“So you don’t think this guy will win?”
“I don’t think any of them will win, ultimately; but that doesn’t mean they can’t keep us tied up in court for years, wasting my time and the firm’s money. We really ought to hire outside counsel, sooner rather than later. A firm that specializes in intellectual property disputes. I may ask you to help me talk Rob into it.”
“It’s bad enough that we need outside help?”
“I can barely handle the volume of paperwork as it is,” she said. “When they start releasing some of the brand extensions - Doctors from Hell, Cops from Hell, things like that - there are a lot more games on those subjects than there ever were about lawyers. The number of vultures trying to get a piece of the action will increase geometrically. Yeah, we’re going to need outside help.”
“Let me know when you want help tackling Rob,” I said. “So that’s what’s been keeping you so busy in the library?”
“What else?” she said.
“I don’t know,” I said, smiling. “I figured maybe you just liked sitting up there where you could keep your eye on everyone, make sure no one got up to anything.”
“Yeah, right,” she said with a chuckle. “And some job I did yesterday. I wonder how many times Ted’s body chugged around the office right under my nose, and I didn’t even realize he was dead.”
“Not just your nose, don’t forget. I didn’t notice either.”
“Some watchdogs we are. Speaking of that, though - remember the guy I told you to watch for?”
“Eugene something-or-other, the disgruntled ex-employee?”
“Eugene Mason, yes.”
“I haven’t seen him,” I said. “Not that things have been quiet enough to spend much time looking for him.”
“Keep your eyes open, then. I can’t imagine that he has anything to do with Ted’s death, or that he’d do anything rash at all, but you never know.”
“Especially if he had some kind of a thing about guns,” I said. “Wasn’t that what you were telling the chief?”
“I told the chief that I thought concern over his interest in guns was exaggerated,” she said. “Which I still think is true.”
“But it’s bound to interest the chief, knowing someone with a grudge has access to weapons.”
“For heaven’s sake, there’s nothing wrong with knowing how to fire a gun and even owning one,” she said. “I learned to fire a gun myself when I was at Stanford Law and the only place I could afford to live was a pretty bad part of East Palo Alto. Self-defense.”
I nodded.
“I didn’t want the police to overreact,” she went on. “Of course, I didn’t want them to ignore him, either, which is what they seem to be doing. Perhaps it would have been wiser to exaggerate our anxiety, not downplay it.”
“You did what you thought was best at the time,” I said. “Don’t beat yourself up. I’ll nudge the police about the disgruntled Mr. Mason.”
“Thanks,” she said. “By the way - this detecting you’re doing - are you sure that’s wise? You don’t want to risk a charge of interfering with an investigation, do you?”
I sighed. “Dad likes to think of me as a real-life Nancy Drew,”
I said. “I admit, I’ve been trying to find something I can give Chief Burke to convince him that Rob shouldn’t be his prime suspect. But beyond that… I’ll let the police do their job.”
Maybe I was downplaying the amount of snooping I had been doing - or might end up doing. But it wasn’t really that misleading. I had every intention of staying out of Chief Burke’s way and letting the police do their job. As soon as they started doing it properly. Leaving Rob alone would be a good start.
“Keep me posted on what you discover,” she said. “Since anything you find out is bound to affect the firm, one way or another.”
“Of course,” I said.
She nodded and headed for the nearest of the two doors to the library. A minute later, I saw her head pop up over the top of the shelves. She looked around, scanning the office, and then focused down, presumably on yet another law book.
Although I wasn’t sure I shared Liz’s suspicion of the disgruntled Mr. Mason, since I couldn’t see any indication that he’d been hanging around the office on the day of the murder, I decided to drop by Personnel and see if I could talk my way into getting a look at his file. As it happened, I didn’t even need to talk. Darlene, our one-person Personnel department, was out, and the file she’d hunted down for the chief yesterday was still in her in-basket. Later, I’d complain about her carelessness. For now, I snagged the file, grabbed a couple of health insurance forms to put on top so no one would see what I was carrying, and made my escape with it. I’d leave it in Rob’s out-basket later. Darlene wouldn’t find that suspicious, and Rob would never notice.