The Mentor

by Rebecca Forster

  “But Wilson covered up a crime,” Lauren breathed. “Wilson did the one thing that he couldn’t conscience in anyone else.”

  “That’s it. Poor man was never quite the same after that. Nothing anyone who didn’t know him would figure out, but I knew him. I knew it near killed him to do what he did. He thought a close call would keep Allan on the straight and narrow. All those visits we had over the years he only admitted once that it had been wrong. That was out loud. I bet you anything he talked to himself about it every night of his life.”

  “So did Allan pay him back? Is that what this account was all about?” Eli pressed for more information.

  “I’m getting there,” Maeve said, happy to have someone to talk to and taking her own good time. “So, I didn’t want to work with Wilson when he went to Superior Court. Too far away. I was ready to retire and he knew that. He asked if he were to pay me to take care of a special project would I do it? That’s what you were looking at. My special project. Did you see all the initials?”

  Eli nodded. “We did. Haven’t got a clue what they mean.”

  “Those are the young people who got scholarship money for college. You see, Wilson set up the account. Allan’s salary was attached for almost a year, plus what he saved, until the entire one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was paid back. But Wilson couldn’t bear to think about that money. He wanted nothing to do with it. He never put a cent back in his personal account.”

  “So you became the executor of a trust, watching over the investment and doling out the interest as scholarships,” Eli finished for her.

  “That’s right, Mr. Warner. That was the judge trying to make up for doing something so bad it almost killed his spirit.”

  “What did Allan do? Did he ever refer to it?”

  Maeve pulled her lips tight and closed her eyes as she shook her head. “No, ma’am. That boy acted like nothing happened. I didn’t expect anything more. There’s always been something missing in Allan. He loved the judge best he knew how, but he loved himself more than anything. He always figured he could weasel out of anything, until Wilson decided he was going to answer any questions your report brought up, Mr. Warner. Only he wasn’t going to answer you, he was going to do it in front of the whole Senate if they asked. That was the punishment Judge Caufeld gave himself, a public confession and acceptance of the consequences.”

  “Do you think Allan killed the judge?” Eli asked.

  She shrugged. “I don’t see good without my glasses.”

  “Why didn’t you go to the police or the FBI with this information?”

  “Lauren, honey, I thought Wilson was a fine man. What good would it do to tell people he wasn’t?”

  “It would keep Allan from getting away with murder twice and the last time literally.”

  “You don’t know that.” Lauren shot off the couch as Maeve reached for her. “You don’t,” Maeve insisted and looked to Eli for help. He had none to offer so they let her talk.

  “Yes, I do know. Beyond a doubt, I know that he did it,” Lauren said in a fury.

  “Then,” Maeve said simply, “you have to do what you think is right. Isn’t that what Wilson taught you? That’s what he said he tried to teach you.”

  “Yes, that’s what he taught me,” she muttered.

  “Isn’t that what he was doing at the end of his life? Wilson was doing what he thought was right?”

  “Yes,” Lauren whispered.

  “Then you don’t have much of a choice, do you? Guess you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

  28

  “Twenty minutes from Baldwin Hills to Century City.” Lauren noted the time as they parked.

  “You can also assume he was driving like the devil was after him. Cut off five or so for that. A Lexus can fly, and everyone gets out of the way.”

  “He could have done it, Eli.” Lauren didn’t move even though Eli had already pocketed his keys. “God, that’s so awful. I mean, this is like turning in my brother for murdering my father.”

  Eli stayed quiet, letting her think about that one and knowing it would be a good long while before she actually came to grips with it.

  “Which one is it?” He scanned the high-rises and asked only when enough time had passed.

  Lauren pointed to the glass building rising out of the ground and reaching for the sky. “What if he’s gone already?”

  “Then he’s gone. We wait until he comes back.”

  “We could try to find him at the club. That’s usually where he goes on Saturdays.” Lauren swiveled her head. Eli had his chin cradled in his palm, his arm cocked against the window as he looked up.

