designers, cold-calling financial advisers, and serial tech entrepreneurs. Nobody was doing particularly well. The only reason a business moved into our damp, roach-infested building was to have a downtown address in its letterhead, suggesting a degree of legitimacy. However, anyone who stepped inside could see that we were all just a month’s rent away from extinction.
I stepped out of my car and walked to the elevator, ears pricked, ready to look surprised at the first sign of a police ambush. But the basement was silent except for the high-pitched buzz of old fluorescent bulbs.
I rode the elevator to the fourth floor. When the doors rattled open, I poked my head out into the corridor, looking along the line of closed doors. The air was stagnant, and I could hear the honking traffic outside. Satisfied the coast was clear, I walked briskly towards my suite at the end of the corridor.
The surprise came when I opened my office door and flipped the light switch. Ralph’s desk had been stripped bare. His computer, family photos, and piles of work papers were gone. Even the crappy artwork on the wall had disappeared. Only his desk and high-backed chair remained.
I took off my shades and stared at Ralph’s bare desk, struggling to make sense of it all. I guessed he must’ve moved out just hours before his death. If he’d caught wind that someone was after him, he might’ve been in a hurry to pack up and leave town. As it turned out, he hadn’t hurried quickly enough.
On one hand, I was relieved. Ralph was dead, his office has been cleaned out, and there were no signs the cops were coming. My past could stay buried for another day. But there was still plenty to worry about. Someone had been in my apartment while Ralph was supposedly lying dead in Palo Alto. Could Ralph have been working with a partner?
I sat at my desk and fired up my computer, scanning the local news sites for more details on Ralph’s murder. The TV networks were still waiting on video footage, but The Chronicle promised more meat to the story. Under the headline “Prominent Bay Area Attorney Slain” there was a photograph of Ralph and his beautiful wife in formal attire, attending some kind of charity function.
It was definitely the same Ralph T Emerson, yet something wasn’t adding up. I frowned at the beaming couple, a picture of wealth and privilege, and then glanced back at the headline.
Prominent Bay Area Attorney? That didn’t sound like the same guy who needed to split the lease on a D-grade office suite. I clicked on the link to Ralph’s story.
(10-12) 19:50 PALO ALTO – A high-flying Palo Alto attorney was murdered in his swimming pool early this morning while his wife was dropping off their two children at preschool.
Ralph Emerson, 39, was taking his regular morning swim when he was bludgeoned to death by an unknown assailant and left floating at the bottom of his pool. His body was discovered by his wife less than an hour after the bloody attack. There were no signs of the house being broken into.
The murder weapon has not been confirmed but we understand an iron golf club was found at the scene. Paramedics report the wounds to Mr Emerson’s head were between ten and twelve in number.
Mr Emerson was a founding partner at Simpson White Emerson, a law firm specializing in intellectual property and copyright law. He was well known in the Silicon Valley legal community and had recently presented at Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society.
Neighbors describe Mr Emerson as a kind, personable man who worked hard and lived for his family.
“This is just an appalling event,” said neighbor Lisa Brewer. “I can’t believe it’s happened here, in our street. There’s never been any trouble here before.”
Palo Alto police would not discuss details of the case except to say that four detectives had already been assigned to the investigation. They would like to hear from anybody who was in the Cowper Street vicinity
I stepped out of my car and walked to the elevator, ears pricked, ready to look surprised at the first sign of a police ambush. But the basement was silent except for the high-pitched buzz of old fluorescent bulbs.
I rode the elevator to the fourth floor. When the doors rattled open, I poked my head out into the corridor, looking along the line of closed doors. The air was stagnant, and I could hear the honking traffic outside. Satisfied the coast was clear, I walked briskly towards my suite at the end of the corridor.
The surprise came when I opened my office door and flipped the light switch. Ralph’s desk had been stripped bare. His computer, family photos, and piles of work papers were gone. Even the crappy artwork on the wall had disappeared. Only his desk and high-backed chair remained.
I took off my shades and stared at Ralph’s bare desk, struggling to make sense of it all. I guessed he must’ve moved out just hours before his death. If he’d caught wind that someone was after him, he might’ve been in a hurry to pack up and leave town. As it turned out, he hadn’t hurried quickly enough.
On one hand, I was relieved. Ralph was dead, his office has been cleaned out, and there were no signs the cops were coming. My past could stay buried for another day. But there was still plenty to worry about. Someone had been in my apartment while Ralph was supposedly lying dead in Palo Alto. Could Ralph have been working with a partner?
I sat at my desk and fired up my computer, scanning the local news sites for more details on Ralph’s murder. The TV networks were still waiting on video footage, but The Chronicle promised more meat to the story. Under the headline “Prominent Bay Area Attorney Slain” there was a photograph of Ralph and his beautiful wife in formal attire, attending some kind of charity function.
It was definitely the same Ralph T Emerson, yet something wasn’t adding up. I frowned at the beaming couple, a picture of wealth and privilege, and then glanced back at the headline.
Prominent Bay Area Attorney? That didn’t sound like the same guy who needed to split the lease on a D-grade office suite. I clicked on the link to Ralph’s story.
(10-12) 19:50 PALO ALTO – A high-flying Palo Alto attorney was murdered in his swimming pool early this morning while his wife was dropping off their two children at preschool.
Ralph Emerson, 39, was taking his regular morning swim when he was bludgeoned to death by an unknown assailant and left floating at the bottom of his pool. His body was discovered by his wife less than an hour after the bloody attack. There were no signs of the house being broken into.
The murder weapon has not been confirmed but we understand an iron golf club was found at the scene. Paramedics report the wounds to Mr Emerson’s head were between ten and twelve in number.
Mr Emerson was a founding partner at Simpson White Emerson, a law firm specializing in intellectual property and copyright law. He was well known in the Silicon Valley legal community and had recently presented at Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society.
Neighbors describe Mr Emerson as a kind, personable man who worked hard and lived for his family.
“This is just an appalling event,” said neighbor Lisa Brewer. “I can’t believe it’s happened here, in our street. There’s never been any trouble here before.”
Palo Alto police would not discuss details of the case except to say that four detectives had already been assigned to the investigation. They would like to hear from anybody who was in the Cowper Street vicinity
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