“First they come on to you with their fake tits and short skirts, and then they bitch when you come on to them. That’s what they want, isn’t it? You can’t treat a whore like a lady. It’s a waste of time.”
“You need to update your thinking, Dan. Look at what just happened to Rod Talbott.”
“I don’t go after teenagers. That bitch who works for Hailey must be about thirty. She’s no innocent. None of them are.”
“They don’t want to be manhandled,” Bob said bluntly. “You can’t just reach out and grab.”
“Why not? It’s what they’re looking for. Look at how they dress.”
“It’s not what they’re looking for. That’s the whole point.”
“Are you going to fire her or not?” Dan asked, looking irritated.
“No, I’m not. We have no grounds and no reason to. You disliking her isn’t a reason to fire her. Nor is her rebuffing your advances. Hailey loves her. She says she’s smart and a hard worker. Just stay away from her if you don’t like her. In fact, just stay away from her, period. We don’t need a harassment suit here.”
“She’s a slut.”
“You don’t know that and neither do I.” It was obvious that the reason for Dan’s anger was that she wasn’t a slut. He couldn’t fire her for that.
Eventually, Dan lumbered out of Bob’s office and went back to his own, looking restless and dissatisfied.
Two days later, Dan was just about to leave for lunch when two detectives came to the agency, showed their badges to the receptionist, and asked to see Dan Fletcher. She was about to call Dan, when he walked into the reception area on his way to lunch.
“These gentlemen are here to see you,” she said quickly, to warn him. They showed him their badges and asked him if he’d like to go to a private room with them. He was late for lunch and he looked annoyed.
“Why would I want to go into a private room with you?” he asked them, and the senior detective lowered his voice so only Dan could hear him. “So we can arrest you in private. You’re under arrest,” he said quietly. Dan looked shocked.
“Are you crazy? For what? I own this agency. You can’t arrest me. I’m an upstanding citizen.” He was shouting, and people around the area were starting to look up to see what was going on.
“Get Benson!” he shouted to the receptionist. She buzzed Bob, who came immediately and approached Dan and the two policemen.
“What’s going on?” he asked Dan.
“They want to arrest me. Tell them who I am.” He was starting to look nervous.
“What are the charges?” Bob lowered his voice and asked them. The senior detective spoke in the same tone and told him. Bob looked at his longtime partner in despair. It was a lengthy and frightening list. “You’d better go with them, Dan. This could get ugly.”
“Call your goddamn wife and tell her to get me out of this,” he bellowed. He had no intention of making this easy for them. Jane had heard him by then and didn’t move from her desk. Julia looked at her and knew immediately from the look on her face.
“Did you . . .?”
Jane nodded, and then held up her head. “Yes, I did.”
Julia could see Dan in the reception area from where she was standing.
“I think they’re cops and they’re going to arrest him,” Julia said. Jane nodded again and Hailey came out of her office. Several others did too. Dan was shouting, Bob was trying to calm him down, and the detectives were waiting. They weren’t going anywhere. Dan was too old and too fat to make a run for it. It was embarrassing to watch.
“What’s up?” Hailey asked her two assistants.
“It’s Dan” was all Julia said, and Hailey had an instant bad feeling about it.
“Are those policemen?” Hailey asked.
“I think so,” she said, and Jane was silent and watching them too. This was turning out to be a bigger mess than she had thought it would be, but only because Dan wouldn’t go quietly.
Francine had come out of her office and was standing still, watching from the distance.
Bob suggested they all go into his office, and Dan was willing, as the two detectives followed them. Bob closed the door, although everyone could see through the glass wall. The detectives read him his Miranda rights and placed him under arrest in Bob’s office. They offered not to handcuff him if he would go with them peacefully.
“You’d better go with them, Dan,” Bob said firmly. “You don’t want to get dragged out of here, do you?”
“For chrissake,” Dan said, red in the face by then. “I’ll go with you,” he told them and turned to Bob. “And have your wife meet me at the police station, or wherever they take me.”
“I’ll call and see what she can do.” He opened the door to his office, and Dan walked across the reception area with the detectives walking closely on either side of him. They took the elevator to the lobby and left the building swiftly. From the windows, they saw Dan get into the back of a police car. Bob called Martha as soon as they left. She took the call immediately and he explained what had happened, and asked her to send a lawyer to Dan, even if she didn’t want to take the case. He knew she disliked Dan intensely and had no respect for him.
“I can’t,” she said simply.
“Why not? You don’t have to take the case, for God’s sake. Send someone else. He’s my partner in the agency.”
“I can’t take the case, or assign an attorney to it,” she said firmly, and Bob understood.
“Oh my God,” Bob said, and then was speechless for a moment. “You represent the victim, don’t you? How bad is it? The list of charges is awful. I hope it’s a false claim.” But he knew in his gut it wasn’t. Martha had been right. He should have separated himself from Dan years before. He was a disaster waiting to happen, and now it had.
“He should have been stopped a long time ago.” There was reproach for Bob in what she said. “He doesn’t deserve your loyalty.”
Bob called around and sent Dan a lawyer a few hours later. It was the best he could do. He found a criminal lawyer he knew to take the case, for the preliminary steps at least.
Jane took it one step further. She figured she’d get fired anyway. She drew up a Wanted poster, blew up a photograph of Dan Fletcher’s face, and attached it to the poster. She put his name underneath it, and what the charges were. She posted it on Instagram a few minutes later and it went viral immediately. It was over. He was a dead man. He was cooked.
A few hours later, Bob checked with the lawyer he’d sent. He told Bob that since it was Friday, he couldn’t get Dan out until the arraignment on Monday, when the judge would set bail, if he did. Given the gravity of the charges, he wasn’t sure the judge would let him out on bail. He might keep Dan in jail until he pled guilty or was convicted at a trial.
Merriwether came to sit with Bob in his office. He looked profoundly depressed. Dan would get no sympathy from Martha, who had never liked him, nor would Bob, whom she thought should have acted sooner. He hadn’t acted at all. Merriwether felt sorry for Bob. In her opinion, he hadn’t done anything to deserve this, other than fail to stop Dan earlier, which his wife thought was despicable.