  “No. I don’t want anything that public.” Eli muttered. He took a breath and mused, “I was just thinking that even though he had a lot to lose, there had to be another way. Murder seems so out of character for someone like Lassiter.”

  “Yes,” Lauren whispered. “I would have thought so too—until he pulled in front of me the other day. I swear he looked like he would tear me limb from limb.”

  “He’d be more subtle about it. Ready?” He dropped his arm and looked at her.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be. Are you sure you don’t want to call the office? Maybe we should have some backup.”

  Eli shook his head. “Mark Jackson would probably call Lassiter himself and tip him off. I don’t know what the connection is there, but I’ll tell you, Allan and Edie and Abram, they are thick as thieves. Even if they don’t know about this, they don’t want to know the truth. For whatever reasons, they really don’t want to know.”

  “I guess not. I don’t get it. I used to think I knew what this job was about. You know, put the bad guys away? Seemed fairly straightforward. Now I feel like everywhere I look everyone on our side has an agenda equally despicable as the bad guys.”

  “Welcome to my world,” Eli laughed. “Good Lord, woman, why do you think the government does background checks?”

  “To see if anyone has a personal agenda.” Lauren laughed and pointed a finger at him. “Oh, Lord, Eli. Everything is about to change.”

  He took her face in his hands and kissed her lips. She tasted good, sugar from the donut still clung to those lips. When he sat back, he wasn’t smiling.

  “It changed the minute Wilson Caufeld was shot, Lauren. Never forget that’s what this is about. Not money, not reputation. It’s about one human being taking another’s life.”

  Lauren nodded. “You’re right. Let’s go.”

  It took no more than a wave at the doorman, a finger to her lips and an admonition that they were there to surprise Allan, for Lauren and Eli to waltz past the man who was supposed to announce their arrival. Caught up in the fun, he called an elevator for them and asked that he be remembered to Mr. Lassiter on his birthday. They promised to do so and then stood silently in the elevator, Lauren’s fingers fidgeting with the strap of her purse as they hurtled to their destination.

  Eli looked left and right when the stepped off on the twenty-sixth floor. Lauren cocked her head and led the way. She swallowed hard and took a minute to collect herself before she rang the bell. The minute she did so, she stepped back and put her shoulder against Eli’s. The door opened and Allan, the cut on his head still red and raw, looked them over. Lauren would have liked to believe he sensed betrayal. Instead, she decided, he knew the end was near.

  “Lauren, you are such an idiot.”

  He walked away, leaving the door open and the insult hanging there like a curtain to keep them out. Eli parted it. He stepped over the threshold and into Allan Lassiter’s world. He scanned it. That was that. Lauren closed the door quietly behind them. When they found him, Allan was in the kitchen tending to his coffee. He wore sweats that hung off his slim hips at just the right angle, a muscle shirt, too big to actually fit, and just big enough to emphasize the lean proportions of his torso.

  “I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t offer you coffee.”

  “No problem.” Eli slid onto a high leather s
tool near the marbled counter. He was about to go on when Lauren stepped in.

  “Wasn’t there some other way? Something you could have done to work this out. But to kill Wilson, Allan?”

  Allan didn’t do her the courtesy of looking her way. He measured out his coffee while he spoke coldly. “Do you ever get tired of listening to all your righteous bullshit, Lauren? I don’t know how Wilson put up with it all the time. You and your stupid pronouncements.” He plugged in the coffee, glanced at Eli, and walked past Lauren. “I didn’t kill Wilson. I was at the office the night he was killed. You were here. You’re being absurd and if that’s all you came for you can leave right now.” He paused and looked back. “Unless your friend there wants to put me in irons and drag me through the street.”

  Eli swiveled, balancing his elbows on the counter behind him. “I was kind of hoping you’d just come peacefully.”

  Allan laughed. He flopped himself on the couch and grabbed the paper. It lay in his lap while he glared at his visitors.

  “You have call rollover at the office, Allan. When you found me here that day that’s what I was checking.”

