A small raw snippet from Family Law #4

“How interesting,” April said. “Lee Anderson has hired the very same private investigators we use in Armstrong to run a series of inquiries on us.”

“I knew she wasn’t stupid,” Dakota said. “And Marsh and Hasan are the best in the business. I give her points for zeroing in on them to hire. My only concern is the conflict of interest. They shouldn’t have taken her money if they can’t do their assignment properly, and they certainly shouldn’t tell you that they were approached even if they do have to turn her down. You could reasonably conclude they will simply hire someone else and be alerted to their interest.”

“They didn’t tell me, I have others watching them. I think the key word is what you said, properly. The assignment reads to find and sort all public information and interview third parties. However they were told specifically not to try to breach our privacy, data systems, or suborn present or past employees. They may well conclude that puts them in no conflict with their duty to us.”

“They should have just hired a clipping service and asked them to do a search back to such and such a date,” Dakota said. “It would be a lot cheaper.”

“But the mentality is very different,” April said. “An investigator will tell much different things than a simple data sorter. For example they will inform a client what data is missing and why it’s absence is significant. No keyboard drone searching databases is going to analyze things in that depth. She was smart to hire their sort as well as data searchers.”

“Yes, but they will have to be theologians to sort out the moral imperatives from such an assignment,” Dakota warned. “I’d certainly not be confident I could to look at everything they know about us and decide what is public and searchable and what they only could know about from our relationship. I don’t consider myself a candidate for sainthood to be so flawlessly impartial.”

“I can see how to do it,” April admitted. “Just hire a promising new investigator and turn him loose on the problem with resources, but no access to their own files.”

“But . . . you’ve just hobbled him to do that,” Dakota objected.

“That’s all Lee’s paying for, and all she’d get elsewhere,” April pointed out.

“Did you think of that twisted devious thing all on your own? Or has Marsh and Hasan hired a new associate who might be used that way?” Dakota asked.

“I thought of it on my own,” April said. “But they do have a request out to several recruiters to find a new investigator. And it’s their first hire in over six months, so that’s sort of suspicious.”

“Are you going to quietly drop them?” Dakota wondered.

“Why? Because they could treat us badly?” April asked. “They’ve always had plenty of opportunity to be crooked with us. I don’t feel right to fire them unless they actually do something wrong. It’ll be interesting to watch.”

“You know . . . You could feed them misinformation or deliberately leak selected bits of information back to them,” Dakota suggested.

April smiled amused. “And you think I’m devious?” she asked Dakota.
* * *

17 Responses to A small raw snippet from Family Law #4

  1. Jenn April 20, 2017 at 1:15 pm #

    I can’t wait to read it!!!

  2. Eric April 20, 2017 at 4:44 pm #

    Hey Mac, this is re: April 6 (re-reading for the 11th time) — I noticed that the top speed of the Tobiuo using the Singh generator and electric engine in this book is 23 Knots — I just thought that was funny because that was the top speed of the Titanic 😀

    • Eric April 20, 2017 at 4:46 pm #

      Also – how’s the dictation software coming along? Is it meeting your needs?

      • Eric April 20, 2017 at 4:48 pm #

        Oh.. wait… That may have been a different author. :-\ sorry.

        • Mac April 21, 2017 at 8:39 am #

          For me? I tried Dragon a couple years back. It is supposed to be teachable – it wasn’t. I could correct a word ten times and it never learned.

    • Mac April 21, 2017 at 8:38 am #

      Amazing how our brains work, isn’t it?

    • Mac August 6, 2017 at 10:11 pm #

      Cue ominous music.

  3. DitN April 20, 2017 at 11:08 pm #

    Heh-heh! Devious fun.

  4. Cheryl April 21, 2017 at 10:06 am #

    Wow, sounds like this story may even surpass some previous ones. Can’t wait ?

  5. Buz April 23, 2017 at 3:25 pm #

    That’s an interesting little mental experiment to explore there Mackey. Conflicts of interest are so relevant. Looking forward to the book, as always. Chuckle

  6. Mark April 23, 2017 at 9:21 pm #

    So, when might we reasonably expect to see Family Law #4?

    • Mac August 6, 2017 at 10:09 pm #

      I’m past 128k words. Almost done and it will go to readers. Cover art is on hand. If Sarah Hoyt is too busy to do the cover layout I have a copy of the font and can do it now. If I miss anybody as a reader it is because I lost my e-mails when my desktop crashed and wouldn’t even boot.

  7. Bill F April 29, 2017 at 11:45 pm #

    Do April’s news articles come from MSNBC?

    • Mac August 6, 2017 at 10:06 pm #

      Shhhh…..Only the most outrageous.

  8. Suanna August 6, 2017 at 7:32 pm #

    The first time I read this snippet I decided that April was not as nice a person now as I thought earlier.

    Rereading it, I see that Dakota made the suggestion to mislead them. If they do so, I would expect major and serious repercussions based on Lee’s comments about deception in Family Law 2, 5534.

    Personally I find Lee a more relatable character, though I quite liked April. I hope they will not be at odds.

    • Mac August 6, 2017 at 10:05 pm #

      Dakota hasn’t always been in sync with The Three. They didn’t want any part of the duel she was hot to carry out. I write her as not always likable or even tempered. But that doesn’t mean they are ready to banish her. She has a long history of service. She may suggest things they reject.

      • Suanna August 7, 2017 at 5:49 pm #

        Ah. Thank you. Dakota is an interesting character and I liked that she did not always agree with the Sovereign.

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