“Mrs. Howard,” I said.
“Hello, Sam. Is Landra still here?”
I nodded my head and called out to Landra, and she joined me at the front door.
“Hi, Sara. What’s up?” Landra asked.
“I’ve just been so worried about everything you told me earlier. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine. And I’ve got enough to worry about already without having to worry about you worrying about me. So please, quit worrying about me!” She stepped out on the porch and gave the old woman a hug. “Now go home and have a glass of wine. I’m trying to have a romantic date here with your neighbor.” The two exchanged a smile, then Mrs. Howard looked at me and gave me her toothy grin.
Apparently I was the only one of us who was uncomfortable about sharing my sex life with an 80-year-old.
“Now you made me embarrass him,” Landra told Mrs. Howard. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She shooed Mrs. Howard on her way and rejoined me at the door, then we waited until Mrs. Howard was back in her yard before we went inside and closed the door.
Landra cornered me against the door, pressing her body up against mine. “Where were we?” she smiled.
“I think we were right about here,” I said, and I kissed her as I backed her into the foyer. I picked her up and carried her to my bedroom, while Landra laughed and kissed my neck, and I tossed her onto the bed. She took off her shirt so that she was left in a black bra with her blue jeans and that stretch of beautiful flat stomach. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She leaned back on her elbows and watched me unbutton my shirt, then she scooted over to the side of the bed and pulled me over to her so that my bare chest was pressed up against her flesh. I unhooked her bra and ran my fingers over the bruising on her breast.
“Does it hurt?” I asked her.
“Not right now,” she said.
She reached out and started to unbutton my jeans, and I knew that it was going to take more than a modicum of restraint not to explode the minute I got inside her.
We took off each other’s jeans and then I stepped back and checked her out. A lot of women look better with their clothes on, but Landra wasn’t one of them, and it crossed my mind that she could probably seduce any man that she wanted. She took my hands and brought me back to the side of the bed and then she laid back and pulled me on top of her.
“What do you like?” I asked her, brushing her hair back from her face.
Landra smiled and pulled my face down to hers and she kissed me with such emotion that I thought I might lose it right there. She directed me inside her, and it was an exercise in both torture and ecstasy. She was so uninhibited. How I lasted as long as I did, I’ll never know, but I held out until she was ready and in the moment we came together, I confess that I had visions of happily ever after.
Landra rolled me over and rested her head on my shoulder and we laid there talking and laughing until it got dark, then we went for round two at a more leisurely pace. By the time we got up, it was already past 8:00 o’clock and we were both starving.
The idea of cooking dinner had long since lost its appeal, so we ordered pizza and sat out by the pool and ate pizza and drank a beer, then Landra got started on my walls, measuring off the stones and taping their outline. I sat on the sofa and tried working on some stuff for the office, but I’d catch myself watching Landra instead. She had her back to me and it was great to be able to perve openly without her knowing it. She finally turned around and busted me watching her.
“Want to help?” Landra asked.
“Not really,” I said unenthusiastically.
Landra put down her pencil and measuring stick and came over and sat down beside me. “What do you think is going to happen with the Drake Reeds stuff?” It was the first time she had mentioned it since that morning, but it had been on my mind all day.
“I don’t know,” I told her honestly. I figured it was a good thing that she had stayed away from her house all day. I’d be surprised if the media wasn’t camped out waiting for an interview when news spread of the accident. It had happened too late to make the paper and I hadn’t watched the news, but I had no doubt it would have been one of the top stories. I also felt sure that the police would have further questions for Landra, but I was confident that no surprises would materialize from their investigation.
“I feel like I should call his family,” Landra said.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Landra. Not yet anyway.”
“You’re speaking as my attorney?”
“I’m speaking as your attorney.”
Landra nodded and gave a feeble attempt at a smile. “Okay.” She looked over her work and back at me. “Why don’t you help me? It’ll go twice as fast.”
“You already made me paint the damn base coat. If I’d known you were going to make me do all the work, I never would have agreed to let you paint the rocks in the first place.”
“Agreed to let me?” she said indignantly. “Listen Mister, this is a $2,000 job I’m doing for you for free. I’d think you’d be a little more appreciative.”
“Two thousand dollars!” I exclaimed in disbelief. “You charge $2,000 for doing this?”
“For all four walls in a room this size? Yeah.”
“Shit. Now I am impressed.” I looked at the prep work she had done so far from a whole new perspective. It was tedious, time consuming work and the prep work alone could take days. I had no idea how long the actual painting would take, but in truth, I’d rather the whole process take twice as long if it meant not having to help. “I’ll pay you the $2,000, just don’t make me help you,” I whined.
Landra laughed. “How about we exchange your legal services for my decorating services?” she proposed.
“You’ve got a deal. As long as you don’t make me paint.”
Landra shoved my head to the side. “You’re such a baby.”
