Inherent Danger

by Matt Lincoln

  “Did you finally go through that job packet you left at my place the other day?” I hoped that was a nice, uncomplicated way to broach the subject.

  Eve sighed and snuggled into my arms as we sat together on the rattan bench, looking over the beach below us. The evening was filling up with the sounds and smells of night-time adventurers partying down on the sand and nearby restaurants and homes having their own dinners.

  Music swayed through the air, drifting up to us with heavy bass and tinkling wisps of electronic tones. It was a good feeling to be out among the vibrancy of the city but still able to maintain the peace and privacy that this condo and location gave me. I couldn’t imagine ever getting tired of this taste of life.

  “I looked it over, mostly, but it just isn’t going to be something I want to get involved with,” Eve replied. “It’s environmental law, for the most part, which would be a pleasant change from what I was doing, but it just didn’t grab my interest that much. I took a look at their previous cases, and there’s just so much activism.”

  She sighed as she talked about it. “And I don’t know how well my past dealings with Judge Fu would mesh with that. I mean, there’d be some public eye sort of cases, and that would be just another way to become a target in my professional life. I have enough of that in Chicago. I don’t want a new beginning to make it worse.”

  “Is that why you’re looking elsewhere, other than your hometown?” I had been wondering why the huge shift in location. “Has the Fu stuff been weighing your career prospects down?”

  Eve laughed. “Yeah, that’s a nice way of putting it.” She shifted in her place and rested her head against my shoulder. “Let’s just say that if I want to stay in Chicago and work in law, I’d better like chasing ambulances and small claims court. That’s the only thing I’ve been able to find that the Judge hasn’t stepped in and blocked.”

  This was all news to me. “I didn’t know you were having such a tough time there.” Maybe I was too hard against the idea of her moving to Miami. It could have been that Eve truly needed a fresh place to start over, especially after all that she’d gone through with Arik and his federal judge mother.

  “Well, it's not exactly something I like to talk about, you know.” She tried to play it off as an amusement. “But maybe things will start to look up. George might be thinking of putting me on as a retainer. That might change, though, as it depends on what all happens with Verity’s case.”

  Ah, an opening, and I wasn’t going to pass that one up either. “How is that going? Any word on who was really to blame for that stuff?” We could use a lead as to any connection to our Speirs case, but I didn’t want Eve to think that I was using our relationship to further my team’s investigation.

  I felt Eve squirm when I asked that. “As a matter of fact, I know for a fact that your client, the deceased one, was going to be a customer of the Weir Restoration firm. They knew about the artifacts or whatever they were, and Mr. Speirs was planning on using their services. Now, I can’t say how much more they are or were connected, but there are definitely some ties there.”

  “And Weir and his buddies were making illegal copies of the art that came in and were selling it? That’s been verified without a doubt?” I was hoping to get something substantial to go on. “Do you know who?”

  Eve sighed and moved to confront me face-to-face. “Jake, you’re asking me to divulge private and confidential information on an ongoing case. Please don’t.” Her brown eyes silently pleaded for me to drop it. It was a moment of truth for me. Did I respect her request and drop it, or did I pursue the matter for my own client and case?

  Somehow, I didn’t have to make that choice yet. Eve’s cell went off, and she reached for it instinctively. Her face clouded over a little as she moved to answer it. “It’s Verity… that’s odd.” Eve then took the call, but from this close, I could hear everything they said.

  “Hey, Verity,” Eve said quickly. “What’s going on?”

  “Eve! Oh my God, there’s somebody trying to break in!” Verity’s panic-stricken voice was several octaves higher than I’d heard before, and there was real fear there. “Dad’s up there, and I can hear gunshots!”

  “Verity!” Eve was alert but not alarmed in her responses. She must have had some practice in this sort of reaction from her clients. “You have to call the police. Right now! Hang up and call the police.”

