Corridor Man 6: Exit Strategy

by Nick James

  He nodded and was about to say something when a noise out in the hall signaled Miguel approaching and she quickly turned round and opened a cabinet door to appear busy.

  “Just coffee for me this morning, Maria. I’ve got to get to the office,” Bobby said. “Miguel, can you run me over?”

  “I can,” Miguel said with a nod. “But are you sure you can get in?”

  “They called a half-hour ago. I’ve a meeting at two and I’ll have to prepare. Were you able to mail the letter last night?”

  Miguel smiled. “I have a friend who works at the downtown post office. I sent him a text, and he met me outside, promised me he would see that it was postmarked.”

  “Can you trust him?”

  “Very much. He won’t let us down.”

  “Excellent. Then let’s be on our way.”

  “Give me a minute’s head start to check out the parking area,” Miguel said then hurried out the door.

  Maria watched until he closed the door behind him, then she turned back to Bobby with a dreamy look in her eyes.

  “Maria, thank you very much for taking care of me,” Bobby said, handing her the coffee mug, but meaning so much more.

  Chapter Eleven

  Bobby nodded at the two guards stationed at the security desk in the lobby. One of them gave him a sort of half-salute with his index finger. Neither one said anything about yesterday’s events or anything else for that matter. He stepped onto the elevator and headed up to the sixteenth floor.

  Not to put too fine a point on it, but the office was as quiet as a morgue. The receptionist counter was empty, the paralegal area and the offices along the wall were all vacant with the lights off. He stuck his head into the break room, but there was no sign of anyone having been in this morning. The sink was empty, no coffee was made, it looked like he was the only individual in the place. He quietly peeked around the corner to check for Sawyer and Allen. Their office doors were closed and the lights in their respective offices were off.

  Two lengths of plastic yellow tape were attached to Bennett’s office door, forming a giant ‘X’. The black letters on the tape, all capitals, read ‘POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS’. Bobby tried the door knob, it was locked and so he hurried into his office and retrieved the copy of the key he’d had made and unlocked Bennett’s door. He ducked in under the police tape and hurried over to Bennett’s desk.

  The window he’d pushed Bennett out of was covered by a sheet of grey plywood, small bits of glass were still scattered across the carpeting and they crunched beneath his feet as he walked behind the desk. Papers and files lay scattered across the desk, credenza and floor, all left pretty much looking the way he remembered.

  He took hold of the handle on Bennett’s desk drawer then noticed a series of clear, circular stickers attached to the drawers and the frame of the desk. They were put there, he figured, by the police to detect if anyone had been in the office and gone through the desk.

  He placed a fingernail alongside one of the stickers and was able to peel it away from the desk frame. He rubbed the sticker back in place to see if it would adhere, it did. He pulled it off the frame again and quickly went through the contents of the drawer. He didn’t find anything of interest in that drawer or the next two. The bottom drawer on the right-hand side was large enough to accommodate files. He pealed the sticker away, then quickly began to rifle through the files.

  Most of the items consisted of Bennett’s personal records, a large file for his trust fund, investments, home and car insurance. But halfway back was a file labeled Elizabeth Saunders, Emily’s sister. He quickly pulled the file and opened it. There, in the front of the file, was a copy of the insurance agreement Bennett had signed before Bobby pushed him out of the window. The same insurance agreement that had led to two days of constant arguing with his partners, Sawyer and Allen. Bobby set that file aside and continued to sort through the remaining items. He’d just finished going through the drawer, closed it, reattached the sticker, and was about to go through the contents of Bennett’s credenza when he heard the bell announcing the arrival of the elevator.

  He picked up the insurance file, hurried out the door as approaching voices grew louder. He quietly closed the door then ducked into the nearest paralegal cubical not six feet from Bennett’s office. A moment later Sawyer and Allen came around the corner and made a B-line for Bennett’s office. They paused in front of the office door for a brief moment.

  Allen shook his head and said, “I don’t know about this, Charlie. They told us forty-eight hours and they didn’t sound like they were kidding. This is not the sort of trouble we need right now. We’re clearly in violation of….”

