James Grippando - A King's ransom

“All right, fifteen. But there will be no extensions. If you can’t get it done yourself, find a good co-counsel.”

Duncan said, “If I may make a suggestion. Rather than co-counsel, it would probably be advisable for Mr. Rey to retain substitute counsel, since it is very likely that he will himself be a witness at the upcoming evidentiary hearing.”

“That’s ridiculous, Judge. There is no legitimate need for Mr. Fitz to call me as a witness. These are simply more bully tactics. Last week the law firm suspended me without pay, and now they want me to pay for a lawyer.”

“I have two responses to that,” said Duncan. “One, it’s true that Mr Rey was suspended, and in the interest of fair disclosure I should note for the record that the decision has already been made to terminate his employment.”

“Very classy way to tell me.”

He ignored me. “Second, there very definitely is a good-faith basis to call him as a witness. I assume that Your Honor will require us to make some showing at the hearing that the decision of Quality Insurance Company to deny the coverage was justified.”

“That’s correct.”

“Quality has two theories in that regard. The first is as I described earlier: Matthew Rey told the wrong person that he had insurance, which the court may or may not decide was sufficient grounds for Quality to deny coverage. Our fallback theory is that denial of coverage was justified on grounds of fraud, and Nick Rey is a material witness in that regard.”

“I’m unclear. Is it your position that Matthew Rey defrauded you or that he simply has a big mouth?”

“In a way, both. He told someone he had insurance. That person then arranged for his kidnapping in an effort to defraud Quality Insurance Company out of a three-million-dollar ransom payment.”

“How is it that you intend to link Matthew Rey to a fraud committed by someone else?”

“The person who committed the fraud is someone very close to him.”

“How close?”

I was fighting to stay quiet, but I couldn’t. “Your Honor, I can see where this is headed, and I have to object to Mr. Fitz’s continued efforts to prejudice this court against my father by making further baseless accusations against his business partner in Nicaragua. Springing that surprise financial affidavit was despicable enough.”

“I wasn’t talking about any business partners,” Duncan said smugly.

My heart skipped a beat. The judge asked, “Then just who is the unnamed mastermind behind this scheme?”

“It’s a member of the Rey family.”

I nearly leaped from my chair. “Now you’ve done it, you-”

“Mr. Rey, please!”

“I’m sorry. But this is just a continuation of the charade that started last week when they suspended me. Mr. Fitz and his committee of henchmen cooked up this ludicrous theory that I steered my father toward Quality Insurance Company. Now they have the audacity to suggest to this court that I actually arranged for my own father’s kidnapping.”

“No one is accusing Nick Rey of anything,” said Duncan.

My mouth opened, but no words flowed. Duncan looked at me coolly and said, “The person who set up this kidnapping is his sister, Lindsey. Matthew Rey’s own daughter.”

I was utterly unable to speak, outraged that Duncan would make such a wild charge.

The judge broke the silence. “I’ve heard enough accusations for one day. We’ll convene in fifteen days for an evidentiary hearing. Until then I will temporarily grant the request of Quality Insurance Company for a moratorium, as Mr. Fitz calls it. Neither party will make any court filings or public disclosures that might lead the kidnappers to believe that a dispute has arisen between the parties over the payment of the ransom.”

“What about Mr. Rey’s status as counsel?” asked Duncan.

“I can’t tell in a vacuum whether he will or won’t be called as a witness. Since it’s a possibility, Mr. Rey, you had better have capable co-counsel who can step in and take your place in the event that you are called to the stand. Anything else?”

No one said a word.

“We’re adjourned,” she said.

The Cool Cash team left quickly, which was Duncan’s style. After any hearing that had gone his way, he always made a run for the door before the judge could change her mind.

I gathered up my briefcase slowly, almost shell-shocked. So much had landed on me, way more than I’d expected. Bank accounts with ten million dollars in cash. Cool Cash working arm-in-arm with the FBI’s narcotics division. The thought of being a witness at the upcoming hearing. All of those things were daunting enough, but they were nothing compared to the simple hurt and embarrassment of having a clever lawyer-my former supervisor-accuse my own family of fraud. In the heat of the moment I could easily have leaped across the table and grabbed him by the throat. Once he’d left, however, my anger dissolved into something much more disturbing. Deep down I was incapable of rejecting out of hand the possibility of Lindsey’s involvement in our father’s kidnapping.

Slowly I grabbed my briefcase and walked out of Judge Korvan’s chambers, alone completely.

With so many problems, I wasn’t sure which to tackle first. I sat down and made a list. Several lists, actually. I ranked them in order of importance, then chronologically, then from easiest to hardest to solve, from most amazing to least amazing. It was getting me nowhere. In a snap judgment I made it a top priority to fire myself and find a new lawyer. One who didn’t make lists.

But first I needed to have an honest talk with my mother.

I entered the house through the back door and found her seated at the kitchen table. I checked my ominous expression at the door for fear that she’d think something horrible had happened to her husband. But I didn’t hold back on the truth. We were in legal battle with a nasty insurance company that was represented by one of the most powerful law firms on the planet. This was no time for any surprises from my own family. I told her everything. The meetings I’d had with the FBI narcotics agents. Dad’s share of a fishing company with ten million dollars in hidden assets. And finally the suspicions about Lindsey.

Mom didn’t answer for a time that seemed like forever. At last she said, “Your father doesn’t have a dishonest bone in his body.”

“What about Guillermo?”

“I only met him once. That brunch with your father in Palm Beach. Honestly, I don’t really know Guillermo.”

“I’m beginning to wonder how well Dad really knew him.”

“Your father never even hinted that the company had that kind of cash on hand.”

“It’s possible he didn’t know. The FBI’s financial analysis is a pretty sophisticated unraveling of a rather elaborate corporate structure. None of the bank accounts were held directly in the name of Rey’s Seafood Company. It was all a matter of tracing the accounts of wholly and partially owned subsidiaries back to the parent corporation. Rey’s Seafood was the ultimate parent. Or so they claim.”

“I can assure you, your father never saw a dime of that money.”

“How can you be sure?”

I saw anger in her eyes. Without a word, she got up and left the room. Two minutes later she was back at the kitchen table with a file folder.

“This is how I’m sure,” she said, sorting through the papers for me. “This is a second mortgage on our house that your father took out two years ago to pay off a shrimp boat that capsized in a storm off San Juan del Sur. No insurance. Unfortunately for us, he personally guaranteed the loan from the bank to pay for the boat. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.” She moved to the next file. “Here’s an unsecured line of credit that we’ve maxed out at ninety thousand dollars. Here’s the cash advances we’ve taken on Visa, MasterCard, Discover-anyone who’d give us unsecured credit.”