  “I did!” Verity cried. “But they’re not here yet! What if they shoot my dad?” I could hear her shrieking into the phone, unaware that Eve was hearing her fine. The shock and terror were pushing her into a frantic state of mind.

  Eve looked at me, and I knew what she was thinking. I nodded and dashed into the condo. I was going for my Ruger and a couple of extras, just in case. By the time I got back out to the hallway, Eve was at the door, ready to go. She was still talking to Verity through the phone, trying to calm her down.

  “Jake and I are on our way,” she assured her client as we rushed out the door and slammed it behind us. “The police are coming, too, you know that. Just hold on and stay safe, okay? Please, Verity, just stay hidden and safe.”

  We both made a mad run for the stairwell, knowing that it would be quicker than calling up the elevator. Neither one of us said anything to one another, as we were both too worried and anxious to speak. The flights of stairs flew by, and I hit the basement garage door at a run. I was headed straight for my Blazer, and I could hear Eve right behind me.

  We both got in, I started it up, and we were driving in what felt like less than a minute. The traffic this time of night was going to be high, but I knew Miami well enough to take a couple of shortcuts and get to George’s place swiftly. Eve was already calling the MPD again to report the situation and explain her involvement and how the break-in could be connected to a criminal case.

  Listening to her, I had to admire just how diligent she acted on behalf of her client. If this was a sample of her work, and I had Arik’s past to go on, too, Eve was one hell of an advocate to have on your side. I decided to think about putting that to use on my team’s end someday.

  As we neared the area, the streets got less busy and better lit by private means. I sped toward George’s driveway, and down the block, I saw a late-model blue Mustang driving away around the corner. It was impossible to know if they were participating or just passing through. There were a lot of residences here.

  I turned off the headlights on the Blazer and slid to a stop. I offered Eve one of my backup firearms, a 9mm Smith and Wesson, for protection and defense.

  “Thanks,” as she took it and checked the chamber. “What do we do now?”

  I looked at the front door, which I could see was open and ajar. That wasn’t a good indication. “If you want to stay out here and let the police know what’s going in when they get here, that’s fine with me.” From inside the vehicle, we couldn’t hear any gunshots, yells, or anything coming from inside of the house. I opened the door and paused to listen. There weren’t even any sirens in the distance, and that had me worried.

  She must have seen the look on my face. “Yeah, I’ll stay here and watch for whatever. Please be careful, Jake.” Eve attempted a smile as I locked and closed the car door behind me.

  I had my weapon drawn as I crept along the shadowy places silently, looking and listening. I made my way to the front door, where I saw that the handle had been blasted and destroyed by gunfire. There weren’t any traces of blood that I could see so far.

  As I stepped inside, I could see shattered glass and debris on the floor. Some plaster had been blasted away, but all the lights were on. I did a quick check of the guest sitting room, but it looked like no one had gone in there. I didn’t like the fact that there were so many hiding places with all the furniture, but I decided to head for the kitchen, as that was where the next logical place would be.

  I avoided the trashed objects all on the floor, moving around carefully to keep my presence unknown. I got to the kitchen and dining room comb
o and did another quick check as I peeked around the side of the archway. There was a body on the floor, and it looked like a woman. The foot and leg twitched, and I could hear groans, presumably coming from her.

  Looking in from this angle was difficult. The table and benches were in the way, and I couldn’t see down the next hallway from where I was standing. I took a chance and moved along the wall. As I moved, the woman on the floor saw me and pulled up her weapon to fire at me.

  “Cops!” She yelled to someone as she pulled the trigger. I was able to dodge behind the solid wood table, but I landed hard against the corner of the bench to keep from getting shot. Someone came out from the darkness of the hallway in front of me and fired in my direction.

  I glanced up and returned fire, but the person wasn’t there anymore. I sensed that they were still nearby, but from where I was, the woman on the floor had a better shot at me, and she took it. The bullet hit me in the thigh, but it was superficial. I fired back at her, twisting and contorting my body to make the shot count against her.

