be on center stage for the whole country, gentlemen, and I, for one, don’t want to look foolish.

“The press has been hounding me from all corners of the globe. I appreciate the fact that you two have not been stoking the fire. I’d like that to continue. I’m allowing one reporter to represent all the major networks, and one to represent the local stations-they’ll serve as pool reporters. The foreign press gets one. The local papers each get one and, of course, the Associated Press.

“There will be no electronic devices of any kind in the courtroom. Cell phones will be confiscated at the entrance. That goes for you gentlemen as well. If either of you needs a computer for this case, let me know now.”

“I don’t, Judge,” Spencer Taylor answered.

“How about you, Mr. Tobin?”

“No, sir.”

“I don’t want any speaking objections or grandstanding of any kind. You will stand, state your legal objection, and ask to approach the bench. Understand?”

“Yes, sir,” they both answered almost in unison.

“Have you seen each other’s documents?”

“All but the ones we had the hearing about, Judge,” Spencer Taylor responded.

“Mr. Tobin, did you get your documents?”

“Yes, your honor. They were voluminous, however, and my expert has not been able to get through any of them yet. I won’t see any documents that my expert will present until the last minute, if at all. I mention that because we have stipulated that the prosecution’s inability to see the documents is not an issue.”

“I recall that stipulation, Counsel. And I also recall that Mr. Taylor graciously waived any notice of witnesses that might arise from those documents. Is that correct, Mr. Taylor?”