The Bad Judgment Series: The Complete Series

by Leigh James

  They’d be right. But we did have the best sports teams.

  I squeezed Walker’s hand. Thinking of home made my heart ache, but I pushed it from my mind as we turned the corner. I could tell that Walker was carefully watching all around us, trying to ascertain if we were being followed or not. It had only been a little while — less than two weeks, if I was still keeping track properly — since Mandy had died. We hadn’t seen anyone following us since then. Even though everything was crazy, that was at least a relief. It was a stark contrast to what the last few weeks had been like back home, where we’d had someone listening in on us and following our every move. I was still incredibly paranoid, but at least I didn’t have to write out every sentence to Walker.

  The office building that housed the South Beach subsidiary of Blue Securities was within view now. The street wasn’t as crowded here. It seemed like this was a less bustling part of the downtown district. It was seedier, and that seemed appropriate when I thought of Lester Max.

  We stopped outside of the building. “What’s the play, here?” I asked, watching Walker. His jaw was clenched and I could almost see the wheels inside his head turning, like he was making a plan and weighing the options.

  Just then, a man came out of the entryway. “Hold the door,” Walker called.

  The man held it open with his foot, not even looking at us, as he put on aviator sunglasses.

  “Thanks,” Walker said, and we went in. There were offices on either side and a central staircase; the building seemed mostly empty and quiet. Walker immediately turned to the left, heading towards the Blue Securities door and I tugged at his hand, trying to get him to stop without saying anything.

  He turned to look at me, just before he grabbed the door handle.

  “What are you doing?” I hiss-whispered at him.

  “Finding out what’s going on with my company,” he said, and his voice was firm. “Now, play along, Mrs. White. I might need you to duct tape some stuff.”

  I looked at him, exasperated. I didn’t have time to wonder about what I might need to duct tape because he knocked once on the door and then opened it. As soon as the door opened, a bell rang, to alert whoever was inside that someone was coming in.

  “Hello?” a woman’s voice called, and as Walker and I went through the threshold, I was shocked and not at all delighted by who we found sitting behind the desk.

  It was April. Young, auburn-haired, drop-dead gorgeous, curvaceous April, secretary to none other than Lester Max.

  Chapter 9

  “Ah, April,” Walker said, beaming down at her. “Nice to see you again.”

  “Is it?” she asked, blinking up at him. Her hands were conspicuously beneath the desk where she sat. I had a bad feeling about that.

  “Put your phone on the desk. Now,” Walker said. April scowled at him and did what he asked. I grabbed the phone, checking the text messages. The last one, which was unsent, was just a garbled few letters.

  To Lester Max.

  “Fancy meeting you here,” I said lightly, putting her phone in my pocket. It felt so good to have a smartphone back in my pocket.

  She gave me a sour look. “I have to admit, I’m surprised to see you two,” she said, primly. “I thought that at least you,” she said, motioning with her chin to Walker, “were smarter than that.”

  “I am smarter than that,” Walker said, casually. He’d opened up a filing cabinet and was rifling through it. The drawers were mostly empty. There were a few boxes of Kleenex and some cleaning supplies, but no files.

  “You won’t find anything interesting in there,” April said. “Unless you came here to dust.”

  “I can see your attitude hasn’t improved since I last saw you,” I said.

  “Yours hasn’t either,” she said.

  Walker turned to us then. “If there aren’t any files in here, where are they?” Walker asked.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” April said, and she seemed to be lacking the fear that I would have appreciated at this juncture in the conversation.

  “Well then,” Walker said, striding toward her. There was a laptop on the desk, which seemed to be the sole piece of equipment the office had. He turned it off, shoved it into her enormous designer purse and then handed it to me. Then he grabbed April herself, jostling her up. “There’s no reason to stay here. Why don’t you come with us?” He hustled her to the door. She tried to pull away from him and he took out the gun, pointing it squarely in her back.

  To her small credit, she stopped trying to pull away.

  “Good girl, April,” Walker said, smoothly. “Now walk with us cooperatively and you won’t get shot. And please lose the attitude, okay? Nicole deserves some manners, even if I don’t.”

  I heard April sniff in disapproval, but she squared her shoulders.

  “Now, I’m putting this away,” Walker said, coming up next to her and showing her the gun. “But I still have it on me. And even though you know me as a CEO in a fancy suit, I have a bit of a history with guns. So don’t test me. Don’t run, don’t scream, don’t cross your fucking eyeballs. Or you won’t have them anymore,” he said, and smiled scarily at her.

  April had the courtesy to look a little apprehensive after that.

  “Is anyone down here with you?” Walker asked, before we went out the door.

  “No,” she said. She sounded sorry about it and I didn’t blame her.

  “Good,” Walker said, and pushed her out. He looked around quickly but the foyer was empty. “If I find out you’re lying to me, bye-bye eyeballs. Now lock up.” He really was being mean. I was starting to feel sorry for her until I was rifling through her purse to get the keys and found a gun. I held it up briefly and showed Walker. He glowered at April. “You should have mentioned that,” he said.

