2021.12.29 A Case Compelling

A Case Compelling
Elspeth and Zago plot their next move when Christian Wright's law firm comes knocking.
IC Date	December 18th, 2021
IC Time	1pm
Players	Elspeth & Zago
Storyteller	WorldWeaver
Location	Leonard Shore House; Rites of Solitude
Spheres	Vampire

The letter was just sitting there in Elspeth's inbound box like any other. It was nondescript. Eggshell, Times New Roman font with a friendly looking snowman waving from the stamp. Elspeth, or her secretary, may not have thought it important enough to open first.

Christian Wright was a name every lawyer worth their salt had heard about in the past four months. His team of bar appointed mercenaries have a reputation for being fierce and decisive. And Christian Wright has been hired to represent the recent client of Zago Giovanni Erica Chamberlain.

She's suing because an employee Rites of Solitude allegedly made crude comments about the known political affiliations of the affluent Miss Chamberlain. The records confirm that they spoke, but the employee has a spotless record according to his manager and was being considered for promotion. Notably, Miss Chamberlain was seeking reservations for her father who was at the time still living. She cancelled by email days after he died.

With Christian Wright at the head of this otherwise nebulous shakey case, Zago will need to be briefed at once.

Elspeth hmmms and taps a finger on her mouse as she reads over the information. First thing's first. She types up and fires off an email to one of her legal aids to prep a motion for dismissal. Meanwhile, her secretary, one Miss JWatkinn, rings up Zago on whatever number they have on file for him.

Zago waits in the private office in Rites of Solitude, a simple room painted a warm green and lit by lamps, windowless. When his phone rings, he answers immediately. "Hello, this is Zago," he says, his voice a hollow baritone that never quite migrated out of his chest. He'll be perfectly cooperative with the secretary, letting her take whatever information she needs.

The secretary confirms Zago's identity, before arranging for him to come in as soon as possible for a face to face.

Zago dresses more appropriately for this occasion, and invites Elspeth to his home in Escondido, a Queen Anne mansion built in 1896 and lovingly renovated. He waits for Elspeth to arrive, standing in the cupola facing the front gate, which stands open.

Elspeth does a very job at hiding her perturbitude at being summoned. SHE summons them, she doesn't go to MEET them. But then again, this guy is connected and her other clients are not. Still. A new secretary might be in order over this fuckery.

A fairly nice sedan in the $30-$40k range pulls up in front of the home. After pulling to a stop, Elspeth steps out in all her pants suited glory. She pulls out a nice brown leather briefcase, before closing the door and heading up the driveway. One last check to make sure all of her clothes are in order, and she steps up to knock on the front door.

Zago himself opens the door to greet Elspeth. He's wearing some nice formalwear, though none of the finery around him can distract from how pale this man is. He doesn't seem like he's about to collapse. Is he wearing makeup? "Ms. Dunsirn," he says, smiling in an attempt to be disarming. "I'm glad you could make it, and I apologize for any inconvenience," he says. "Please, come in. We'll go to the study upstairs." He leads her upstairs, to the plush study. "Please, make yourself comfortable," he says. "Would you like a drink?"

Elspeth nods in greeting when the door is opened, and moves to follow him in. Is he pale? Well who is Elspeth to judge? Not a word is said about it, or his possible makeup habits. Wealthy people being fucking weird is nothing new to Elspeth. "No apologies necessary," she says sternly, her business like demeanor uncracked by the smile.

Once upstairs, she'll find a place to settle in that is comfortable enough, but has a table nearby that she can lay out documents for. "No thank you," as ways of response for a drink. She sets her briefcase down on the table, clicking the latches and popping it open. Then she reaches in and pulls out a thing manilla folder with several sheets of paper inside. "Is straight to business alright with you, Mister Giovanni?"

"Just peachy," Zago says in response, leaning forward. "How shall we proceed?" He leans forward, looking at the manila folder. He gives Elspeth his full attention.

"There's a few things my secretary should have explained that we need. Any contracts that you may have signed with Erica Chamberlain, and videos you have of her on you premises, and the employment contract you have with the one who allegedly made the comments." Elspeth then flips open the folders, and slides a few documents towards Zago. "This is the contract between you and me, and has everything about my retainer fee and what that covers. This," she slides some more papers towards him, "is the legal, and limited, power of attorney that you're giving me to act on your behalf in this case. And this," she slides a third stack towards him, "is the motion for dismissal that I've already filed on your behalf."

