Marine One

before trial. First, I go into trial with a national reputation of being unethical, or stupid, and he has the upper hand, or second, you or WorldCopter decide they don't want me on the case anymore and I get tossed. Then Mr. Brightman, or somebody else, rides in to save the day and defend WorldCopter, not having been involved in discovery, not having spent every waking hour dealing with this case for the last six months, and again he thinks he has the upper hand. For him it works either way. Plus, if I may be allowed an editorial comment, he may not have the greatest respect for Mr. Brightman's abilities either.'

Kathryn said, 'I think his whole strategy ever since he filed the lawsuit in Annapolis has been to get you deep into the case, through almost all of the discovery, and then start trying to cut your legs out from under you. He uses the press, false witnesses, personal confrontation, and probably a lot of other things we aren't yet aware of. He wanted me-this is really probably more about me than you-but he wanted me to remove you from the case to stop the barrage of bad press. But you know what, Mike?' She actually waited for me to answer.

I shook my head.

She continued, 'He missed. You saw the fake witness coming, his deposition stories and leaks make us look aggressive, but not necessarily wrong, and otherwise we're matching up with him. Yesterday, frankly, I asked for this meeting with the idea of asking Mark to take over the lead of this case.' She looked at him and he returned her look with barely concealed annoyance, knowing now where she was going. 'But I think you're exactly the right guy to try this case. You've got the right experience, the right mentality, the helicopter knowledge, the trial experience, and the local knowledge. He may not fully realize how clever you are in trial. You're at your best when the fur is flying.

'We're going to put Mark's name on the caption. He'll stay up on things in case you get hit by a bus, but this is your case. You're going to try it. And based on their settlement demands, this case is going to get tried.'

Kathryn walked back around to the other side of the table and picked up her now cool cup of coffee. 'But you've got to find out what really happened. You've got to start pushing people. You've got to tell Byrd to put all his other cases on hold and work overtime. I want him working eighteen hours a day turning over rocks. I want him banging on that Secret Service agent to testify, or if he won't, then give us his name. I want our experts up all night, every night, running experiments, running aerodynamic analyses, figuring out what in the hell happened here. This helicopter did not fail just because it threw its tip weights. Something else happened. Maybe it was Collins. I'm not convinced, but it could be. Something happened and we need to find out what. And we need to prove who was going to be at that meeting and why. If you spring that in trial, all kinds of possibilities open up. You've got to find the proof. You've got to dig, and you've got to make it happen.'

'That's what I'm trying to do.'

Kathryn looked around at everybody else in the room. 'Everybody okay with this?'

Brightman said, 'You're taking a big risk, Kathryn. No offense to Mike, but his credibility may be at risk. All these deposition issues, and the bogus witness. We think the public gets it, but they may not. If he walks into that courtroom with no credibility, if the jurors think he is unethical, attempting to buy witnesses, and accusing the first lady of an affair, they won't cut him any slack at all. I think that's a risk for WorldCopter.'

'I agree, but I think the opposite is equally likely. They may know-if they're paying attention-that Hackett is a bad guy, and Mike is fully aware of the traps that are being thrown in front of him. They'll identify with him and hate Hackett. Very possible. If there is any issue left by the time we get to trial, if we ask the right questions in voir dire, we'll be able to disarm it. Do you agree, Mike?'

'Maybe not all of it, but I think we'll get a jury that will give us a fair hearing. That's all we can ask for.'

Brightman said, 'And facts, Mike. You need some facts to convince the jury that you're right. Not just theories.'

22

I DIALED TINNY. He answered his cell phone on the second ring. After some preliminary conversation where I told him of the meeting and we insulted each other and challenged each other's heritage, I asked, 'You got anything new for me? We're in the last strokes of discovery and trial is right around the corner.'

'Yeah, one thing, but what was the meeting about?'

'Case isn't going to settle.'

'Never figured it would. Hackett wants this to go to trial and grandstand. It's his biggest moment on the world stage.'

