Sunday 9 October 2022

Case 2 - Episode 39 - Felicity and Alicia, again

Instead of going to Harry's office, Felicity decided to get a head start on her surveillance of Alicia.

After Harry had uploaded a small undetectable program that gave her administrative access to the Walthenson servers and network, she was able to download Alicia's electronic diary and email and take a country glance at her files.

Felicity found nothing, but knowing Alicia, she would be very careful to not have anything incriminating where people would be looking.

What was interesting was the spreadsheet summary of the practice's financials, and it was not as viable as it should be, and the fact the practice's offices and her house were mortgaged to the maximum told her something was not right.

Alicia would never put the wealth she had fought so hard for at risk.  Not unless there was a bigger pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

A couple of questions for Harry to ask his mother.

She had also been studying up on her subject, such as was available from various searches on the internet.  There was not much, and it had that sort of feel to it that someone had sanitised her profile and history.

She found Alicia was one of seven girls born to farmers from Lincoln County Oklahoma, did most of her formative education there and then moved to Philadelphia to live with an Aunt and finish her education at Penn State.

Reading newspaper archives, Felicity had picked up some details while there, a minor scandal with a professor, and another with a married man within her aunt's circle of friends.  These were advantageous liaisons, seed money to move to New You're, and perhaps to improve her grades, or get prospecting employment opportunities

Even then as a blooming teenager, Alicia knew what she had to do, fearlessly, to get ahead.  Perhaps in law, women had to go that extra mile to achieve what they wanted.

And so, Felicity concluded, it was not uncharacteristic of Alicia to find a man like Walthenson senior and make him her own.  After all, she had a prestigious office and position within the practice, and nearly all of the Walthenson wealth.

The only obstacle she could not overcome was Elsie Walthenson, and there were a few skirmishes over the years, all of which were won by Elsie.  With her family and wealth, Alicia could never hope to win.

But it did pose the question of whether she had attempted to take Walthenson junior from his wife.  In that, given Walthenson wandering eye, maybe Elsie would have handed him to her on a platter

Or just his head.

It was an amusing thought.

Felicity flopped down in the chair behind the window that overlooked the Walthenson office building and settled in with her laptop, coffee, and a bacon sandwich.  It was an English thing a friend had told her about and got strange looks from the serving staff when she asked for it.

No matter.  She was hungry and it looked delicious.

She had timed her arrival at the Cafe for ten minutes before Alicia usually arrived by car, or on foot from the subway.  Alicia was, in one respect, a creature of habit, being places on time.

And a minute after the hour, her car pulled up outside the building and the chauffeur got out and opened the door.  After a few short instructions, she went inside, and the car re-joined the traffic.

This morning’s diary was for a chamber meeting, then lunch with Alex Portman. 

Alex Portman was interesting in several respects, the first, a champion for same-sex marriage and women's rights, and second, she worked for a prominent city councillor but had ambitions of her own.  Reading between the lines, she had attached herself to the aging councillor with the intent to get his endorsement when he retired or died.

It seemed the latter was a more viable option.

There was no real connection between the two women, none that Felicity could find, and driving into their pasts found they came from the other side of the country, and both ended up in New York.

So, that being the case, it could only mean one thing.

That Alicia had her sticky fingers in the portside block of land and was taking a different path to find out about it.  The question was, how far was she willing to go?


© Charles Heath 2020-2022

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