The Firm

“’Two members of the firm, Marty Kozinski and Joe Hodge, were killed today. We were very close to them.”

On Mitch and Abby’s arrival in Memphis, they learn of the deaths of two of the firm’s associates. This event is the first red flag that Mitch takes seriously, and it leads to actions that will reveal the danger the firm poses for Mitch and Abby.

“Mitch nodded and knew for certain he had never been within a hundred yards of Nathan Locke. He would have remembered. It was the eyes, the cold black eyes with layers of black wrinkles around them. Great eyes. Unforgettable eyes. His hair was white and thin on top with thickets around the ears, and the whiteness contrasted sharply with the rest of his face. When he spoke, the eyes narrowed and the black pupils glowed fiercely. Sinister eyes. Knowing eyes.”

The first time Mitch meets Nathan Locke, one of the named partners of the firm, he is unsettled by his eyes. Mitch finds Nathan cold and sinister. Later in the novel, Mitch learns that Nathan grew up on the streets of Chicago where he was a member of the Morolto family, underscoring the darkness Mitch feels in him.

“They worked quickly, in the dark. The receiver from the kitchen phone was unplugged and laid on the table. The microphone was unscrewed and examined. A tiny drop-in transmitter, the size of a raisin, was glued in the cavity of the receiver and held firmly in place for ten seconds. When the glue became firm, the microphone was replaced and the receiver was plugged into the phone and hung on the kitchen wall. The voices, or signals, would be transmitted to a small receiver to be installed in the attic. A larger transmitter next to the receiver would send the signals across town to an antenna on top of the Bendini Building. Using the AC lines as a power source, the small bugs in the phones would transmit indefinitely.”

DeVasher uses his power as head of security at Bendini, Lambert & Locke to surveille all the employees he chooses. In this case, DeVasher’s people show how easy it is to break into Mitch and Abby’s home and set up surveillance while the couple attends a prestigious dinner with a named partner. From this moment on, everything Abby and Mitch say in their own home will be recorded and reviewed by DeVasher and his team, taking from them the freedom they believe they enjoy.

“The morning after the ceremony for the dead lawyers, he found himself in the library on the first floor looking for a treatise when he again noticed the five portraits. He walked to the wall and stared at them, remembering the brief obituaries given by Avery. Five dead lawyers in twenty years. It was a dangerous place to work. On a legal pad he scribbled their names and the years they died. It was five-thirty.”

Mitch takes an interest in the memorialized lawyers from his firm because there are so many who died tragically while working for the firm, leading him to hire a private investigator to investigate the unusual deaths. Mitch’s interest not only leads to the discovery that these lawyers were likely murdered, but it also results in the death of the investigator and the revelation to Mitch that not only is there something strange going on at the firm, but that it is something dangerous that could lead to murder.

“It was a rich brogue, undoubtedly Brooklyn. Mitch studied him carefully. He was about forty, with a short military haircut on the sides and a wisp of gray hair hanging almost to his eyebrows. The suit was a three-piece, navy in color, made of at least ninety percent polyester. The tie was cheap imitation silk. He wasn’t much of a dresser, but there was a certain neatness about him. And an air of cockiness.”

Mitch’s initial impression of Wayne Tarrance is slightly judgmental, but accurate to his personality. With this first meeting, Mitch doesn’t initially understand what an impact this meeting will have on his future. He isn’t impressed, and that idea might stick with him over time as Mitch will later find himself unable to trust Wayne as completely as he needs to.

“Georgetown, the capital, in recent years had become an international tax haven with bankers as secretive as the Swiss. There were no income taxes, corporate taxes, capital-gains taxes, estate or gift taxes. Certain companies and investments were given guarantees against taxation for fifty years. The islands were a dependent British territory with an unusually stable government. Revenue from import duties and tourism funded whatever government was necessary. There was no crime or unemployment.”

