In The Plan - 26. Chapter 26

26

Doug Hodges couldn't quit shaking Ben Carleson's hand. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you," he said. Then he hugged his wife, Jenny. And he hugged his ex-wife, Pam. And he hugged both of his sons and their wives. They'd all come to the courtroom that morning, in support.

"To tell you the truth, I was there in case Dad fell apart," Carleson heard Doug's older son tell the woman who was either his wife or his sister-in-law. "He was so disappointed the last time."

The one thing Doug Hodges really wanted to do was shake Brad Coghlan's hand, as if to say, "It's all over, buddy. Everything's forgiven. Now you can come back to the bar." Carleson could tell that both from the things Doug had told him and the way he kept looking across the room, at the place where Brad Coghlan was sitting. To make things easier, Carleson led off. But Coghlan just brushed off his offered hand and snarled, "Get away from me." Then he left, eyes down and scowling.

Carleson simply nodded at Stu Lee, who half-smiled and shrugged. After they'd both put away files and finished giving instructions to their assistants, Lee approached the bench, where the judge was getting ready to leave. Carleson didn't want to do the same thing, but it was polite.

They all thanked each other and agreed everything had gone well. Unfortunately, the insurance company wasn't as complacent.

"You got what you wanted," Carleson said on the phone that afternoon. "You got your jury verdict. "It even went 5-1, more than a simple majority."

"We thought it had to be unanimous."

"Come on. You're not that dumb," was all Carleson replied. When there was silence on the phone, he added, "You know where to send the check. I'll expect it FedExed in the morning. Or I can give you the numbers for an account transfer."

Instead, there was a FedEx letter in the morning.

"This is blackmail," Carleson soon told Doug.

"What's it say?"

"The exact wording is stupidly dense - all legal jargon. If you were here, you could read it yourself. But I'd mangle it, trying to make sense."

The were both at their offices.

"What's it trying to say?" Doug asked. "They're not expecting another trial?"

"No - they're just trying to recover their costs as leverage for appealing the verdict. That'll drag this out another year-or-two and stall their payment. And they want to cover what they had to pay Stu Lee - what he billed them for his time, his investigators, and his experts."

"How much?"

"Fifty grand, give or take."

"That's all? And they'll give us $950,000?"

"Yeah. It's a million dollar policy. You know that."

"Pay the fuckers."

"It's not really fair..."

"I don't care about fair at this point," Doug insisted. "It's been three years. I want this whole thing over. Besides, it wasn't fair that Brad was driving drunk that night."

"I'm amazed you still call him 'Brad.'"

Doug laughed. "Well, what am I supposed to call him? 'That other fucker?' The world just can't be filled with idiots."

"You live in protected surroundings."

"New York City? Hardly."

They laughed together at that, then Carleson asked, "You really want me to pay the fifty grand?"

"Yeah. And you can even take it out of my half after you take your fee. I don't care."

"You gonna retire?"

"Why would I want to do that? I'm a relatively young man. I just got married. Maybe we'll take a second honeymoon - fancier. I'll splurge, buy a Jag, and drive Jenny cross-country."

Carleson laughed again. "You're in too good a mood to face down blackmailers."

"Oh, hell, Ben - I knew what I was getting into from the beginning. I'm not going to faint."

"Okay. I'll pay the crooks, and you'll get your cut. And if you do buy a Jag - please, drive carefully."

"You know I will."

"He's just a really nice guy, Carleson told Edward that evening, over dinner. They were at one of their usual restaurants in the city. They'd gone to a higher-profile one the night before, to celebrate.

"That's how he seems," Edward said.

"Do you know he bought me lunch? Every day of the trial?"

"You never told me that."

"He didn't even let me get near the checks."

"We'll have to take him and his wife out some night. Maybe along with Jerry and Candice. You owe Jerry."

"Already paid up. He deserved more than dinner - which he'll get anyway."

"What did you give him?"

"Some really good Tequila. Something I've been looking at anyway. You know how much he likes it."

"Much classier than champagne."

"He gets that like water. People are always sending it."

"The Tequila's more personal."

"Yeah, well, where did I learn that?" Carleson asked smiling.

Edward smiled back, but Carleson was suddenly distracted by his phone. It was a number he didn't recognize, but he answered anyway.

"This is Ben Carleson."

"Hi. My name is Dan Wilson. I've just been in a terrible accident. Broke both my legs and fractured my spine. I was referred to you by Stu Lee. He said you were a great lawyer."

Carleson grinned, both to himself and to Edward. He knew Lee would be looking for a referral fee.