Noah's Law (19 page)

After changing the toner and doing a coffee run for Aunt Nirvine, I went back to my cubicle. There was a memo on my desk from Casey. It looked like I was back on Bernie's case.

MEMORANDUM

From:
Casey

To:
Noah

Dated:
7 January

Re:
Bernie White v Jenkins Storage World

Noah,

The matter is listed for hearing on 19 January in the civil list in the Supreme Court of NSW. We do not yet know which judge has been assigned to the hearing. I am briefing Counsel Paul Valopolous to appear. Below is a list of tasks to be completed as a matter of
urgency.

 

1. I intend to call the witnesses listed below.

2. I have prepared Subpoena to Appear for the witnesses listed below. Insert their contact details into the Subpoena. You will find their contact details in the latest correspondence file.

Our witnesses:

    • Bernie White

    • Professor Carlos Banks

    • Constable Thompson.

3. Photocopy all documents flagged with a yellow post-it note.

4. Do a contents page.

5. Label the documents.

6. Put all the documents and the contents page in a folder.

7. This is the brief that will go to counsel.

8. Counsel Paul Valopolous is known to hate paperclips so make sure any documents of more than one page are stapled. Also make sure the contents page is in eleven-point Arial. Counsel specifically demands this particular font and will demand we redo the brief if Times New Roman is used.

9. Call our expert, Mr Carlos Banks, and tell him that he needs to be available to give evidence in the week of 19 January. Tell him that I have written to him with the hearing dates.

10. Call Bernie and remind him to keep the entire week of 19 January free. SEE ME BEFORE YOU CALL HIM. Tell him that he will need to attend court each day. Also tell him that I have sent him a letter outlining witnesses subpoenaed by the other side. Don't bother to provide him with a copy of the subpoenas. You will note that they are flagged and MUST go in the brief to counsel. The defendant's witnesses are:

• Rodney Marks

• Harold Webb

• Claudia Hognio

What?! Maureen's sister was a witness. I couldn't believe it! My tip-off must have worked. The risk had been worth it after all if Humphries was getting Claudia as a witness.

I leaped out of my chair and went to the bookshelves holding all of the folders to do with Bernie's matter. Yellow post-it notes sprang out from almost every folder. I grabbed the pleadings folder, remembering that was where Casey filed subpoenas, and rapidly flicked through the pages. Sure enough there were subpoenas to appear served on Webb and Claudia Hognio. I held my breath as I turned the page. Her address was there. What luck!

The subpoena had been served on her at 123 Rhodes Street, Newtown. I ripped a corner from a piece of paper, wrote it down and slipped the note in my wallet.

Preparing the brief to counsel looked like the biggest job, so for the rest of the day I photocopied the documents, paginated them with a labelling machine, and arranged them in volumes of folders.

It was riveting work . . . Trying to match the contents page with the paginated documents. Missing one page so that the entire contents page was thrown out of order. I mean, it was the kind of stuff a teenager dreams of doing on their school holidays. I could only remember one other moment in my life that matched it: the day a nail went through my foot. But you know what? Even partial crucifixion was more bearable.

I desperately needed a break and went through Casey's memo again.

The memo asked me to call Bernie. But the control freak wanted me to talk to her first. So I went to her office. I hesitated at the door. I could hear her talking to somebody on the phone. ‘
This is the nature of the work and you knew that . . . I'm good at what I do and you could never handle it . . . Oh for heaven's sake, why are we even having this argument? We're long past working things out.
'

I heard her hang up the phone. Well, slam it down, actually. I snuck a peek. She was at her desk, elbows on the table, hands slowly rubbing her temples, her eyes closed. She looked like she needed one of Mum's herbal teas made from flowers and fertiliser and stuff to relax her.

I stepped in and she looked up.

I was used to seeing her in control, full of energy as she dictated memo after memo, stormed about the office issuing commands, barked down the phone at lawyers on the other side of her case. But at that moment she seemed small and tired. When she noticed me hovering at the door she held my gaze for a moment as if she was trying to work out if I'd overheard her conversation, then she sighed and leaned back in her chair and looked up at the ceiling.

‘What is it, Noah?' she asked.

‘Your memo says you wanted me to see you before I call Bernie.'

She looked at me then and, to my surprise, half smiled. ‘Oh yes, I thought I better give you a lecture before I put you in contact with him again.'

She paused and I stared at her, not responding, waiting for the inevitable.

‘Actually . . . I'm tired, Noah.' She drummed her fingers on the table. ‘I tell you what, let's skip the lecture and get to the last bit: when you call him, try and contain yourself and don't mention anything that even smells remotely like a conspiracy theory. Just advise him of the hearing dates, his need to be here, and the letter on the way in the mail. Can you do that without insinuating that this entire case is riddled with corruption?'

