Blood Flag: A Paul Madriani Novel Read Online Free Page B

The blind leading the stupid. We have laid down one rule: Ives is to send us any story that offers up even the vestige of a whiff of defamation. This much we know. Libel is that red line you don’t want to cross. If Harry and I can’t tell exactly where it is, we can find another lawyer in town with a plumb bob who can.
    We have made a lot of enemies in and around Capitol Hill: members of Congress and their staff, powerful people. Some of their friends were outed to the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service, found holding offshore bank accounts that were undisclosed for purposes of US taxes. They have been busy answering questions; some of them have been closeted before federal grand juries, trying to explain where the money came from and for what purpose it was paid. The back taxes and penalties that are still being tabulated are the source of our client’s whistle-blower award and our windfall legal fees, that and a mammoth fine that was leveled against the Swiss bank that was involved.
    The money is good. The ill will from high places is not. It has us periodically looking over our shoulders wondering when the knife is coming and from which direction. Having wealth makes you a target for hired legal guns, get-rich courthouse sharks looking to fatten their wallets and perhaps cozy up to powerful political players. This is something we never had to worry about when we were impecunious, which is lawyer jargon for “broke.” People wanted to kill us. But that was different. This is personal.
    There is a comfort factor in being judgment-proof, a certain peace of mind that comes from knowing that you lack the value of a meatless sun-bleached bone, something that two junkyard dogs might want to fight over in a civil courtroom where the only issue is money. You have it and they want it.
    Most criminal defense lawyers aren’t worth the time or trouble of a civil suit. In a malpractice case it’s tough finding a sympathetic jury where the plaintiff seeking money damages and crying that you blew his defense is a career felon with a record longer than a laser beam. Odds are that if he didn’t do the last three crimes, he did the six before that.
    Besides, the most pressing remedy for malpractice in a criminal case is a petition by way of appeal for a new trial. Anything to get out of the joint. Sue your defense lawyer for damages and he will probably sanitize your trial file. Doctors bury their mistakes. Lawyers shred them. I can’t remember the last time a criminal defense attorney was sued for malpractice. I suspect it happens, but with the regularity of an ice age.
    But now that we have money, we worry about this, along with everything else. Harry tells me he’s not sleeping as well at night. He is already starting to hate other lawyers, and not just criminal prosecutors.
    There is a gentle rap on my door. It opens. Sofia smiles her way into my office and closes the door behind her. “Joselyn just pulled into the lot. She’ll be here in a minute.”
    I check my watch. We have a date, my significant other and me. We have talked about getting married but we’re afraid it might ruin the deal. Formalities like familiarity breeding contempt.
    Sofia has finished shuffling the cars behind our office and lays my car keys on my desk. “I parked her car in front of yours. Is that OK? It was the only space available.” She is talking about Brauer’s Prius.
    “It’ll have to do.”
    She glances at me as she messes with Emma Brauer’s smart key from the car. “I have to go get the dog. I’ll leave this with you.” She sets the key on the desk. “You wanted to have Herman take a look at her car, maybe get some pictures in case the police come to take it away. What are you guys gonna see tonight?”
    “Don’t know. Joselyn always chooses movies with Fandango,” I tell her. “The little bar code on her phone. It’s magic for tickets.”
    “QR code,” says Sofia.
    “What?”
    “It’s called a QR code: quick