The Survival Rule (A Rain City Legal Thriller Book 3) by Stephen Penner

Author:Stephen Penner [Penner, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inkubator Books
Published: 2023-11-28T16:00:00+00:00

It didn’t take long for the venue to fill up. No one wanted to be the first to arrive, but by the looks of it, no one wanted to miss the event either. Soon enough, the ballroom was wall to wall with attendees. Music and conversation filled the hall, and Raine suddenly wished he could have brought Sawyer. But plus-ones don’t get to bring their own plus-ones.

“Do you know everyone here?” Raine asked Sommers after they had gotten their first round of drinks from the open bar.

Sommers took a sip of her gin and tonic and surveyed the room. “I do. Except for a few of the dates, but even most of them I know. That’s how you get ahead in this business. You know people.”

“Connections.” Raine nodded knowingly.

“More than connections,” Sommers answered. “You have connections. You know other lawyers. Maybe some judges, like your old law partner. If you need something, maybe you know who to call for a referral. But knowing people, that takes more. That takes time. That takes skill.”

“Well, do you know anyone who might have some information about my case?” Raine gestured toward the crowd with his old-fashioned. “Who should we talk to first?”

“We aren’t going to talk to anyone, dear friend,” Sommers answered. “I am going to introduce you to a few select people who might have some information about the Harper Tower or Harper Development or the Harper family generally. I am not going to mention anything about that at all. Then I am going to make an excuse to leave, and you will have to use your own skills to extract whatever information you can.”

Raine frowned. “Why are we doing it that way? Won’t they be more likely to talk to you? They will have just met me.”

“I am not burning any of my carefully curated connections for your case,” Sommers answered. “Don’t get me wrong. I want you to succeed. I want to help. I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t. But if people think I brought you here to interrogate them, with my knowledge, well, that’s the sort of thing that damages relationships. That turns them into just connections.”

Raine nodded. “That’s very… self-protective of you.”

“If I don’t protect myself, no one will,” she answered.

Raine wasn’t sure that was exactly true, but he understood her point. And he wasn’t going to begrudge her for protecting her own career ahead of his. She was still helping him. “So, who do I talk to first?”

“There are three people I think are worth talking to tonight,” Sommers said. She pointed into the crowd, as if Raine would have any idea who any of the names she was about to recite belonged to. “Deborah Yao. Ethan Fassbinder. And Emily Park.”

Raine made a mental note of each name, in the event he and Sommers got separated and he had to track them down on his own somehow.

“Deborah,” Sommers explained, “owns one of the most prestigious brokerages in the city. She sells the top properties

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