Gray Mountain: A Novel(96)

“Let Vic handle it.”

“I told you. Vic is gone, checked out. His girlfriend is pregnant and he’s a changed man. He’s not risking anything. He will not answer the phone.”

“He’s smart.”

The espresso was getting cold. Jeff noticed his and took a sip. Samantha ignored him and studied the crowd. Finally, Jeff said, “Can we get out of here?”

They found a bench in Washington Square Park. All the benches were empty because the wind was howling and the temperature was just below freezing. “How much does this London guy know about me?” she asked.

“He knows you have the Ryzer case, at least the black lung part. He knows you discovered the fraud and cover-up by the lawyers for Lonerock Coal. He’s really impressed by that. He knows that I trust you and that Donovan trusted you. He knows that Donovan told you about the documents.”

“Does he know I’ve seen them?”

“No. I told you, Samantha, no one will ever know that. I was wrong to take you there.”

“Thank you.”

“Let’s at least meet with the guy and see what he says. Please. There’s no harm in that, right?”

“I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do know. There is nothing even remotely out-of-bounds in meeting with Jarrett London. It will be extremely confidential, plus he’s an interesting guy.”

“When does he want to meet?”

“I’ll call him. I’m freezing. Do you live around here?”

“Not far, but the apartment is a mess. We’re packing up.”

“I don’t care.”





Two hours later, Samantha walked into the lobby of the Peninsula hotel on Fifty-Fifth Street in midtown. She took the stairs to her left, climbed one floor, and saw Jeff sitting at the bar, as expected. Without a word, he handed her a scrap of paper with the message “Room 1926.” He watched her turn around and leave, then stood by the stairs to see if anyone else noticed. She took the elevator to the nineteenth floor and pressed the buzzer to the room. A tall man with far too much gray hair opened the door within seconds and said, “Hello, Ms. Kofer, it’s an honor. I’m Jarrett London.”

Number 1926 was a huge suite with an entire den at one end. There was no sign of the girlfriend. Minutes after Samantha arrived, Jeff buzzed the door. They sat in the den and went through the required pleasantries. London mentioned something to drink, but everyone declined. He brought up her work in the Ryzer case and gushed on about how brilliant it was. He and Donovan had discussed it at length. London and his partners were still debating whether their firm should jump in the lawsuit with Donovan when he went ahead and filed the damned thing. “Much too premature,” London said. “But then, that was Donovan.”

He, London, was still considering the litigation. It’s not every day you catch a major law firm like Casper Slate committing fraud red-handed, you know? The case could have enormous jury appeal, and so on. He went on and on about the beauty of the case, as if Samantha had never realized this. She’d heard it before, from Donovan and from her father. Now, on to Krull Mining. With Donovan out of the picture, London was now lead counsel for the plaintiffs. The lawsuit had been filed on October 29. Krull had been granted additional time to respond and file an answer. In early January, London and his team were expecting Krull to file a serious motion to dismiss, and the war would commence at full throttle. Soon, very soon, they would need the documents.

“How much do you know about them?” Samantha asked.

London exhaled loudly, as if the question was so loaded he had no idea where to begin, then he stood and walked to the minibar. “Beer, anyone?” Jeff and Samantha declined, again. He opened a Heineken and walked to a window. He took a long swig and said, “About a year ago, we had our first meeting, in Charleston, offices of Gordie Mace, one of our gang. Donovan had summoned all of us there to pitch the Hammer Valley lawsuit. He said he had possession of some documents, and the possession had not come about through the usual methods. We didn’t ask; he didn’t offer. Said there were over twenty thousand pages of highly incriminating stuff. Krull Mining knew about the contamination, knew it was leaking into the groundwater up and down the valley, knew people were still drinking the water, knew people were suffering and dying, knew it should clean up the site, but also knew it was less expensive to just screw the people and keep the money. He did not have the documents with him, but he had extensive notes, notes he destroyed after the meeting. He described about twenty of the documents, the most damaging ones, and, frankly, we were blown away. Stunned. Outraged. We signed on immediately and geared up for the lawsuit. Donovan was careful not to refer to the documents as stolen, and he kept them away from us. If he had given us the documents at any point during the past year, all of us, in all likelihood, would have been arrested earlier this month by the FBI.”

“So how do you take possession of the documents now and avoid being arrested?” she asked.

“That’s the great question. We’re having indirect talks with one of the trial judge’s law clerks, real back-channel stuff that’s highly sensitive and highly unusual. We think we’ll be able to take the documents, immediately tender them to the court, and have them locked away by the judge. We will then ask him to lean on the U.S. Attorney to back off the criminal investigation until the documents are reviewed. Let’s face it, the person who stole the documents is dead. We’ve consulted with our criminal defense attorneys, and they agree that our exposure will be minimal. We are willing to take the risks. The danger is what might happen to the documents before they reach the court. Krull Mining will do anything to destroy them, and right now they have the FBI on their side. It’s dangerous out there.”