Sasha McCandless 03 - Irretrievably Broken Read Online Free PDF Page B

vacations. And then she says “no thanks” when they try to hand her the prize?
    Sasha McCandless had not had a rational reaction. And Cinco was worried that they were pinning all their hopes on her. What if she said she wouldn’t do it?
    Kevin Marcus must have read his mind. “Gentlemen, do we have a plan B?”
    He was answered by silence.
    “Clearly not,” Fred Jennings laughed.
    The rest of them turned to him. At sixty-four, Fred was knocking on the door of the firm’s mandatory retirement age. He was winding down his practice, offloading his clients onto junior partners, and, although he still showed up to every Management Committee meeting, he rarely spoke. Cinco had taken to calling him Justice Thomas in private.
    Fred went on. “We best come up with one, fellas.” Then he folded his hands over his belly and leaned back.
    “Thanks for contributing to the discussion, Fred.” Cinco worked to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
    “What about Clarissa?” Porter said.
    “What about her?” Cinco answered.
    It was Porter’s turn to frown. Clarissa Costopolous was a partner in the antitrust department—Porter’s fiefdom—and he felt some responsibility toward her.
    “Do we tell her?” Porter said.
    “Tell her what? There’s nothing to tell her!” Across the table, Marco grew agitated again.
    Cinco held up a hand. Sometimes he felt like a crossing guard. He said, “He’s right, John. It’d be premature. Let’s just wait and see what Sasha says.”
    Fred chuckled, “You guys sure seem certain you can control that girl. Not sure why.”
    Cinco decided he preferred it when Fred played the role of the silent justice.
    Marco spoke up. “Maybe we can’t control her, but we can control what information she has access to. We need someone resourceful enough to get Lang off without sniffing around the firm’s private business. Our job will be to protect the firm’s reputation; hers will be to defend her client.”
    Marco shrugged when he finished, as if the success of this harebrained scheme were a foregone conclusion.
    Cinco scanned the others’ faces; his gaze landed back on Kevin.
    “She was in your group, Kevin. Will she do it?”
    Kevin considered the question. “It’s hard to say. If she believes he didn’t kill Ellen, I think she will. If she’s not convinced ... I don’t know. Frankly, I’m doubtful she’s the right choice.”
    Cinco didn’t like that answer. But then, he didn’t like any of this.
     
     
    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
     
    Three floors below, Clarissa Costopolous sat behind her desk, a tower of paper threatening to shift and bury her, and hissed into the phone at her divorce attorney.
    “Yes, I’m sure! Andy, we’ve been over this. I want to put it in the damn papers.”
    Andy Pulaski took his time answering.
    Finally, he said in a gentle voice, “Clarissa, I know you’re upset, okay? I get it. And trust me, your scumbag husband will get it, too. I just don’t see the need to make such an inflammatory allegation in a court document. Do you understand?”
    “No, Andy, I don’t understand!” Clarissa tried to keep her voice down. “It’s not an allegation, I saw the pictures. That girl cannot be eighteen! He’s screwing a high school student!”
    “Clarissa, we don’t know how old she is. She could be in college. And the picture just shows them kissing.”
    “That doesn’t make it better!” Clarissa screamed, her grip on the phone so tight that her knuckles turned white.
    She drew in her breath. When she spoke again, her voice was strained but calm. “I have a client meeting to prepare for. Can we talk about this later?”
    Her attorney spoke soothingly. “Of course. Whenever’s good for you, Clarissa. Trust me, once you officially file, you’ll feel like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders. Don’t worry, I’m going to nail the bastard to the wall.”
    “You’d better, Andy.”
    Clarissa carefully returned the handset to its cradle, moved aside an article