Marine One

'Yes, it is.'

'But your name on your diploma is Dercks, not Randall, right?'

'Yes.'

'And you list here all the places that you have been previously employed in the practice of law, right?'

'Yes.'

'They're accurate?'

'Yes.'

'It's accurate but it's incomplete, right?'

Braden glanced down again at the paper. 'I'm not sure what you're getting at.'

'Well, you failed to list Mr. Hackett's law firm as your place of employment for over two years. And therefore the resume that you gave me when you asked me for a job is incomplete, right?'

'Would you ask that again?'

I shook my head. 'Did you or did you not work for Mr. Hackett's law firm for over two years?'

'Yes.'

Several people behind me gasped audibly. 'Why did you leave that information off your resume, Mr. Randall?'

'I don't really know. I certainly didn't intend to. It was prepared by a professional headhunter that I had used before. They must have forgotten to put that on. I don't know.'

I stared at him in disbelief. 'So the fact that you worked for my opponent on the very case you were applying to me about, it's your claim that was left off your resume by a headhunter?'

'Yes, I think so.'

'That's a remarkable coincidence. Don't you agree?'

'It's unfortunate.'

'Sir, you are the one who handed me your resume. I did not receive it from a headhunter.'

'I don't recall if I did or not.'

'You knew I wouldn't hire you to work for me if I'd known you worked for my opponent for two years, right?'

'I don't really know what you would have done.'

I approached Braden, handed him a document, and handed a copy of it to Hackett. 'Let me show you what's been marked as our next exhibit in order. It's an article about a case that Mr. Hackett's law firm won three years after you had left his employ. Do you see this?'

'Yes.'

'Coincidentally, you worked at the law firm on the other side of Mr. Hackett in that case too. You did work there then, didn't you? It's on your resume.'

'Yes, I did.'

'And you were helping Mr. Hackett at that time and in fact you sent him confidential and privileged information about the case, didn't you?'

Braden swallowed. 'No,' he said quietly.

'Well, surely when at that law firm you told them of your prior employment with Mr. Hackett's firm, right? Because that's the place where you went to work immediately after leaving Mr. Hackett's employ.'

'I'm sure I did.'

'Well, that's very interesting. Because I called the chairman of recruiting of that firm on the way over here this afternoon and asked him about you-under your old name of course-and he remembered you very well. He was sad to see you go. When I asked him whether you had been-'

Hackett stood up. 'This is hearsay and we are running very far afield, Your Honor. This is a complete waste of the court's time. I move that we suspend this interrogation and continue with something more fruitful. This case is not about resume peccadilloes.' Hackett sat back down.

The judge wasn't having any of it. 'Mr. Hackett, do you not understand the implications of this inquiry? Let me cut to the chase. Did this young man work for your law firm?'

'It's possible, Your Honor. But frankly I don't remember. I'm sorry to say I go through a lot of associates, some of whom I remember and some of whom I don't. Obviously he didn't stick, and where he went after that, I have no idea.'

'Overruled. You may continue.'

'So, Mr. Dercks, I have a copy of the resume that you submitted to that firm. Please let me show it to you.' I advanced and gave him a copy of the faxed resume, as well as a copy to Hackett. I turned again to Braden.

'Do you see it?'

'Yes, I do.'

'Is this the resume you submitted to their firm?'

'I'm not sure.'

'Well, I'll represent to you that it's the one that's in their file that they claim you submitted to them, and I'll bring them down here to say so if it's important.'

'It's probably mine.'

'Do you note how Mr. Hackett's firm is absent from this resume?'

'Yes, I see that.'

'Headhunter?'

'I'm not sure. I quit referring to it at some point. It must have been because it was a plaintiff's firm.'

'So now it's because you were afraid they might not hire you if they knew you had worked for Mr. Hackett's firm, is that right?'

'Right.'

'Well, I will also represent to you, sir, that I checked when that case was filed. The one that came down with that big judgment for Mr. Hackett's client when you were working for the other side. It was filed two months before you went to work for them. Are you aware of that?'

'No. I wasn't aware of that.'

'So that's a surprise to you? You're learning here for the first time that the biggest case that firm had ever lost was the one against the firm you used to work for? That's your testimony?'

'Yes.'

'Well, sir, I decided to check on the next firm that you worked at. And I got a copy of your resume from them. And once again, you didn't tell them that you'd worked for Mr. Hackett's firm. Does that surprise you?'

'I guess not.'

'And surprisingly again, that firm lost a big case to Mr. Hackett's law firm, and sure enough, they appeared in that lawsuit three months before you went to work there. Were you aware of that?'

'No.'

'Sir, do you understand you're under oath? And that if you knowingly make a false statement you can be punished under the penalties of perjury and put in prison?'

'Yes, sir.'

I lowered my voice and slowed down. 'Sir, isn't it true that after you left Mr. Hackett's employ you got hired by the firms representing Hackett's opponents, and they all lost their cases to Mr. Hackett?'

'I don't know what you're talking about.'

'He gave you a cut of those cases, didn't he? You got part of the money.'

'No.'

'Do you deny helping Mr. Hackett win those cases against those firms that you worked for?'

'I do.'

I turned toward Rachel, who was carefully watching, and I nodded to her. She knew what I wanted her to do and typed an e-mail message onto her BlackBerry and hit send. If things had gone according to plan, Ralph was standing out in the hallway with Justin, who would receive that e-mail message on his BlackBerry. I turned to Braden again and paused. 'You're quite good with computers, aren't you?'

'Oh, I don't know. Nothing special.'

'Even though your resume that you sent to me says you majored in history, isn't it true, sir, that your undergraduate major was actually computer science?'

Braden stared, without answering. I continued, 'Because I have your transcript. An official copy. You see an employer is entitled to get that. So I got it. Actually Mr. Byrd got it for me and left it for me. You know him. You met him. My investigator who was murdered. Well, he didn't like you. He was suspicious and checked you out. Your transcript says that your major was computer science. Do you deny it?'

'No, I don't.'

'Yet on the resume that you submitted to me, it says you majored in history and it makes no mention of computer science. Right?'

'I don't like computers anymore, and I didn't want to get pigeonholed into doing intellectual-property litigation. When firms would see that I was a computer-science major, they would want me to do technical cases.'

'So that's why you lied to me about that, because of my flourishing intellectual-property practice. Is that your testimony?'

He smiled, appreciating the irony even in his desperate condition. 'No.'

'No, because I don't have an intellectual-property practice, and you know that. Right?'

'Yes, it was just habit by then.'

I heard the door open behind me and I saw Braden's face. I could tell by the look on his face that it was Ralph, my IT expert, and he was carrying Braden's laptop. I continued, 'Sir, in fact you're so good at computers that you know how to create a tunnel through a server, correct?'