‘Of course.’
Unsure how much ready cash he might need in the immediate future, the next morning Jordan broke an – until now – unbreakable rule and left?40,000 in his apartment safe, putting the rest, as well as all the Paul Maculloch identity documents and passport, in the Royston and Jones vaults before noon. It left him enough time for lunch at the conveniently close Joe Allens in Covent Garden, where he drank one gin martini and ordered a hamburger, wondering if it would be a diet to which he would become accustomed in the coming weeks. He hoped not.
But it easily could have been if Jordan chose.
Jordan arrived early to be told that Daniel Beckwith, to whom he was going to talk by telephone link-up, was the senior partner in the firm of Beckwith, Pryke and Samuelson, whose offices on Lexington Avenue were two block across and two down from those of David Bartle on Madison Avenue. Lesley Corbin insisted that Beckwith was one of the best attorneys in Manhattan – ‘and therefore one of the most expensive, $500 an hour with additional daily courtroom refreshers I didn’t ask about’ – with a ninety percent success rate for his clients.
‘I’m looking for a 100 percent in my case.’
‘I’ve already emailed him a full account of our discussion,’ said the woman, who was again dressed in black, which Jordan decided had to be her working uniform.
‘I’m grateful for what you’re doing,’ thanked Jordan, sincerely, an unusual emotion for him.
‘It’s what you engaged me to do,’ she reminded.
‘What did he say? Think, I mean?’
‘He knows the other lawyer, which is hardly surprising as they both qualified in Raleigh, North Carolina. When Dan and I spoke he said he and Bartle liked to play hardball.’
‘I’d already worked that out for myself. Did he think that Appleton had a case?’
‘All he’s got is what I told him, which obviously isn’t enough to give an opinion. It won’t be until you hire him – if you hire him – and he gets all the papers from the other side. We haven’t really begun yet.’
Maybe even?40,000 wasn’t going to be enough, Jordan thought. ‘Did he say…’ he started but was stopped by the jar of the telephone.
Lesley Corbin cupped the receiver with a hand and said, ‘It’s the New York call. The switchboard are holding it. The speaker phones are in the boardroom.’
Jordan followed her into the adjoining room and took the seat she indicated. The red light on the speaker in front of him clicked on when she fitted her telephone receiver into its master holder, set up in front of where she sat. She said, ‘Morning, Dan. Harvey’s here with me.’
‘Afternoon, Lesley. Afternoon, Harv,’ came a relaxed American voice.
‘Good morning,’ said Jordan. It was the first time he had ever used such equipment and he felt self-conscious on it. He hated the abbreviation of his name.
‘I’ve read what Lesley mailed me. Might need to expand upon it a little today. This’ll be pro bono. The timer starts if you decide to engage me.’ Beckwith’s voice was very measured, every word carefully enunciated.
Seeing the frown on the face of the man who had always avoided any contact with the law, Lesley Corbin mouthed, ‘No charge.’
Jordan said, ‘That’s very good of you. I’m very anxious to sort it all out. It reads like they’re driving an express train at me.’
‘That’s exactly what it’s meant to read like,’ said the American. ‘Don’t let it frighten you, which is also what it’s meant to do. Let’s go through a few things.’
‘Alienation of affection I understand, although I don’t think I am guilty of it,’ said Jordan. ‘What the hell is criminal conversations!’
‘Potentially the most expensive lay you ever had,’ said Beckwith. ‘It used to be on every statute in every state and made the female spouse a chattel of the husband. Which was why it’s been struck off in most states now. Your bad luck is that it still exists in North Carolina – the state in which Appleton and Alyce were married – and therefore the state in which Appleton is bringing suit.’
‘Because it still exists there?’
‘Obviously,’ said Beckwith.
‘How much is potentially very expensive, thousands or millions?’
‘Millions.’
‘You’re joking!’
‘There’s nothing amusing about being accused of alienation of affections and criminal conversation in North Carolina.’
‘What can I do?’
‘Talk some more,’ said the American. ‘Lesley’s notes told me these divorce proceedings had already been initiated before you began this affair with Alyce?’
‘That’s what Alyce told me.’
‘But you had slept together before she told you?’
Jordan felt hot with embarrassment, aware of the woman studying him from across the table, and wondered if he was actually colouring. ‘Yes. But before it started I’d seen her writing upon – signing, I suppose – a lot of documents she later told me were divorce papers.’
‘But you didn’t actually see them: know for yourself that they were divorce papers?’
‘No.’
‘Lesley told me you thought of it as a vacation romance, that you didn’t even exchange addresses when she flew back here to New York?’
‘That’s what I did – still do – regard it as. And no, we didn’t exchange addresses.’
‘You often have vacation romances, Harv?’
Jordan hesitated. ‘I’ve had them before, yes.’
‘Often?’
Jordan shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Lesley Corbin was expressionless on the other side of the table. ‘Two or three times. It’s not a crime, is it?’
‘According to section 1-52(5) of North Carolina law that’s exactly what it is,’ reminded the American lawyer. ‘You never kept in touch with any of the others?’
‘No.’
‘Let’s hope Alfred Appleton’s detective agency hasn’t found any of them,’ remarked Beckwith.
‘Why?’ demanded Jordan. ‘I don’t see how they could have found anyone with whom I had an affair in the past. But I don’t see the point of your saying what you just have!’
‘You’re probably not going to see the point of a hell of a lot you’re going to be asked before all this is over, Harv. You’ve read the claims; you know where they’re coming from. You’re accused of being a home wrecker, a womanizing rich guy. It would help Appleton’s case a whole lot if he could produce another wronged, abandoned woman.’
‘I didn’t abandon Alyce Appleton or anyone else I met in the circumstances we’re discussing! It was a passing thing, for both of us! That’s why we didn’t swop numbers or addresses. It’s not the way it happens.’
‘You’re sounding angry, Harv. Indignant.’
‘I am indignant!’
‘And angry?’
‘OK. And angry. Something that happens all the time, not hurting anyone, is being blown up out of all proportion into my being responsible for the crime of this or any other century.’
‘OK, Harv. I think we’ve taken it far enough. Maybe it was a little unfair.’
‘What the…?’
‘I’ve been testing you out, in case you do engage me. And if you do, we’ve got a whole bunch of work to do getting you ready. It took me about thirty seconds, sixty tops, to make you lose your temper and start trying to justify yourself. You lose your temper in a court in which you’re accused of wrecking another guy’s marriage – try to justify what you did and say it’s no big deal because no one got hurt – you’re a dead man. You understand what I’m telling you?’
‘Yes,’ said Jordan, meek voiced but still angry. ‘I still think it was a shitty trick.’
Beckwith laughed, sounding genuinely amused. ‘Us lawyers got bagfuls of shitty tricks. If we go forwards you’re going to have to learn every one of them, so you don’t get caught out again. And what I’ve just done wasn’t entirely a trick. You sounded just right to convince me that you believe yourself the fall guy. Lesley set out some questions you’d raised, about jurisdiction?’
‘Can you answer them?’ asked Jordan, eagerly.
‘In a nutshell, I hope. Any decision or verdict reached in a North Carolina divorce court couldn’t be exacted against you, personally, in England if you chose to ignore the claims and didn’t turn up. The inference, however, would be that everything alleged against you has a basis of truth. And I know Lesley has warned you how judges feel if they consider they are being treated with contempt?’