“What?” The defendant’s jaw ticked, but Carter rested a hand on his client’s forearm.
“Surely Lana has a last name? She’s a person, yes? A person with a last name?”
“Ms. Stone, you’re grossly overstepping.” Carter gave her that distracting look again.
But she was ready this time, steeled against his tricks. “Stop interrupting my deposition, Leplan. Or should I use smaller words to help you understand?” She overenunciated her next line. “You don’t know Lana’s last name, Mr. Brown?”
The defendant glanced over at Carter but this time kept his mouth shut.
“Perhaps...” Perdie spoke smoothly. “Lana’s not a person at all. Could it be Lana’s the code word for undisclosed oil reserves you located on my client’s land before he signed a contract? And if so, isn’t it true you withheld information to undercut his payout by several million?”
“That’s preposterous.” Carter leaned back in his chair.
Perdie tilted her head. “There is a very strange set of numbers at the bottom of each email involving Lana. What are those numbers, Mr. Brown?”
The defendant huffed. “Phone numbers?”
Perdie scratched the tip of her nose with her pen cap. “Probably, right? But I called and wouldn’t you believe it? Didn’t work.”
The defendant crossed his arms. “So?”
“They appear on your emails. What else could they be? Oh, I know...” She tapped her fingers against the surface of the table. “Coordinates perhaps?”
Silence permeated the room. The defendant might stonewall, but Perdie knew how to wait it out. A lawyer trick. Seconds ticked.
Finally he scowled. “Perhaps.”
Perdie reached into her briefcase, retrieving her phone. “Ah, your memory returns. If I input these coordinates on a map, would you know where they’d lead?”
“How the hell would I?”
Perdie punched them in and turned the screen to the defendant. “You recognize this location?”
The defendant closed his eyes, then sighed. “I might.”
“It’s my client’s cattle ranch, isn’t it?”
Again silence.
“Interesting. Now, why would every email referencing Lana, the gusher, also contain the coordinates to my client’s cattle ranch?”
“Objection!” Carter called out.
“For what?” Perdie snapped.
“The connection you’re implying is specious at best and fantasy at worst.”
“Well then, perhaps the defendant would rather explain this fantasy in front of a jury of his peers. We still have seventy-one more emails about Lana to get through.”
Carter rubbed his forehead. “Now just wait. I think we all need to calm down.” Was it possible Carter was flustered?
“Interesting, you seem to be the only one who needs to calm down.” That’s what he’d get for giving her a sympathetic smile.
“I merely meant that my client needs a minute to process the information.”
But Perdie was already certain the case wouldn’t see the light of the courtroom. Carter’s client wouldn’t want the emails to get out in front of a jury. No other ranchers would do business after hearing about Thomas Brown’s penchant for scamming the good people of North Dakota over a little hydraulic fracking.
The row of attorneys frantically flipped through papers, whispering to one another. They’d missed this Lana business in their document review.
And now Carter’s client was outed as a guilty fraudster, and Perdie would be hailed the unlikely heroine of the case.
This settlement could be, would be, huge. Millions.
She smiled. “He can have all the minutes he needs because we’re done here. No further questions.”
The defendant sat shocked, and Carter patted his client’s shoulder with a grimace. As a defense attorney, Carter would get all his billed hours paid out anyway.
Still, the lawyers and interns down the line would get hell for what had occurred in this room today.
As for Perdie, this was all playing out perfectly well. Before she’d left for the deposition, Frank hinted at a partnership opening. Doubtful he had her in mind at the time, but now she’d really polished a shit-box case into a gleaming Hope Diamond.
As Carter spoke hushed words to his client, he ran his hands through the waves of his thick toffee-brown hair, tempting her eyes with the movement. He caught her gaze for a second with a knowing look, a smirk played on his lips.
Oops. She snapped away and jumped into action, collecting her papers and briefcase.
The rest of the men surrounding the table were gathering their briefcases, hissing accusatory words at each other, and loosening ties.
Perdie’s cue. If she wanted to catch her plane in this snowstorm, she’d have to fucking move it. Congratulations could come later. She got to her feet, offering curt nods as she wielded around the table.