The unique tax laws of Grand Cayman explain why many businesses bank there. Moving money in Grand Cayman is easy and does not require the exchange of information that many other banking entities require, explaining why the clients of Bendini, Lambert & Locke frequently conduct business with the banks there. It is these tax laws that also allow the firm to launder money there for the Morolto family.

“I wouldn’t work there. I mean, I don’t know all that you do, and I suspect you know a lot you’re not telling. But we’re standing here in the sleet because we don’t want to be seen. We can’t talk on the phone. We can’t meet in your office. Now you don’t want to meet in my office. You think you’re being followed all the time. You tell me to be careful and watch my rear because they, whoever they are, may be following me. You’ve got five lawyers in that firm who’ve died under very suspicious circumstances, and you act like you may be next. Yeah, I’d say you got problems. Big problems.”

When Mitch meets with Eddie Lomax the second time, Eddie outlines Mitch’s situation, and by doing so, underscores the danger that Mitch finds himself in. At this point, Mitch still does not know what the firm is hiding, but he knows that five of the lawyers died in suspicious ways and he doesn’t know if he might be next on the list.

“After midnight, the lights in the hangar were extinguished and the half dozen planes sat in the darkness. A side door opened, and three men, one of them Avery, entered and walked quickly to the Lear 55. Avery opened the baggage compartment, and the three hurriedly unloaded twenty-five heavy cardboard boxes.”

Grisham does not reveal the true nature of the firm until later in the novel, but this scene reveals the smuggling of millions of dollars of American cash into Grand Cayman where Grisham already established that the tax laws are favorable toward American interests. Not only does this reveal the smuggling of money, but Mitch was in this plane for a time while the money was in it as well, revealing how easy it is to incriminate an innocent person.

“We don’t want to use them, but one more little conversation with Mr. Tarrance or any other Fibbie and we’ll mail them to your wife.”

DeVasher shows Mitch the pictures taken of him on Grand Cayman with a sex worker and explains how he plans to control Mitch with them. Not only is it clear that the firm uses the associates’ families to control their behavior, but it is also implied in this act that the firm encourages wives to stay home and raise babies so that their health and safety can be used to control the associates.

“She walked to the window next to her desk and looked north, along Front. Two blocks up on the opposite side, floors four and five of the Bendini Building were visible.”

Tammy rents offices in a building just down the street from the Bendini Building. The purpose of this act is not made clear in this chapter, but the fact it is so close to Mitch’s office hints at the beginnings of a plan.

“They ordered coffee, and at exactly nine Mitch returned to the lounge, to the machine, where he nervously inserted six quarters and pulled the lever under Marlboro Lights, in memory of Eddie Lomax. He quickly reached into the tray, took the cigarettes and, fishing around in the darkness, found the cassette tape.”

The cloak and dagger actions begin in this novel with the negotiations between Mitch and the FBI. Wayne Tarrance leaves a cassette tape for Mitch in a complicated scenario to make the first counteroffer in these negotiations; a counteroffer that raises Mitch’s hopes of reaching the deal he wants.

“Three miles out of Georgetown, on the narrow and winding road to Bodden Town, Mitch saw him. The man was squatting behind an old Volkswagen Beetle with the hood up as if engine trouble had stopped him. The man was dressed like a native, without tourist clothes. He could easily pass for one of the Brits who worked for the government or the banks. He was well tanned. The man held a wrench of some sort and appeared to study it and watch the Mitsubishi jeep as it roared by on the left-hand side of the road. The man was the Nordic.”

For the first time, Mitch recognizes one of the men DeVasher has sent to follow him. This man will appear again later in the novel to be a pivotal part of Mitch’s escape. It is at this point that Mitch really is being followed and he really is in danger, increasing the tension in the plot.

“Let’s just suppose the FBI has a hunch who our biggest client is. Okay. Think along with me. And let’s just suppose Hodge and Kozinski fed them enough to confirm the identity of this particular client. See where I’m going? And let’s suppose the Fibbies have told McDeere all they know, along with a certain amount of embellishment. Suddenly, your ignorant rookie recruit is a very smart man. And a very dangerous one.”

