5. Sweet Revenge

by Fern Michaels

  “No, not yet. Take Rosemary’s bedroom. I’ll finish in here.”

  Yoko trotted off as Kathryn started waving the metal detector. She blinked when she heard the beep, at first faint and then stronger as she moved closer to Rosemary’s desk.

  “Yoko! I think I found something. Quick! Wave your detector, see if it beeps. It must be the floor.”

  “This desk is custom-made,” Yoko said. “It’s mahogany and heavy. It would take four men to move it. The other desk looks like they got it at Staples.”

  The metal detectors continued to beep as the two women struggled to move the desk. It wouldn’t budge. Kathryn looked at Yoko. “This is stupid. If the two of us can’t get this thing to budge, that woman wouldn’t be able to move this desk on her own. All we’re going to get for our efforts is a hernia. I’m thinking if she is hiding something she would want to be able to get to it and not have to call in a moving company to shift the desk every time she wants to check whatever it is she’s hiding.”

  Yoko was on her knees. “The drawers? A false bottom?” Before Kathryn could blink, Yoko had the bottom drawer out. Kathryn peered into the depths of it but there was nothing there but sticky pads, a ruler and a few drafting pencils with fine lead points. Yoko reached for the metal detector and waved it around.

  “Whatever it is, it’s here, under the desk drawer. If you notice, Kathryn, the drawers are oversized, as is the entire desk. You can see where someone cut out the bottom of the desk. When the drawer is in place, you would never know something is under it.”

  “Should we pry up the boards?” Kathryn looked at her watch. “We still have time and Charles hasn’t called back. I think we need to know what’s under the floorboards.”

  Yoko’s tiny hands worked quickly. The boards came up easily to reveal a square gunmetal-gray safe with a dial. From what they could see of the safe it looked to be about as big as a microwave oven. Two flanges were bolted to the studs underneath the floor, securing the safe in place.

  Kathryn sat back on her haunches. “This is one very clever lady. I never would have thought of this. Safes usually go in a wall behind a picture or in a closet somewhere. I’d say this lady is hiding something that she probably doesn’t even want her husband to know about.”

  Yoko’s eyes popped when Kathryn’s cell phone rang. Kathryn flipped it open. She listened and then snapped the phone shut. “Charles thinks Mr. Harcourt is on his way home. Charles is following him. I don’t know how much time we have. Quick, Yoko, put everything back. I’m going to run out and move the car down the street. Hurry!”

  Her hands trembling, Yoko slipped the floorboards back into place and then struggled to put the drawer back on its track. She broke into a sweat when the drawer wouldn’t fit. She sucked in her breath and tried to calm herself before she tried a second time. This time the drawer slid neatly into place. At the door, she realized she didn’t have the metal detector. She ran back for it, her breathing ragged, and then she bolted down the steps. She heard the key in the lock, realizing the alarm was in daytime mode, which meant it wasn’t armed. Well, there was nothing she could do about that now. Besides, Kathryn had the electronic device that would reactivate it. She raced toward the kitchen and let herself out the back door. She forced herself to walk toward the parking area as if she belonged there. She crossed over the barrier and then walked out to the street and down to Kathryn’s car. Charles was parked directly behind Kathryn.

  Kathryn floored the gas pedal and roared down the street as Yoko gasped out what had happened. “He’s going to know someone was in the house. The alarm wasn’t armed and there was no way to relock the back door. Do you think he’ll call the police?”

  Kathryn’s face was grim. “I doubt it. He’ll probably think his wife forgot to lock up if — and this is a big if — she was the last one to leave. If he was the last one to leave this morning, then, yes, he might suspect someone was prowling around inside the house. Will he call the police? Maybe, maybe not. Nothing was taken, so that rules out robbery.

  “Charles said when Mr. Harcourt left his office he was carrying a huge cardboard box on his shoulders like he was moving out. That’s a guess on Charles’s part. He drove to a lawyer’s office, still carrying the box. When he came out forty minutes later, he didn’t have the box. He drove straight here. Charles is going to monitor the house. We’re to go back to the farm.” She turned to look at her friend. “Are you OK now, Yoko?”