  “Whatever,” she snapped. “I have to protect myself. I’m alone, after all.” She snatched the keys from me and locked up, glowering back at both of us.

  We walked back down the street tensely, April in between us. She fit in perfectly with the South Beach scene, except for her pale skin. She had on a hot coral dress that hugged her every curve, and a perfect pedicure that glinted in the late-afternoon sun. Men glanced at her appreciatively as we walked down the street; then they took one look at Walker and quickly glanced away.

  He was scaring lots of people today. He pulled over into an alley and whipped out the walkie-talkie as we neared The Majestic. “Louise,” he said.

  “All clear, Mr. White,” Louise said back, through the static.

  We went in though the lobby and Louise raised a thinly-plucked eyebrow at April.

  “We have a guest,” Walker said.

  Louise nodded at him sagely. “I think I need a raise, Mr. White,” she said.

  “You’ve got it. Tomorrow,” Walker promised, and hustled April upstairs.

  “Things have gone a little downhill for you, Mr. Walker,” April said, taking in the faded chintz bedspread and the garbage bags covering the windows. “I never pictured you staying in a place like this.”

  “Life is full of surprises,” Walker said, motioning for her to sit down. “Like seeing you in South Beach. That was quite a surprise.”

  She sat down, a pleasantly fake smile on her face, and said absolutely nothing.

  “April, we’re going to need some information from you. Actually, all the information you have. We’re going to need details,” Walker said smoothly.

  “I don’t have many details,” April said, and she sounded like she was telling the truth.

  “Well that’s a shame,” Walker said. “Because I offer a very high compensation package for details.”

  “That’s something I’d be interested in,” April said, perking up a bit. “But I don’t want to lie to you and make stuff up. You’d be able to tell, anyway. I don’t have a lot of details.”

  “Well, what you lack in detail…you might be able to make up for with strategic placement. And a cooperative, ambitious attitude.”


  “I’m still listening,” April said.

  “I want to know everything that you know. And then I’ll let you go and get back to work.”

  She sat there, waiting, and I held my breath. Really? I wondered. Let her go just like that, so she can have Lester Max and everybody else come down and find us and kill us within eight hours?

  “What do you mean, exactly, Mr. Walker?” She no longer appeared even mildly afraid. It was more like she was considering a job offer, and was wondering what the exact benefits package was.

  “I mean, you will no longer work solely for Mr. Max. You will also work for me. And Nicole,” he said. “It means that you will first tell me everything that’s been going on since I’ve been out of the office — and anything else that’s pertinent.

  “When you go back to the office tomorrow,” he continued, “you will keep our meeting a secret. Or you will find yourself, one fine morning, without the ability to wake up.”

  I shivered then, but April was watching him calmly. Lester Max must be really fucking crazy to work for, if she can sit and listen to Walker talk like this and not blink.

  “As of tomorrow, when you go back to work at Blue Securities, you will become a dual employee. You will continue to work fastidiously for Mr. Max, but you will report directly to your rightful bosses — myself and Nicole. Do you understand?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. I’m going to set up a private computer network. You can send documents to us via a remote server. You’ll need to use your personal computer from home and a new, designated phone for all of our contact. Do you understand?”

  She nodded again.

  “April, I want you to know something…I’m a fair man. I’m also innocent.” He paused for a beat, wanting her to take it in. “I’ve threatened you this afternoon because I have to — if you betray us, I will kill you. I won’t want to, but I’ll have to. So don’t do that. I will be fair to you. If you’re good to me, I will be very, very good to you. If you play your cards right, and do exactly what I ask exactly how I ask, I will make you an extraordinarily wealthy woman.”

  “I don’t play cards,” she said. “I don’t like to gamble. Exactly how much money are we talking about, here?”

  “The larger the risk, the larger the reward,” Walker said, tantalizingly. “I should know. I didn’t get to be a billionaire by playing it safe.”

  April waited a beat. “I believe that you’re innocent,” she said. “And I’m very interested in becoming an extraordinarily wealthy woman. I just don’t think I’ll live that long. And I don’t think you two will, either.”

  Walker smiled at her. “That’s where you’re wrong — at least about us. I don’t plan on letting anybody hurt Nicole any time soon,” he said. April’s eyes flicked to me briefly, taking in the tattoos and my wild hair. She turned back to him. “I also think,” he continued, “that with you helping us, things could be looking up. And I can protect you, April. I still have friends back East. Friends that love to make money as much as you do.”

  “But I know you don’t have access to your money right now,” April said. “So I’m going to be doing this for deferred compensation. Right?”

  “Right,” Walker said. He seemed delighted that she had a firm grasp of business and accounting practices. “But the faster we get this up and running, the faster we’re all going to be able to enjoy my vast resources.”

  “Sounds like an offer I can’t refuse,” April said, and she sounded a little bit like she really wished she could refuse it. And run.

  “You can’t. The eyeball thing, remember?” I asked, sweetly, remembering how she’d tried to get Walker to look down her dress back at the Blue Securities office in Boston.

  “And the not waking up thing. I recall them both clearly,” she said. “But thanks so much for the reminder.”