At that, Zago stands to grab a manila folder of his own from a nearby bookshelf and hands it over to Elspeth. He's wearing black leather riding gloves, it's more apparent now up close. "I've looked it over," he says, "And gotten together what I can." He produces a flash drive from his pocket to hand over to Elspeth. "My staff helped me find it. Should be everything." He then picks up the papers to look them over. He nods, and signs on dotted lines where necessary. "I'm glad to have your help with this," he says. "Truly. Thank you."

Elspeth looks at the flash drive and there's a devilish flash in her eye. "If this is as damning as I hope it is, you could consider a counter suite that we would win, very easily. But the money probably wouldn't be that good, unless we could show that the motive was prejudice in nature."

"Well, why don't we take a look?" Zago asks, and motions to a projector and a curtain. "I can pull it up. Also, I'll put you in touch with HR, he can help you with anything related to the employees."

"That would be helpful, thank you." Elspeth makes sure all the papers are nice and neat and stacked before turning to look at the curtain.

Zago reaches under his chair to pull a laptop into his lap. He plugs in a corded mouse and uses it to quickly navigate to the video file. He then gets out his phone and uses it to lower the projector curtain, then double-clicks the file to pull it up. The projector begins to whirr and takes about fifteen seconds to load what's on the screen, and then hits 'play'.

Elspeth watches what's on the file with interest. She has a pad of paper and a pen that she pulls out of her coat and begins to jot down any pertinent information.

The video feed of the incident was quick and easy to find, the image taking form over the curtain with a flicker. The audio is clear enough to hear but still sounds like it's coming through a pipe. The sound of roaring California wind indicates the opening of the door as much as the glance up from employee TJ Fisk.

"Hey, welcome." His voice is.. oddly perfect. The sound of high heels clacking marble-toned silicate flooring comes before the sight of Miss Chamberlain herself entering stage right.

"Yes, I called before. I'm to see the area you offer for a wake." She sounds bored, like TJ's a real estate agent and this is house number Five. "Oh, of course. Miss Chamberlain. Your husband's father, the CEO of QuickTech?"

"Yes. The wake room, please." The way the video transitions to the next relevant camera as they talk is what the brown-nosing manager must have been talking about when he gave the USB to Zago. "Is it true this is the largest in the city?"

"Oh, I'm not sure of that, ma'am. I wouldn't be surprised, but more importantly it's the finest." He carries on about not only the type of wood, but the type of lacquer used over it in only mildly embellished detail. He's demeanor is perfectly sympathetic and warm the entire duration of their interaction.

The same can be said for when they walk outside to discuss if they will be able to accommodate the expected mourners in the parking lot. By their body language there's no sign of conflict. Miss Chamberlain's driver holds the door open for her when she leaves and TJ is, as far as anyone can tell, perfectly content with their interaction. But it's only the body language to go by--ripping winds beat against the cameras microphones harder than their voices manage to.

Zago stops the footage. "Hmm. That complicates things," he murmurs. "Unless there's another way to find out what was said."

"We might be able to get somebody to clean that up," remarks Elspeth, finishing a few more notes before clicking the end of her pen to retract the metal writey bit up inside of it. "But their body language is pretty indicative of that being more of the same. Perfectly friendly, nothing crude said. But cleaning up that audio would get us quite a few points. I'm pretty sure I can use this to back them off." She pauses and clicks her pen into writing position again. "Was anything he did there out of the ordinary? Going into the parking lot, specifically, as your guests leave. This is a really important detail, and telling me will in no way hurt your case. Only help."

"They appear to have been discussing the funeral party logistics in the parking lot," Zago says. "A lot of cars come here every day. It seems nothing out of the ordinary. Still, I'd like to hear everything, first. It could have only taken TJ a second to say something stupid, after all."

Elspeth doesn't write anything down from that, but holds her pen in place over the paper. "Have you talked to TJ and gotten his side of the events?" There's also the unspoken 'did you believe him' in the air, said with a look instead of words.

"I never talked to TJ much, to tell you the truth," Zago says. "HR is interviewing him bright and early in the morning, though. You should be there."

To be continued...