  “Big deal. Half the people in this city have that. I’m telling you I was at the office. I could probably find half a dozen people who’d swear to it.”

  “No doubt,” Eli mumbled. “But I couldn’t find one.”

  “I was there. My partner saw me,” Allan said. “What other stunning evidence of my murderous intent do you have, Laurie, dear?”

  “We know about the money you embezzled from Wilson’s firm. Maeve Samuels told us.”

  “Maeve Samuels? Now there’s a name from the past. What does she have to do with any of this?”

  “She’s been administering a trust. Wilson took the money you paid him and put it in a trust. The interest has been paying for scholarships for kids all these years.”

  “Oh, my, my, my.” Allan puffed up his chest and puffed out his breath. “Can you believe that? Wasn’t Wilson just so righteous? Didn’t want to dirty his hands using any of it, huh?”

  “Oh, Allan, give me a break,” Lauren lashed out. “You’re the one who committed a crime.”

  “And he’s the one who covered it up, so we were even. Why is he the saint and I’m the bad guy?”

  “Because he’s dead. And you had good reason to kill him. Why else would you have all the papers removed from his office? Why would you have tried to run me down outside my apartment?”

  Allan slapped the couch. He stood up so fast the papers went flying. “That’s it! You are certifiable, Lauren. I wanted to talk to you. Do you know how many people called to let me know that you and this person here,” he waved Eli’s way, “were stirring up trouble? If you kept it up there was going to be an investigation into my finances and then where would I be? The same place I was before Wilson died. So I filed a complaint with Mark Jackson.”

  “Did you have me removed from the Stewart case? Did you ask Edie to do that?”

  Lauren was aghast. She hardly noticed that Eli had moved, wandering past the picture window with hardly a glance at the view.

  “You did that yourself, Lauren. I didn’t have anything to do with it. Look, I know people; I have a thriving practice. You and this bozo here were starting to make waves that were coming my way. I felt just as bad as you about Wilson biting the big one, but I’ll be honest, I was relieved too. There, happy? He was going to tell everybody that I’d embezzled those funds. Now, take a look at what’s going on out there today. I mean if the president’s chief of staff goes to federal prison for embezzling two hundred thousand do you think anyone’s going to give me a break because I only managed a hundred and fifty?” Allan threw up his hands. “If you would just keep your mouth shut once in a while, Lauren. That’s all you had to do, and all this would have gone away.”

  “Don’t you dare lay this one on me. I’m not the one acting like I have something to cover up. You’re the one who got Bernard Gold to defend Damien. Are you going to tell me that was a coincidence? You represented Boyd pro bono years ago...”

  “Because Wilson had me wearing sackcloth and ashes whenever he could. He felt bad about Damien Boyd’s father, so I get saddled with a crappy defense for burglary. After the money thing I couldn’t very well tell him no. It took him six years to stop calling me with every hard-luck case that came around.” He came at her in three strides, his hand raised. She didn’t move. He wasn’t going to hit her; he only raised that hand in frustration. “Why is it that you assume Wilson and I told you everything there was to know about our lives? You know, you’re just a crazed person. You never really wanted to know the truth about anything. All you wanted to do was prove how lily-white you and your mother and Wilson were. You weren’t too sure about me, but you figured if Wilson liked me, I was okay. Well, baby, life ain’t like that,” he sneered, “everybody jockeys for their position and everybody’s got sins. Your mother, Wilson, and me. That’s why you’re being buried, for no other reason than you keep trying to make everyone play by your rules.” Allan looked as if he couldn’t stand the sight of her. “Get out of here, Lauren.”

  “Not until I see your gun, Allan. I want to see your gun.”

  “I don’t think that will be necessary, Lauren,” Eli said quietly.

  “Yes, it is. I want to see if it’s a twenty-two.” Lauren whipped toward him, the rest of her sentence lost in her shock.

  “Edie?” Allan seemed surprised, too. Not by her presence but by the fact that she was standing in the doorway of his bedroom pointing a gun their way.

