SET in New Zealand (with NZ spelling). Three King brothers established the law firm 119 years ago.
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CHAPTER 1
Douglas McLeod, the latest recruit and only a year out of law school, entered the offices of Three Kings Law located with great harbour views in downtown Auckland.
It was half an hour before the official start to the business day, with only one receptionist at the desk. The nametag said Cindy. After checking Douglas's ID and reading the start of his letter of appointment Cindy signed in Douglas, issued a pass card and told him to wait. She returned with a glass of beer and asked him for his right shoe, having to repeat her request. She disappeared behind the door behind the desk and Douglas heard the door lock.
He stood at the counter feeling the urge to throttle Cindy.
Spotting four women at a coffee machine down a side passage, he went to them, walking on the toes of his right foot. They parted for him and one put down her coffee and said, "How do you like it sir?"
She was quite attractive. Douglas, although a little confused with this first-day reception, toyed with answering that question how a red-blooded man should but then thought that could easily lead to complaints being lodged against him alleging misbehaviour... not a great way to start his first permanent job and chose his words carefully.
"I guess the way you'd like it ma'am," Douglas said, eyeing the two rings on her ring finger. "Regular and hot."
All women laughed as if just hearing the joke of the year.
"Now, now," the woman presenting the coffee smiled. "I'm Jane Mason, to the left of me is Susan French, first to my right is Rebecca Donald and then beyond her is Jessica Sanford or Jessie as she prefers being called.
"Christ you're beautiful," Douglas exclaimed, still rather boyish and irrepressible to be taken for a seasoned lawyer. Jessica had really caught his eye.
Jessie blushed and dropped her head and the other females giggled. He decided he preferred the name Jessie.
"Jessie is your PA Mr McLeod," said Jane. "I'm HR manager and I had a premonition you'd be different so thought Jessie would be just right for you, she being shy and all that."
Four of the women smiled as they watched Douglas's mouth drop open and stay open. Jessie was studying her shoes.
Douglas stayed chatting and during that ten minutes found none of them had an access key to the room behind the reception desk. It seemed odd to him that nobody asked had he lost a shoe and whey was he carrying a glass of beer.
An unsmiling hawked-nose guy carrying a pilot's case came up and said, "Douglas?"
"Yes."
"I've been assigned to be your mentor. I'm Peter Duncan."
The women had melted away and Peter made no mention of Douglas's missing shoe or why he was holding a big glass of beer at 8:25 a.m.
Peter took Douglas to a meeting room where seven other lawyers were gathered. Two more entered. Peter introduced him and they began asking Douglas questions.
Douglas had taken the chair beside Peter after placing the glass of beer under a chair at the side of the room and his attaché case above it. He replied to questions thoughtfully and injected humour; having concluded this was a set-up or he'd mistakenly accepted employment with a mental institution.
The grandson of one of the founders of the firm, Jack King and his unmarried cousin Thelma King, both in their late forties, had interviewed Douglas two months earlier and accepted him into the practice in which they were joint managing partners. They now entered the room and everyone fell silent.
Peter said, "Thelma and Jack, we have almost completed the induction of our new junior, Douglas McLeod."
The overweight Jack pulled out his phone and spoke briefly. The door opened and Cindy came in and without speaking placed Douglas's shoe in front of him.
He said "Thank you Cindy. Please remove that unwanted beer from under the chair behind me."
Pushing his chair back and doing up his shoe Douglas looked at Jack and said, "Well, does this end this initiation?"
Thelma pushed back her wayward fringe and said. "Do you think it's a stupid initiation Douglas?"
"I think I should say its purpose eludes me."
Jack said, "It was established by the founders of this company to decide where people sit around this table, starting from the chair to my right. Two of the founders were strong on initiative and all three liked their little jokes."
Douglas's blond eyebrows lifted and his pale blue eyes narrowed in despair. He was aware law offices were fond of traditions but a tradition designed to determine where one sat at the table, fucking hell!
"Elizabeth?" called Thelma.
The doe-eyed woman with long stringy hair with an air of competence about her stood and said, "Unusually high results for our newcomer Thelma." She then summarised the results.
"Playing the video I can confirm Douglas approached the reception desk with confidence, spoke politely to our receptionist and expressed no undue surprise when handed the glass of beer and told to hang on to it and asked Cindy why she wanted his shoe and handed it over when she continued to hold out her hand for it and repeated her request. Only when she disappeared and locked the door did our newcomer express frustration and was recorded as saying, 'Fuck Cindy are you, a magpie?' I would suggest that response is one of the most original recorded and he showed no acute animosity as if confident that the shoe would be returned."
"At the coffee machine Douglas greeted the women gathered there in the friendly manner and did nothing to indicate his bewilderment. Moving on, under interrogation in this room Douglas was able to name the four females at the coffee machine as introduced, he complimented Jessica on her appearance and expressed astonishment when she was identified as his PA."
