Scott Turow - Pleading Guilty

'I couldn't imagine what was going on, until suddenly he made this proposal: If we'd pay Litiplex offshore — $5.6 million was the number he'd come up with — set up an offshore account in their name, disposition subject to Peter's later direction, then Neucriss would let us reduce our remaining payment to Peter's clients to $22.4 million. That way, TN would be two million dollars ahead. He assured me his clients would net the same amounts. You know how it goes — we pay him, he deducts his share and remits to the clients. He'd just cook his books so it looked like he was working on a 10 percent contingency instead of a third. Why should I care? It's two million to us. That's the bottom line.'

'I'm not following,' said Wash. 'What does Peter get out of it?'

'It's a tax dodge.' It was Brushy who spoke. As usual, she didn't need a book of instructions. 'There's no Litiplex. Not really. It's a sham for Neucriss, who gets his fee offshore and never pays income taxes on it, not this year, and not on whatever it earns in the future. That's why he was willing to take two million less. He'd save two or three times that in the long run.'

Jake was nodding eagerly as she ran it down. Eagerly. Even Jake had understood this much.

'Neucriss denies all of this, by the way, the entire conversation.' It was Pagnucci, in the doorway. Carl was dressed in a double-breasted dinner jacket, blue sharkskin no less, smoking a cigarette and looking somewhat haggard. Considering the assembly, he said dryly that he'd already listened to this story several times.

'Mathigoris and I were just on the phone with Mr Neucriss,' Carl said. 'He states, most emphatically, that the only time he's heard of Litiplex was when Mack and Martin spoke with him recently.'

'Naturally,' said Jake, 'naturally he denies it. I told you he would. He's engaging in tax evasion. I don't expect him to put up a billboard. But I'm telling you, that was the deal. I set up the account with that understanding. When he presented me with signed releases on our cases, I'd give him the balance of the settlements and a letter of direction entitling whoever he designated to the account. Don't you see? I wasn't stealing anything. This for the company. For TN.'

He looked at Krzysinski, but Tad's attention was on Ilene, the assistant, who stood at the door signaling obscurely. Tad stepped into his conference room to attend to whatever fire was burning there.

'And what were you thinking the IRS would say about the company and you, Jake?' Brushy asked this. Wash in the meantime was peeking up hopefully. He didn't understand everything, but Jake's last lines had buoyed him. He could see it coming. Undeserved salvation. Story of his life.

'Me? We haven't lied to them. We haven't filed any false documents. I haven't even seen Peter's return. God knows, I've got suspicions, but who can fathom the mind of Peter Neucriss? If the Service ever asked, I'd tell them the absolute truth. And I'm certainly not hiding any income. We want to declare it. It'll be on every return and financial statement. That's the point. Let's not pretend. We all know the story. Tad has been very concerned about the level of legal expenses. And quite pleased with the way 397 has turned out. This is two million, straight to the bottom line. We need that. All of us. The company and everyone here.'

'I still don't think you'd get a good-conduct medal from the Service,' said Martin to Jake.

'Or the SEC,' said Pagnucci.

'Or Tad,' Brushy said.

'Admittedly,' said Jake, 'admittedly. True on all counts. Krzysinski hates it. Hates it. Look at him. It's not his style.' Glancing darkly at the conference room door, Jake lowered his voice. 'But he'd love the result. So would the board. Friends, really. A tree falls in the forest. Is there sound if nobody hears? If I'm discreet, what does anyone know? Neucriss won't say a word. The IRS has no reason to audit an escrow account. We're showing a surplus, for crying out loud. That's why I told no one. I sent the memo to Bert, explaining that it was very sensitive. I left no records here. And I made my own hell by doing it that way. I'm the first to admit it. The very first. There was not a thing I could say when all of you began looking into the matter, except what I told Mack last week: If we just wait, it's going to turn out all right. When the disbursements were made, there would be no money missing. There'd be two million more than expected. Who would complain? Don't you see? I'm not a thief.' He looked around the room at each of us. He was being achingly sincere, wounded and vulnerable, that Jake-thing I'd probably last seen when he talked to me about the bar exam.

Krzysinski had returned for the latter stages of this performance, but he did not allow it to hinder him as he walked back to his desk. He addressed Jake without rancor. Tad was just himself — completely in charge. His job was deciding things. He was better at that than most people, the way certain guys can jump a foot over the rim. He roamed an empyrean landscape where he figured out what would happen with the perfect instantaneous reflex of a machine. He asked Jake where he wanted to go while we spoke.

'Home,' said Jake, and Tad nodded. That was a good idea, he said. Go home. Stay by the phone in case there were more questions. Jake departed, clearly at a loss for the right gesture of farewell. He reverted to his friendly little wave, a politician's touch that he'd absorbed from his father. It was, in the circumstances, sadly wrong. His departure, disappearance, seemed fateful and left a silent, troubled wake.

'So what do you think?' Tad asked after a moment. 'I wanted your opinions. You've all known him much longer than me.' He swiveled about in his big chair. This might well have been Tad's ultimate test — would G amp; G's lawyers shoot straight when the target was Jake? Maybe, in order to decide about us, he was matching our estimate against one he'd derived already. But I thought he was merely making smart use of the available resources.

'I believe him,' Wash said instantly. He had summoned himself to sound stalwart. He brought all that upper-crust nobility back into his face.

Krzysinski pursed up his mouth. 'Mathigoris thinks it's a cover story. Carefully planned. Carl shares that opinion.'

Carl nodded. As usual he wasn't saying much. But his ego would suffer no blows and he preferred the sinister to admitting he had failed in divining the situation. Now and then he had looked darkly at me, suspecting, I imagine, that I'd set him up. But I'd hung in there, meeting his eye meaningfully, and now he was not backing down.

Martin, when Tad addressed him, wasn't there, lost instead at mystical depths within himself. He'd still not fit the last stud into his shirt and he was tossing it up and down in one hand, in a mindless way, the jewel glinting as it turned in the air. He caught me eyeing him and gave me a wry look.

Tad asked the question again to gain his attention. What did he think?

'Oh,' Martin said. 'Do I think it would tickle Neucriss to see your General Counsel doing tricks for him like a streetwalker? Naturally. Neucriss's favorite pastime is proving that all human nature is as base as his. On the other hand, do I think Jake is capable of this deception on his own?' Martin smiled fleetingly at me, with his usual deep appreciation of irony. 'Quite,' he said. 'Quite. Frankly, Tad, I don't know what the hell is going on.'

Martin stood up in his half-secured formal wear and hoisted his striped trousers; he threw his stud in the air one more time. He was enormously cheerful. You wouldn't quite say he didn't give a damn. But you could tell he felt free of this life. Martin was on the road to being somebody else. He smiled again when he looked at Krzysinski.