'No doubt. But the point of this is that Kathryn told me to tell you to clear your time. She wants you dedicating your time exclusively to this case. Same for all of our experts. It's balls-to-the-wall time, Tinny. And you've got to help me get to this Secret Service guy and prove who was going to be at Camp David. Everything may turn on that meeting and the timing.'

'You're killing me. I can't just quit working on all my cases. I've got thirty or forty things I'm working on. I can't just tell them to sit there while I do this.'

'You have to.'

'Man, I don't know. I can clear a lot of it. There might still be a couple I'm going to have to do things on, but I'm with you. I've got to rent a damned car too.'

'What happened to your Vette?'

'Some asshole covered it in paint.'

'Construction?'

'No. I mean covered it. I was at Mercedes' eating breakfast. I come back out to my car and somebody has poured gallons of black paint all over it. Windshield, everywhere.'

I felt a chill. 'Who did it?'

'No idea, or I'd be over at his place right now helping him check in to the ER.'

'You think it's related to our case?'

'No idea. Could be. It's a message from somebody.'

'You been messing with anyone's wife?'

'Naw, man. I don't do that.'

'Then what do you think?'

'Could be our case. Could be one of our State Department friend's boys. Or maybe Hackett knows who I am and had one of his goons hit me for pissing all over their little scam with the bogus witness. Hard to say.'

'I don't like it,' I said. 'They may be talking to me.'

'Pretty indirect if they are.'

'Call me tonight so we can go over some things.'

'Catch you later-'

'Wait, you said there was one thing you wanted to tell me about.'

'Yeah, there's somebody in Annapolis who is talking about you.'

'No doubt.'

'On a cell phone. I'm working on it, and I probably shouldn't tell you anything 'cause this is premature. I'm tracking it down, but somebody is having a lot of conversations with somebody else from New York. At least it's a 212 area code. But you're the subject. Hard to know exactly what they're talking about, 'cause they're assuming somebody's listening. They talk in shorthand or code that I can't quite get. But somebody wants things to go badly for you.'

'Male or female?' I asked, my mind racing. 'Male, probably white.'

'What do you make of it? Could it be a journalist?'

'I don't know, I can just tell that there's something going on, where you're the subject, and they're trying to hide something.'

'I don't follow you.'

'That's all I got right now. One other thing. I… you know I ain't afraid of nobody. Well, one of those cases I got to keep an eye on is about an Asian gang member here in D.C. He's headed for trial on murder charges, and it's ugly. But the last couple of weeks I've noticed an Asian guy now and then. Has a sort of sophisticated look. Doesn't look like a gang guy to me. Could be the head cheese, but they never show themselves. This guy is different. I've seen him maybe twice, maybe three times. Don't know what to make of it, but I got to keep an eye out. Lots going on, Michael.'

'See him around your car?'

'No.'

'You've seen him like… he's following you?'

'Can't say. I see somebody I'm not looking for more than once in a couple of weeks in D.C.? I figure something's up. I have no idea who this guy is. Could be an IRS agent for all I know. I'm just telling you what's going on.'

'You think he's one of Hackett's investigators?'

'Possible, but I doubt it. But watch yourself. Lots of things going on that we don't know about, Michael. And for what it's worth, I'm getting a feeling Collins had nothing to do with this accident.'

'Feeling? What the hell am I supposed to do with that?'

'Don't know. Just a feeling I have. You ever feel a shadow?'

'I don't know. I guess you feel a coolness that wasn't there before.'

'Just like that.'

'Shit, Tinny.'

'I got to go. Hey, by the way, you had any e-mail issues?'

'Meaning what?'

'I don't know. This phone conversation with somebody in Annapolis, they mentioned e-mail. I don't know what he's talking about, but I just wanted you to be aware that there may be something out there. Maybe someone is going to spam your server, I really don't know. Just beware. Call me in the morning.' He hung up.