Disclosure

"Son of a bitch," Sanders said.

Fernandez laid a restraining hand on his arm. "Ben," she said calmly. "Is this a formal offer of reconciliation and return to the company?"

"Yes, Louise."

"And what are the sweeteners?"

"No sweeteners. Everybody just goes back to work."

"The reason I ask," Fernandez said, "is that I believe I can successfully argue that Mr. Sanders was aware the tape was being made, and thus it is indeed admissible. I will argue further that it is admissible under discovery of public records over common carriers as defined in Waller v. Herbst. I will argue further that the company knew of Ms. Johnson’s long history of harassment, and has failed to take proper steps to investigate her behavior, either prior to this incident, or now. And I will argue that the company was derelict in protecting Mr. Sanders’s reputation when it leaked the story to Connie Walsh."

"Wait a minute here-"

"I will argue that the company had a clear reason for leaking it: they desired to cheat Mr. Sanders out of his well-deserved reward for more than a decade of service to the company. And you’ve got an employee in Ms. Johnson who has had some trouble before. I will claim defamation and ask for punitive damages of sufficient magnitude to send a message to corporate America. I’ll ask for sixty million dollars, Ben. And you’ll settle for forty million-the minute I get the judge to allow the jury to hear this tape. Because we both know that when the jury hears that tape, they will take about five seconds to find against Ms. Johnson and the company."

Heller shook his head. "You’ve got a lot of long shots there, Louise. I don’t think they’ll ever let that tape be played in court. And you’re talking about three years from now."

Fernandez nodded slowly. "Yes," she said. "Three years is a long time."

"You’re ,telling me, Louise. Anything can happen."

"Yes, and frankly, I’m worried about that tape. So many untoward things can happen with evidence that is so scandalous. I can’t guarantee somebody hasn’t made a copy already. It’d be terrible if one fell into the hands of KQEM, and they started playing it over the radio."

"Christ," Heller said. "Louise, I can’t believe you said that."

"Said what? I’m merely expressing my legitimate fears," Fernandez said. "I’d be derelict if I did not let you know my concerns. Let’s face facts here, Ben. The cat’s out of the bag. The press already has this story. Somebody leaked it to Connie Walsh. And she printed a story that’s very damaging to Mr. Sanders’s reputation. And it seems that somebody is still leaking, because now Connie is planning to write some unfounded speculation about physical violence by my client. It’s unfortunate that someone on your side should have chosen to talk about this case. But we both know how it is with a hot story in the press you never know where the next leak will come from."

Heller was uneasy. He glanced back at the others by the fountain. "Louise, I don’t think there’s any movement over there."

"Well, just talk to them."

Heller shrugged, and walked back.

"What do we do now?" Sanders said.

"We go back to your office."

"We?"

"Yes," Fernandez said. "This isn’t the end. More is going to happen today, and I want to be there when it does."

Driving back, Blackburn talked on the car phone with Garvin. V "The mediation’s over. We called it off."

"And?"

"We’re pushing Sanders hard to go back to work. But he’s not responding so far. He’s hanging tough. Now he’s threatening punitive damages of sixty million dollars."

"Christ," Garvin said. "Punitive damages on what basis?"

"Defamation from corporate negligence dealing with the fact that we supposedly knew that Johnson had a history of harassment."

"I never knew of any history," Garvin said. "Did you know of any history, Phil?"

"No," Blackburn said.

"Is there any documentary evidence of such a history?"

"No," Blackburn said. "I’m sure there isn’t."

"Good. Then let him threaten. Where did you leave it with Sanders?"

"We gave him until tomorrow morning to rejoin the company at his old job or get out."

"All right," Garvin said. "Now let’s get serious. What have we got on him?"

"We’re working on that felony charge," Blackburn said. "It’s early, but I think it’s promising."

"What about women?"

"There isn’t any record on women. I know Sanders was screwing one of his assistants a couple of years back. But we can’t find the records in the computer. I think he went in and erased them."

"How could he? We blocked his access."

"He must have done it some time ago. He’s a cagey guy."

"Why the hell would he do it some time ago, Phil? He had no reason to expect any of this."

"I know, but we can’t find the records now." Blackburn paused. "Bob, I think we should move up the press conference."

"To when?"

"Late tomorrow."

"Good idea," Garvin said. "I’ll arrange it. We could even do it noon tomorrow. John Marden is flying in in the morning," he said, referring to Conley-White’s CEO. "That’ll work out fine."

"Sanders is planning to string this out until Friday," Blackburn said. "Let’s just beat him to the punch. We’ve got him blocked as it is. He can’t get into the company files. He can’t get access to Conrad or anything else. He’s isolated. He can’t possibly come up with anything damaging between now and tomorrow."