Read Online The Associate by Phillip Margolin - Free Book Online

with his words. As he spoke them he remembered Flynn ruffling Patrick Cummings’s hair.
    “Who else is going to represent the poor?” Kate asked. “ ’Cause it sure ain’t Reed, Briggs. If lawyers like Flynn didn’t take cases for a contingent fee no one but the rich could afford to sue. And they risk their own money on expenses, which they don’t recover if they don’t win. A good, decent lawyer can lose everything if he doesn’t prevail. The lawyer who sued when my friend became sterile did it to pressure the company into taking a dangerous device off of the market. He cared about Jill. If Insufort is disfiguring children the only way to make Geller stop marketing it is to expose the problem, and one of the best ways to do that is in the courts.”
    Daniel expelled the breath he’d been holding.
    “You’re right. Sorry. I’m just scared that I’m gonna lose my job because I missed that damn letter. And I’m certain there’s something wrong with Kaidanov’s study. It doesn’t make sense that he could get those results with Insufort. That’s why I was trying to find him. You know he hasn’t been at work for a while?”
    Kate nodded.
    “When I went to Kaidanov’s house I didn’t plan on going in, but I saw that the house had been searched and I thought he might be hurt or worse. And I did find something that might help.”
    Daniel pulled his handkerchief out of his pocket and laid the hard drive on the table. Kate stared at it.
    “If the study exists, and Kaidanov wrote up his results, it may be on here.”
    Kate laughed. “You stole Kaidanov’s hard drive?”
    “I didn’t steal it. I was trying to protect Geller. Isn’t that why you were there, to protect Geller’s property?”
    Kate hesitated and Daniel remembered something about her.
    “Wait a minute. Aren’t you the investigator who got into the hard drive in that wrongful termination case when we needed to recover E-mail that an employee erased?”
    Kate smiled ever so slightly.
    “Could you look at this? I tried at Kaidanov’s house, but you need a password to log on.”
    “Why should I?”
    “I told you before that I wasn’t born with a silver spoon like Joe Molinari. Well, the truth is that I wasn’t born with any kind of spoon. This job is all I’ve got. Briggs will need a scapegoat if Kaidanov’s letter sinks the Insufort case, and I’m it. I know there’s something wrong with Kaidanov’s study. If I can prove it I can save the case, and I might save my job.”
    “What if the study is the real thing?”
    Daniel sighed and shook his head. “Then I’m toast.”
    Kate made a decision. She held out her hand.
    “Give me that,” she said, flicking her fingers toward the hard drive. “We’ll take it to my house and see what we can see.”
     
     
     

NINE
     
     
    Daniel followed Kate Ross into the West Hills along winding roads. At first, the streets were lined with houses, then forest began to predominate and the houses appeared farther apart. Kate lived at the end of a cul-de-sac separated from her neighbors on either side by a quarter acre of woods. Her modern glass-and-steel ranch perched on a hill overlooking downtown Portland.
    Daniel followed Kate along a slate path through a small flower garden to the front door. A staircase next to the entryway led up to Kate’s bedroom. She walked past it and through a living-room and dining-room area. The outer wall was all glass. Daniel glanced quickly at her expensive-looking furnishings. The abstract painting on the living-room wall was an original oil, and so was a smaller French country landscape. The chairs and sofa were covered in leather and the dining-room table was polished oak and looked antique.
    Kate walked down another staircase across from the kitchen to a workroom lit by fluorescent lights. Scattered around the basement room were several workbenches covered with monitors, wires, motherboards, and computer innards. A desk was affixed to one wall and ran its