  “Violation?” Sawyer said. “I’ll tell you what’s going to serve as a violation. That pompous ass, Bennett. Never a financial worry in the world. Trust fund baby is what he was. Good lord, signing that insurance settlement that will send the firm along with the two of us down the river without so much as a second thought. Didn’t seem to bother him.”

  Sawyer took a step toward the door and Allen grabbed him by the arm.

  “They don’t want us in there, Charlie. They were more than clear about that. The one detective said they’d be back to finish they’re investigation. I just don’t feel comfortable about…”

  “Virgil, I’ve got thirty-seven years of my life invested in this damn firm. If you think I’m going to stand by while…” There was a click and then both of them were quiet for a moment.

  “There you go,” Sawyer said. “If it was so damn important, do you think they would have left the door unlocked? Come on, and be careful not to upset this tape.” Sawyer groaned a moment later as he crawled beneath the tape and into the office.

  Bobby cautiously peeked around the corner of the cubicle and saw Allen down on all fours, slowly crawling into Bennett’s office. He crawled all the way over to Bennett’s desk, then hung onto the top of the desk, and gingerly pulled himself to his feet with another groan.

  “There, now that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Sawyer said. He reached down and pulled open the center drawer on Bennett’s desk, apparently oblivious to the police stickers Bobby had so carefully reattached.

  “Why don’t you start going through that credenza,” Sawyer said. “We’d better hurry. Custer’s due to arrive in just over an hour.”

  “And what, exactly, are we looking for?”

  “That damn insurance agreement. He had it here somewhere,” Sawyer said. “That, and whatever else we run across that could later serve as a problem.”

  Bobby waited for another few minutes until Sawyer was on his knees, presumably going through the bottom file drawer and Allen was half inside the credenza cabinet examining Bennett’s scotch collection. He quietly snuck out of the paralegal cubical and hurried back to his office. He quietly locked his office door then quickly made his way to the elevator.

  The bell rang when the elevator arrived and he briskly stepped on then pushed the “close door” button three or four times, hoping to avoid being spotted by either Sawyer or Allen.

  Once down in the lobby he got on his cellphone, called Miguel, and asked him to drive over and pick up the insurance file. Miguel pulled up ten minutes later. Bobby hurried out to the curb, handed him the file, and said, “Just hang onto this. I’ll be up in that meeting. I don’t expect it to last very long.”

  “You want me to wait?”

  “Only if you feel like it. It could end up being an hour.”

  “Send me a text when you’re ready to go and I’ll be here.”

  “Good enough,” Bobby nodded. “I’ll want to stop at Emily’s on the way home.”

  Miguel’s eyes widened for a moment, looked like he was about to say something, but had a second thought and remained silent.

  “It’ll be strictly business,” Bobby said in response, then turned and headed back into the building.

  Chapter Twelve

  He stepped off the elevator, into the firm’s empty office lobby, and listened car
efully. From somewhere back in the office, no doubt back in Bennett’s office, someone was saying, “Come on, come on, get a move on, Virgil. Hurry up, damn it.”

  There was a loud groan and Bobby couldn’t help but think the two of them, Sawyer and Allen, the pair even more inept than he’d originally thought. A moment later he heard a door slam, no doubt the door to Bennett’s office.

  “Damn it,” one of them half-shouted.

  Bobby hurried around the corner and headed back toward Bennett’s office, hoping to catch them in some sort of compromising situation. Virgil Allen was in the middle of the hallway, down on all fours and in the process of crawling toward the paralegal cubicle Bobby had been in less than a half-hour earlier. He crawled alongside, then carefully pulled himself up from the floor using the edge of the cubicle for balance. Once up, he stood there, red-faced and breathing heavily like he’d just run a race. He grew a worried look on his face and stared as Bobby hurried toward them.

  For his part, Sawyer was attempting to reattach the police tape barring entry to Bennett’s office. Neither one appeared to be bringing anything resembling a file or paperwork from Bennett’s office.

