Claire
Ben and I sat across from agents Piper and Creedie. For the first time in my career, I was sweating bullets.
Creedie, none the wiser, was as sweet on me as ever. He sat across from me with his puppy-dog eyes and his face a tad flushed.
Sneaking a glance at me, Ben gave me his I can’t believe this guy look. Yep, Creedie pined bad for me, and I was totally going to break his dreams in a few minutes.
I only hoped it didn’t create harmful consequences for Ethan.
“Thanks for meeting with us,” Ben started off. “First, I want to let you know that I am now representing Mr. Ethan Knight. Claire, as of last Friday, at four p.m., is no longer his attorney.”
Piper spoke up. “Thank you for updating us, but you could have done this over the phone.”
“Of course. However, there are more details we both believe you should be aware of.”
“Go on, then.” Piper motioned.
“There are two important pieces of information we would like to disclose to you. First, Claire believes that her former employer, Dan Crane, might be the culprit who embezzled from Ethan Knight’s clients. And the reason he instructed Claire to meet with Ethan on Thursday to prepare him for interrogation, as well as handle the interrogation on Friday, was to set her up.”
“Claire, are you okay?” Creedie immediately jumped in.
I gave him the look I usually reserved for him. “I don’t have any hard evidence, and it’s going to be hard for me to dig for it when I no longer work there.”
“Nor should you, as it puts you in harm's way,” Ben jumped in.
“Ben’s right. Please don’t do anything that could possibly put yourself in danger, Claire.” Creedie’s puppy-dog eyes were full of alarm, and he reached across and patted my hand.
I gave him the smile that I usually reserved for him as well. “Thank you for caring about my safety.”
Creedie’s flush deepened. “Of course.”
Ben shot me another You have to be kidding me face.
“Can I ask why you believe Dan Crane is involved in the embezzlement, Claire?” Piper asked.
I took a deep breath. “The last year, Dan has taken on cases that he should have referred out to other attorneys. Look at Ethan Knight’s case. I was the only criminal attorney on staff. I should have been the lead attorney on that case, or he should have referred it out. He only asked me to get involved in the last two days of my employment with him. It doesn’t make sense. The only reason he would have done that, if he’s involved, is to try and pin something on me.”
I took a sip of water and continued. “He’s taken on cases as if he’s desperate for the money. I’ve caught him shredding papers, which is something an intern would typically do. The other day, I walked in and noticed that bank statements from the Cayman Islands were being shredded. I only caught a glimpse of the bank names, but it was clear. Here’s a list of the different bank names I saw on his desk.” I slid a piece of paper over.
Piper and Creedie were silent for a bit as they read them over. “Claire, every one of these banks has been involved with Ethan Knight.”
“Yes, I know.”
“How do you know it wasn’t part of Ethan’s file that he was shredding?”
I pushed another list at them. “I know because these were the names and addresses of the accounts on the bank statements.”
Piper looked at me suspiciously. “How did you remember all this information?”
“I have a photographic memory.”
Ben nodded. “It’s true—she does. It used to drive our classmates at Harvard insane. She could get work done a lot quicker than the rest of us, and it affected our bell curve on test scores.”
“I didn’t put it together until Sunday night when I reviewed employee files with Ethan.”
“Why were you with Ethan on Sunday night if you were no longer his attorney as of Friday at four p.m.?” Piper gave me another suspicious glance.
I gulped and stared at his eyes in order to avoid Creedie’s. “Because as of Friday, sometime after nine p.m., my relationship with Ethan Knight became personal.”
Creedie shifted in his seat. “He pressured you into a relationship?”
I jerked my head. “No, I went after him, and he denied me...before I got drugged. He took care of me, and when I got better, I pressured him.”
“Claire, you were drugged?” Creedie asked.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“At a bar down the street from Club D. I don’t even know the name. I’m sure Ethan can give you details.”
“Are you okay now?” Apparently Creedie still had a soft spot for me, because he seemed to be genuinely concerned.
“Yes, I am now. I was extremely sick Friday, Saturday, and into Sunday early morning, but I’m better now.” I gave him my innocent eyes I reserved for him.
His flush got a tad redder. Jeez, is he still hoping for a chance when I told him I pressured my ex-client to have sex with me?
Ben cleared his throat. “We wanted to bring all this to your attention—confidentially, of course. Not only are we concerned for the welfare of Ethan Knight, but both Ethan and I are concerned about this getting pinned somehow on Claire. It doesn’t add up that he would bring Claire into this case in her last two days. This investigation has been going on for months. He had Claire at his access that entire time. He also told Ethan Knight that he was bringing Claire in due to being out of town. However, we have confirmed that he did not leave town.” Ben pushed a piece of paper at the agents with tracking details on Dan he’d received from his private investigator.
Piper picked up the paper and examined it. “I have to agree. All this information does seem a bit suspicious.”
“Ethan didn’t do this. You’re looking at the wrong person. We’ve gone through the employee files, and everyone looks clean. The investors are clean. The CPA and real estate agents look clean. The only other person we know who had access to information would be Dan. And I’ve reviewed all of Ethan’s contracts. Look at this one.” I pushed some more papers at them. “The contract I reviewed gave Dan full access, either in person or online, to Ethan’s bank accounts, including the client ones.”
“Why would Ethan give that access to Dan?” Piper inquired.
Ben spoke up. “He didn’t. It was in his file that Claire received. He must have forgotten to remove it. It has to be forged, because the contract that Ethan gave me doesn’t have any of that language in it.”
“So where is the forged document?” Creedie questioned.
“It’s in his file. I don’t have the file because all the files were turned in on my last day. But I know what I saw. I thought it was strange, but didn’t put two and two together until Sunday night when we were reviewing who had access to what.”
Creedie sat farther back in his chair and sighed. I knew that there was no hard proof of anything I was telling them.
“Ethan didn’t sign the contract I saw in his file. He knew that as his attorney, Dan had knowledge of his accounts, but he would never give anyone this kind of access. This is the contract that Ethan had a copy of and did sign.” I double-tapped my finger on the contract.
“Claire, how do you imagine he’s going to somehow pin this on you?” Creedie’s puppy-dog eyes were back.
I bit my lip and shook my head. “I don’t know. But you have to believe me, I would never do anything like this.”
“No one is accusing you of anything, Claire,” Piper jumped in.
I nodded.
“But this information would have been better to have before you started sleeping with the suspect.” Bye-bye puppy-dog eyes. Creedie looked at me in a way he never had before. Cold, hardened eyes stared at me.
Shit. He’s going to hold this against me.
Ben jumped in. “These are facts. It doesn’t matter the status of Claire’s relationship with Ethan. We only told you to be upfront. She’s done nothing wrong, and didn’t act on anything until the client relationship was severed. As soon as these new facts came to light, we brought them to you.”
“I gave my two-week notice before I met Ethan. My new firm isn’t even up and running and won’t be for three months due to construction. I gave my notice because I felt and saw things I didn’t agree with. But I didn’t connect Dan to this until I helped Ethan review the employee files on Sunday night with Collin Corwin, one of his investors. Go look at Dan’s cases over the last year. You’ll see numerous ones that should have been referred out to an attorney who specialized in those matters, instead of Dan, who is strictly a contract business attorney. I worked with him for almost six years. Until the last year or so, he referred out. Something changed.”
Piper put his pen down. “Okay Claire, we appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Is there anything else you want to tell us?”
Please go do your job.