Free Power of Attorney by N.M. Silber Page A

turned to leave. What I was feeling still wasn’t that mind you, but this was, admittedly, going to be a hell of a lot more fun than circling numbers and fighting off frostbite at KL.

Chapter Eight
    M y meeting with Sachs had taken place on a Friday afternoon and Trog and I would not be seeing him together until Monday.  That left the weekend for me to get myself organized. 
    I spent Saturday in the office with Dana and Lena, who had graciously agreed to take over several of my cases while I became Trog’s consigliore. We also reviewed everything we could find out online about both DocuKeep and Randall Greene, which wasn’t very much unfortunately.  I got the distinct impression that neither one was all that fascinating a subject or the source of any titillating tidbits.
    Trog stopped by for a while and we carefully briefed him. When he found out that Deon had betrayed him, he got a look on his face like a lost puppy. Rather than being angry, he wanted to get her side of the story. Apparently, she still had not responded to his messages. How shocking. He was continuing to try to reach her through various channels and he did recall that she had once mentioned Temple University. So it looked like that would probably be our starting point on Monday.
    Lena had plans that evening with her family, but Dana and I went out to dinner and a movie later.  Dana didn’t discuss her love life, and I didn’t want to pry, but I must admit that I was a bit curious. She was almost always available to hang out on a Saturday night, but I still had a feeling there might be something going on that she kept to herself.  There were occasionally afternoons when she disappeared for a couple of hours and reappeared looking mysteriously happy, and dare I say, glowing? I had also seen her texting with someone who made her smile in a rather telling way. Maybe that was another mystery for me to solve eventually, The Riddle of the Raunchy Rendezvous .
    Sunday rolled around and I found myself at the Metro Grill in Center City nibbling on a French fry and watching my brother, Adam, annihilate a club sandwich. My siblings and I had always tried to get together for Sunday brunch when possible, but my eldest sister, Hannah had a new baby to take care of, and my middle sister, Sarah, had accepted a teaching position at a university in New York City. 
    That left Adam and me, which was fine. He and I were only 18 months apart in age, and of all of the Roths, we were the most alike. We had always been very close, and he would forever be my adored little brother, even though the two of us teased each other mercilessly at times and fought like, well, brothers and sisters.
    I still felt a twinge of guilt for not defending him more to Sachs. His opinion of Boy Wonder seemed to be a bit harsh too, though.  I had a feeling that they were just two smart, handsome guys from similar backgrounds, in a similar profession and they wanted to outdo each other. There was likely nothing more to it than that. I thought that I should try to find out more though, since Sachs and I would be working together, I mean.
    “So, Jacob Sachs,” I began.
    “Vodemort!” he interrupted, spitting crumbs at me.
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Like in Harry Potter.  Don’t say his name.”
    “I was unaware that he wanted to destroy humanity as we know it.”
    “Not destroy it.  Just rule it.”
    “Well if I cant same his name, what should I call him?”
    “Dickhead works,” he said with a smile.
    “I know too many people by that name. I might get confused.”
    “Okay, then ‘He Who Shall Not Be Named’ will have to do.”
    “What is exactly that you dislike about him so much?”
    “Hey, don’t make me out to be the bad guy. For your information, he doesn’t like me very much either. He thinks I’m cocky.”
    “You are cocky.”
    “Okay, that’s true, but he thinks that’s bad. Cocky isn’t bad.  Cocky is just confidence with a little swagger tossed in.  I’ll