  I hit, and she screamed out in pain. There were more movements and sounds coming from somewhere else in the room, but I couldn’t see the second suspect from where I was lying. I had to get up, but I knew that would expose me to God only knew what.

  I shifted my weight and body to inch around and got a better look at the woman with the gun. She was bleeding and crying, but it looked to me that she still had some fight in her. As I moved, I looked for any sign of the other person here inside with me. I finally got to a spot in my crawling that offered me just enough protection and cover to do something about the woman.

  I noticed the nearby table leg was right in line with her face, so I pulled back both of my feet, getting ready to let loose with a massive blow that would slam the heavy wooden leg straight at her. Counting down in my head, I kicked out with everything I had on the count of three.

  The wooden table leg broke free and smashed directly into her face with so much force that she was knocked unconscious, dropping her weapon, and also getting pinned against the corner of the cabinets. She was out of the fight for good.

  I scanned the area to see that George crawled from the shadows of his hiding place. I could also see that he’d been hit by gunfire more than once. Upon seeing me, he nodded and tried to speak. “There’s still one here. Male, armed.” George then laid his head down on the floor and closed his eyes.

  His chest moved, so I knew that he was still very much alive. His wounds were at his right shoulder and arm, and his left pant leg was wet and dark with blood. I turned to look for the other perpetrator, but he could have been anywhere in the rest of the house.

  Then I heard a fantastic sound. Sirens were headed our way, and soon after, I could see the flashing lights of the patrol vehicles bouncing off of the walls in this room and the hallway. I kept my Ruger out until I absolutely had to put it away or answer a lot of questions that I didn’t want to. I made my way over to George to check for his pulse with my free hand while still carrying the Ruger, just to keep from getting surprised by that last suspect still in the house. His pulse was there, but not too strong. Knowing that the police would be entering at any second, I replaced my weapon at my back waistband and assumed the position. I had my hands raised back behind my head and was still on my knees as the first of the officers rushed into the kitchen area.

  “I’m a friend of the homeowner,” I announced clearly and respectfully. “There is still a suspect in the house. Male and armed. He’s somewhere down there.” I nodded to the darkened hallway and kept my voice as steady as I could. Officers came through, going every which way and checking on the two bodies on the floor.

  The woman was dead. We could all see that. But they called an ambulance for George right away. Once I was allowed to get up on my own two feet, I hurried to explain the situation.

  “Eve Sarabia is representing this man’s daughter,” I nodded to George as they were taking him out on a gurney. “We were together when Verity called. We came over because we are all acquainted with each other, and Verity was scared. She’s still in the house, probably in the safe room, or locked in her father’s office downstairs.”

  I wasn’t sure how else to describe the underground compound that they’d surely find. Then, I heard a gunshot and a man calling for help. A few minutes later, two officers came out with a man I didn’t recognize. He had dark hair and medium-hued skin. He was limping from an injury to his lower leg and was bleeding from his hand.

  “That’s him, I guess?” I tried not to sound too worried as I got a good look at him. “If you let me call Verity, I can let her know that it’s safe to come out of hiding. She can give you a lot more information than I can about what happened.”

  “The woman outside is taking care of that.” The officer’s reply was rather rude, but I didn’t take it personally.

  Soon enough, Verity was escorted into the kitchen, and when she saw me, she ran and jumped into my arms. “Oh, Jake! Thank you so much! Where’s Dad? Where’s Eve? I was talking to her the whole time, but…” Verity then saw what was all around her.

  She looked at the dead woman on the floor, the blood where someone, her father, had been, and the ruin of their home. Verity started to cry, and all I could do was hold her for comfort. Eve soon came in and walked over to us. She got Verity’s attention, and that freed me up to get my leg looked at and treated. It wasn’t that bad, and once we got a bandage on it, it wasn’t much more than an inconvenient sore spot.

