Look Closely - Laura Caldwell [94]
“Yes,” Mr. Fielding said. “I knew him once. I’m surprised you didn’t ask him about the McKnight takeover.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your father was our attorney.”
I’d heard wrong. I was sure I’d heard him wrong.
“Dad,” Eden said again in that warning tone.
“Your father,” Mr. Fieldings said, leaning forward in his chair, his right hand still gripped tight to that stick. “Your father is the reason I lost my company.”
No more than ten seconds of silence could have passed, but to me it was an eternity. Crazy old man. That was my first thought. He had to be mistaken. But then the doubt and the anger rushed in, adding to the already long list of emotions about my father. Something else he’d kept from me, apparently, probably hoping desperately that I wouldn’t dig too far into the McKnight case.
My throat felt parched, my mouth too dry to talk. I moved forward in my chair to pour a cup of tea, spilling my legal pad from my lap in the process. “Sorry,” I said. “Excuse me.”
By the time I picked up the pad and retrieved my pen from under my chair, Mr. Fieldings had poured me a cup of tea, which he offered to me on a saucer. I mumbled a word of thanks as I took it and sipped. It was a smoky black tea. Exotic and foreign-tasting.
“I wasn’t aware my father represented you,” I said. “Are you sure it was him? The name isn’t that uncommon.”
“He’s with Gardner, State & Lord?”
“Yes.”
“Then it’s the same Will Sutter. Of course, this was a long time ago, twenty-some years ago now.”
I took another sip of tea, the cup clattering as I set it back on the saucer. Calm down. So what if my father had represented Fieldings? So what if he hadn’t told me? I didn’t know all of his past cases. What would be the point? I glanced at Eden on the couch, who was watching her own father with a strange look, a mix of fear and anticipation.
“Mr. Fieldings,” I said, my voice stronger now. “I take it from your comment that you weren’t happy with my father’s representation.”
“Not happy?” he said. “Maybe you didn’t hear me correctly. Your father is the reason I lost my company. He gave confidential information to that bastard McKnight. And your client then blackmailed me with it.”
“Dad!” Eden said. She got up from the couch. “I think that’s enough.”
“Sit down, Eden!” He said this as if he was scolding a dog. “I’ve kept quiet long enough. I want to get this out before I die. And you don’t know what I’m talking about anyway.”
Eden was silent. She slumped back on the couch.
“I am quite sure that my father would never give away privileged information,” I said. “You must be mistaken.”
“How old are you?” Mr. Fieldings said.
“Almost thirty.” My birthday was five months away. I sounded like a toddler who says they’re “three and a half.”
“Will Sutter represented me twenty-two years ago. I highly doubt that you know anything about it. Shall I tell you what happened? I find it ironic that you’re representing McKnight now, although maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. For all I know, your father was in his employ the whole time. Either way, you should know what I have to tell you.”
It was hard to concentrate on what he was saying. Twenty-two years ago, I kept thinking. The year my mother died. “I don’t think my father has even met Sean McKnight,” I managed to say, but it came out weak, unsure.
Mr. Fieldings chuckled. “I can assure you, my dear. They knew each other well enough.”
He started to talk then. He leaned forward on his walking stick to make a point, never even glancing at his daughter, who seemed as shocked as I did by his tale. It occurred to me that she might be hearing this story, most of it anyway, for the first time.
According to Walter Fieldings, my father had been hired to represent them against a takeover bid from McKnight Corporation. Mr. Fieldings had started his company, he said, and the family had decided long ago that it would never become publicly held, it would never be owned by anyone but the Fieldings family. At first they were pleased with my father’s work. Will had defended them well. Mr. Fieldings got the impression that my father