6. Lethal Justice

by Fern Michaels

  Arden bit down on her bottom lip. “The firm managed to weather the…incident.”

  “Incident? A woman going to prison is not an incident. I have a transcript of the trial right here,” Kathryn said, pointing to a mountain of bound folders. “I found Miss Whittier’s version quite credible as did Miss de Silva. Where is this young woman today?”

  “We don’t know,” Arden said quickly. “After she got out of prison, Miss Whittier dropped off the face of the earth. Roland tried to find her. We aren’t heartless. We wanted to give her a little stake to start over but we couldn’t locate her.”

  “Well, Miss de Silva’s people will be able to find her. I should talk to her before I make my final decision. But, since time is of the essence, I can wait a little while longer.”

  Arden’s insides quaking, she decided she had nothing to lose. “It will be you, Miss Markham, who makes the final decision?” she asked.

  “Yes. Do either of you have a problem with that?”

  “Not at all,” Arden said. “What happens if your people can’t find Miss Whittier?”

  Kathryn stood up to indicate that the meeting was over. “I’ll make a decision at that time if they are unsuccessful. Thank you for coming out here today. I’ll be in touch. Be sure to let me know when and if you can secure a loan. Sumi, show our guests to the door.”

  Kathryn turned her back and walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind her. She fell into Alexis’s arms. “How’d I do?”

  “Great! You were great.”

  “Dear girl, you really had them transfixed,” Myra said.

  Yoko bounded into the room, giggling. “You should have been an actress, Kathryn. I could see the greed in their eyes.”

  “Trust me when I tell you they’ll stop at a bank on the way back to the office,”

  Alexis said.

  “In that outfit?” Kathryn said.

  The women went off into another peal of laughter.

  “Alexis, how do you feel, dear?” Myra asked.

  Alexis shrugged. “I peeped out the door at them. I thought I wouldn’t be able to contain myself, that I would rush out and strangle both of them. It didn’t happen. I did want to cry, though, when they called me by my real name. I think it went well. In other words, I’m satisfied.”

  Kathryn hugged her. “We aim to please. Can I now please get out of these clothes?”

  “Absolutely, Miss Markham,” Myra said

  Chapter 19

  Roland Sullivan did his best to talk between his clenched teeth. He was furious.

  Arden lowered the window on the passenger side and lit a cigarette. “Will you relax, Roland. We can do this. Stop at the first restaurant you see and we’ll talk.” She blew a perfect smoke ring as she leaned her head back against the leather head rest.

  “Are you out of your mind? We cannot do this. Let me be more specific, I will not agree to this. I am not going to mortgage my holdings so you can get rich. I started my business on a shoestring and I’m not going to mortgage it, nor any of my properties. My house is paid for. I hope you’re listening, Arden.”

  “You only have what you have because of…let’s be blunt here, Roland. You have what you have because we framed Sara Whittier and raped her accounts. Let’s not be shy about it. We’re both wealthy thanks to our dastardly deeds.”

  “I know. It’s my cross to bear. The answer is no, Arden.”

  Arden blew another perfect smoke ring. “It would be more money than either of us ever dreamed of. When Wall Street hears de Silva signed on with us, the big boys will want to play with us. Millions and millions, Roland. Look, there’s a small café, let’s stop there.”

  Roland dutifully slowed and turned into the parking lot of the Sweet Grass Café. Normally, he would have walked around to open the door for Arden. Today he got out of the car and walked toward the entrance. Arden had to run to catch up to him.

  The café was a cozy little place with small round tables covered in colorful tablecloths. Sawdust littered the floor. Sweet grass baskets hung on all the walls and could be purchased by the patrons. It was well past the lunch hour and too early for the down-home dinner the café was known for. Two signs over the counter said beer and wine were available and smoking was not an option. The only occupants were two elderly white-haired ladies and two waitresses.

  Roland headed for a table well away from the two old ladies. He didn’t bother holding a chair for Arden. She grumbled as she pulled out her own chair and sat down.

