The Partner

Presented by: Leen Tabouny

Presented to teacher: Sawsan Shehedi

Class: 8th grade, 5

The Partner

John Grisham

Retold by Jacqueline Kehl

Series Editors: Andy Hopkins and Jocelyn Potter

Originally published: 1997

Genres: Novel, Fiction, Thriller, Legal thriller, Legal Story

Characters of the story are Patrick Lanigan, Eva Miranda, Jack Stephano, Benny Aricia, Joshua Cutter, Trudy, Lance and Sandy McDermott.

Introduction

Patrick Lanigan died in a car crash. Then, six weeks after his “death”, his partners realized that he was still alive. He had also stolen ninety million dollars from them and their client. The search for Patrick began.

Now, four years later, he’s been found. How was he found? How did he steal the money? Will the partners and their clint ever recover it?

Chapter 1   Ponta Pora, Brazil

Danilo Silva is found in Ponta Pora, Brazil. He’s thinner and his face has been altered, but four years ago he was Patrick Lanigan. Patrick is kidnapped. When a man goes into Danilo’s house, a silent signal is sent, and Eva Miranda in Rio is informed that Patrick has been captured. Eva calls the FBI agent Joshua Cutter and tells him Stephano, a private detective who’s been searching for Patrick for four years, has found him. The FBI goes to Jack Stephano to demand that Patrick be handed over to them.

Chapter 2   Paraguay

Patrick is taken to Paraguay and tortured to reveal the location of the money. He insists that he doesn’t’ know where the money is. Meanwhile, Eva goes to Curtiba and moves the money into other banks, following Patrick’s instructions. Her thoughts are not on money, but on Patrick. She flies to Buenos Aires. Patrick may mention her name during the torture, so now she has to use a new identity, Leah Pires. She flies to New York and then to Zurich.

Chapter 3   Return to North America

The FBI agent goes to Jack Stephano to demand that he hand Patrick over to him, otherwise he’ll arrest him. Stephano agrees and tells his men to stop hurting Patrick and have the doctor look after him. Next morning Patrick is put on an Air Force plane and taken to a navy base outside San Juan, Puerto Rico. Patrick is back in US territory. Stephano meets Benny Aricia, the client whose $90 million dollars had been stolen, to warn
him about the FBI. Stephano also tells Aricia that Patrick doesn’t know where the money is and that it’s controlled by a woman in Rio.

Chapter 4   Biloxi

Agent Cutter goes to Patrick’s ex-law firm, and lets the remaining partners know that the FBI has Patrick in custody. Cutter also visits Trudy, Patrick’s wife, to tell her the news about him. Trudy and her boyfriend Lance are not happy because they’re going to lose the insurance money she got when Patrick “died.” Mast, the US Attorney for the district, and Parrish, the local District Attorney, go together to the press conference, and Patrick’s story becomes the big news. Eva in Zurich watches the
TV report and thinks about Patrick. Cutter, Parrish, and Sweeney the local Sheriff try to get Patrick charged with the murder of the man who died in the car-crash, and with stealing the money.

Chapter 5   The Base Hospital

At the base hospital, Patrick asks his nurse Luis to take photos of his body as evidence of the torture he underwent. Leah (Eva) visits Sandy McDermott, Patrick’s law school friend, in his New Orleans office. Sandy is hired as Patrick’s lawyer. Sandy goes to San Juan to see Patrick at the hospital, and tells him that his wife wants the divorce and a lot of his money and that he has
been indicted for capital murder. Patrick tells Sandy about his capture and torture, and asks him to use the photos to make people believe that the FBI is responsible for the torture. Sandy learns that all the money is still intact.

Chapter 6   Return to Biloxi

Sandy informs the journalists that Patrick is suing the FBI for physical damage and torture, and the news is everywhere. Eva reads the news in Aix, France. Agent Jaynes goes to Stephano because the FBI needs his cooperation. Patrick uses the doctor’s notes to avoid going to jail. He arrives in Biloxi and meets Cutter, Sweeney, and Sandy.

Chapter 7   Patrick’s First Appearance

Cutter and Grimshaw, chief investigator for the district, go over Patrick’s death on February 9, 1992.
The boy called Pepper Scarboro has been missing since the day of Patrick’s “death” and his mother believes that her son is the one Patrick killed. Patrick’s first appearance in court attracts a lot of people, including Bogan and Vitrano, his former partners. Patrick’s plea of not guilty is accepted. Leah comes to New Orleans to see Sandy and tells him to deal with the divorce first. Sandy learns that Trudy has been unfaithful and Patrick is not the father of their daughter, Ashley Nicole.

Chapter 8   Stephano’s Story

Stephano’s clients Aricia, Monarch-Sierra Insurance, and Northern Case Insurance tell him to fully cooperate with the FBI. At the same time, Aricia asks Stephano to look for the girl (Eva) without telling the FBI. Stephano starts to tell the FBI how the money was stolen and how they knew Patrick was in Brazil. This chapter also reveals what happened four years ago: Aricia, who was an officer at a big defense contractor, pretended that his firm had cheated the US government. He filed a lawsuit with the allegation that $600 million had been overbilled. With help of Patrick’s partners, Aricia was ready to receive the reward of $90 million. Patrick’s partners were also to receive one-third of that, but the money was stolen by Patrick.