DeVasher explains the situation with Mitch to Oliver and Nathan. DeVasher once again attempts to take control of the situation by explaining where they are and where they could be should Mitch be talking to the FBI. DeVasher does not have all the information required to condemn Mitch, but he has enough to make him very dangerous for Mitch.

“The scotch and water sat on the wicker table between them, and she smiled at it. Much easier than she had prayed for. She took a small plastic packet from the orange strap between her legs and dumped one capsule of chloral hydrate into his drink.”

Tammy drugs Avery to put him to sleep for the night. This moment marks a turn in Mitch’s plan to escape the firm as Tammy is about to make copies of the files that will ensure Mitch’s safe exit from the grip of the FBI, but it also begins a cat and mouse-like game between Mitch and the Morolto family. The suspense ratchets up in response to this moment, placing Tammy and Abby in danger in the short run, and beginning a race to the finish line for the McDeeres, the FBI, and the Morolto family.

“A wire ran from the copier through a hole in the wall and down the inside of a closet, where it connected with wires from three other copiers on the fourth floor. The wire, larger now, ran down through the ceiling and along a baseboard to the billing room on the third floor, where a computer recorded and billed every copy made within the firm. An innocuous looking little gray wire ran from the computer up a wall and through the ceiling to the fourth floor, and then up to the fifth, where another computer recorded the access code, the number of copies and the location of the machine making each copy.”

Mitch makes copies of some of Avery’s files outside his office using client numbers from his own clients, some from Lamar Quin’s, and some from Avery’s client. The wires running from the copier to the security room shows again how much control DeVasher has over everything in the Bendini Building, but the tracing of these wires foreshadows the moment DeVasher realizes what Mitch has done and uses it as evidence against him.

“His wife leaves. Says she’s gotta go home to her mother, who’s got lung cancer. And that she’s tired of a bunch of his crap. We’ve detected a little trouble here and there over the months. She bitched a little about his hours and all, but nothing this serious. So she goes home to Mommy. Says she don’t know when she’s coming back. Mommy’s sick, right? Removed a lung, right? But we can’t find a hospital that’s heard of Maxine Sutherland. We’ve checked every hospital in Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee. Seems odd, doesn’t it, fellas?”

DeVasher once again makes a case for Mitch’s arrangement with the FBI by using Abby’s absence from Memphis as proof. DeVasher believes Mitch is trying to hide his wife to protect her, which is partially true, and this is proof that Mitch knows more than he should about the firm’s business, that he is working with the FBI to take the firm down. However, DeVasher’s argument, as close to the truth as it is, is ignored by the named partners at the firm due to lack of proof, undermining the control DeVasher believes he has over the firm.

“Okay, your man, McDeere, has been paid a million bucks already. Another million is on the way. He’s delivered one load of Bendini documents and claims to have ten thousand more.”

An FBI agent sells information to an associate of Lou Lazarov about Mitch, revealing everything Mitch has done within his agreement with the FBI. This information in the wrong hands could put Mitch’s life in danger and is a serious breach on the part of the FBI, something Mitch has been concerned about from the beginning. This is proof that Mitch shouldn’t trust anyone as he moves forward.

“Lazarov entered the power office on the fourth floor and every head bowed. DeVasher faced him like a scared, whipped child. The partners studied their shoelaces and held their bowels. ‘We can’t find him,’ DeVasher said.”

Lou’s power is immediately felt the moment he walks into the conference room. DeVasher and the partners quickly relinquish their control, changing the dynamic that has dominated the Bendini Building since Mitch’s arrival. DeVasher was right about Mitch, but that is little consultation now that he must stand back and allow Lou to fix his mistake.

