Deke resisted the urge to call Jake and Michael for an update.Somehow the young lawyer had gotten Deke to promise he would stay put in Florida. How the hell he’d managed that, Deke wasn’t sure. But maybe it was for the best. Things were heating up on his end as well.
As if on cue, Diana appeared at the doorway to his office. “That call you’ve been expecting has been on hold for around two minutes now.”
“Two minutes?”
“He demanded to be put through to you ‘at once.’”
“In that case, keep him waiting another two minutes.”
Two minutes later, the call was put through. “Good morning, Mr. Bines.”
“I just got the paperwork for your bullshit class-action suit. Is it a desperate plea to be noticed, or a publicity stunt?”
“I’m good with either one of those outcomes,” Deke said.
“Your suit is so transparent it can’t even be called a ploy,” Bines said.
“I’m sorry you feel that way.”
“Today I’ll be filing a motion to dismiss,” Bines said. “After it’s upheld, your class-action suit will go away.”
“If it happens that way, then you won’t have to wait long for me to amend the original motion, and then refile.”
“And I’ll see to its dismissal once more.”
“Oh dear. By the sounds of it, this will be a protracted affair. But I’m okay with that. The longer it takes for things to play out, the better it will be for our side.”
“What leads you to that conclusion?”
“Because the more we cross swords, the more likely it is that the media will take an even greater interest in not only the class-action suit we just filed, but in the ongoing Welcome Mat Hospitality lawsuit. In fact, our office contacted Storm, and she seems quite willing to offer her thoughts on the case. She might even release a single from her album Chains around the time she makes her statement. That sounds good to me. What about you?”
The class-action suit had been filed in the state of Florida and framed the argument of economic losses being suffered by H2B workers who were sexually trafficked at Welcome Mat properties. Because federal law in the US didn’t allow for class-action suits asserting individual injury, Deke was basing his case on alleging economic loss. By attempting to put a price tag on prostitution, Deke was hoping to turn the usual equation—and law—around. Since those being trafficked weren’t receiving any money for their services, Deke was asserting that compensation was due to them. As precedent for the class-action suit, Deke cited several Fortune 500 companies that had been deemed to be liable for essentially forcing their employees to work off the clock. Deke had more than a passing familiarity with a number of the cases he had cited, as he had successfully litigated them. Among those named in the class-action suit were Nathan Bines, Geofredo Salazar, and the Global Union Manifest foundation.
“It sounds like a complete waste of time. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go file our motion to dismiss.”
“That won’t stop me from putting the dots out there.”
“Dots?”
“Dots that I’m counting on enterprising reporters helping me to connect. There are lots of questions pertaining to the ownership and operation of Welcome Mat that need answering. We know Welcome Mat is dirty. Given time, we plan to show how dirty.”
“Good luck. You’ll need it.”
“I don’t think so. It’s strange how my team keeps digging up things and finding Mr. Salazar’s fingerprints. Maybe you can explain to me why the amicus brief you filed contains much of the same language found in a Global Union Manifest position paper that advocates lowering the age for H2B workers.”
“I’d call that a coincidence.”
“Coincidence? That’s one explanation. Another might be the ugly story going around that Salazar fronts the interests of the mob, and uses GUM to promote those interests.”
“I’m glad, then, that the rule of law is based on facts, and not ugly stories and supposition,” Bines said.
“Facts can be very ugly things, Mr. Bines, when they are not on your side. And I intend to reveal those facts. But if we’re to continue this conversation, I suggest you call me from a different phone and location.”
“And why is that?”
“My firm is not on the best of terms with certain multinational corporations, and because of that, all workplace conversations are conducted over secure telephone lines. As part of that security system, we are able to tell if there is any monitoring going on by a third party.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“Your line is bugged,” Deke said.
* * *
Half an hour later Bines called back on a cell phone he’d apparently borrowed from someone outside of his workplace. If Bines was expecting to resume the conversation where he and Deke had left off, that didn’t happen.
“Satisfied?” Deke asked.
“About what?” Bines sounded mystified.
“Didn’t I play the role you scripted for me to perfection?”
“I must be missing something.”
“You can stop your games,” Deke said. “I know you leaked what went on in Irwin’s courtroom to the Times. You were the anonymous source, or at least you had someone close to you funnel that information to the reporter.”
“Why would I have done that? I came out looking worse than anyone in that proceeding.”
“You’re suggesting I wanted to look bad?”
“Not suggesting. Stating it as a fact.”
“Based on what?”
Deke didn’t directly answer. “When I was a wet-behind-the-ears lawyer, I was handed a child custody case over a six-year-old girl. The mother and her new husband were trying to freeze out the biological father’s visitation rights. It was a David-versus-Goliath fight. The father was a working-class stiff; the new husband was Mr. Moneybags. When the biological father got on the stand, I started asking him about his daughter, and he told the court, ‘If a tiger was coming at my little girl, I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to put myself between it and her.’
“Everyone in the courtroom heard the truth in his words, and I heard the same thing from you the other day. My guess is that you would throw yourself into the jaws of a tiger in order to protect your daughter. And having your own personal connection made you think about other daughters, and how many of those girls had no one looking out for them. You knew that what Salazar and his cohorts wanted was to make these young women even more vulnerable.”
There was silence for a few long moments. When Bines finally spoke, he sounded relieved. “It was damned if I do, damned if I don’t. My professional obligations were personally repugnant. There didn’t seem to be a good way out.”
“There is now.”
“I think I can convince . . . a certain individual that it is in his or her best interests to settle the Welcome Mat case, provided you drop the class-action suit.”
“What kind of terms are you talking about?”
“I will make sure the sixty Jane Does you represent are adequately compensated.”
“There is no adequate compensation.”
“We will follow the metric settlement that you proposed,” Bines said.
Deke had asked his clients be paid $1.5 million dollars per year for every year they’d been sexually trafficked. As pricey as that might have seemed to outsiders, Deke knew it wouldn’t even come close to compensating for their pain and suffering.
“That’s a start,” Deke said. “But we’re also going to need to have Welcome Mat Hospitality put anti-trafficking safeguards in place that will assure all their properties are free from sex trafficking now and in the future. Lip service isn’t going to work. We’ll need complete transparency, and outside oversight.”
“I will make that happen,” Bines said.
“In addition, the ownership of Welcome Mat needs to pay for a national informational campaign combating human trafficking.”
“You’re asking for a lot,” Bines said.
“The way I see it, I’m asking for the bare minimum.”
Bines sighed. “I’ll advocate for it.”
“You’ll need to do more than advocate. It’s nonnegotiable.”
“Done,” Bines said. “And if our official business is concluded, I’d like to thank you for your understanding.”
Deke didn’t need to read between the lines. As a lawyer, Bines had a duty to his client. As a father, Bines had a duty to his daughter, and girls like her.
Like Lily.
“Anything you can tell me about my being set up for the Enquirer and their hit piece?” Deke asked.
“What I can tell you is that I would never be a party to such an action. And had I been privy to anyone voicing threats your way, I would have strongly advised against that course, although I doubt my objections would have been listened to.”
“I understand.”
“Beware the tigers out there, Mr. Deketomis.”
“I think they better beware of me,” Deke said.