BA Hammer Mary Ch. 03

B.A. HAMMER MARY CH 3

I had a pretty good idea where to find a good attorney. I put a call into my favorite Senator, Mark Thomas Minton, junior senator from New York. I left a message with his office telling them it was important.

He called me later that day. "Mr. Hammer, what can I do for you?"

"I am sorry to ask you this, but I need a favor. I am in need of an attorney here in the city. He will have to be able to stand up to some big boys. I want a son-of-a-bitch, but he needs to have some morals. I know how hard it is to find someone like that, and that is why I am calling you instead of my cop friends."

He laughed. I hadn't expected that response. "That is easy. I wasn't sure why you would call me, but whatever. I have a man in mind. His name is Blackstone, and he is a smart bastard."

"Thank you, and I would not have called you if I hadn't needed a good person to handle difficult situations. I will leave you alone now." I hung up with the idea I would never call him again.

I got a call from Percy Blackstone within an hour. Very impressive. He must owe Minton something. Good.

"Mr. Hammer, I understand you might be in need of a good attorney."

"Yes, I'm afraid I will be soon. I must warn you we will probably be going against the FBI, as well as wall street. If you don't want to get mixed up in that, say so now. I will then look elsewhere."

He laughed. "How about we meet and let me decide what I'm afraid of." I liked him immediately.

"You're on." He didn't want me coming to his office for this, so we picked a out of the way restaurant and made an 11 am appointment.

He was early. Everything about this man was right. He was a big man, as big as me, and built like me. I could imagine what he would look like in a courtroom. We sat down, ordered something, and he waited as I explained where I was and what might happen. He slowly ate his food as he thought it through.

"The case against this young girl is weak. We can probably get that reviewed easily. The FBI agent might be more difficult. It depends on how much of this is a priority for the bureau, and how much is him personally. More agents do things on their own than most people are aware of. We will need to find out how many government contracts this new company has. They may be using materials that originated with Rutherford." Damn. He just clicked off a couple of things I had not thought of yet. This guy was promising.

"I can handle most of that. I will need you to start on the girl's case. I have an idea about the new company, and I may have to rattle the FBI's cage a little to see how many rats come running out. That is why I might need you. Thank you, Mr. Blackstone. I think we can work together."

"Call me Brick, and yes, I think so too."

"Brick? Where'd you get that name?"

"You'd have to ask Minton about our younger days. We were in college together, and we got into a couple of scrapes. You have yourself an attorney. We can decide on the retainer later." We shook hands and went our separate ways. This guy's hands were hard. He may have spent most of his time lately in an office, but he had been in the real world a lot before. If he was half as smart as Minton said he was, he would be a big help in this.

Brick had given me an idea about how to proceed next. I wanted to find Rutherford's family. I need to know what their opinion was of his death and what had happened to his company. I called Tom Thomas and asked him to pull up his obit. I wanted the names of his surviving relations. He said he would look them up for me.

That night I was able to ease Mary's mind. I told her it was Jeff Besson that had sent the letter. He was now on board with us trying to get her conviction overturned. I told her I had gone to see Liz. She wanted to know how she was.

"She is very bitter. She thinks everyone but her brother abandoned her. I'm afraid she is a little pissed at you for not coming to see her all these years." Mary burst out crying at that. I let her for as long as she needed to.

"I knew that. I was threatened by some government guy. He told me that if I talked to anyone about her case, or went to see her, I would be in danger of being arrested for sedition. I was a kid. I had no idea what he was talking about. I should have gone anyway." I had a pretty good idea what "government man" had threatened her. Another mark on his chart with me.

"It's okay. I know who the government man is and we can explain this to Liz. Right now, we know you are safe. That's what matters the most to me. I can deal with the rest of this."

We ate dinner and she told me about how the show was coming. She is scheduled to take over the role in two weeks. That is when the new cast will start. Ester has been there with the old director for six months, just watching and talking. She slept better than she had since she had gotten the letter.

Tom called me the next day with information I had requested. "Rutherford had a daughter. Her name is Wilma Morris and I have her address." He gave it to me, and I thanked him.

She still lived in the city, so I headed to her home. She lived in nice, quiet suburb.

I knocked on her door and waited. A woman in her late fifties or early sixties opened the door. "May I help you?"

"Yes, Mrs. Morris. My name is Britton Hammer. I am a private investigator working on your father's death. May I come in for a few moments?"

Her expression didn't change at all. "I don't have any interest in digging that old story up."

"Ma-am, I believe your father was murdered and his company stolen. I am working to help the young woman convicted of stealing coins from him. I know she stole nothing. May we talk for a few minutes?"

Reluctantly, she stepped aside and allowed me inside. We sat on her couch, and I waited for her.

"You say you think he was murdered?"

"Yes, there are too many unanswered questions surrounding this event. I was hoping you could remember anything that might help us reconstruct this event."

"He and I weren't close. I was disgusted by his behavior in his later years. Why, those girls were his granddaughter's age. What was he doing propositioning them? He did it all the time. I had washed my hands of him by then."

"I understand completely. Sometimes old men with money think they can buy what they couldn't get any other way. You mentioned a granddaughter. Maybe she might know something to help."

