likely we are to solve it. And I get the sense he’s happy to step aside so he can avoid getting squeezed from all sides.”
Before Karen could respond, the door opened.
“I’m sorry,” said a young man in a sweater vest and jeans. “I saw you on the security camera. Is one of you Jessie Hunt?”
Jessie raised her hand.
“I am. And this is Detective Bray.”
“Wonderful,” he said. “My name is Simon. Mr. Estrada let me know you’d be coming by and asked me to make Ms. Estrada’s client and case lists with synopses available for your review. I’ve set everything up in the large conference room.”
He led them down the hall in silence for several seconds, then looked back.
“I was so sorry to hear about Ms. Estrada,” he said.
“Did you know her well?” Karen asked.
“No. Only passing in the halls,” he admitted. “But I hoped to make her team one day. She was a real trailblazer. Did you know that no entertainment industry client of hers ever served a single day in prison?”
“I think I heard that somewhere,” Jessie said.
They reached the conference room, which was indeed large. The table alone had to be a good forty feet long. A burly man in a navy suit stood at the far end of the room.
“That’s Ajax,” Simon said. “He’s here to…ensure everything runs smoothly for you.”
“That’s okay, Simon,” Karen said. “We know why he’s here. You can dispense with the euphemisms.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Simon said, his face turning red. “There’s water in the mini-fridge behind the cabinet on the back wall. If you need anything else, just have Ajax buzz me and I’ll bring it in.”
After he left, Jessie and Karen moved over to the pile of paper in the middle of the conference table. Ajax joined them, standing just off to the side. Up close, Jessie saw that he was even more massive than she originally thought. Easily six foot six and two hundred fifty pounds, he looked like he might have just come from playing in the football game Karen’s husband had been watching. His head was shaved and his hands, the size of oven mitts, had red, angry scars on the knuckles.
“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said. “I’m sure this will just be a formality, but I need to go over the ground rules with you. First, what you have on the table is a list of Ms. Estrada’s clients who have had cases they’ve had before the court, along with abstracts describing the cases. If you need actual court documents, Simon can try to provide those, as long as they were in the public record. All other materials are off-limits, I’m afraid.”
“What about clients who didn’t have any cases?” Jessie asked. “Maybe folks who just kept her on retainer?”
Ajax shook his head.
“Unless specifically authorized, that material is unavailable. We’re providing data on people who Ms. Estrada represented in matters before the court. If you have a particular request beyond that, you’ll need to make it formally.”
Though Jessie didn’t like having the parameters of her search limited, she wasn’t in a position to be too demanding. After all, without a warrant, the firm was under no obligation to allow the access she currently had. She decided not to rock the boat for now.
“Okay,” she said, turning to Karen. “I think we should be looking specifically for two things. Tell me if you disagree.”
“Shoot.”
“First, were any of Estrada’s clients investigated for crimes resembling what happened to her—violence towards women, assault, that kind of thing?”
“Makes sense,” Karen agreed.
“Second, were any of her clients unhappy with the outcome of their case? That information won’t necessarily be in the files. We’ll have to cross-reference with news reports to check on that.”
“Bonus for you,” Karen pointed out, “as a detective who has had an unusual number of law enforcement interactions with celebrities, I may remember some of them.”
“You’ve got that over me. As you may have learned from the last case we worked on, I’m not exactly a pop culture expert.”
“I’ve got you covered,” Karen said. “I didn’t want to say it earlier because it sounds like they made your life hell, but I’m a regular reader of Blabber.”
“I won’t hold it against you,” Jessie promised.
They split up the cases alphabetically and dived in. The first thing Jessie checked was to see if Jasper Otis had been honest about Milly Estrada not personally representing him. At least based on the documents that she had available, he had been. Then she started to go through everything again,