FRAUD by PETER DAVEY

Author:PETER DAVEY
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-01-06T00:00:00+00:00

8

“Ted, I’ve had a long conversation with Bill Peach.”

“And?”

“It’s too complicated to repeat over the phone. I was thinking, I’ve got to see a client in Tunbridge Wells tomorrow but I should be finished by about one. And since you can get a direct train up from Wemborne I thought maybe we could meet up.”

“Are you inviting me to lunch?” he laughed.

“Let’s just call it a working lunch.”

The place where they ended up was very modern and thronged with beautiful young people all chatting manically on their mobiles while nibbling at paninis and rocket salads and sipping Chardonnay. Anne and Ted found a table by a sunny window protected from the main body of the restaurant by a barricade of jungle vegetation.

After the waitress had brought their drinks and taken their order, Anne began, hesitantly, “Ted, I’m afraid Bill wasn’t very encouraging.”

“How not very encouraging?”

“To put it bluntly, he advised us not to proceed.”

Ted stared at her. “You could’ve told me that on the phone.”

“I know.”

“But you thought you’d take me out to lunch to soften the blow?”

She adjusted the position of her knife slightly. “I suppose so.”

“That was very thoughtful of you.”

“I’m not giving up though!”

After a pause, Ted asked, “So this Bill Peach doesn’t think we’ve got a case?”

“It’s not that he doesn’t think we’ve got a case. But he said that a civil case like this could drag on for months – years, even – and cost us a fortune. And given that she’s worth thirty million – something he ascertained from his sixteen-year-old son who’s besotted with her – she’s most likely to come out on top in the end. Especially as her entire credibility’s at stake. The problem is that all the evidence is circumstantial.”

“It’s pretty compelling though.”

“From our perspective maybe, but then we’re the ones who know the truth. Looked at objectively, there are all kinds of problems... things which undermine our credibility.”

“Such as?”

“The fact that that novel was published more than four years ago for a start.”

“Didn’t you tell him we’d only just found out?”

“I did, but I could tell he thought it was pretty strange you never made the connection, given you knew her.”

“But didn’t you explain that I live like a hermit?”

“Yes I did. But then there’s the fact that ‘Tyranny’ was never published – it’s just a manuscript. In all the famous plagiarism cases he could think of, the material was stolen from an already-published work, albeit sometimes rather obscure. He mentioned the case of 'Roots' by Alex Haley, large chunks of which were plagiarised from a book called 'The African' by someone whose name I forget...”

“Harold Courlander.”

“That’s right. The judge just had to look at both books and could see that the later work had been plagiarised from the earlier. Simple.”

“Haley settled out of court,” murmured Ted. “For six hundred thousand dollars. As an IP lawyer he should have known that.”

“Well, anyway, the principle’s the same.”

They paused as the waitress laid knives and forks and offered them some organic wholemeal rolls.

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