“Am not,” I told her, pushing her hand away. She picked up her tools and resumed her place at the wall and I went back to my files. I ended up falling asleep on the couch at some point, which made two nights in a row, and when Landra woke me up it was 4:00 a.m.
“What do you think?” she asked.
I sat up and looked at the wall she had been taping when I had fallen asleep, and if I hadn’t known better, I’d have sworn I was staring at a 150-year-old stone wall. It was amazing. She’d even painted a couple of areas where it looked like the wall was actually crumbling. The room was completely transformed and that was with just the one wall finished. I got up and gave it a closer inspection.
“I will pay you for this,” I said in all seriousness. “It’s incredible.”
Landra smiled. She looked tired but she was still so pretty. “I’m glad you like it.”
I walked back over to where she was standing and picked her up off her feet and squeezed her. “Thank you,” I said, nuzzling into her neck and breathing in deeply. It seemed like a long time since I had touched her. “You must be exhausted.”
“I am.”
We walked back to my bedroom and when I came out of the bathroom after brushing my teeth, Landra was sound asleep, curled up around my pillow. I went back out and looked at the wall one more time before getting in bed, then I leaned over and kissed Landra on the cheek. As soon as I did it, I realized how far gone I was. I’d seen my sister kiss her daughter when the kid was asleep in bed one night and the fact that my niece never knew her mother was there, made the expression of affection all the more meaningful.
“Goodnight Landra,” I whispered, and I turned my back to her and went to sleep.
* * * *
I dragged myself to the door when Mrs. Howard came knocking the next morning and left Landra sound asleep in my bed. I think Mrs. Howard guessed that Landra was still there, but I didn’t give her the satisfaction of knowing for sure. She never came right out and asked, and I never volunteered the information, but she kept trying to peek her nosy head in to see if she could see anything.
<
br /> It was a chilly morning so I sat back in my new stone fortress while I drank coffee, ate muffins and read the paper. Enough catastrophes had occurred the previous day to keep Drake Reeds’ accident out of the headlines, but there was a blurb on the front page, Tragedy Strikes High Society Affair, directing readers to Page 1 of the Metro section for the story:
Details are still sketchy as to what occurred in the moments before San Antonio businessman Drake Reeds plummeted to his death late Friday night during a black-tie affair celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary of an affluent Terrell Hills couple. Reeds was rushed by ambulance to the emergency room of Southwest Texas Methodist Hospital, after falling from a second-story window of the mansion. He was pronounced dead on arrival. Police spokespersons stated that there had been a struggle between Reeds and his former fiancée, Landra Krally, in one of the upstairs bedrooms of the mansion, and several sources stated that Krally had been physically and possibly sexually assaulted by Reeds. No charges are expected to be filed against Krally, who was unavailable for comment.
I sat back and breathed a huge sigh of relief. I figured if Landra could make it past the day of the funeral without much publicity, the story would die down quickly.
“Boo.” She said it in a normal tone of voice but it still made me jump.
“Damn it, Landra,” I said irritably. “That’s two mornings in a row you’ve done that!”
“I know,” she said smiling. She fished around in Mrs. Howard’s basket and came out with a cherry bran muffin and took a bite. “I can’t believe I’ve been cooped up with you for two days now and I’m not sick of you yet.” She came over and sat down on my lap and fed me the other half of her muffin. “Good morning, Sam.”
“Good morning, Landra,” I said with my mouth full.
We spent most of the day together, avoiding the topic of Drake Reeds. As far as I was concerned, we’d exhausted the subject the previous day and I wanted to concentrate on more positive things. So we laid low and just hung out together and by the end of the weekend, Landra was in a much better frame of mind. If only every day could be so nice.
Chapter 5
By the time Monday morning rolled around I hadn’t accomplished anything I’d intended to do over the weekend. Landra was a bad influence. I hadn’t even opened a file since Saturday night and then it was a useless effort. That translated into a lot of work I had to cram into Monday morning, which was something I always hated doing.
Maddie called as soon as I got to the office, wanting to know what to tell Datacare about why she was quitting. We had only talked for a few minutes when she said she’d have to call me right back, so when the phone rang again within minutes, I picked it up before Penny could get to it.
“Hey asshole,” the caller said.
My chest constricted and it took a second for me to respond. “Niki.”
“Did you get my message?”
“Yeah,” I said, dreading what was coming. “What’d you come up with?”
“On the Datacare investigation, I had a guy go in with the janitorial service and there’s definitely something going on there. He found surveillance equipment in a manager’s office.”
My interest was piqued. “What kind of surveillance equipment?”
“Cheap stuff. Nothing that a professional security company would be using. And Datacare doesn’t engage in surveillance against its employees. The only security cameras they have at the place are at the entrances to the building.”
I knew how Niki operated and he always saved the best for last, so I knew there was more coming. “What’d you find, Lautrec?” I said impatiently, and Niki laughed.
