Lunch had gone badly. His meeting with Helen from Great Barrier hinted at an indistinct future. His fame (infamy?) was growing like an oil slick on stagnant water. Clients were calling with questions. The other employees were concerned about the trial’s effect on their corporate reputation. A company specializing in Security didn't need this kind of publicity. Helen offered him a month off without pay; she needed to have him out of the line of fire she said. She was trying to be fair, he realized, but as far as the courts were concerned, a month was the mere blink of an eye. With the serving of motions and briefs, summer and Christmas recesses, witnesses who were unavailable, judges who were sick, lawyers who were tied up with dozens of other matters and motions and pre-trials and divorces and plea-bargainings - the people concerned with this case would be lucky to see the end of it in two to three years. By then Rusty would be broke again and two to three years older.
