Page 39 of Pro Bono

Ms. Soames said to Warren, “I assume you’ll have no objection to the nondisclosure clause in our standard liability settlement agreement?”

“I’m sorry. She can’t agree to hush up felonies. At the moment I don’t intend to go to the police before you’ve collected your evidence, and I don’t have anything negative to say about your company or its management, but if she’s interviewed by the authorities, she has an obligation to tell the truth.”

“I understand,” Ms. Soames said. “Anything else?”

“I assume this television system doesn’t just function as a giant mirror,” he said. “You should have an accurate record of what we agreed to.”

“Yes, of course,” she said. “We can have the agreement in your office by close of business today, and the settlement sent after it within seventy-two hours.”

“Excellent,” he said. “I’ll call a ride service.”

She looked at him. “You didn’t drive?”

“No,” he said. “Thank you all.” He stood and walked out. At the seventh floor checkpoint he signed out, got into the elevator to the lobby, called for a Lyft ride, and then waited. In four minutes, the car was pulling up in front of the building, so he got into the back seat of the car quickly as possible. As the car pulled out, he searched for the white van.It was gone, probably because the two men had assumed he would have called the police immediately. The ride to the parking lot to pick up his rental car was calm, almost pleasant. It occurred to him that it had been a beautiful afternoon. This was the first time he’d thought of it that way.

A half hour later he walked from the lot under his building to his condominium and unlocked the door. He turned the knob, but it wouldn’t move. He was relieved, but only tentatively, because it was still possible that the two men who had been trying to kill him this afternoon could have gotten Vesper to open the door and then barged in past her and locked the deadbolt. He knocked. He heard her voice answer.

“Who is it?”

“Charles Warren.” He heard her footsteps coming toward the door.

“Say something more. I want to hear your voice.”

“I had my meeting, and decided to take the rest of the day off, so here I am.”

She fiddled with the locks and he heard the clicks, and then the door opened. She only stepped back one step, so he had to slip in before she set the locks again. “How was it?”

“There were high points and low points.”

“Highest point first.”

“Great Oceana agreed to pay you back and give you an additional three million dollars for damages within seventy-two hours.”

“Thank you, Charlie.” She threw her arms around him and hugged him, but he stiffened and groaned in pain. She said, “I read the bar association rules. I won’t bring charges, and you don’t have to hug me back, so what’s the moaning for?”

“That was the low point. I got shot in the back.”

“You mean betrayed?”

“No, shot. Two guys in a white van were trying to keep me from getting to the meeting. One of them took a shot at me, but all the stuff in my backpack seems to have stopped the bullet.”

“Let me look at your back.” She pulled the shirt up and looked. “Oh, my God, Charlie. You have a huge bruise.”

“It felt like I probably would. I should thank my laptop, which gave its life to save mine. This also taught me something.”

“What?”

“Somebody at Great Oceana must have told them I was coming.”

17

It was night. Patrick Ollonsun drove his BMW past his brother-in-law’s house and kept going until he couldn’t see the house’s front windows, parked, and waited. After about five minutes Ronald Talbert came outside and walked down the dark street to Ollonsun’s car. Talbert got in and clicked his seatbelt. He was prepared for Ollonsun to annoy him by roaring off up the road, but instead he drove off slowly.

Ollonsun said, “Did you bring the money?”

“Yes.”

“Cash?”

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