  “Cus, Custer,” Allen gasped, more as a warning to Sawyer than a greeting to Bobby. Sawyer gave the lower portion of the tape a couple of quick pats before he turned round. The tape stuck to the door frame for a second or two then just dangled loosely toward the floor.

  “Custer, you’re early.”

  “Luncheon meeting finished early,” Bobby said. Then looked at the two of them caught red-handed. “I don’t know if we’re allowed in there yet, I think that’s why they put that tape up.”

  “Ummm, we were thinking the same thing. Weren’t we, Charlie?” Allen said.

  “What say we go back to my office,” Sawyer said ignoring the two of them and heading toward his office without giving any further explanation or waiting for an answer.

  Allen took a deep breath, puffed his cheeks, and exhaled. He looked exhausted and the day was still young.

  “Grab a seat there,” Sawyer directed without looking at Bobby. He pointed with his index finger to a couch as he walked past and more or less sounded like he was giving a command. He moved behind his desk, pulled the chair out, sat down, and waited a moment until Allen slowly entered the office. “Nice of you to join us, Virgil.”

  Allen didn’t reply. He pulled a client chair from in front of Sawyer’s desk and turned it so that it faced Bobby. Essentially positioning the two of them opposite Bobby. He sat down then more or less stared at his feet for a long moment until Sawyer broke the silence.

  “Tragic day, yesterday. Absolutely tragic,” Sawyer said.

  Allen nodded in agreement then quietly repeated, “Yes, tragic, just simply tragic.”

  “What was the problem? You guys were arguing nonstop for two days. What were you arguing about? Bennett was really upset.”

  “Upset? He was out of his mind. The deranged bastard pulled a gun on the two of us. You were there, you saw it. You heard him. He threatened to shoot both of us. At that point it seemed the prudent thing to do was just get the hell out of there, get the staff to safety, and then get Bennett some much needed professional help.”

  “What were you arguing about?’

  “We received a settlement request regarding the in…”

  “Virgil, no need to bore Custer with petty details. Suffice to say, Bennett wasn’t having his best day. He’d made some poor decisions that were going to have a negative financial effect on the entire firm, for a good long time. We were in the process of discussing some additional options when the poor man just seemed to snap.”

  “It sounded like everyone was yelling.”

  “Only at the end, once it was clear he’d gone over the edge. We were just in the process of attempting to calm him down when you arrived.”

  “Seemed to be an awful lot of yelling earlier in the day, and, well the day before too, now that I think about it. The three of you storming back and forth from office to office. I think the rest of us were all keeping our heads down,” Bobby said and smiled. He really didn’t know, he’d been busy the day before shooting Reggie Montcreff, that idiot Dalton, Clint, and Jerry the driver. He smiled again, thinking it had been a crazy couple of days.

  “Are you finding this situation amusing?” Sawyer asked.

  “Charlie,” Allen said in a cautionary tone.

  “Amusing? Hardly. You still haven't answered my question. What, exactly, had Bennett Hinz so upset that he fired a gun, then jumped out a window and fell sixteen floors to his death?”

  “That’s the five-million-dollar question,” Sawyer said.

  “Charlie,” Allen said, this time a bit more forcefully.

  “Five million? I’m afraid I’m not following.”

  “The firm has been involved in a situation which Bennett decided he was going to settle. We both feel the suit is at best frivolous, without merit, and has no factual basis. Bennett disagreed and then put the future of the firm at risk by becoming involved in a rather tawdry escapade which forced him to sign a settlement.”

  “An escapade that forced him to sign? I’m afraid I’m not following. What happened?”

  Sawyer dismissed the question with a wave of his hand.

  “So, what are you going to do?” Bobby said guessing the tawdry escapade Sawyer just referred to was Bennett’s getaway with Emily.

  “Well, the first thing we’re going to have to do is pare things down to the bone, trim the staff. Cut back on expenses and get a handle on our operating costs. That’s where you come in, Custer.”