  “Yes. I thought he was going to catch me.”

  “All’s well that ends well. At least we now know that Miss Hershey has a safe. We know where it is if we have to make a second visit.”

  “Did Charles say if he had heard from Alexis or Nikki?”

  “No, he didn’t. Hey, want to get a burger? An adrenaline rush always makes me hungry.”

  “I could eat an egg roll but not a burger. You shouldn’t eat so much red meat, Kathryn, it is not good for you.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a deep-fried egg roll isn’t going to clog your arteries! We’ll get you an egg roll and I’ll get a burger. Howzat?”

  Yoko giggled. “Fine.”

  Nine

  His reporter’s nose quivering, Ted Robinson stopped midstride, whipped around, and walked back to Rosemary Hershey’s office. He crossed the street and pretended to look at a display of American Tourister luggage. The plate-glass window afforded him a clear view of the architect’s office. He looked down at his watch. If his reporter’s instinct was working at top speed, the lady should be exiting about…now. He waited to see if his quarry would hail a cab or drive. He made a quarter bet with himself that she was too agitated to drive. Two minutes later, he congratulated himself just as a second cab slid to the curb.

  “Follow that cab!” Damn, he’d always wanted to say that to a cabbie. “There aren’t any cops around. C’mon, c’mon, make a U-turn and let’s go. Twenty bucks plus tip if you keep up with the lady’s cab.”

  “She do you dirty or something?” the cabbie said, getting into the swing of things.

  “Hell, yes, she cleaned me out. Stashed the family car somewhere, closed out the bank account and is selling off the furniture.”

  “Damn! You just can’t trust dames these days. You think she’s got something on the side?”

  “Yeah, yeah, that too. I gotta catch her, though. Look, her cab is stopping. What’s that building?”

  “A bunch of law offices, insurance companies and a couple of dentists. Oh, yeah, a couple of accounting firms, too. I bring fares here all the time. Looks like she’s going after your skin, buddy. Maybe your teeth, too.” The cabbie laughed at his wit. “You got a lawyer?”

  “Damn straight, a real shark,” Ted said as he dug in his pockets for the fare, the tip, plus the twenty-dollar incentive he had promised. “Thanks, cabbie.” He hopped out, head down in case Rosemary turned around and saw him. She didn’t. Even from where he was standing he could see the anger in her face, the veins bulging in her neck.

  Ted followed the architect into the lobby and watched her go over to the directory. She signed in, waited to be issued a badge, and then walked to the elevator. He waited until she stepped in and the door closed, saw where the elevator stopped before he walked over to the sign-in desk. He picked up the pen and looked like he was about to sign his name when he suddenly slapped at his forehead.

  “Damn, I forgot the envelope! I’ll be back in ten minutes.” The security guard just looked bored.

  Outside, Ted took a deep breath. Son of a bitch! What was Rosemary Hershey doing at Nikki Quinn’s law firm? He knew that’s where she was going because she’d pressed the right floor button. The Quinn law firm had the entire floor. Hiring an attorney, you jackass, he told himself. Why else would she go to a lawyer’s office? So, something had gone awry between her and Bobby earlier at the office. Divorce? Business squabbles? Maybe both.

  Ted walked around the corner to the parking lot to see if Nikki Quinn’s BMW was there. That’s when he saw Maggie Spritzer’s Hond
a.

  Shit!

  Nikki stood at the window of her office sipping a cup of tea. As she stared out at the sea of cars in the parking lot she wondered, and not for the first time, if she was really meant to practice law. She was so far off track these days with her activities in the Sisterhood, she doubted she could ever get back into the swing of things.

  It simply wasn’t the same anymore. Her two best friends — Barbara and Jenny, the two friends she’d started the firm with — were gone now, both victims of tragic accidents. Both had been pregnant at the time, and now neither Judge Easter nor Myra would ever have grandchildren. Why, she wondered, do I feel so guilty because I’m still alive, going on with my daily life?