Peter then reported. "When I introduced myself as Douglas's senior he reacted in a friendly manner and made no explanation why he was holding a glass of beer so early in the day and why was he without a shoe. When asked under group interrogation why did he think his shoe had been taken, he replied with humour that Cindy the receptionist had a right shoe addiction."
Everyone laughed.
Peter concluded. "Douglas treated the glass of beer as if holding the Golden Chalice and made no effort to sip it."
Thelma asked: "And your conclusion?"
Peter said, " Somewhere along the line I suspect Douglas realized he was undergoing a weird induction, something to do with him being appraised, and simply decided to remain calm and play along. I think he thought the women at the coffee machine were a test to see whether he'd flirt or treat them professionally, that he'd not get a PA looking like Jessica does even in his dreams, that the glass of beer was a test for alcoholism or temperance and the confiscation of his shoe? Who knows? Because he accepted it had something to do with forensic research to find his connection, if any, to a triple axe murder."
Everyone clapped Peter.
Thelma then asked Douglas to stand and step back from his chair and she then asked Peter and the two lawyers on his left to move down one chair.
"The vacant chair is your position in this meeting room Douglas and that ends your informal induction except to say you passed that induction with exceptional distinction. When Jack as a raw graduate was put through the process he drank the beer at reception and pulled off his left shoe and left it on the counter. When I as a raw graduate, although having worked here during term breaks, the induction remained an unknown process to me. I vaulted the counter and screamed at the petrified receptionist behind the locked door to return my shoe. I'd handed over one of my mother's beloved Betty Muller's 'Cruise' shoes and the bitch had stolen it. And you'll find everyone here has their own story to tell about their induction, most of the stories being rather embarrassing. But we all agree that to some degree it indicates what sort of person and how we respond to nonsensical behaviour for what that's worth. Congratulations and we'll watch your progress in this firm with interest."
Douglas took his seat, with only one senior partner, Lew Black, between Douglas and Jack's right hand. Initially he thought crap, and then looking at the dark looks he was receiving from round the table didn't know what to think.
Jack opened proceedings and when he was done Thelma said, "My mother has a traffic violation to defend. Who volunteers?"
No hands were raised and someone called, "Give it to Mr McLeod."
"Douglas?"
"Is your mother a persistent violator with her driving?"
"Why do you ask that Douglas?"
"Because if she has a pretty clean record I have a great chance of impressing the judge."
Thelma laughed. "Very astute young man. Just give me a yes or no."
"I'd be delighted to represent your mom."
"Thank you Douglas."
The meeting ended and as everyone stood to leave Thelma called, "I will ask Jane to assign Jessie as your PA Douglas; she's due for promotion."
"Thanks but is this another test?"
"No, that's behind you. You'll only be judged on results including billings from now on just like all of us."
When Douglas completed documentation at HR, Jane Ratliff took him to his office where Jessie was already seated at her desk. She stood and said a little shyly, "Welcome to Three Kings Law and to your office Mr McLeod.
"Call me Douglas at all times please unless you wish to flirt and should call me Douggie. May I call you Jessie rather than Jessica?"
"Please do."
"Right Jessie, please bring up our file on Miss Thelma King's mother. I don't have her first name."
"Adele," said both women almost in unison.
"Thank you. Please read the file carefully and highlight each traffic citation Mrs King has received. I take it all client files have been scanned and are now online even if it requires passwords to open some documents?"
"Yes that's correct."
"I'm going with Mrs Mason now to be introduced to senior personnel. I'll phone text you my cell phone number."
"I have already entered it on my phone."
"Very impressive. Please have coffee with me at 10:00 instead of going to the café. We should exchange information about ourselves."
As they walked off Jane said, "You'll find Jessica is a sweet young lady and very efficient. Be aware you are her first real boss and it's possible with her being young and you being so good looking she'll fall for you. PA's usually do to their first boss and some never stop doing it during their business career."
"I'll keep that in mind. You are a very attractive person Jane. That's just a compliment, nothing else so do not be afraid."
"Afraid, of you? I think not Douglas. Some HR managers would book you for making a comment like that but I'm not one of them and appreciate your very personal remark was simply a compliment. Now let's meet the crew in IT first."
Over coffee, Douglas, who has just turned twenty-three, learned Jessie was a year younger, and possessed a certificate in business studies and had spent year two after leaving high school gaining qualifications in secretarial services and had then had spent eighteen months travelling overseas and working for secretarial agencies for eighteen months.
He asked Jessie: "What is your ambition?"
"To marry and have a couple of children," she said frankly.
"So you are not thinking about a lifetime career?"
"Well no."
"Why not?"
"Like I've just told you, I intend to by marry, um by the time I'm thirty, and then start a family."
"And what happens when your children settle in at primary school?"
"I guess I'll return to work, perhaps part-time at first."
"Hmmmm."
Jessie took the hook. "What?"
"I've read your CV and note your father heads his own law firm. Why aren't you working there and why haven't you studied law?"
