Part 21 (1/2)

WSX was known for being ruthless.

His a.s.sistant was probably right.

”Nonsense,” Wagner said. ”If we were going to take action against this Bowles woman, we would sue her. In fact, we already have several cases started. At least that was what I ordered. I'm a.s.suming each department stepped up.”

Various heads nodded around the room. He didn't feel rea.s.sured.

His stomach ached. There was bile in his throat. He felt ill.

But he couldn't excuse himself, not yet. To do so would be to show weakness, and he didn't dare do that in front of his staff.

”We're being set up,” he said.

”Sir?” His a.s.sistant came forward.

Wagner blinked. He hadn't realized he had spoken out loud. But he had.

They were being set up. First by Bowles with that horrible news story. Then by whoever killed her. People had short memories. The media had even shorter memories.

They would think that Bowles's death-which might have been just a mugging gone wrong-was tied to WSX.

What the public would think-what the media would imply-was that instead of going after Bowles legally, making sure she wasn't inventing the entire thing, WSX went straight to the worst option. WSX didn't sue or take her to court. WSX didn't try to destroy her in the media. WSX had her killed. Wagner cursed.

It had suddenly become less important to learn how Bowles had gotten her information and more important to learn how she died.

Wagner would have to use one of his in-house detectives.

But that might backfire as well.

He needed a plan. He didn't have a plan.

He was reacting to everyone else's plan. Everyone else's questions. Everyone else's fears. People came to lawyers for rationality, for calmness, for cold calculating reasoning. At the moment, he wasn't cold or calculating.

He was as panicked as his clients usually were.

He needed to think.

Wagner turned his back on the screens and headed to his office.

He needed to regain his rational self.

He needed to become Justinian Wagner, head of the biggest law firm in the Earth Alliance. He needed to figure out exactly who was trying to hurt him, and then he had to hurt them back.

30.

Flint returned to the booth. He surveyed the room before he sat down, and saw one of the Sequev sneak over to the table Flint had used to contact Nyquist. With one of its eight limbs, the Sequev grabbed the plate of food Flint had left, hiding the plate under its-armpit? Flint didn't know the exact terminology-as it scurried back across the room.

Otherwise there wasn't much movement. The human/ Peyti study group seemed to be arguing, and the Peyti/ Sequev group was using its own screen to check sources.

Flint slid into the booth. Talia was staring at their screen, her fingers threaded through her curls. ”This isn't what I wanted,” she said, staring at the legal notations in front of her.

”What is it?” He had to get his head back into this part of the investigation.

”I don't know what it is,” Talia said. ”It's really technical.”

That caught Flint's attention. Most legal doc.u.ments, while written in legalese, were relatively easy to understand.

”What do you mean?”

”I mean, like, there's half a dozen injunctions here, and a lot of orders of protection and a few-I don't know-criminal things? And I can't tell if they're for Bowles or against her or what. It seems to contradict itself.”

Flint's mouth opened. He hadn't expected a legal history that extended through dozens of cases. ”Each case is different,” he said as he turned toward the screen. ”She could have had an injunction placed against her at the same time that she had placed an injunction against someone else.” ”Why?” Talia asked.

”Don't know yet,” Flint said. ”But I do know that such things are common in messy divorce cases. One party claims that the other is hara.s.sing them, the other party issues an injunction to prove that they're they're the one being hara.s.sed, so the first party does the same for the same reason.” the one being hara.s.sed, so the first party does the same for the same reason.”

”How do you figure out what's true?” Talia asked.

”I don't,” Flint said, ”at least not anymore. I had to a few times as a detective. It's not fun.” ”Sounds weird,” Talia said. ”Weird” appeared to be her word for the day.

”It's annoying. Because usually no one is being hara.s.sed-except maybe the legal system.” He thumbed through the screen listings. For. Against. Plaintiff, Defendant.

He reset the search parameters, looking for cases where Bowles asked for the injunction. ”How does this help?” Talia asked.

”Watch,” Flint said.

Three cases appeared, along with links to various other related cases.

In all three, Bowles had asked for an injunction against someone. All three someones had different names, and all three injunctions were issued at different times, but the reasons for the injunctions were the same: She was being stalked.

”Here it is,” he said, pointing to the relevant pa.s.sages. ”Someone was after her, as recently as last year.”

Orders of protection, injunctions, and some stalking violations, but nothing solid or nothing that seemed solid. Except that one of the cases was scheduled to go to court in six months.

”Prosecuting a stalker,” he muttered.

”What?” Talia asked.

”She pressed charges against someone under the hara.s.sment and stalking laws. It was going to trial relatively soon.”

”You think the stalker got her?” Talia asked. ”It's a possibility.” He pressed a side b.u.t.ton and got the information on the stalking cases on a small chip that he could insert into his own systems. He put the chip in his pocket.

Then he switched to another search. He wanted to see why people had issued injunctions against Bowles.

”Shouldn't you be following the link on the stalker?” Talia asked.

”In a minute,” Flint said.