Gray Mountain: A Novel(80)

“Yes, but there are more pressing matters. I’m convinced my brother was murdered. The crash was not an accident. The airplane has been secured and I’ve hired two experts to work with the state police in Kentucky. So far there’s nothing but they’re running tests. Donovan made a lot of enemies, but none bigger than Krull Mining. Some documents disappeared and they suspect he got his hands on them. The documents are deadly and Krull Mining was sweating blood, just waiting to see if Donovan would file the lawsuit. He did, scared the hell out of them, but did not reveal anything from the documents. Now he’s dead, and they figure it’ll be difficult to produce the documents. The next target could be me. I know they are following me, and probably listening. They’re using the FBI to do their dirty work. They’re tightening the noose, so I’ll be disappearing from time to time. If someone gets hurt it’ll probably be the guy on my tail. I’m royally pissed off about my brother and my trigger finger is itchy.”

“Come on, Jeff,” Mattie said.

“I’m serious, Mattie. If they’ll rub out someone as important as Donovan, they won’t hesitate to take out a non-player like me, especially if they think I have the documents.”

Samantha had cracked a window in a fruitless search for fresh air. The white plaster ceiling was stained with nicotine. The green shag carpet had old stains. She didn’t remember the room as being so depressing when the Bookers lived in it. Now, though, she wanted to bolt. Finally, she blurted, “Time out. Excuse me. I’m not sure what I’m doing here. I am just an intern, just passing through as we all know, and I really don’t want to hear what I’m hearing, okay? Could someone please tell me why I’m here?”

Annette rolled her eyes in frustration. Mattie sat with her arms folded across her chest. Jeff said, “Because I invited you. Donovan admired you and told you things in confidence.”

“He did? Sorry, I just wasn’t aware of that.”

“You’re part of the team, Samantha,” Jeff said.

“What team? I didn’t ask for this.” She massaged her temples as if suffering a migraine. A quiet moment passed. Mattie finally said, “We need to talk about his estate.”

Jeff reached for a pile of papers, took some, and passed them around. “This is a rough list of his ongoing cases.” Samantha felt like a Peeping Tom as she looked at information that no law firm, large or small, would ever voluntarily divulge. At the top of page 1, under the heading “Major,” were four cases—the Hammer Valley litigation, the Ryzer case against Lonerock Coal and its lawyers, and the Tate verdict. Number four was the Gretchen Bane wrongful death case versus Eastpoint Mining, the retrial of which was now scheduled for the following May.

“There is a handshake deal to settle Tate, but I can’t find anything in writing,” Jeff said as he flipped a page. “The other three are years away from being resolved.”

Samantha said, “You can forget Ryzer, unless other lawyers get involved. The litigation fund has pulled the money. We’ll pursue the black lung benefits, but Donovan’s fraud and conspiracy lawsuit is going nowhere.”

“Why don’t you take it?” Jeff asked. “You know the facts.”

Samantha was shocked at the suggestion and even faked a laugh. “Are you kidding? This is a complicated multistate federal tort case based on a theory that has yet to be proven. I have yet to win my first lawsuit and I’m still terrified of litigation.”

Mattie was flipping pages and said, “We can handle some of these, Jeff, but not all of them. I’m counting fourteen black lung cases. Three wrongful deaths. About a dozen environmental claims. I don’t know how he kept up with it all.”

Jeff asked, “Okay, here’s a question from a non-lawyer. Is it possible to hire someone to come in and run the firm, to handle the smaller claims and maybe help out with the bigger ones? I don’t know. I’m just asking.”

Annette was shaking her head. “The clients won’t stick because the new lawyer would be a stranger. And you can be certain that the other lawyers in town are circling like vultures. The good cases on this list will be gone in a month.”

Mattie said, “And we’ll get stuck with the bad ones.”

Annette said, “There’s no way to keep the office open, Jeff, because there’s no one to run it. We’ll absorb what we can. The Hammer Valley litigation has plenty of legal talent behind it. Forget Ryzer. In the Bane case, Donovan has co-counsel in West Virginia, so his estate will be entitled to a fee there if it’s ever resolved, but it won’t be much. I’m not familiar with these other wrongful death cases, but it looks like liability is not too solid.”

“I agree,” Mattie said. “We’ll look at them closer over the next few days. The most significant case is the Tate verdict, but that money is not in the bank.”

“I’ll be happy to step outside,” Samantha said.

“Nonsense,” Mattie said. “Probating a will for estate purposes is not a confidential matter, Samantha. The court file will be a public record, and anyone can walk into the clerk’s office and take a look. Plus, there are no real secrets here in Brady. You should know that by now.”

Jeff was handing over more papers and saying, “His secretary and I went over these accounts this weekend. The Tate fee is almost 700,000—”