"Adriano, we need to talk," Reina's voice sounded through the phone.
She spoke in Japanese, telling him that whatever it was, it was serious. He already had an idea, though.
"About women?" he asked.
"Indeed. Donatella called."
"I figured. What did she want?"
"You would know that, had you picked up your phone," Reina said accusingly.
"Touchee."
"Why didn't you? Are you scared of the woman? I didn't raise you to have a weak character. No matter what, you can at least do that."
"I just didn't want to. Donatella's a troublesome woman and more than a handful. Even more than other women I know," Adriano said slowly.
"No matter. She has a legal problem that she could use your input on, and you will call her."
"Legal problem? Doesn't she have dozens of lawyers in Milano? Why would she need an American one too? Wait, is she coming here?" Adriano asked.
"Who knows. You will call her."
"Urgh..."
"Enough of your lazy habits. I want grandchildren at some point."
After saying that, she hung up the phone, leaving Adriano with a downbeat expression. He slapped his forehead and sighed lazily. He dialled a number and waited a moment. A second later, the Italian's voice could be heard over the phone.
"Adriano, ciao! How nice of you to call me! I tried calling you, but you wouldn't pick up."
"Mm-hmm. I'm swamped at the moment. A lot to do and all that, you understand."
"Sure, sure. So how are you? I haven't heard from you, despite telling you to give me a call."
"I didn't want to."
"Haha, I'm sure you didn't. Listen, I have a legal problem, and I was hoping to get your help with it. As you know, my modelling agency is active in Milan, Paris, and occasionally New York. International placements, long-term contracts, nothing unusual. Or at least, nothing that was unusual."
She exhaled quietly.
"Two months ago, one of my former models filed a civil claim against the agency. Wrongful inducement, emotional distress, breach of duty of care. The usual language when someone wants leverage rather than resolution. I know that it's false. I take good care of my girls, more so than anyone else in this business. Because I know what it's like."
She paused for a moment.
"The problem isn't the claim," she said. "It's how it's being handled. The plaintiff's counsel petitioned for expanded discovery. Not just internal communications, personal correspondence, third-party contracts, archived financial records that predate the agency's current structure."
She closed the folder that she had opened on her desk.
"They're arguing constructive control. That is because I personally approved certain placements; I bear extended liability for decisions made by regional partners years ago."
A faint, humourless laugh escaped her.
"It's creative, stupid and potentially effective. If discovery proceeds as requested, the agency becomes functionally indefensible. Not because we acted unlawfully, but because the scope would allow them to manufacture a narrative out of context."
Adriano listened to her without interrupting. The information was already being stored and processed in his head. Ready for use.
"My Italian counsel recommends a settlement. Quiet, quick, but expensive. I don't settle when I'm being threatened with a lie. I don't run from this fight, but my counsel is a weakling that folds under one of my stares, so I come to you for help. After all, you're the best lawyer in the world, right?"
"Leave the honey, Donatella and finish," Adriano said.
"Haha. Alright, there's more. The claim has attracted attention. Regulatory attention. The kind that likes to align itself with civil litigation once the door has been opened, even the slightest crack. I'm sure they're testing whether my agency can be framed as a de facto employer across jurisdictions. If that theory sticks, it doesn't just affect me; it rewrites exposure for every international placement firm operating in the EU."
"Hmm."
"I need the claim contained. The jurisdiction has to be limited, and discovery narrowed to something that my company will survive."
Adriano thought about it, but let her continue all she had to say.
"I'm being told that this is technically possible, but no one I've spoken to sounds confident. They sound scared at the ginormous precedent this is and how bad it would be for their careers."
"Understandable," Adriano said.
"I don't need careful sycophants," she said sharply. "I need a capable, dangerous man who can cut off the balls of those disgusting pieces of shit."
Her tone softened after that.
"I need you, Adriano. I'm certain you are the only one who can help me with this. So how about it? Will you help me?"