  Roland flipped open the menu. He had three choices—pot roast, crab cakes, or fried chicken. He opted for the pot roast with mashed potatoes and two sides. Arden ordered the crab cakes with a garden salad. Both ordered coffee. The minute the waitress was out of ear shot, Arden fixed her gaze on Roland who met it defiantly.

  “They’re going to try and find Sara. Doesn’t that bother you, Arden?”

  “If we couldn’t find her, they aren’t going to find her either. She’s gone. Forget about Sara Whittier. It’s because of Sara that we’re sitting here with the brass ring within our grasp. Open your eyes, Roland. This is the big time.”

  Roland stirred cream into his coffee. What he really wanted was a triple shot of Old Granddad. “Big time, my ass. Did you hear the same things I did? What bank would be crazy enough to grant us a loan of that size to go into escrow without our names on the account? If you believe that, you are really stupid. The answer is NO!”

  “Look, Roland, this is a chance of a lifetime. I know a bank that I am almost certain would grant a loan. The escrow account will be in their bank drawing interest. We can agree the bank holds the interest. Between the two of us we can make some robust profits for de Silva. We talked about it in detail. Your ideas are as good as mine are. We can do this. We really can. If we mortgage everything we have, drain the offshore accounts, we can come up with fifty, maybe seventy-five million easy. If you’re worried about your primary residence, the one you share with your wife, we can exclude it.

  “I did listen to the Markham woman. It’s true she didn’t confirm that she would give us the account. What she wants is to see if we’re willing to put everything on the line. She said two of the big houses outright refused. I grant you five percent is a lot but not enough to make us say no.”

  Roland leaned back so the waitress could put his plate in front of him. Suddenly, he was ravenous and couldn’t wait to dig into the mashed potatoes and gravy. His wife Patsy used to make meals like this. She called them comfort food. He wondered if he would find comfort after he finished the food on his plate. He looked across at Arden’s plate. She was mashing the crab cakes with her fork. He wasn’t at all surprised when he saw her make a dollar sign as she carved and sliced at the food on her plate.

  “It is enough to say no. I have no intention of ending up selling shoes in a department store. I don’t think you’d do well working as a domestic somewhere.”

  “You are so negative. You need to think ahead. We did so many projections we were dizzy. You agreed that we could do it.”

  “That was before Markham came up with that five percent. That is an ugly percentage. If it was three, I might consider it. Might is the operative word.”

  Arden’s eyes were desperate. “What if I agreed, between us, to personally suck up the other two percent? There will be more than enough money to last us ten lifetimes if we play our cards right. Would you agree to that?”

  Roland pondered the question as he sopped up the last of the gravy on his plate with a chunk of home-made bread that melted in his mouth. Maybe he’d ask the waitress if he could buy a loaf to take home with him. “I might.”

  Arden sighed loudly. “I’ll call the banker tonight at home and talk to him. You can listen if you like.” She gave herself a mental shake and switched into her seductive mode. “Think about it,” she whispered, “we’re naked in bed talking to a stuffy banker on the speaker phone who only has sex twice a month with his overweight wife in the missionary position.”

&nb
sp; Roland fell into the trap and totally forgot about asking for a loaf of bread to go.

  Maggie Spritzer moaned and groaned as the car ate up the miles. “I don’t mind telling you I’m scared, Ted. How did we miss those security cameras?”

  “Because we’re stupid. Okay, okay, I’m stupid. The goddamn things looked like recessed lighting. I’m not a high tech person. You missed them, too. You said you didn’t want to fight it.”

  Maggie watched the countryside flash by. “A reporter without credibility…”

  “There’s no point in beating this to death. We’re going to apologize. We are going to promise to lay off. We are going to return the files and swear on our parents and everyone on earth that there are no notes and no copies because it will be the truth. Then we are going to hope those women take pity on us and take us at our word. Then and only then, I am going to kill Jack Emery for involving me in this shit in the first place.”

  “It would have been a Pulitzer, Ted,” Maggie muttered.

