Page 63 of The Proving Ground

“I understand that completely,” I said. “But I’m obligated to bring this to you. I mean, lawyers have been disbarred for not bringing settlement offers to their clients. Besides, they have jacked up the offer significantly, and, I’m just saying, you might want to think about it.”

“No, but go ahead. What is it?”

“I’m going to read you the email so you get exactly what they’re offering.”

I was two-thirds through reading and well past the money offer when Brenda interrupted with a loud“No!”

“Let me just finish reading it,” I said. “Then we can discuss it.”

“I don’t want to discuss it,” Brenda said.

“Okay, well, let me finish, all right? I need to give you the full offer and the parameters.”

“Go ahead, but I’m not doing this.”

Thirty seconds later I finished delivering the offer.

“Brenda, I know what you said, but I have an obligation to tell you to think twice about this,” I said. “It is a lot of money. You could do a lot of good things with it. You could set up a foundation in Rebecca’s name. It could be a force for advocacy. And you have to remember, anything can happen in a trial. I think we’re in good shape, but anything can happen.”

I, of course, was not telling her that we might have lost a key witness, Naomi Kitchens. I wasn’t going to reveal that until I took a run at bringing Kitchens back into the fold.

“Even if we lose, we’ll still get the story out,” Brenda replied. “In the trial. And that’s more important to me than the money.”

“You’re right about that. The media will be all over this trial.”

“Have you talked to the Coltons? I’m sure Bruce wants this.”

“I did, and you’re right, he wants to take the money. But you control this, Brenda. What you decide goes.”

There was a long silence on the line before she spoke again.

“I don’t think I could live with myself if I took it,” she said. “A foundation sounds nice but this whole thing is about holding that company accountable. Publicly accountable. And this… this is just a payoff. Fifty million dollars to shut up and just accept what happened to Becca. I can’t do it, Mickey. How could I live a rich life on blood money? Her blood.”

“I didn’t expect that you could, Brenda,” I said. “But it was my duty to bring it to you.”

“Are you mad at me? You would have made a lot of money yourself.Youcould start a foundation.”

“Maybe a home for wayward lawyers? No, Brenda, I’m not mad. I’m proud of you. I’m proud I represent you. And I won’t let you down next week. We’ll tell the world.”

“Thank you, Mickey.”

“Listen, I’m going to call you tomorrow. I’m not ready now, but I want to go over your testimony and how that should go.”

“I’ll be here.”

After we disconnected, I grabbed the file of X-rays and left the office. Lorna and Cisco were in the cage. When I pushed through the copper curtain, I was already talking.

“I just got off the phone with Brenda Randolph,” I said. “She turned the offer down and we’re going to trial. Cisco, I need you to go to San Francisco and set up a watch on Naomi’s daughter.”

“Copy that,” Cisco said. “All right if I bring in some backup? One-man surveillance is always a recipe for failure.”

“Do it,” I said. “The more the merrier, because I’m going to use this show of force to help convince Naomi to come back on board as a witness. Just try to keep the expenses down.”

“You mean I can’t stay at the Hopkins?” Cisco asked.

I smiled and shook my head.

“You’re not staying anywhere,” I said. “I want you on the street outside this girl’s dorm. You can get her details from Jack.”