Adriano didn't say anything for a moment. His thoughts zoomed through millions of different scenarios. He never created theories, but compiled fact after fact and then reached the correct conclusion.
"I'll need everything you have on this. And don't lie or hide anything," he said.
"That's great, love. I'll send you the filings. The contracts they're leaning on. And the discovery request, they think I'll agree to, and everything else you could need. Even my private phone number."
"That won't be necessary."
"Nonsense, you'll get all of it. On second thought. It would be better if I brought it to you personally, no?"
"No, definitely not. Just send it to me, that's fine."
"No, I think I'll deliver all of this personally. Hey, do you still work in that cute building in Brooklyn?"
"... No."
"Haha, good. I'll see you in a few days," Donatella said and hung up.
Adriano looked at his phone and cursed lazily. The woman was far too charming for her own good. Everything about her seemed dangerous in more ways than one, and Adriano knew she would be troublesome to deal with. But going back on his word was something he had never done, and he wouldn't start now. Since it was his mother who told him to handle this, he had to.
He dialled another number.
"Adriano, what is it?"
"Aiko, what's the timeline on the Pearson Hardman thing?" he asked.
"Four days. Why? Do you want to speed it up?" Aiko asked.
"Yes. I shouldn't be working in the office for a while. It's not safe."
"What do you mean, not safe?" Aiko asked suspiciously.
"Donatella's coming to New York."
"Ahh, I understand. Very well, I'll get to it."
.
Adriano got back into the room.
"Sorry about that," Adriano said as he sat down again.
The others looked at him, interested to hear what that was about, but Adriano seldom filled awkward pauses. On the contrary, he enjoyed using those to his advantage. But mostly, he just couldn't be bothered. Like right now.
"Is everything alright with your mother?" Patricia asked.
"Sure. Now, coming back to the topic."
"Mister Jane just asked about Pete's relationship with Nadine," Patricia said. "It was very good."
"It was. We talked about everything together," Nadine said.
"Right, and that's actually what I wanted to talk about," Adriano said.
"Oh? And what do you mean?"
"Did you and your father talk about his work?" Adriano asked.
"Well, sometimes. Why?" Nadine asked.
"Hmm… well, the truth is that I'm not here for the fun of it. As you already know, I'm a lawyer from New York. I couldn't tell you the truth about why I'm here, since it was simply a secret. I wasn't sure I could trust you."
"Trust us? In what way?" Patricia asked.
"Why would you need to trust us? Or why wouldn't you trust us?" Keith asked.
"You can't trust anybody anymore, these days, I assure you. I have seen everything and know what people are capable of. The truth is, my firm has been tasked with handling something rather… delicate."
"What thing? Could you please be more specific?" Lisbon interrupted.
"It's… a diamond."
"A diamond? What diamond?" Lisbon asked.
"What do you mean? The diamond that was missing. Has Mrs Dublin not told you about it?" Adriano asked, confused.
"No, she didn't. So would you please enlighten all of us?" Lisbon said.
"Hmm, well, I assume it would make sense for Mrs Dublin not to know, since it was a secret and all. Mr Dublin came from relatively poor beginnings. He grew up on the street and worked his way up the social ladder. However, as they say, you can take someone off the streets, but never the streets off of him."
"No one says that."
"No? Then I must have heard it wrong. Anyhow, as it happened, was Mr Dublin paranoid about falling back into that life of poverty? So he kept a diamond hidden on his person at all times. Honestly, I thought you knew that," Adriano said to Lisbon and Jane.
"Ah, well, we did know," Jane said, raising his shoulders.
"We did?" Lisbon asked.
"Sorry, Lisbon. We had to keep it hidden so the killer wouldn't find out. Naturally, we thought he was after the diamond, but he kept it hidden in his false tooth, and nobody knew, so we couldn't see how anybody could've been after it," Jane explained.
