Found Money - James Grippando [61]
“What do you suggest I do?”
“Above all, keep perspective. At this stage in your life, two hundred thousand dollars sounds like all the money in the world. Ten years from now, you’ll be a partner in this law firm and it won’t even be a down payment on a house. And no matter what you do now, you’ll never recover the cash. It might as well have burned. You have a won derful future ahead of you. There’s just no point in making yourself a lightning rod for trouble.”
Marilyn leaned forward and touched Amy’s hand, looking her in the eye. “Listen to me, Amy. It was found money. Now it’s lost. Forget about it. And you and I will forget we ever had this conversation.”
Amy had no time to respond. Marilyn was on her feet, phone in hand, speaking to her secretary. Amy rose and started for the door.
Marilyn covered the mouthpiece. “Give my love to Taylor,” she blurted across the room, then returned to her phone conversation. Amy forced a smile and let herself out. That was Marilyn. Already on to the next client, the next set of multi-million-dollar problems.
While Amy battled the little problems of her own.
Liz Duffy went to lunch at Spencer’s, a quick place for salads on the 16th Street Mall. She sat alone at a table for two. A newcomer to Denver, she was still trying to meet new friends and build a new life without Ryan. She was picking at a grilled chicken Caesar and starting chapter two of a dog-eared paperback when her cell phone rang.
It startled her at first. She had never owned a cell phone before. Her lawyer had gotten it for her. Jackson had said it was for emergencies, just in case he needed to reach her. So far, he’d used it only to call and say hello—at least twice a day. Liz was flattered by all the personal attention. Jackson had a lot going for him. Brains. Looks. Money. Lots of money.
“Hi,” he said. “What are you doing?”
“Eating lunch. Are you calling just to bug me again?” she asked with a smile.
He turned the corner in his Lexus, merging into downtown traffic. “Actually, this is a legitimate business call. What do you know about your brother-in-law, Brent Langford?”
“Total loser. Hasn’t held a decent job as long as I’ve known him. Hasn’t had any job for at least six months. Why?”
“My private investigator has some interesting intelligence on him. Seems Brent was over in Pueblo shopping for a brand-new Corvette, over fifty thousand dollars’ worth of automobile. Later the same day he was at the Piedmont Springs Bar & Grill, bragging about how he’s coming into some serious money.”
“That’s interesting. Amazing, actually.”
“Maybe Frank Duffy wasn’t delirious after all when he promised you all that money.”
Liz winced, uncomfortable with her lawyer’s characterization. As far as the so-called promise went, she had told Jackson the same story she had told Ryan after the funeral, out on the front porch. “You know, I’m still not sure you’d call it an actual promise. Like I told you, Frank was trying to keep me and Ryan together. He just told me to hang in there, the money would come soon, or something like that.”
“Liz,” he said in a soft but stern voice. “Remember how important I told you it was that Frank made an explicit oral promise of money to you while he was alive?”
“Yes.”
“Remember what I said happens to waffles?”
She smiled. “They get toasted.”
“That’s my girl. So knock off the waffle voice, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Good. Now you work on that memory of yours. If you do your part, I’ll do mine.”
“What’s your plan?”
He stopped at the traffic light, checking himself in the rearview mirror. “One step at a time. This latest development could seriously raise the stakes in our property settlement negotiations. I was thinking I’d just take ol’ Brent’s deposition. Put him under oath and see if we can get some idea just how much money is out there.”
Out of respect for Frank, Liz thought before dragging the family into the divorce. But Brent was a Langford, not a Duffy. Hell, if she had asked Frank,