I couldn't help but grin. ‘So that was the
short
version of the lecture? I wonder what the longer version would have been.'

She cocked an eyebrow. ‘Stick around one more moment and you'll find out.'

Bernie picked up almost instantly.

‘Hello?'

‘Hi, Bernie. It's Noah Nabulsi from Saleh & Co.'

A pause. Then, in an impatient tone: ‘What the hell do you want?'

I was going to have to do some grovelling. I needed him on my side. I needed him to trust me again. There was no way I could uncover dirt on him if he had it in for me. ‘Sorry about before,' I began. ‘You were right. I let my imagination run a bit wild. And I interfered when I shouldn't have.'

This was truly painful.

‘You're damn right you did.'

‘I, er, just wanted to say sorry. Casey's punishing me by getting me to help her out with all the photocopying. You know, in preparation for the hearing.'

‘Fine. Just don't meddle again.'

‘Sure.'

‘Well it's about bloody time this thing got a move on. If we're not settling I want my day in court. For Maureen's sake. To set the record straight.'

‘Er . . . yeah, you deserve it. She deserves it. She's lucky to have you standing up for her.'

I wanted to spew.

‘That's right.'

‘Did you get Casey's letter?'

‘Nah, I haven't checked the mail.'

‘It basically explains who the witnesses are for Jenkins Storage.'

‘Oh yeah? And who are they putting on the stand?'

‘Webb and somebody called Claudia Hognio.'

‘You better be frigging joking, Noah,' he said in a deadly tone.

‘I have the subpoenas here. Um . . . bad news?'

‘BAD NEWS?' he shouted. ‘That Webb bastard is spouting filthy lies.
Maureen's partly to blame
,' he said in a whiny voice. ‘How does he sleep at night?! As for Claudia, she's a first-class bitch who's hated me since I married her sister and who will say anything to make sure I don't get one frigging cent even if it means screwing over her decomposing sister!'

I drew a sharp breath, choosing my words carefully. ‘What a cow.'

‘You've never met such a vindictive bloody shrew. She's been trying to come between me and Maureen for years. She's bitter 'cause her boyfriend of nine years still hasn't popped the question. Not even worth a plastic ring.'

‘Why do you think the other side is calling her?'

‘
That
is an excellent question. I have no idea. That frigging Rodney Marks talked the talk when it came to settling but he's got no say. What did I tell you? Insurers. They get hold of a case and it's all about screwing everyone over.'

‘I'm really sorry for you . . . and for Maureen. Well, I better get back to preparing this brief if we're going to have a shot at winning this for you.'

‘Oh, I intend to win,' he said, his voice low and menacing. ‘I'm not walking out of this a loser. I promise you that.'

Jacinta was standing at the sink in the office kitchen, draining the oil out of a can of tuna. We were alone. I walked up to her.

‘Still mad at me?' I asked cheerfully.

‘Yes,' she said calmly.

‘You know, it takes more muscles to frown than smile.'

‘That doesn't apply to fake smiles.'

‘I think I deserve a fake smile, at the very least.'

She looked up at me and pulled a face.

‘Not even one worthy of a Colgate commercial?'

She spooned the tuna onto a slice of bread and then shook her head, an exasperated half-smile spreading across her face.

‘So, you up for some great news?'

She fixed her eyes on me. ‘Let's see. By your standards that might mean hacking into Bernie's email? Stealing his tax file number?'

‘Good suggestions but the answer is no.' I leaned closer towards her and whispered: ‘Maureen's sister has been subpoenaed by the defendant.'

For a moment, her face tensed. Then she shrugged her shoulders. ‘So what?'

‘Well, don't you want to know why she's giving evidence for the defendant?'

Of course I already knew why, but I didn't want to confess to Jacinta that I was kind of behind it all . . . not just yet.

‘Bernie hates her,' I continued. ‘It's our chance to find out why. Maybe she knows something about Bernie that we don't. Maybe—'

‘Maybe you need to stop hunting for a conspiracy.'

‘You sound just like Casey.'

She frowned. ‘That was low.'

‘Well, it's a pretty slack thing for you to say when you think about everything you know about this case.'

‘Everything I legally know says there is nothing to worry about. Everything I
illegally
know is not my business.'

‘Jacinta! That's crap and you know it.'

She forcefully cut her sandwich in two. ‘Sometimes justice needs to take a back seat to the rule of law,' she said through gritted teeth.

‘Tell that to Maureen,' I shot back.

‘There are rules—'

‘Which sometimes need to be broken so the bad guys don't get away with it.'

‘You can't seriously believe that, Noah.'

‘Look, I'm not a lawyer. If I was, I'd be sticking to the rules and if scum like Bernie got away with their phony cases, fine, those are the breaks.' I winked. ‘But I'm not a lawyer.
Yet
. So Bernie'd better watch his back.'