  “Well, that is not going to happen now so get that thought out of your head and don’t ever think about it again.”

  Maggie worked at her seat belt so she could turn to face Ted. “We do have one other option.”

  “We’re out of options. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. What?”

  “We could join them. We know Emery is one of them. If we were on the inside, we’d really get the straight skinny on all of them. That would fly when we did our exposé. The journalistic world would forgive us for that little breaking and entering we did.”

  Ted took his eyes off the road long enough to glare at his companion. “Don’t go down that road, Maggie. We’re here. Let me do the talking, okay? Just agree with everything I say. I want to give you something to think about so listen up. No one, I repeat, no one knows we’re here unless you blabbed to someone. The ladies of Pinewood are a law unto themselves. They have the kind of backup you and I can only dream about. That’s another way of saying we’re at their mercy and we have to be properly contrite and believable. Tell me you understand everything I just said.”

  Maggie mumbled something that sounded like she agreed. “Do you ever wonder what it’s like to have so much money you can afford all this?” she asked, waving her arms about.

  “No! The gates are opening. Oh, shit, look at those dogs!”

  Maggie took one look at the snapping, snarling dogs and squeezed her eyes shut. The huge iron gates closed silently. A moment later the dogs turned docile and headed back to wherever they came from. The reporters stayed in their car until Nikki appeared to escort them into the house.

  The fine hairs on the back of Ted’s neck moved in the early evening breeze. The look on Nikki Quinn’s face and the set of her shoulders told him whatever was about to happen was going to be downright ugly. He was wary of looking at Maggie. He hoped she wouldn’t start to cry. He felt his skin prickle when he heard the door close behind him. Maggie must have had the same reaction. He could see her shoulders start to tremble.

  Nikki nodded to the round oak table as she fiddled with the whistle around her neck. “Coffee? Soft drink?”

  Both reporters shook their heads. Ted tossed the manila folder onto the table.

  Nikki picked it up and carried it over to the kitchen counter where she opened it and withdrew the files. She spent a good twenty minutes going through each page in an effort to convince herself that nothing was missing. She picked up the larger envelope and a smaller envelope fell out. “Is this an extra…something for me?”

  “Oh shit,” Ted mumbled under his breath. Both he and Maggie slumped in their chairs.

  Nikki opened the clasp on the smaller envelope. A small cassette tape dropped to the counter. “I think I know what this is. Do either one of you want to confirm it?”

  “It’s the tape we made that night at the cemetery when Jack Emery helped you women,” Ted said coldly.

  “I take it I wasn’t supposed to get this.”

  “That’s right, you weren’t supposed to get it.”

  “How do you explain this then?”

  Ted didn’t see any advantage to lying. “The files and the tape were in the safe at the office. When we asked for our package I guess the boss thought we meant both envelopes. There are no copies of anything, if that’s your next question.”

  Nikki’s face was grim. “For your sake, I hope that’s true,” she said.

  Ted’s stomach crunched into a knot. “Now what?”

  Maggie squared her shoulders. She struggled for bravado. “Okay, we’re guilty of breaking into your offices. However, let’s not lose sight of the fact that what you and your friends are doing is far worse. You could go to prison for a very long time if you turn us in because we’ll sing like the proverbial canaries. We’ll cop a plea and probably get off with probation. Our paper will go to bat for us. We both know that. Yeah, yeah, we might lose our jobs in the end and maybe even our credibility, but are you willing to take that chance, Miss Quinn? While we’re at it, you set me up in the parking lot, didn’t you?”

  Nikki was about to respond when Isabelle knocked at the kitchen door before she walked in. “Oh, company! Am I interrupting anything?”

  Maggie and Ted both noticed the whistle hanging around Isabelle’s neck. It matched the one Nikki wore.

  “No. Coffee?” Nikki asked.

  “Don’t mind if I do.” Isabelle poured herself a cup and lounged against the kitchen corner. “What should we talk about?” she asked cheerily.

  Maggie was still feeling brave. “How about that night at the cemetery when you guys dumped Rosemary Hershey into an open grave?”