"You have a much better chance with her than me. She was close with her grandfather right up until his death." She gave me her name and phone number. I thanked her and left.

I called Cindy Morris on my way back to the office. She didn't answer, but I left a message just vague enough to pique her interest.

She returned my call just as I got back to my office. "Mr. Hammer, who exactly are you?"

"I am a PI working on a case that brought me in contact with your grandfather's death. I would like to talk to you about it. Can we meet somewhere safe to discuss this?"

I waited for her to think about this. "Let me call you back, okay?"

"Absolutely. I know there is no reason for you to trust me. If you have any information about this, it could be dangerous for you to discuss with me. I am sensitive to the situation you find yourself in. You can think it through. However, I must tell you there are people who don't want me to open your grandfather's case again."

"Wait, are you saying something may have happened to my grandfather?"

"Yes ma-am, I'm afraid so. I believe he was murdered." There was silence on the phone for a few minutes. "Miss Morris, are you there?"

"If you are willing to meet me at my place of work, I will meet with you."

"Certainly, I will meet you wherever you wish. Just give me the address and tell me when I can come."

She gave me an address in Manhattan. She works for a law firm. This should be better. She will have more confidence if she has attorneys around her. I arrived at the building and checked for her on the directory. Birmingham, Simpson, and Myers were on the sixth floor. Actually, they WERE the sixth floor. This was not a small firm.

I announced myself with the receptionist, and within a few minutes a striking young blonde came to get me. "Mr. Hammer would you follow me please?" She led me to the office of Cynthia Morris, attorney at law. Oh boy. She was an attorney. This could get interesting.

The secretary had nothing on the young woman in the office. She was just as striking, only more refined. She carried herself very well as she stood up to shake my hand. She waved the secretary off and sat down.

"Now, Mr. Hammer. You were saying?" Direct and to the point. I liked her.

"I believe your grandfather was murdered for something in his company. The coins were a ruse. I need anything you might have that would help shed light on this situation." I waited as she sat perfectly still. Her look at me could melt stone. I'll bet she was dynamite in front of a jury.

"I might have something that might shed light on what you are investigating. What assurances do I get that I can control what I have?" When I walked into this office, I knew there was a chance I would need this card.

"You can work out the details with my attorney. He is Percy Blackstone."

"You are a client of Brick's?" She looked as surprised as I was that she knew Brick. "Brick is well known. My firm has done business with him before."

"Well, you can work up any paperwork that he approves also to protect yourself. This is potentially a dangerous situation. I would like to clear your grandfather's name as well as Liz Besson's. I will leave it to the two of you. Thank you for seeing me."

I got up, shook her hand, and left. That was surprising, but I was sure I would get to see whatever she had. I went back to my office and called Brick. I explained where we were and for him to expect a call from Ms. Morris. He was impressed. Her firm has a good reputation and he had heard good things about her.

Within a couple of days the two attorneys had worked out an agreement that allowed me to see what she had. I went back to her office and met Brick in her office.

"We have an agreement in place that allows us to use the documents Ms. Morris has in her possession. In turn, she will retain ownership of the documents throughout our process. We will create an inventory of what she has at this time. Ms. Morris and myself will retain copies, and you may use the originals for whatever you need. Are you in agreement with this arrangement?"

"I agree with this arrangement." At this point, Cynthia Morris produced an old manila envelope from her safe. She opened the envelope and pulled all of the contents out and spread it on her desk. The first thing I noticed was an old notebook. As Cynthia opened the notebook, we realized it was a diary. We agreed to read it later. There also was some sort of agreement and what looked like a patent application. There was a book that looked like it was full of notes of research.

"I see a lot of potential here. I have no idea what the research was in, but there was some sort of agreement between your grandfather and someone. I do recognize the names of Randal Binghamton and William Harper. He had a deal with them, and I am willing to bet they ignored it after he died. I am sure they have been searching for this for years. Why did they not come after you and your mother?"

"They did, hard. For six months they hounded my mother. They came after me, but I told them my grandfather didn't believe women should be in business and that he had never talked to me about anything. They eventually left us alone."

Brick and I took the originals and his copy and left her office. We went to his office to discuss our next move. He had great offices in a prominent building in Manhattan.

When we had settled in, I looked at Brick. "Nice digs. I was thinking. Let's leave the originals in your safe. I can use the copies to shake the tree. I don't want to risk losing the originals."

"That is exactly what I was going to suggest." We spent the rest of the day examining what we had. The diary details how he developed this new computer program. The patent application explains what it does. The agreement gave Rutherford the authority to determine how it would be used. It was pretty clear. He could do as he pleased.

"We need someone to tell us what this program would do. Do you have someone you could show it to so they could analyze it?"

Brick sat thinking for a moment. "Yes, I have someone I trust that I can show a copy of to."

I think I will leave both copies with you right now. I don't want anyone searching me or my office. I don't need the FBI showing up with warrants. How about I just take a copy of the agreement to shake the tree." He agreed and I left.

I rested that night with Mary. Tomorrow would be difficult. If only I knew.