Chapter 8   Stephano’s Story

Stephano’s clients Aricia, Monarch-Sierra Insurance, and Northern Case Insurance tell him to fully cooperate with the FBI. At the same time, Aricia asks Stephano to look for the girl (Eva) without telling the FBI. Stephano starts to tell the FBI how the money was stolen and how they knew Patrick was in Brazil. This chapter also reveals what happened four years ago: Aricia, who was an officer at a big defense contractor, pretended that his firm had cheated the US government. He filed a lawsuit with the allegation that $600 million had been overbilled. With help of Patrick’s partners, Aricia was ready to receive the reward of $90 million. Patrick’s partners were also to receive one-third of that, but the money was stolen by Patrick.

Chapter 9   The Divorce

Sandy meets Trudy’s lawyer, J. Murray Riddleton to settle the divorce. At the hospital, Patrick asks Dr. Hayani to help him by keeping him in the hospital. He doesn’t want to go to jail.

Chapter 10   Patrick’s Story

When Judge Karl Huskey visits Patrick at the hospital as a friend, Patrick starts telling him how he planned his disappearance.

Chapter 11   Leah’s Story

Eva’s father is abducted by Stephano’s people in Brazil. Eva contacts Patrick for help, and she goes to New Orleans to meet Sandy. Leah (Eva) tells Sandy how she got to know Patrick, the money, and Jack Stephano. Sandy learns that Lea (Eva) is the only person who knows where the money is. She asks him to tell the FBI about her and her father’s abduction. Sandy meets Agent Cutter so that the FBI can put pressure on Stephano. Sandy meets Leah again at his beach house in Perdido, and there she tells him how Aricia cheated both his company and the government with the help of Patrick’s partners.

Chapter 12   Stephano’s Story-Continued

The FBI continues to question Stephano about how they tracked down Patrick in Brazil and how they captured him and questioned him. When Stephano says he doesn’t know about Eva, the FBI reminds him of their agreement: they’ll drop the charges against Stephano if he tells the truth. Stephano admits he knows about Eva. The FBI tells Stephano to leave Eva alone and release her father.

Chapter 13   Eva

Eva thought someone was following her, so she never goes back to the beach house. She flies to Miami and buys a one-way ticket to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The FBI stops her at the airport and put her in jail in Miami. Sandy sends Mark Birck, a lawyer he knew in Miami, to the jail.

Chapter 14   Settlements

The FBI tells Stephano that they’ve got Eva, and he realizes that the search for the money is over. Eva’s father is released unharmed and Aricia leaves Biloxi. Sandy is busy with the settlement agreements. He talks with Trudy’s lawyer first about the divorce settlement, then with Northern Case about the lawsuit against Trudy, and with Monarch-Sierra about the money for Patrick’s daughter and for the legal costs. Sandy also talks with the government. His suggestion is that Patrick will hand over the evidence of the fraud and return the $90 million, and that the government will drop the charges against him and release Eva. The government wants 9 percent extra, but in the end they agree on 3 percent extra, making a total of $113 million. Patrick is still indicted for murder, but he tells Sandy that Pepper is still alive somewhere with a new name.

Chapter 15   Final Arrangements

Eva is out of jail and flies to New York and then to London. Sandy tells Trudy’s lawyer that Northern Case will drop their lawsuit against Trudy and that a trust of a quarter of a million dollars will be set up for Ashley Nicole. The grand jury voted to indict Aricia and Patrick’s partners for putting in a false claim. Patrick finally tells Sandy about the man in the burned car—Clovis Goodman. He was already dead when his body was burned. Clovis’s granddaughter tells Parrish not to charge
Patrick because Sandy has already arranged a settlement
with her quietly. Eva is in London, to wire $113 million
to Washington. She still has a lot of money left in several
banks. Aricia’s girlfriend also flies to London and contacts
Aricia. He’s caught as the girlfriend has been followed.
Patrick tells Karl about the Clovis story. He also makes an
arrangement with Parrish so that he gets no time in jail.
There’s a hearing to complete the agreement, and Patrick
finally walks out of the courtroom a free man. Sandy is
surprised by the depth of thought of Patrick’s plan. Patrick
goes to Aix, France to meet Eva, but she never shows up.
In the end she takes the money and disappears. Patrick
tries to find her for a month and gives up. He goes back to
Ponta Pora without money and without love.

About the author

John Grisham was born in 1955 in Arkansas in the southern United Sates of America. He majored in accounting at Mississippi State University, and then he graduated from law school in 1981. Then he started to practice law in Southaven, Mississippi, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. He often helped people in lawsuits against big companies, or to get compensation for accidents. In 1983 he was elected as a Democrat to the state House of Representatives, and served until 1990.

Summary

The Partner is set in the mid-1990s in South America,
and in the southern United States. The protagonist is
Patrick Lanigan, a lawyer from Biloxi, Mississippi. At the
beginning of the story he’s living a new life as Danilo Silva
in Brazil. Four years previously he played a dangerous
game: he pretended that he was killed in a burning car,
and he watched his own funeral from a distance. A few
weeks later, $90 million dollars was stolen from his law
firm and its client. His partners and their client have been
searching for Patrick to get the money back.

Greed for money: The theme of greed for money runs
throughout The Partner. Patrick’s wife is not interested
in him, only the insurance money she received after he
disappeared. The government gets its $90 million back,
and demands 9 percent interest on it, too. At one point
in the novel there are four different lawsuits as people and
companies all try to recover money they think is theirs.