  “Oh, that! A simple case of mistaken identity.”

  “Like hell! You damn women are out there breaking the law left and right and we caught you fair and square. You win this round. We turned over all our proof. That puts you in control. For the time being. I’d like to leave now.”

  Isabelle brought the cup to her lips. “I bet you would.”

  Nikki looked genuinely regretful. “I’m afraid we can’t allow you to leave,” she said. “We’d like you to be our guests for a little while.”

  “What does that mean exactly?” Ted asked.

  “You’re a smart man, Ted. What do you think it means?”

  “You’re kidnaping us is what it means to me.”

  “The word kidnaping has such an awful connotation. You called my office for an appointment. My office manager can verify that. I invited you out here to Pinewood. She will verify that, too. Actually, you’re free to leave. Your other option is to follow us out to the apartment over the garage where we’d like you to stay while you’re visiting. Of course if you really don’t want to accept our hospitality, we understand. It’s your choice. Isabelle, open the door.”

  Isabelle opened the door. The snapping snarling dogs circled the steps leading to the back door. “Just wade through the dogs. When you get to the gate, we’ll open it.”

  Maggie and Ted looked at one another. In a resigned voice, Ted said, “We accept your hospitality.”

  “Your cell phones please. Just put them on the table. Empty out your pockets. Isabelle, pat them down. While I take our guests to our guest house, remove the distributor cap from the car and let the air out of all four tires.”

  “You’re a bitch!” Maggie snarled.

  “Takes one to know one,” Nikki snapped in return. “Follow me and don’t make any sudden moves or the dogs will attack you. I would like to share with you that these dogs patrol twenty-four hours a day.”

  “This is kidnaping,” Maggie blustered as she followed Nikki, Ted on her heels.

  “Let’s not do that dance again. You are our guests. We’ve gone out of our way to make sure your stay with us is as enjoyable as possible. Come along now, don’t dawdle. The dogs get nervous when one is out and about too long. To prove how considerate and caring we are, we’re going into town to fetch your pets.” Nikki opened the garage door and ushered her guests up the stairs to the s
econd floor. “I think you will be quite comfortable here. Everything you could possibly want is here, the latest bestsellers, the latest videos, a wide screen TV, a Jacuzzi and a plentiful supply of beer and wine. Wonderful food, ample room, a verandah in the back where the animals will be able to run and play. There is an intercom between this apartment and the main house. You can call us anytime if you need something. Think of this as a vacation you promised yourself but didn’t have the time to take. Enjoy the evening.”

  Nikki joined Isabelle in the kitchen. “If you’re ready to go, let’s do it.”

  “How did they accept it all?”

  Nikki laughed. “All things considered, rather well. They’ll adjust, they have no other choice.”

  “Just to be on the safe side, let’s leave our cars outside the gate while we’re hosting our guests. Reporters are very…ingenious.”

  “Good thinking,” Nikki said as she gathered up her purse and car keys. She locked the kitchen door behind her.

  “When are you going to…”

  “Tell everyone? Soon.”

  Chapter 20

  The words exploded out of Jack Emery’s mouth like bullets. “You did WHAT?”

  Nikki played with the wristband on her watch. She refused to be cowed by Jack’s outburst. Her gaze was rock steady and right on. “You heard me the first time. We had no other choice, Jack. Those two can ruin all of us and that includes you, too. Stop looking at me like that. I’d do it all over again if I had to.”

  Jack raked his fingers through his new haircut. “Of all the harebrained stunts, this one tops the list. How long do you plan on housing your…guests?”

  Nikki’s tone turned defensive. “As long as it takes. For all intents and purposes, the two of them ran off to get married. I have it covered. We sent letters to their boss. Resignation letters. We paid up the rental leases on their apartments for six months plus all their utility bills. Both of them used automated checking. Like I said, we have it covered. They goddamn well broke into my law offices. They had the tape of you at the cemetery. Let me be the first to tell you your voice is loud and it is recognizable. Ted said he played it for you. I was protecting you, too.”