  “Here’s a twenty-two, Lauren,” she said evenly.

  “Is it Allan’s?” Lauren whispered, unsure what was happening.

  Edie, ever in control, neither smiled nor looked concerned. Her dark hair, as usual, covered one eye. The other, though, glittered intensely and she moved into the room like a cat, one foot crossing over the other, steps silent on the carpet. She wore a blue cotton shirt, one of Allan’s, her long legs were bare, her feet shoeless.

  “Yes. As a matter of fact, it is.”

  “Edie, be careful with it. That’s the gun that killed Wilson. We’ll need prints.” Lauren held out both hands as if she could ease the weapon out of Edie’s hands, preserving precious evidence.

  “It’s all right, Lauren,” Eli said easily. “This isn’t the gun that killed Wilson.”

  Lauren looked at him then back to Edie. Allan moved around until he stood almost between the two women.

  “I love a man with experience. My job would have been so much easier if I had case agents like you.” Edie paid the compliment sincerely and Eli accepted with a nod of his head. “That’s the one thing Lauren really lacks, you know. Experience. I don’t think it will ever make much difference, though, when she gets it. She’ll always want to rush right in and muck things up without thinking about the consequences.”

  “No matter how experienced she is, she’ll always want to find out the truth, though,” Eli noted.

  “Then hopefully experience will tell her there are two kinds of truth. The one she thinks is real, and then the real one. That’s the one that keeps everything on an even keel. It’s a little shaded, a little tarnished, but it’s basically the truth. Isn’t that right, Allan?”

  Edie’s eyes flipped his way. She shook her hair back and smiled, but something was different. Then Lauren knew what it was. For the first time ever, Edie Williams looked superior to Allan Lassiter.

  “Edie, put that thing away. This whole thing is getting out of hand.”

  “I don’t think so, Allan. Things are still under control and those two aren’t stupid. Tedious, maybe,” she tagged Lauren with her hard eyes, “but not stupid.”

  “Edie, where’s the gun that killed Wilson?” Eli asked. He had moved up a half a step but only Edie seemed to take note. She took a half step toward Allan.

  “In my purse,” she answered lazily.

  “Oh God,” Lauren breathed.

  “Edie?” Allan was incredulous and that s
eemed to anger Edie more than anything else possible could.

  “Don’t look at me like that, Allan. Don’t look at me like you’re appalled. You have no right to be. You didn’t care what happened to that old man; you just wanted him taken care of before he said anything that would hurt your precious reputation. Well, I took care of it for you. You should be happy. You should be thrilled. You should be kissing my feet.” She spit the last words out like venom.

  “Edie, I never asked you to kill him.”

  “Do you think I meant to?” she snapped. “I don’t know anyone who isn’t a sociopath who wants to kill someone. I didn’t want to hurt him. Her voice shook ever so slightly. There was fear, too. Lauren could see it.

  “Edie, don’t say anything.” Lauren stepped forward, reaching out woman to woman. Edie was quick. The gun turned toward Lauren smoothly and surely. Edie was in a firing stance and there was no doubt she could use her weapon.

  “Why not? If I don’t say the words, you’ll put some in my mouth. I’m telling you. I didn’t mean to kill him. I’d gone to talk to him. Allan, I’d only gone to talk to him, and I want you to understand that.”

  Her eyes were trained down the barrel into Lauren’s chest. From the corner of her eye Lauren could see Eli ready himself. Allan, wisely, said nothing.

  “I want you all to understand that,” Edie said, her voice softening and shaking just a bit more. “I went to talk to him at his home because it was becoming increasingly embarrassing to try to do so at the office. Caufeld came out of his driveway before I could get to the door. When the car parked on the street didn’t move, I realized Mark Jackson didn’t have his bodyguards on Caufeld anymore. I don’t know,” she shook back her hair, “I just followed him. I drove and I wasn’t thinking about anything except what I’d say to him when he stopped. But he didn’t stop until he got to Baldwin Hills.”