Free The Law Partners (Michael Gresham Legal Thriller Series Book 3) by John Ellsworth Page A

Gresham, is exactly why you get paid the big bucks. Because you can make wine out of water, pull rabbits from hats, and slay dragons in the courtrooms of Chicago. I know, I've watched your star rise. Especially since you left your old firm. Where, I believe, you were asked to leave."
    He does know everyone's business. I was asked to leave my old firm, and it really was my old firm since I started it. But because my book of business had all but ceased to exist, I was voted out. Since then, my business has come roaring back like a tornado. Bancroft knows this too, but I don't push the point. No reason to defend or justify myself, not with this opportunistic hack.
    "Where do we find Natty McMann?" asks Marcel, sensing that I'm about finished up here.
    "Natty works in the County Clerk's office. He's second-in-command there. But catch him early in the morning. After lunch he's usually oiled up pretty good and you wouldn't want to put all your marbles on what he might tell you then."
    "Will do," I say, and extend my hand.
    We shake across the desk and turn to leave, when he stops me in my tracks.
    "Michael, there was one thing you should know about the fundraiser."
    I turn back around. "Yes?"
    "Darrell Harrow showed up that night. My sources tell me he was in hot pursuit of Mira."
    "What's that mean?"
    "It means they were an item. So I am told. Don't take my word for it."
    "Whose word should I take?"
    "Talk to Natty. He's my source."
    Maybe--I am hoping--Mira avoided having anything to do with Harrow in public that night. But knowing Mira and her bent for married men, I'm afraid I know what I will hear. Truth be told, I'm not eager to talk to Natty, though I must. Besides, I am certain beyond a reasonable doubt that the District Attorney's investigators--democrats in an office of democrats--have already been to see him. And, I'm equally certain they have his recorded statement and will add him to their witness list, a witness against Mira.
    Cook County politics, Cook County government.
    It is what it is.

14
    M arcel drives us up to Daley Plaza in his truck and we find underground parking at only fifty bucks a day. A steal, given where we are. A dash across the street and into the Daley Center, where we enter the County Clerk's office on the East Concourse and ask for Natty McMann. Who is asking? Michael Gresham, the attorney for Mira Morales, I reply. The clerk turns to page Mr. McMann. Moments later, she returns and leads us into the second office from the last down a long, wood-floored hallway. There are ancient radiators along the walls and the windows at the end of the hall look like they have been painted shut for a century or more. A reminder that not all Cook County tax dollars go for infrastructure.
    There, near the end, she opens a door with opaque glass on which is stenciled,
    Nathaniel J. McMann
    Assistant County Clerk
    Cook County, Illinois
    We step inside and find ourselves in an outer office with an empty desk. So we take a seat as the clerk directs, and we wait.
    Five, ten, fifteen minutes crawl by.
    Finally, the inner door opens and a swarthy, bald man with a stubby nose invites us into his office. "Natty McMann," he says once he shows us to the two visitors' chairs. He takes his seat behind his desk without offering to shake our hands. "I'm very busy and have a lunch date in fifteen minutes, so let's cut to the chase. You're Mira's lawyer and you must be the associate," he says to Marcel, who lets it slide. "What can I tell you about the fundraiser that you don't already know from Elmer?"
    "You've spoken to him?” I ask.
    "He gave me a jingle. Said I should take extra good care of you. Which of course I will. But about Mira Morales. I don't know much about her. She's never really had much to do with the County Clerk's office. She's mostly in the criminal courts. But I do know her when I see her and I saw her the night of the fundraiser. She was standing off to the side of the stage when this Darrell Harrow fellow