  Verity sank into Eve’s arms and then onto the floor. Eve got to her knees and just held her client while she cried and tried to come to terms with what had just happened.

  “Eve!” Verity blubbered into Eve’s shirt. “They were tearing everything apart, looking for something. They said that they knew they had to be here and… I don’t know what they were talking about! And then Dad told me to get downstairs, and there was shooting all the time…”

  She would have a hard time recovering from this, and I couldn’t help but calculate just how much of this was linked together, both her case with the copied art fraud and the Speirs case. Eve looked up at me every once in a while as Verity continued to cry. All that we could do for now was wonder, plot, and plan how to fix these situations that somehow, someway, were very much connected to one another.

  It was well into the night by the time we were allowed to leave for home. Once the house was cleared and all our statements had been given, Verity was taken to a hotel under protective custody. The one living suspect would, of course, be questioned, but I had no idea if they’d ever find out anything valuable about him or the circumstances that brought them there that night. What I wouldn’t have given to have five minutes alone with him to ask some questions.

  Eve stayed over at my place, and we both spent some time before bed making calls and letting certain people know what had happened. I was fine with letting my team know, but one of us had to let Kippy, George’s ex-wife, know what had happened to him. We flipped a coin for it, and Eve lost. She sighed, excused herself to the spare room, and was in there for a while. I had started to worry when she finally exited, looking drained and even a little scared.

  “She’s a little pissed. And now she’s headed back to Miami.” Eve said this with a pensive tone as she fell into the couch beside me.

  “We knew that she would at some point.” I wasn’t too excited at the prospect, either. It was good that she was coming back for George, but I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with her.

  “She said thanks for being there for George and for Verity.” Eve leaned her head over onto my shoulder, and I placed my arms around her. We got an update about George from Verity soon afterward, and she informed us that he was going to be fine after a few days in the hospital. We sat there like that for a while until we were too tired to think or talk about it anymore. After that, we both felt like we needed some sleep, so it was off to bed. At least it ended the day, which was a kind of mercy and a little of a relief.


  27

  Eve

  I woke up in Jake’s arms the morning after the break-in at George’s house the night before. I tried to get out of bed without waking him, but that failed. The moment I got a foot on the floor, he opened his eyes and reached for my hand.

  “Morning,” he sighed, kissing my hand in a sleepy way that kind of made my heart melt.

  “Good morning,” I replied tenderly. “Do you mind if I grab a shower real quick? Or if you’d rather, I can just pop back to the hotel and clean up, and then we can---” Jake cut me off by pulling me down on top of him and kissing me intensely. Once I came up for air, I managed to say something halfway intelligible. “Or we could do this. I’m good with this.” I wrapped my arms around his neck and snuggled back into him.

  “I’ve been thinking, and we need to talk, Eve,” he started off. After that kind of kiss, I wasn’t sure how this conversation was going to go down, though.

  “Okay…” I was more than a little hesitant, but I guessed I knew something like this had to be coming. This was either the beginning of an “I enjoy your company, but” speech, or a “we need to slow down,” or maybe even something worse. I was expecting the worst. I didn’t have the best history of long-term relationships working out.

  “Since it looks like you might be staying in Miami for a while now,” he continued, “what with Verity’s circumstances changing after last night, I think that you should just ditch the hotel you’re living at and come stay here with me instead.” Jake was completely serious, but I wasn’t sure that I’d heard him correctly at first.

  I moved up to look him in the face to make sure that he wasn’t smirking or joking with me. “Say that again?”

  “You know you heard me.” Jake reached up and caressed my face with his hand. It felt remarkably good, and I sighed. “Come on. I’m not that hard to wake up next to, am I?” Now he was clearly joking. “Besides, I know that I’d like to have you here with me. We don’t exactly repulse each other, do we?” His smile was breaking all kinds of rules that I normally used, about being safe and not doing anything too dangerous, like, don’t run with scissors and always wear a seat belt when driving.