  Nikki felt her eyes start to puddle up. She missed her friends. Truly, truly missed them. Barbara’s fiancé was long gone, living in New York and married with two children. She never saw him or heard from him anymore except for a Christmas card. She wondered if Jenny’s husband would send a card next Christmas. He also had a new life, with no place for old, sad memories. Jenny’s husband had moved to New York, too. They would connect for a few more months until the legal end of Jenny’s share of the business was settled and then he’d fade out of her life as well. That left only Jack and herself out of the group of six old friends.

  “I want out,” she said under her breath. “I don’t want to practice law anymore. I can’t keep breaking the law with the Sisterhood and come back here and pretend I’m on the side of law and order.”

  Easier said than done, she thought as she heard a knock on her door. Maddie poked her head in.

  “I need to talk to you a minute.”

  “Come in, Maddie. Close the door. Don’t tell me Allison Banks is out there.” Nikki shuddered, remembering the temporary attorney she’d hired and fired. “If it’s bad news, I really don’t want to hear it.”

  “No, that bitch is history. There’s a new client in the waiting room. She looks like she’s about to explode any minute now. Who do you want me to assign her to? Or do you want to take it on?”

  “What’s her problem?” Nikki asked.

  “She’s an architect. I’ve actually heard of her — I’ve seen write-ups on her in the Sunday paper. She says her husband is trying to…ah…to screw her. Not in the literal sense,” Maddie said, blushing. “He wants a divorce and to dissolve their business. She said she thinks there’s another woman involved. Sounds juicy to me. In case you’re interested, she’s wearing a fortune in clothes and jewelry.”

  Nikki walked over to the desk and set her cup down. She was amazed to see that her hand wasn’t trembling. Lordy, lordy, someone must be sprinkling fairy dust around and she was fortunate enough to be standing under it. What were the odds of something like this happening? A million to one? Two million to one?

  “Assign her to Opal Quintera. Did you tell the client what our standard retainer is?”

  “Twenty-five big ones. She didn’t blink. In fact, she was searching for her checkbook but I told her that would come later. Opal it is, then.”

  Nikki kicked off her shoes, plopped down on her chair, swung her long legs up onto the desk and let her breath out in a loud swoosh. She clicked on her cell phone and pressed her speed dial. She didn’t wait for a greeting. “It’s me, Charles. You are never going to believe who is sitting in one of our offices!”

  “Rosemary Hershey.”

  “Charles! How do you do that?”

  “It just stands to reason that she’s going to want to hire an attorney about now, and what better attorney than a woman in your office? She certainly wouldn’t want to go back to the attorney she had when she duped the insurance company and Isabelle. Like I said, it stands to reason. Is there anything else?”

  Deflated, Nikki said, “No, that’s it. Bye, Charles.”

  Nikki sat quietly for long moments staring out her window, contemplating her future as a lawyer. She jumped when her phone buzzed. She pressed the button in time to hear Maddie’s voice.

  “Boss, you have forty minutes to get to the courthouse. Traffic’s a bitch out there.”

  “OK, thanks, Maddie. I’m on my way.”

  Nikki slipped on her shoes, checked her makeup, straightened her skirt and suit jacket. She fluffed her hair with her fingers before she grabbed her coat and briefcase. Having no desire to run into Rosemary Hershey, she took the stairs for three floors and then the elevator to the lobby. She debated whether to take her car or walk to the courthouse. Her heels weren’t that high. She could use the exercise. But she decided to drive.

  If she hadn’t been in such a hurry, and if she wasn’t thinking about seeing Jack Emery after she filed her brief, she might have seen Ted Robinson hugging the buildings behind her, and Maggie Spritzer window-shopping on the other side of the street.

  Jack Emery hoped the sparkle in Nikki’s eyes and the rosy glow on her cheeks was because of him and not from the sharp winds outside. He smiled from ear to ear as he left the courtroom, Nikki at his side.

  “What brings you down here at this time of day?”

  “I had to file a brief before court closed for the day. I wanted to see you. Can you leave now or do you have to go back to the office?”

  “I can leave. Do you want to go to dinner or straight home?” He leered at her, making his wishes clear.

  “Let’s go home. You can pick up some Italian. I’ll meet you there if you’re sure.”

  “I need an hour at the most. Damn, I hate this weather. Do you think spring will ever get here?”

