Page 56 of Escape Girl

Good. But if we were going to stay aboveboard, legally, how could we find other possible victims of Taggert? “What if we did an actual post? Something like ‘If James A. Hill ever sent you a cease-and-desist letter, contact me’ with a generic email address or something like that? What would be the chance that we could fly under the radar and maybe have someone contact us? I still want the element of surprise, so I wouldn’t want Taggert and Hill to know that we were trying to find other victims.”

Max sighed. “It’s a long shot. These sites get hundreds of posts per day, so the actual post will get buried quickly. But if someone is doing a search on it, they’ll see it. Our best bet would be that a past victim is routinely active on one of the boards and sees it and responds. But if you really want to stay hidden, I would also recommend that we don’t put Hill’s name in the post. If we used his name and he has a Google alert, it would pop up.”

I frowned. “So just a vague post to contact us if anyone has receivedanycease and desists then? What if that generates a ton of nonrelated responses?”

“I can monitor it,” he said confidently. “Weed out anything valuable that comes in.”

Cases were won on long shots all the time. “OK, let’s start there.”

My other line beeped, so I said a quick goodbye to Max and answered. “Emily Austin.”

“This is Lydia Beckett,” a woman said. “I had a few minutes before my next meeting, and any friend of Gabe’s is a friend of mine.” She laughed and lowered her voice conspiratorially. “Bird & Dreyer is definitely recruiting experienced IP attorneys, by the way.”

I looked out of the window at the Chicago skyline. “Good to know. Thanks for calling me so promptly. But I actually just wanted your input on an attorney who already works at your firm.”

“Who?”

“James A. Hill.”

When Lydia Beckett spoke again, her voice was way too careful. “What kind of input are you looking for?”

“Anything,” I said honestly. “I can’t find record of him working on any other IP cases, and there are other oddities.”

I heard a tap-tap-tapping sound, as though she was hitting a pen on her desk. “He hasn’t been here long,” she said. “About a year, I think. I honestly don’t know what he’s been working on. He hasn’t been assigned to any case that I know of.” She stopped the tapping. “He was hired not because of his experience but because of his corporate connections.”

She sounded a little weary, and I certainly sympathized with this specific kind of tired. “It can be kind of a boys’ club around here.Whoyou know often trumpswhatyou know.Supposedly, Hill came through the door with preexisting big-money connections, and our managing director would hire Satan himself if he could foster relationships with lucrative potential clients.”

Like famous CEOs of software companies.

“Your personal impression of Hill?” I held my breath.

She hesitated and I heard the tap-tap-tap again. “I dislike him. In my few interactions with him, he’s been overly aggressive and entitled. Lazy. He strolls into the office at 10:00 a.m., takes a long lunch at noon on the dot, and leaves early, while the rest of us rise at dawn, eat at our desks, and go home yawning. I’d complain about his lack of billable hours, but frankly, I prefer for him to be out of the office.”

He and Taggert were a perfect pair, then. Unscrupulous corporate thief and a jerk lawyer BFF.

“Do you know where he was before Bird & Dreyer? Anything about his background?”

“No,” she said. “Sorry. Frankly, I try not to engage with him at all.”

Well, shoot. I appreciated her character assessment, but knowing that he was an asshole didn’t really help our case. I’d been hoping for any sort of case history, any professional glimpse of how his mind worked. This was not a traditional case, and I needed ammunition. How was I supposed to strategize when I knew nothing about my opponent? Maybe I was going to have to hire an investigator after all.

My phone buzzed with a text.

Hey, lady! It’s Sloan! I want the hot goss! What happened with Bobby last night?????? U OK??? Did you guys even make it home or did he ravish you in his car? Lol.Lips emoji. Smiley face hearts eyes emoji.

I stared at the message, a little nonplussed. I couldn’t open the lid on last night if I wanted my brain to keep functioning, but it was kinda nice of her to text just to chat. Were we friends now?

“I’m afraid I need to get to my next meeting,” Lydia said. “Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.”

Another text from Sloan.Seriously, I want the deets!Eggplant emoji.

Oh. Oh my. Oh my my. Wait a minute. I had an idea.

“One more question, Lydia. By any chance, do you have a picture of him?”

While she poked around the company’s internal electronic directory, I responded to Sloan’s text.I need a favor…

Chapter Eighteen

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