Chapter 11

"I'm buying!" Nick announced happily and grandly when he came back to the suite where Jarrod was studying his notes. He wore a big grin and huge dimples.

Jarrod smiled and put his notes away. "Poker was profitable, huh?"

"Very," Nick said. "The boys up here are no dollar-a-day cowhands, and they bet big. And I won big!"

"How much?"

"Three hundred dollars!"

Jarrod's eyes flashed wide. "Three hundred?!"

"Yep," Nick said. "I'm coming back up here more often. How are you doing?"

Jarrod lost his smile and shook his head. "Not nearly as well. Dysart's complaint didn't carry as much specificity as I hoped for. Which might be a good thing. I just won't know until tomorrow."

"Will he be at that meeting?"

"He shouldn't be. It's not a hearing. There's nothing public about it. But I don't know how much they'll defer to him since he has a pal on the Board." Jarrod put his notes away into his inside jacket pocket. "Are you sober enough for a drink before dinner?"

"Stone cold sober," Nick said. "That's how I won three hundred dollars."

Jarrod got up from the desk he'd been sitting at. "Let's go."

They didn't even get to the door before they heard a knock at it. They looked at each other curiously. Nick was closer to the door and Jarrod nodded to him to open it.

Nick did. Sgt. Emerson was standing there. He came in quickly, saying, "Sorry for the interruption but I thought I'd better get to you this evening, and close the door. I didn't let anyone see me come up here and I'd rather not anyone overhear us either."

"You found out something," Jarrod said.

Sgt. Emerson nodded. "The bartender was reluctant, but the owner was more helpful when I explained one of his employees had conspired with one of his customers to rob and assault an attorney who knew the governor."

Jarrod smiled a little at that. "Connections can be helpful. What did you find out?"

"I described the fellow Sidney described, and the owner gave me the name of Cal LeBeau," the sergeant said. "Does it sound familiar?"

Jarrod shook his head. "No. Should it?"

"Not really," the sergeant said, "but I wired a contact in San Francisco and got an answer pretty quick. The man is there, in jail, caught breaking into an office there today. Yours."

Jarrod and Nick both flipped. "Mine?!"

"Yours," Sgt. Emerson confirmed.

Jarrod shook his head, confused. "Why would he do it himself? He hired someone in Stockton to do it. Why didn't he do that there?"

"I don't know," the sergeant said. "He lives in San Francisco and comes here to Sacramento fairly often. It could be he just didn't want to be seen in Stockton. The man's not talking much yet."

"Did he get anything from my office?"

"No, he was caught before he could grab anything. They're gonna bring him up here tomorrow for questioning. If Sidney fingers him, he's gonna be facing charges both here and in San Francisco."

"We need to get him to give up whoever had him rob me," Jarrod said. "Heaven knows it wasn't his idea."

"All roads lead to Dysart, don't they?" Nick said.

"Yes, but they're roads hard as rock and don't take tracks," Jarrod mused. "I didn't get much out of Dysart's complaint to the Board of Conduct, but you can bet I'm gonna have as many questions for them as they have for me tomorrow morning."

"You're sure I can't come?" Nick said.

Jarrod smiled a little. "Not into the meeting room. Not that I wouldn't really like you to, Nick, but you'll have to stay outside in the hall, or outside the building."

"Make sure you check in with me as soon as you can after your meeting, Jarrod," Sgt. Emerson said. "You might pick up a few things I can talk to Mr. LeBeau about when he gets here. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to get out of here without anyone seeing I came up to see you." Sgt. Emerson opened the door slightly and peered out carefully. Then he said, "See you tomorrow," and quickly left.

Nick's smile was a big as it was when he came in with his poker winnings. "Big Brother, you are salivating."

Jarrod had that smile and that piercing look in his blue eyes that he could get when he was getting the goods on someone. "You bet I am. Let's give Jason a few minutes to get away from here and they go get a drink and dinner. I'm feeling much better about tomorrow than I was a few minutes ago."

XXXXXXX

Jarrod took the time as he was preparing for bed to think in more detail about what was going to happen the next day. He planned out his approach – knowing he was going to have to adjust it because this meeting was not under his control. The Board would take it where they wanted to take it. But there were things he was not going to allow to be left unsaid, and questions unanswered.

At breakfast, Jarrod checked the dining room to be sure no one was there who was suspicious to him before he began talking to Nick in quiet tones. "Here's what I'd like you to do. After you walk me in and leave me at the office, you head outside for a smoke. Try not to be too conspicuous. I'd like to know if Dysart or his muscle men are in the area. You remember what they look like."

"Sure," Nick said.

"This meeting shouldn't take more than an hour or so," Jarrod said. "I intend to get all the specifics I can get out of them, and I intend to give them every bit of information we have about the theft of my files."

"Including Sidney and LeBeau?" Nick asked.

"Especially Sidney and LeBeau," Jarrod said. "I want to see their reactions to those names, because I'll bet anything Dysart's friend on the Board, at least, will recognize them, and probably somebody else will too when I explain Sidney worked at The Bar."

"They're not gonna be disbarring your outright today, are they?"

"Not likely, even if they are inclined to do it at all. They'll issue something written and that'll take a while. I'm gonna move for a further hearing in a couple weeks, if I need it, after the investigation into Sidney and LeBeau is farther along. I expect I'll get it, under the circumstances."

"You know, you'll probably get more trouble out of Dysart, one way or another."

"I know that," Jarrod said.

"Didn't you know when you turned him down in San Francisco that he'd be coming after you?"

"I suspected it."

"He didn't try to use anything from your file to get you to take his case?"

Jarrod shook his head. "I didn't give him much of a chance to. I turned him down right away, as soon as he said he was concerned about the theft of his file. And he probably didn't want to tip his hand. In a way, I wish I had let him talk some more, but I didn't. Water under the bridge."

"Well, all right, I'll stay on the street right outside the building," Nick said. "If I'm not there when you come out, I might be following somebody."

"I'd just as soon you didn't follow anybody too far," Jarrod said. "Stay within sight. I might need your muscle after I leave the building, or not too soon after, if I really rattle Dysart's man on the Board and he gets to Dysart fast about it."

Nick looked hard at his older brother. "What kind of trouble do you think you'd get?"

"Any kind," Jarrod said, "but if I make an impression on the Board that gives them thoughts about NOT disbarring me, I think we can expect no holds barred out of Dysart."

"That's crazy," Nick said. "He's got to know that won't get him any representation out of you, and if lawyers are as smart as they're supposed to be, no other lawyer will touch him either."

"Dysart's a thug, Nick," Jarrod said. "He's been getting away with being a thug for several years. He's got to make me pay for not doing what he wanted. Thugs gotta be thugs. How's your back today?"

Nick smiled a little. "Good enough to use my muscle if I have to."

Jarrod returned the smile. "I'm hoping you won't have to."

It was only a few minutes before ten when they left the hotel and walked up the street to the offices of the Board of Conduct. They both kept watching, but they didn't see Dysart or his muscle men. When they stopped in front of the building, they looked up and down the street even more.

"Try to meet me right here when I'm done inside," Jarrod said. "And try not to get goaded into anything if Dysart or his muscle come along. Remember your back might not be up to one of your usual brawls."

"I'll remember," Nick said. "That café across the street – is it okay if I get a cup of coffee where I can sit and watch out the window?"

"Sure," Jarrod said.

Then the brothers looked at each other, and Nick said, "Good luck, Pappy."

"You too," Jarrod said, and went inside the building.