“Your client’s office has a camera in it.”
I’d been leaning back in my chair and I almost fell over backwards when he said it. “Did you find any tapes?”
“No. But I’ll tell you what I want to do. By the way, did I tell you I’m marrying a girl from San Antonio?”
I’d met Niki when I was in school at Tulane. He’d grown up in New Orleans and his family still lived there.
“You’re getting married?” I asked, in disbelief. “Anyone I know?”
“Maybe. Her name’s Stacy Trent.”
“I do know Stacy. I picked her up just last week in a sleazy strip club. The girl was all over me.”
“Fuck you,” he laughed.
“When’s the wedding?”
“In May. But I’m going to be in San Antonio for a while starting Wednesday.”
I knew he was telling me this for a reason and I was holding my breath waiting to find out why.
“Why don’t we go check out Datacare for ourselves some night this week?”
There it was. I didn’t like to hang out with Niki because he lived on the edge. He liked to do dangerous shit and although we had never been caught doing anything illegal, we’d come damn close on more than one occasion. Breaking into and snooping around an office complex was not my idea of fun.
“I don’t know . . .” I said skeptically.
“Oh come on, Sammy. It’ll be fun.”
Niki Lautrec had a way of making me do things I wouldn’t normally do. Whether I did them to impress him or to prove something to myself, I always found myself agreeing to something that was completely contrary to my nature.
He ignored my hesitation. “How about Thursday? Let’s do it Thursday night.”
I thought about it for all of three seconds before I relented. “All right. Thursday night,” I said unenthusiastically.
“Good. Okay, on the other matter . . .” I could hear him flipping through papers and I reached for my glass of water. “Landra Krally . . . it’s nothing conclusive, but she may have killed her husband.”
I dropped the phone and spilled my water all over a brief I’d been working on. I yelled for Penny and paper towels and when I finally got back on the phone Niki asked, “You okay there, Sammy?”
“What are you talking about?” I exclaimed.
“Like I said, it’s nothing conclusive . . . but there was a question as to whether his death was self inflicted. He died of a drug overdose.”
“When was this?” I asked, my head spinning.
“Five years ago. They’d been married for six months when the guy carked it.”
I sat there in shock trying to absorb what I was hearing. Landra had been married? She may have killed her husband? “But she wasn’t ever charged with anything?” I finally asked.
“No. There wasn’t enough evidence to get to the grand jury. But she walked away with all the sucker’s money.”
“Damn,” I said under my breath.
“Damn?” Niki said confused. “I thought you wanted me to come up with something on her. You told me to keep digging.”
“Yeah, but that was before I met her,” I said grumpily.
“What’d you do, go out and date her after you asked me to investigate her?”
Hearing it out loud, made it sound as stupid as it was. “Kind of,” I admitted.
Niki laughed out loud and I wished he was there so I could pick a fight with him. Not because I had anything against him, but because I really needed a good fight and Niki was safe. I knew that I couldn’t seriously hurt him, but he’d give me a good fight without killing me in the process. Not because he couldn’t, but because he wouldn’t.
“You’re an idiot, Collins.”
Obviously. When I didn’t respond he laughed again, this time harder.
“You slept with her, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.”
I could just picture him shaking his head and rolling his eyes. “Why didn’t you wait until I’d finished my investigation? Shit, maybe you’re next on her list. Did you ever think about that?”
“Yeah, but not recently.” He must have realized that I wasn’t taking his goading well, because he lightened up on me.
“Well, if they had anything on her she would have been prosecuted, so that should be some consolation.”
“Yeah.” I sighed heavily. “Is
there anything else? She didn’t slash her dog’s throat or sacrifice a live chicken or anything like that?”
“That’s all I’ve got. You want me to keep looking?” I could tell that he thought I should say yes.
“I guess so,” I said reluctantly.
“Good answer. I’ll see you Thursday.”
Maddie called as soon as I got off the phone with Niki, but I didn’t tell her what he had come up with in his investigation. I told her she should put her resignation in writing, stating that she was being forced to quit in retaliation for having filed a sexual harassment charge with the EEOC. She had given Datacare two weeks’ notice, but when she handed Larry her letter of resignation, he gave her five minutes to pack up her things and get out.
I called the EEOC and spoke to the Investigator handling Maddie’s charge and made a formal appearance on her behalf and let him know that we would be amending the charge to include retaliation and constructive discharge. We discussed the charge and the Investigator assured me that he would expedite his investigation due to the egregious nature of the allegations.
While I was on the phone with the EEOC Investigator, Penny came in and stuck a note in front of me that said, “Landra holding, URGENT,” so I concluded my call with the EEOC as quickly as I could and got on the phone with Landra.
“The police want me to come down and answer some more questions,” she said nervously. “I told them I’d be there at 11:00 o’clock.”
Shit. I looked at my watch. “Come down here and we’ll go together.”
Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) Page 8
