Seeley was near the end of the witness list when there was a knock at the open door and Chris Palmieri came in. In a firm where the younger lawyers went without ties and jackets, Palmieri wore a trimly cut gray suit, starched dress shirt, and silk tie. A pale pink pocket square was carefully folded to look like a casual afterthought, and his light hair was cropped close.
“Tina said you wanted to ask me about something.”
Seeley had wondered about Palmieri's prickliness not only when Tina introduced them in the workroom but also in their telephone conversations the week before. He assumed it was the young partner's resentment at being passed over to run the case when Pearsall died. But it could also have been ill will toward any lawyer who tried to replace his mentor and, probably, friend.
“Do you know where the Warren deposition is?”
“Warren?”
Seeley slid the witness binder down the conference table to where Palmieri was. “Lily Warren. The scientist who St. Gall says invented AV/AS first.” Vaxtek's case turned on its claim that one of its own scientists, Alan Steinhardt, invented AV/AS. If St. Gall could prove that Warren invented AV/AS first, it would win.
“Oh, her.” He left the binder on the conference table, unopened. “We didn't depose her.”
Seeley waited. Not to depose a key witness was unthinkable.
“St. Gall dropped her. It turns out she's a crackpot. They were afraid her testimony would backfire on them.”