An Inexpressible State of Grace by Cameron Abbott

Author:Cameron Abbott [Cameron Abbott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781560234692
Google: bjQpswEACAAJ
Amazon: 1560234695
Barnesnoble: 1560234695
Goodreads: 534786
Publisher: Harrington Park Press
Published: 2004-01-02T03:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

I checked into the hotel shortly before five. It was too early for dinner, so I clicked on CNN and set up my laptop. Sure enough, my e-mail Inbox was stuffed with useless crap, and for a moment I shuddered to think of the ramifications that all this technology would soon have on litigation. The simplest exchange of information, which formerly might have been the subject of a two-minute phone call, was now routinely memorialized in an electronic record for all the world to see. That’s exactly the kind of thing that litigators hate, because it multiplies exponentially the number of documents that might besought in discovery during a lawsuit someday. In every case, the parties typically request production of "all records relating to" this or that. With the advent of this technology, such requests would now call for the production of e-mails as well—with the result that some poor junior associate might be called upon someday to devote several hundred hours of his or her life to poring over the clients’ network servers to locate and produce responsive e-mails, in addition to the multitude of other documents sought in discovery.

I didn’t have any interest in weeding through my e-mails at the moment, so I called in to Stella for the highlights.

“Nothing much here,” she said. “It’s been pretty quiet. Oh, you got a FedEx from someone in Texas.”

“Great, I was waiting for that.”

“Well, I didn’t recognize the case, so I asked Louise about it, but she didn’t know either.”

Shit, the last thing I needed was for Queen Bee to be nosing around in my business. But wait, I realized, I’m not named in the will—there’s no way they’d know it had anything to do with me personally. Unless—

“But then Louise found the cover letter still inside, so we realized it wasn’t a client.”

Damn, I hoped Shawanna hadn’t gotten too chatty in her letter.

“Does this mean what I think? Your grandmother was worth three hundred and fifty million dollars?”

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“I don’t know what it means yet,” I said. “I have to go over it when I get back.”

“Well, let me tell you, Louise’s mouth was on the floor. I wish I’d had a video camera—I don’t think I’ve ever seen her speechless.”

“Listen, Stella, let’s just keep this quiet for now, okay? I really don’t want this stuff getting around the firm.”

“Sure, sure. That’s what I figured, once I realized what it was. I put it under the stack of papers on your desk.”

“Thanks,” I said, hoping that the damage could at least be contained. “Anything else?”

“Yeah, Parsons wants to speak to you. Should I transfer you over?”

Great, now what? "Okay. And thanks.”

Louise was remarkably cordial when she picked up his line and I identified myself. You’d almost think she was a human being. She switched me in to Parsons, and when he answered with a cheery hello, I had to swallow past the lump in my throat. If he was in a good mood when I was on the line, it could only mean trouble for me.

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