between the hours of 8am and 10am this morning.
Being an ex-journalist, I was able to read between the lines.
The trite comments from neighbors – claiming Ralph worked hard and lived for his family – had clearly originated from the reporter’s mouth. Nobody actually said things like that. The neighbors were probably embarrassed by their lack of insight, so when the reporter offered suggestions – “would you say he was a hard worker? Someone who lived for his family?” – they would’ve nodded dumbly in agreement. Except Lisa Brewer, who seemed more concerned about the impact on local property values.
As to the killer, the cops were clueless at this point. That’s why they’d been tight-lipped with the media and had already put four men on the case. But there were a number of clues in the story. The planned nature of the killing, capitalizing on Ralph’s daily routine, along with the absence of theft, suggested this wasn’t a wrong place at the wrong time situation. It was pre-meditated murder, with feeling.
But the grisly nature of the crime wasn’t the most surprising element of the article. The real shock was the description of Ralph’s professional life.
A founding partner at a Silicon Valley law firm?
In his conversations with me, Ralph claimed to be a civil litigation attorney, code for an ambulance chaser, and his shared office in one of San Francisco’s cheapest buildings implied he wasn’t a particularly successful one, at that. It was possible he could’ve been holding down two jobs, living a double life, but that was a massive stretch. Particularly for someone well known in the legal fraternity.
A light flickered in my brain. I looked again at The Chronicle article. There was no middle initial in Ralph’s name. When I thought about it, the newsreader hadn’t pronounced a ‘T’ either.
I Googled Ralph’s name again, this time omitting his middle initial. A very different page of hits came up. Apart from the murder references, there were links to law papers, local news articles, and the firm of Simpson White Emerson. I went into the law firm’s website and found a short biography for Ralph.
Mr Emerson specializes in intellectual property and licensing, with particular expertise in internet law, digital media licensing and e-commerce.
He holds a J.D. from the Santa Clara School of Law (1997) and was admitted to practice law in California in 1998. He graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems from California State College, Northridge in 1992. Mr Emerson is a member of the American Bar Association and the Bar Association of San Francisco.
Prior to co-founding Simpson White Emerson in 2005, Mr Emerson was a senior associate with Rogerson, Bremner, Lintz and Yeo in Sacramento, California.
I zeroed in on the last line. Yet another link to Sacramento. Ralph had lived and worked there, probably at the same time as me. It couldn’t be just another coincidence. Somehow, our histories were linked.
I remembered the photographs on Ralph’s desk: his soft, pampered features, the gorgeous wife with the three-carat engagement ring, the designer-clad kids. It was beginning to make sense….
There was no Ralph ‘T’ Emerson. The T was designed to throw me off, making me think I was sharing my office with a low-rent ambulance chaser rather than a high-flying corporate lawyer.
But the real Ralph Emerson wasn’t my office buddy, either. He’d been forty miles away, enjoying his country club lifestyle in Palo fucking Alto. Ralph’s personal effects might’ve decorated my office, but they were just props. The man himself had never set foot in the building.
Yet someone had been coming into the office every day. There were always empty Coke cans in the trash, not to mention the unpleasant scent that hit me when I walked in the door. I never found the office exactly as I’d left it.
I recalled the oily, salesman’s
Being an ex-journalist, I was able to read between the lines.
The trite comments from neighbors – claiming Ralph worked hard and lived for his family – had clearly originated from the reporter’s mouth. Nobody actually said things like that. The neighbors were probably embarrassed by their lack of insight, so when the reporter offered suggestions – “would you say he was a hard worker? Someone who lived for his family?” – they would’ve nodded dumbly in agreement. Except Lisa Brewer, who seemed more concerned about the impact on local property values.
As to the killer, the cops were clueless at this point. That’s why they’d been tight-lipped with the media and had already put four men on the case. But there were a number of clues in the story. The planned nature of the killing, capitalizing on Ralph’s daily routine, along with the absence of theft, suggested this wasn’t a wrong place at the wrong time situation. It was pre-meditated murder, with feeling.
But the grisly nature of the crime wasn’t the most surprising element of the article. The real shock was the description of Ralph’s professional life.
A founding partner at a Silicon Valley law firm?
In his conversations with me, Ralph claimed to be a civil litigation attorney, code for an ambulance chaser, and his shared office in one of San Francisco’s cheapest buildings implied he wasn’t a particularly successful one, at that. It was possible he could’ve been holding down two jobs, living a double life, but that was a massive stretch. Particularly for someone well known in the legal fraternity.
A light flickered in my brain. I looked again at The Chronicle article. There was no middle initial in Ralph’s name. When I thought about it, the newsreader hadn’t pronounced a ‘T’ either.
I Googled Ralph’s name again, this time omitting his middle initial. A very different page of hits came up. Apart from the murder references, there were links to law papers, local news articles, and the firm of Simpson White Emerson. I went into the law firm’s website and found a short biography for Ralph.
Mr Emerson specializes in intellectual property and licensing, with particular expertise in internet law, digital media licensing and e-commerce.
He holds a J.D. from the Santa Clara School of Law (1997) and was admitted to practice law in California in 1998. He graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems from California State College, Northridge in 1992. Mr Emerson is a member of the American Bar Association and the Bar Association of San Francisco.
Prior to co-founding Simpson White Emerson in 2005, Mr Emerson was a senior associate with Rogerson, Bremner, Lintz and Yeo in Sacramento, California.
I zeroed in on the last line. Yet another link to Sacramento. Ralph had lived and worked there, probably at the same time as me. It couldn’t be just another coincidence. Somehow, our histories were linked.
I remembered the photographs on Ralph’s desk: his soft, pampered features, the gorgeous wife with the three-carat engagement ring, the designer-clad kids. It was beginning to make sense….
There was no Ralph ‘T’ Emerson. The T was designed to throw me off, making me think I was sharing my office with a low-rent ambulance chaser rather than a high-flying corporate lawyer.
But the real Ralph Emerson wasn’t my office buddy, either. He’d been forty miles away, enjoying his country club lifestyle in Palo fucking Alto. Ralph’s personal effects might’ve decorated my office, but they were just props. The man himself had never set foot in the building.
Yet someone had been coming into the office every day. There were always empty Coke cans in the trash, not to mention the unpleasant scent that hit me when I walked in the door. I never found the office exactly as I’d left it.
I recalled the oily, salesman’s
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