"That's precisely right," Adriano said. "But I realised that this wasn't about the diamond at all, and in truth, it was connected to a court case. Which is why I wanted to ask you, Nadine, since your father told you everything, and sometimes you talked about his work, did he ever mention Brixham Lake?"
"No."
"You're sure?" Adriano asked. "Brixham Lake. Think hard."
Nadine bit her lips and thought hard, but she still shook her head.
"What about Gale Bertram?" This time, it was Jane who asked.
"No, why?" Nadine asked.
"Hmm."
"Oh," Jane said at the same time.
Both Adriano and Jane looked disappointed at this news.
"Well, that's disappointing. I was sure…" Jane said.
"Yeah, me too. Anyway, "Adriano said and stood up. "It was nice to meet all of you, Nadine, Miss Farrow and Mister Farrow. Once again, I am so sorry for your loss, and I am certain that the CBI will do everything to find the killer. Now that we know that this was about politics, they will solve this."
"That's it?" Patricia asked.
"Believe me… I know it's hard to deal with… but, um, you know, sometimes the bad guys just get away," Jane said, also standing up.
Lisbon looked like both Adriano and Jane had grown two heads. She was, however, somewhat used to Jane's antics. That didn't mean that she understood what was going on, though.
"Please believe us that no matter what, we won't stop our investigation. We only just started, and no matter what these two say, the CBI is not ready to drop this case," Lisbon said.
She managed to placate some of the women's worries, but not Keith Farrow's. Something got him excited for some reason. They bid the three farewell and then closed the door. Lisbon and Jane moved to their car, and Adriano entered the back, to Lisbon's confusion and Jane's amusement.
"What was that?" Lisbon asked Jane and Adriano.
"What was what?" Jane asked.
"That in there. What was that about a diamond and the Brixham Lake case?"
"Oh, that... a lie."
"A lie?"
"Complete fabrication," Adriano said.
"You see, Lisbon, Mister Mattei here has figured out who the killer of Peter Russo and Harvey Dublin is," Jane explained.
"What? Who and how?"
"I think it should be obvious at this point, no?" Jane said cheekily.
"NO!"
"Keith Farrow," Adriano said.
"The stepdad? Why are you... ohhh."
After a bit of explaining, Lisbon understood. Adriano had known that the only one who was logical for Peter Russo's and Harvey Dublin's murder was Keith Farrow. He asked about Pete Russo's temper and had Keith tell them the tale of when Pete beat him up, giving him ample motive.
To get him to admit to this, though, would have been hard, so Adriano created a story about a diamond that was hidden inside one of Harvey Dublin's false teeth.
"You see, Lisbon, now that Keith thinks we think that this is about Brixham Lake, he will think he's off the hook. So what will he do? He will go to the place where he buried Harvey Dubln's corpse and look for the diamond. Eh voila," Jane spread his hands like a magician.
...
Lisbon turned to Adriano.
"I'm not sure how they do it in New York, mister, but we don't lie to people who lost their family members for no good reason! I am this close to arresting you right now for obstruction of justice," Lisbon was enraged.
"Ohhh. Angry women are scaaary," Adriano said with a lazy smile.
His carefree, lazy reaction to her outburst unnerved her. Jane had a slight smile on his face, though, as he thought it was a good plan.
"And why did you go along with it?" she asked Jane.
"Why are you angry with me? He's the one to do it, I just went along to keep up appearances," Jane defended himself.
"Of course you did! Urgh, I can't believe you! Do you have any idea how pissed off Director Bertram was earlier this morning? He bit off Hightower's head in her office. And it's all your fault!" Lisbon pointed at Adriano.
He didn't answer, though, because once again, his phone rang. Adriano picked it up.
"Aiko, what is it?"
"I got a call from a Miss Pearson, the one you told me she would make? She would like to talk to you. Do you have time?" Aiko asked.
"Yes, put her through."
"Mister Mattei."
"Miss Pearson, what can I help you with?" he asked, like he didn't already know what this was about.