“From Mobile to Miami, the search began for the Cutlass rented from Avis by Abby McDeere. The sheriff’s investigator promised to keep the victim’s boyfriend, Aaron Rimmer, posted on all developments. Mr. Rimmer would wait at the Hilton. He shared a room with Tony Verkler. Next door was his boss, DeVasher. Fourteen of his friends sat in their rooms on the seventh floor and waited.”

DeVasher’s people work under the idea that they are unseen and therefore undetectable. In this instance, Ray McDeere recognized one of DeVasher’s people and stopped her, but DeVasher’s team used the moment to turn the table on Ray and Abby by reporting the incident as a crime. Now DeVasher and his team get to sit back and wait for the police to do their work for them.

“Mr. Morolto snapped orders like an agitated drill sergeant. A command post was set up in the great room of the penthouse, overlooking the calm emerald water. Nothing suited him. He wanted breakfast, and Lazarov sent to vans to a Delchamps supermarket nearby. He wanted McDeere, and Lazarov asked him to be patient. By daybreak, the troops had settled into their condos. They waited. Three miles away along the beach, and within view of the Sandpiper, F. Denton Voyles and Wayne Tarrance sat on the balcony of the eighth-floor room at the Sandestin Hilton. They drank coffee, watched the sun rise gently on the horizon and talked strategy. The night had not gone well. That car had not been found. No sign of Mitch.”

Tension builds as both law enforcement and the mafia set up camps to search for Mitch and the missing files. There is irony in how alike the tactics of the mafia and law enforcement are, but the real issue is that both sides are just miles from where Mitch and his family are hiding, waiting for the right moment to escape. The danger is close, and one misstep could be disastrous.

“Mr. Morolto leaned into Lazarov’s face. ‘What about the water, Lou? We’re on a beach, right? There’s land and highways and railroads and airports on one side, and there’s water and boats on the other. Now, if the roads are blocked and the airports and railroads are out of the question, where do you think they might go? It seems obvious to me they would try to find a boat and ease out in the dark. Makes sense, don’t it, boys?”

Joey Morolto is the first to think that Mitch’s plan in coming to Florida might be to leave by water, something neither the FBI nor the local cops have thought of. With this thought, however, Grisham has foreshadowed a water escape with Mitch’s chosen escape route and the many conversations he had with dive captain Barry Abanks. Joey’s idea, however, places a potential obstacle between Mitch and his escape.

“After sixteen hours, the video deposition was over. Starting with the first tape, Mitch had faced the camera, raised his right hand and sworn to tell the truth. He stood next to the dresser with documents covering the floor around him. Using Tammy’s notes, summaries and flowcharts, he methodically walked through the bank records first. He identified over two hundred and fifty secret accounts in eleven Cayman banks. Some had names, but most were just numbered.”

Mitch, Abby, and Ray spend several days in a motel room under the thumb of law enforcement and the Morolto family. Grisham finally reveals why, showing that Mitch has done as he promised, provided the files and depositions against Bendini, Lambert & Locke, assumingly for the FBI. Videotaping the depositions makes it clear Mitch has no intention of turning himself into the FBI, but he is trying to do the right thing even as he protects himself and his family.

“It was Ray. It had to be. The face was sunburned, and the hair was too short to be stylish. The eyes were covered. Same height. Same weight. Same walk. ‘How’s it going?’ Lamar said to the man. ‘Fine. You?’ the voice was similar. Lamar paid for his chips and returned to the parking lot. He calmly dropped the bag in a garbage can next to a phone booth and quickly walked next door to a souvenir shop to continue his search for the McDeeres.”

Lamar was the first associate Mitch met from Bendini, Lambert & Locke, and they became good friends. Lamar was also close to Marty Kozinski, the associate who died as he was in the process of talking to the FBI. When Lamar sees Ray at the convenience store, he clearly knows who he is and that Mitch is nearby, but he doesn’t sound an alarm, proving that not everyone at Bendini, Lambert & Locke lacks a sense of right and wrong.