“I’m willing to be reasonable if you are,” Castleton said. “The woman walked off her job and is entitled to nothing. However, I’m willing to consider she was terminated and give her two weeks severance pay. At a hundred bucks an hour, that comes to eight thousand dollars.”
Steve Winslow shook his head. “You’re not even in the ballpark. We’re talking about a million-dollar suit here.”
“A million dollars?” Castleton said. “No, no. I’m not talking about what you’d file for. I’m talking about what you’d settle for.”
“You mean right now? Cash in hand?”
“That’s right.”
“A hundred thousand dollars.”
“Dream on. My offer is eight thousand dollars. Take it or leave it.”
“Fine. I’ll leave it.”
Steve turned to go.
“Without consulting your client?”
Steve stopped. “My client won’t take eight thousand dollars.”
“So you say. Why not let her make that decision?”
Steve frowned. He didn’t want to make any concessions to Castleton, but if he walked out now it would be without her clothes and purse. “May I use your phone?”
“Certainly.”
Steve walked to the desk, picked up the phone, punched in the number.
Tracy answered.
“It’s me,” Steve said. “Put Kelly on.” There was a moment, then her voice came on the line. “This is Steve Winslow,” he said. “I’m in Castleton’s office. He’s offered us a settlement. Two weeks salary-eight thousand dollars.”
“And my clothes and purse?”
“Yes.”
“Take it.”
“That’s what I thought you’d say,” Steve said. He hung up the phone and turned to Castleton. “Your offer is rejected. See you in court.”
Steve turned and headed for the door.
“Hold on, hold on,” Castleton said impatiently.
Steve stopped. Turned back.
Castleton glared at him. “Can’t we negotiate without these theatrics?”
“I wasn’t aware we were negotiating,” Steve said.
“Of course we are,” Castleton said. “I have no desire to go to court, and neither have you. Let’s settle the damn thing.”
“Fine,” Steve said. “Write me a check for a hundred thousand dollars.”
“Don’t be silly,” Castleton said, irritably. “I’m willing to pay for the nuisance value, but within reason. Twenty-five thousand for a full release.”
“You’re talking about the civil suit,” Steve said. “There are criminal charges here as well.”
“You can’t negotiate criminal charges. That would be unethical.”
“Not to mention illegal,” Steve said. “I’m not negotiating them. I’m just mentioning them to show you that the situation is somewhat complicated.”
“Not for me,” Castleton said. “If your client has some problem with Phil Danby, that’s between him and her.”
“Yes and no,” Steve said. “Considering the requirements of the employment, requirements initiated by you, I think you might find yourself at the very least an accessory to such charges as rape, assault, what have you.”
“Nonsense,” Castleton said.
Steve shrugged. “Probably. But, as you say, that’s neither here nor there. We’re discussing the civil suit here, not the criminal charge. We’re certainly not negotiating that. That would be compounding a felony and conspiring to conceal a crime. Something you and I would never dream of doing.
“Of course, that’s assuming criminal charges are brought at all. And from a legal standpoint, having reached a settlement with you in the civil suit and having given you a full release from any or all damages arising from the employment, Kelly Blaine would be hard-pressed to come up with any grounds for pressing criminal charges in this matter.”
Steve waved his hands. “But that’s not what we’re discussing. By all means, let’s talk settlement.”
“You have my offer. Twenty-five thousand.”
“And you have mine.”
“Yes. A hundred thousand. If you’re not going to budge from it, there’s nothing to talk about and we’ll see you in court.”
Steve smiled. “Did I say that, Mr. Castleton? We’re all businessmen here. You’ve come up. I’ll come down. Seventy-five thousand and call it a day.”
Castleton shook his head. “Out of the question.”
“Okay,” Steve said. “I think the situation’s clear. We have figures on the table neither one of us can live with. We need to come up with a compromise figure, or go to court.”
“Such as?”
Steve shook his head. “Your move. I just came down to seventy-five, remember?”
“That’s not even close.”
Steve sighed. “We have a problem here. The way I see it, the only issue here is how many more bids it’s gonna take us to get to fifty grand. You don’t wanna say fifty because you’re afraid if you do I’ll say seventy and then we’ll be arguing between those two figures trying to split at sixty. And I don’t want to say fifty because then you’ll say thirty and we’ll be arguing between those two figures trying to split at forty.” Steve threw up his hands. “It’s a no-win situation. The way I see it, we could be here all day. So I’m not naming a figure. I’m suggesting if
“Are you stating such is the case?”
“Not at all. I’m talking tentatively and hypothetically.”
“All right. Talking tentatively and hypothetically then, if I named the figure fifty thousand, would you accept it?”
“If you named it, yes.”
“All right. Fifty thousand dollars, take it or leave it. Do we have a deal?”
“In principle.”
Castleton frowned. “What do you mean, in principle?”
“The cash compromise is satisfactory. But the deal is predicated on my receiving Kelly Blaine’s clothes and purse.”
“And upon you furnishing me with a blanket release.”
“Certainly,” Steve said. He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out the papers, handed them over.
Castleton glanced at the papers just long enough to verify what they were, then nodded to Danby. “Get it.”
Danby turned and walked out the door with the air of a trained dog doing a trick. Castleton buried his head in the papers. He was still reading when Danby came back, carrying a purse and a shopping bag. He started to give them to Steve Winslow, but Castleton held up his hand. “One moment. I’m not done.”
Castleton finished the last page, set the papers down. “All right, give him the stuff.”
Steve took the shopping bag and the purse, walked over to a small table and set them down to examine them. In the shopping bag he found a skirt, sweater, bra, panties, stockings and shoes. The purse was of fabric rather than leather, a soft, flexible bag pulled closed with a drawstring that doubled as a shoulder strap. Steve spread the top open, reached in and examined the contents. He found the usual junk-tissues, lipstick, pens, paper, what have you. He also found a set of keys, a change purse with thirty-eight dollars and change in it, and a white envelope with Kelly Blaine’s name on it and eight one-hundred-dollar bills inside.
Steve looked up from the purse. “Where’s the wallet?”