  “Me? I’m not quite sure I’m following, but just tell me how can I help, and I’ll…”

  “Charlie?” Allen said.

  Sawyer waved his hand to silence Allen, then sat back in his chair and smiled at Bobby. “How can you help? It’s really quite simple. Your services are longer needed. Your free ride here is over.”

  “Over? Free Ride? I’m handling the Montcreff account. I’m not sure you realize the intricate nature of that particular client. Surely you can’t expect to just walk in blindly, with absolutely no knowledge of what’s involved and expect Mister…”

  “Trust me, I’ve been at this for almost forty years and I’m a pretty quick study,” Sawyer said. “Besides, for your information, I’ve already spoken with Mr. Montcreff and he’s in complete agreement. In fact, he said it would be nice to finally have representation that was actually welcome in a courtroom as opposed to some disbarred…individual. By the way, he asked that you not bother to contact him.”

  “You spoke to him? You talked with Morris Montcreff?”

  Allen gave a couple of nervous twitches, looked from one to the other and appeared about to say something, when Sawyer held up his hand to silence him.

  “We been talking back and forth for quite some time. No need to bore you with the details, Custer. Suffice to say, I don’t think we’ve anything else to discuss,” Sawyer said, clearly enjoying the moment.

  “But surely you can see…”

  “I can see any further discussion would be a waste of your time as well as ours. I’ll accompany you while you clean out your office. Really no point in wasting any more time, we’ve got a lot on our plate just now,” he said, then pushed back his chair and stood.

  “But you can’t…”

  “Actually, I can. In fact, we just have, Custer. There’s the door,” Sawyer said indicating with his hand.

  Bobby stood and hurried out the door, hoping neither one had seen the grin he was wearing as he headed into his office. There were just a few things he needed, his laptop, some personal files. He was packed and heading toward the elevator five minutes later with Sawyer following close behind, humming some inane tune to himself.

  “Can’t you just think about this for a minute. You sure there isn’t some way we could talk this over?” Bobby asked as he stepped onto the elevator, trying to sound sincere.

  Sawyer gave a quick glance over his shoulde
r to make sure Allen wasn’t lurking in the background. “Let me honestly state I’ve enjoyed these last fifteen or twenty minutes. Your departure has been long overdue in my estimation. I knew it was a mistake to bring you on the moment you arrived. Now, I’m not at all sorry we won’t be doing business, Custer, The pleasure today has been all mine,” he said then reached into the elevator and pushed the down button. He raised his right hand up to his shoulder and wiggled his fingers at Bobby. “Bye, bye,” he said and grinned just as the doors closed.

  Perfect, Bobby thought then smiled as he wondered how things were going to go once Sawyer realized he wasn’t able to connect with Morris Montcreff. He replayed Sawyer’s line about talking with Montcreff. ‘We been talking back and forth for quite some time.’ Be interesting to find out how, exactly he managed to do that.

  He stood out in front of the building and sent a text message to Miguel to come and pick him up. Fifteen minutes later they were on their way to Emily’s house.

  “Wait for me, this will only take a minute,” Bobby said and hurried out of the car. He took the steps two at time up to her front door then rang the doorbell, then turned and glanced back at the car. Miguel raised his arms in a sort, ‘What’s up?’ pose.

  Emily opened the door just as he was about to ring the bell a second time. “Well, if it isn’t the bearer of bad news himself, good old Bobby, the life of the party,” she said, then sloshed some martini out of the stemmed glass she held. She took a couple of steps backwards, nearly losing her balance, then sort of waved her arm and said, “Oh please, do come in. Stopping by to gloat? To tell me what a bitch I am?””

  “What are you talking about? Emily I just wanted to check and see how you were doing.””

  “What am I… I’ll tell you what the hell I’m talking about. I’m talking about your cheap little pissant firm, the folks who sent my sister to France where she was killed. I’m talking about them denying my mother and, well me, our rightful insurance benefit. That’s what the hell I’m talking about. The bunch of you never, ever had any plan to pay up. Did you? You’re all just a bunch of hypocrites. You, you….”