Gray Mountain: A Novel(78)

A wreath was still on the front door of Donovan’s office. The door was wedged open, and just inside Dawn, the secretary, was sitting at her desk, wiping tears. She pointed and said, “In there.” Loud voices were coming from the conference room behind her. Mattie was yelling at someone, and when Annette and Samantha entered they were greeted with “Who the hell are you?”

There were at least four young men in dark suits, all tense and ready to go for their guns. Boxes of files were stacked on the floor; drawers were open; the table was covered in debris. The leader, one Agent Frohmeyer, was doing the barking. Before Annette could respond, he growled again, “Who the hell are you?”

“They’re lawyers and they work with me,” Mattie said. She was in jeans and a sweatshirt, and she was obviously agitated. “As I said, I am his aunt and I am the attorney for his estate.”

“And I’ll ask you again: Have you been appointed by the court?” Frohmeyer demanded.

“Not yet. My nephew was buried just last Wednesday. Don’t you have any decency?”

“I have a search warrant, lady, that’s all I care about.”

“I get that. Can you at least allow us to read the search warrant before you start hauling stuff out of here?”

Frohmeyer grabbed the search warrant off the table and thrust it at Mattie. “You got five minutes, lady, that’s all.” The agents left the room. Mattie closed the door and pressed an index finger against her lips. Her message was clear: “Don’t say anything important.”

“What’s going on here?” Annette asked.

“Who knows? Dawn called me in a panic after those goons barged in. Here we are.” She was flipping through the search warrant. She began mumbling, “Any and all records, files, notes, exhibits, reports, summaries, whether on paper, video, audio, electronic, digital, or in any other form, relevant to, pertaining to, or in any way connected to Krull Mining or any of its subsidiaries, and—it goes on to list all forty-one plaintiffs in the Hammer Valley lawsuit.” She flipped a page, skimmed it, flipped another.

Annette said, “Well, if they take the computers, they’ll have access to everything, whether it’s covered in the warrant or not.”

Mattie said, “Yes, everything that’s here.” She winked at Annette and Samantha, then flipped another page. She read some more, mumbled some more, then tossed it on the table and said, “It’s a blank check. They can take everything in the office, whether it’s related to the Hammer Valley litigation or not.”

Frohmeyer rapped on the door as he opened it. “Time’s up, ladies,” he said like a bad actor as the agents reappeared en masse. There were five of them now, all itching for trouble. Frohmeyer said, “Now, if you’ll please get out of the way.”

“Sure,” Mattie said. “But as his executor, I’ll need an inventory of all the stuff you haul out of here.”

“Of course, once you’re appointed.” Two agents were already opening more file cabinets.

“Everything,” Mattie almost yelled.

“Yeah, yeah,” Frohmeyer said, waving her off. “Good day, ladies.”

As the three lawyers walked out of the room, Frohmeyer added, “By the way, we have another unit searching his home right now, just so you know.”

“Great, and what might you be looking for there?”

“You’ll have to read the search warrant.”

They were rattled and suspected someone was watching, so they decided to stay away from the office. They found a back booth at the coffee shop and felt somewhat secure. Mattie, who had not smiled in a week, almost laughed when she said, “They’ll get nothing off the computers. Jeff took out the hard drives last Wednesday, before the funeral.”

Samantha said, “So they’ll be back, looking for the hard drives.”

Mattie shrugged and said, “Who cares? We can’t control what the FBI does.”

Annette said, “So, let me get this straight. Krull Mining believes Donovan somehow got his hands on documents he shouldn’t have, which is probably true. Now that he’s filed the lawsuit, Krull is terrified the documents are about to be exposed. They go to the U.S. Attorney, who opens a case, for theft, I assume, and sends in the goons to find the documents. Now that Donovan is dead, they figure he can’t hide the documents anymore.”

Mattie added, “That’s pretty close. Krull Mining is using the U.S. Attorney to bully the plaintiffs and their lawyers. Threaten a criminal action, and prison, and your opponents quickly throw in the towel. It’s an old trick, and one that works.”

“Another reason to avoid litigation,” Samantha said.

“Are you really the executor of his estate?” Annette asked.

“No, Jeff is. I’m the attorney for the executor and the estate. Donovan updated his will two months ago. He kept his will current. The original has always been in my lockbox at the bank. He left half of his estate to Judy and his daughter, part of it in trust, and the other half he split three ways. One third to Jeff; one third to me; and one third to a group of nonprofits at work here in Appalachia, including the clinic. Jeff and I are going to court Wednesday morning to open probate. Looks like our first job will be to get an inventory from the FBI.”

“Does Judy know she’s not the executor?” Annette asked.