“Feel free to return to your desk.”
“Wait. Tamlyn called and asked if you’d like to have dinner tonight. I assumed you would say yes, so I told her to meet you at Clarke’s at seven.”
“What if I’d had other plans?”
“You don’t. I keep your calendar, remember? And yourcalendar for this evening is free. I meanwasfree. Unless you want me to cancel?”
“No, dinner’s fine,” he replied, half distracted by a thought triggered by something she said. “Thanks, Joan.”
She left.
Herb waved a hand in front of Stone’s face. “You still in there?”
Stone finally looked at him. “Sorry about that. Something just occurred to me.”
“Concerning Sara’s divorce?”
“Unrelated,” Stone said. “So, how did you get Sara’s husband to agree to walk away with nothing?”
“It had little to do with me. You remember what you told me about Yates being jumped last week and you thinking it might be connected to what happened to that other guy?”
“Paul Weston. I sent Bob Cantor to dig into it, but he came back with nothing.”
“Because he didn’t talk to Yates,” Herb said.
“Because Yates wouldn’t see him. Are you saying he talked to you?”
Herb shook his head. “His lawyer let it slip that the person who beat him up told him to leave Sara alone or he wouldn’t walk away the next time he visited him.”
“So, the casesarelinked.”
“Looks like it.”
“I’m surprised Yates’s lawyer didn’t use that to say his client was being coerced.”
“He made a little bit of noise, but I said they’d have a hard time proving Sara had anything to do with it, because she didn’t. I also pointed out that if we were to take the case to court, we were prepared to detail not only the emotional abuseSara suffered during the marriage, but also his many infidelities, including witness testimony from several women. The lawyer called me back ten minutes later and said that Yates never believed she was responsible, and they wouldn’t be making an issue of it.”
“That’s when Yates offered to take nothing?”
Herb snorted. “Hardly. He wanted to sign the last settlement agreement Sara’s former lawyer sent. But I told them that document was no longer valid, and that I would send them a new offer.”
“The one that he signed.”
Herb smiled. “I thought he might push back a little, but within an hour his lawyer arranged the videoconference and the rest is, as they say, history.”
“You may not have been the catalyst of his change, but you did a stellar job of taking advantage of it. I owe you dinner. Just not tonight.”
“I never say no to a free dinner.” Herb checked his watch, then picked up his briefcase. “Gotta run. Client meeting in thirty minutes.”
“Let me know how things go with the judge this afternoon.”
“I will, but I don’t anticipate any hiccups.”
“Neither did Napoleon at Waterloo.”
Chapter 29
As soon as Herb left,Stone returned to his desk and made a call to Jack. The line rang several times before Jack finally picked up.