  Jack leaned forward. “I feel like I should kiss you. I want to.” He turned when someone clapped him on the back. He waved a colleague off and stepped backward. “I’ll see you at home. Hey, anything going on I should know about?”

  Nikki crunched her face into one of dismay. “You aren’t going to believe it when I tell you. I’ll have the manicotti. Is there any wine at home?”

  Home. Jack smiled. “I bought some over the weekend. Make a fire.”

  Nikki looked around before she blew a kiss that Jack returned before she headed for her car in the parking lot.

  In the doorway of Squire’s Pub across the street, Ted Robinson watched the couple. He felt like he’d just been socked in the gut. “Well, you suspected it, Mr. Ace Reporter, so don’t be so surprised,” he muttered under his breath as he walked off. His next stop: the house in Georgetown to see if the couple were all set to canoodle for the evening.

  Nikki inched her way into traffic and headed for Georgetown. She looked forward to spending a nice relaxing evening, sharing her thoughts with Jack. Her eye on the traffic, she reached down for her cell phone and hit the number two on her speed dial. Maddie’s voice came over the wire.

  “Maddie, it’s Nikki. I’m on my way home. How did it go with our new client?”

  “She’s a strange one, Nikki. She doesn’t do or say anything until she consults the stars. Opal said she consulted some book she carries with her before she would even talk. She left a retainer and said she would call us back to see what day the stars say will work to her benefit for her next appointment. According to Opal, Miss Hershey’s affairs are on the complicated side. She’s interested in a divorce. That’s how she put it, interested. She doesn’t want to give anything up. And she wants to find a way to keep all of her company and not pay her husband a cent. She said her husband hooked himself to her red wagon. Look, she’s strange, I’ll grant you that, but we’ve had a lot of strange people walk through our doors.”

  “So she didn’t schedule a second appointment but she did pay the retainer?”

  “Yes, boss, that sums it up.”

  Nikki’s mind raced. “OK, thanks, Maddie. By the way, I won’t be in tomorrow. Call me on my cell if Miss Hershey gets clearance from the stars.” She forced a laugh she didn’t feel.

  It was five-thirty when Nikki found a parking spot on the street, four doors down from her house. It was already dark out so she didn’t pay attention to any of the other parked cars. As she walked against the wind
she didn’t see Ted Robinson across the street from her, or Maggie Spritzer on her side of the street. Nor did she notice the nondescript dark car two doors from her house or its single occupant.

  Inside, as she changed into more comfortable clothes, Nikki called Pinewood to speak to Charles. She repeated the conversation she’d had with Maddie. “Maybe we can bring in her obsession with that hocus-pocus stuff.”

  “Good thinking, Nikki. Are you staying in town this evening? Did you remember to mail the letter?”

  “Yes, Charles, I mailed it from Alexandria. I’m going to stay in this evening and have some scrumptious Italian food, listen to some good music and build a fire. It’s quite cold here and exceptionally blustery. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  It wasn’t really a lie, Nikki told herself. She was going to stay in this evening. She was going to have Italian food and she was going to build a fire. She just didn’t say she would have company.

  She hung up the phone and ran downstairs where she swept the fireplace clean before laying a stack of logs. She turned on the gas starter and was rewarded with a burst of shooting flame. She looked around, expecting to see a mass of clutter because Jack was not a neat person. She smiled at how neat and tidy her living room was. Good old Jack. He was trying, doing all the right things. She couldn’t wait to snuggle in his arms.

  Outside in the dark, windy evening, Ted Robinson hunched inside his flannel-lined jacket, completely unaware that Maggie Spritzer was on the other side of the street with easy access to the alley behind Nikki Quinn’s house. It looked like Nikki Quinn was in for the night. He felt like smashing the windshield of the car he was hiding behind when he saw Jack Emery loping down the street.

  “You fuck, you lied to me to my face!” Ted swore under his breath. He was a sharp enough reporter to recognize the bright red and green striped shopping bags that held takeout Italian food. So there was going to be a tête à tête inside tonight.

  “I have your number now, Mr. DA,” Ted whispered.