  She still didn’t like me. I could tell.

  “Use your manners with Nicole,” Walker said, in a warning tone. “That’s something I won’t tolerate. You need her to want to keep you around. So make yourself useful.” He grabbed the smartphone off the arm of my chair and tossed it to her.

  “Call Lester Max.”

  * * *

  Later, after we’d had Louise order us pizza and the three of us had eaten, April explained that Lester Max had been expecting her call.

  “I call him every night from down here, after I leave the office,” she said. “He wants to make sure that the accounts are running the same as he instructed, and also that no one has been in, asking questions or poking around.”

  “Have you been down here since the accident?” Walker asked.

  “No. Not the whole time,” she said. “There was another woman who worked down here. But she had to be replaced.” April shrugged.

  “Why’d she have to be replaced?” I asked. I watched as April picked at the crust of her one slice of pizza. She’d barely eaten.

  “Because she was dead,” April said, matter of factly. “That’s the other reason Lester wanted me down here. To make sure the police weren’t poking around the business.”

  “Have they been?” Walker asked.

  “Not really,” April said and shook her head. “They came in one day, to ask if there had been anything unusual, but there hasn’t been.”

  “Did they find her body?” I asked, my stomach plummeting.

  “No,” April said. “She’s reported as a missing person. They have a lot of those down here.”

  “Do you know what happened to her?” I asked, quietly.

  “Nope,” she said. “Lester and I have a strict don’t ask, don’t tell policy. All I know is what I was told: she won’t ever be coming back. A permanent vacation, so to speak.”

  “Was she the only employee down here?” Walker asked.

  April nodded. “She’d been here for two years. She processed payments and kept track of all the state-specific things we had to file. She didn’t really have a lot to do,” she said, “except what she was told. And not fuck it up.”

  “But she fucked it up,” Walker said, and it wasn’t a question.

  “So here we are,” April said.

  “What exactly did she do wrong?” I asked.

  “Well, you should know,” she said, “you’re the one who saw the Miami files before you were supposed to.”

  I flinched.

  “I don’t know if Laura was supposed to pay Lester and Proctor & Buchanan when she did,” April continued. “I assume that she did that part correctly. But she wasn’t supposed to make the records available to your firm yet,” April said, “even though they were on the receiving end of the payments. It’s messed up — but I don’t know who knows what at Proctor & Buchanan. I swear.” She looked up at us and raised her hand, like she was taking an oath.

  “Do you know who your contact is there?” I asked. “Who the checks are made out to?”

  “The checks are made out to the firm. They’re usually in ten-thousand-dollar increments. I don’t know who gets them.”

  “So back to the secretary — what was her name?” Walker asked. He stood up and paced the room.

  “Laura,” April said.

  “Tell me how she fucked up.”

  “We got the discovery request and Lester instructed her to provide all the documents,” April continued, “but she was supposed to hold records of any payments to the firm. I think that they were supposed to be lumped together, to look like part of the payment on the retainer, or something. But we’d sent Laura a copy of the discovery request and she followed it to a T.”

  “She followed it right to Lester’s very unforgiving bad side, you mean,” Walker said.

  April nodded at him. “That’s right. And we didn’t catch it when she sent it back up to us. Nicole’s the only one who caught it.”

  “Great,” I mumbled, under my breath. Another dead body that I was responsible for.

  “Don’t,” Walker said, and reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “You’re not the one who did something wrong
, here.”

  I looked back up at April. “What does Lester Max have to say about all of this?” I asked. “About us? About the business? About the money he’s helping himself to?”

  “He doesn’t say a thing,” she said. “I knew about the payment issue — and that you’d uncovered it — because he had a fit in his office the day after he met you, Nicole. He had me pull up the entire discovery request and comb through the whole thing with him. It was over a thousand pages, so it took quite some time. He told me what we were looking for then: payments from the Miami subsidiary to him personally and to the law firm of Proctor & Buchanan. That’s all he told me, and I didn’t ask anything else. Because I knew better.

  “When we found that the information had been sent out, both to the prosecution and to your firm, Lester had another fit. He called Laura and screamed at her for a good long while. I heard him from my desk. And then later, after they found Mr. Walker’s GPS bracelet at Logan and you two disappeared, Lester informed me that I would be coming down to Miami on a regular basis, to make sure that things were running smoothly and more importantly, that the office wasn’t being broken into.”

  “And nothing else?” I asked.

  “He didn’t have to tell me anything else. I’m a big girl, Nicole. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I know when something’s not right. I know better than to ask, and I certainly know better than to tell.

  “Present circumstances excluded, of course,” she said.

  “So what is Lester saying about me? What’s the tone back at the office?” Walker asked. His eyes looked hollowed out at the thought. His company that he’d built with his bare hands…being run quite possibly into the ground by Lester Max.

  “People are trying to be upbeat,” April said. “They still believe you’re innocent, Mr. Walker. You still have loyalty there. But it looked bad when you two left.” She glanced at us. “The reporters are saying the timing of the bomb is too suspicious to be coincidental. I know you weren’t involved, but to most people, it looks bad.”