Legal Action - Box Set

by Kimball Lee

  “Would Mr. Bly have bought her a dress like that or do you think it was something she already had?” Maddie asked, leaning forward in her chair.

  “Bly would never have given her that dress, he uses a personal shopper who has impeccable taste. When he and I were… together, I had my own personal shopper but he was always having her pick out clothes for me and they’d be waiting in the entry hall like Christmas presents when I came home. No, that dress, like Natalie, wasn’t right,” Charlotte said and shivered despite the warmth of the room.

  “There’s no doubt in my mind,” Maddie said, working to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together, “from what she said to you about how people at the Chalet heard your husband threaten Mr. Bly, and that you would “see who wins,” she’s definitely guilty. She’s either holding him somewhere or she’s already hired someone to kill him. Have you spoken to the police yet?”

  “They questioned me in the lobby and I insisted on going down to the police station to have my testimony recorded earlier today. They did record what I told them, but I could see they thought it was nothing more than a bitch fight over a rich man. Maddie, I have to believe he’s still alive, I’m expecting some Special Ops guy right now. Finn swears he can find Bly,” Charlotte said, removing her coat just as she felt Finn’s cell phone vibrate.

  “Hey,” she said answering, “did you get the picture I sent? I thought it was a good one.”

  “Yes it’s perfect, nice and clear. Charlotte, Billy Kipling is looking for you, why aren’t you in the room?” Finn asked, and she could tell he was mad even though he never got mad at her.

  “I’m downstairs in the press-lounge with a girl who works for Bly, she’s a war correspondent and we were discussing Natalie. Don’t go off the deep end, my love, I’ve seen her credentials, besides, she used to be one of the Tropical Dream girls.” She smiled as Maddie’s face turned red, “yes, one of those hot sex-kittens in the suntan lotion ads, and quit thinking about it!”

  “Give me her name, birth date and social security number Charlotte, and take a picture of her and send it now,” he said, allowing no room for argument.

  Maddie recovered from her bout of embarrassment and held out her hand for the phone, she gave Finn her information, he was welcome to know everything except her weight, she said. Then she handed the phone back to Charlotte and smiled while her picture was taken.

  “He sounds intense,” Maddie said, “he must really be something, the man you chose over Alexander Bly.”

  “He’s my truest love, what can I say? Being in love isn’t something you can fight against or just choose to get over. Yes, he’s very intense, in more ways than one,” Charlotte said, and she felt herself blush and they both laughed.

  “I want that, too. I envy you, I thought I almost had it once, but it turned out he loved himself more. So anyway, I’m horrified that you remember my slightly embarrassing ‘fifteen minutes of fame’” Maddie said.

  “You are not the only one who’s had to live with pictures you wish you’d never had taken, I’m still living mine down,” Charlotte said, and they laughed.

  “I wasn’t going to say anything, but I was there at the photo-shoot for the American Jock layout. My boyfriend was the photographer and I went along as his assistant, but that’s a story for another day,” Maddie said.

  “Funny,” Charlotte said, “I don’t even remember that photographer’s name.”

  “Spencer Beck, he’s famous now, those pictures made his entire career. I wish I could forget his name,” Maddie said with a small, sad smile.

  “Alright,” Charlotte said, standing and folding the coat over her arm, as she did one of the magazines of ammunition fell out of the pocket. She gathered it up quickly and dropped it in her purse, but not before Maddie saw it.

  “Damn sister, you are expecting trouble aren’t you?” Maddie laughed uneasily, and her eyes widened. “Okay, so I’m thinking you have a gun to go with the ammo and I’ll bet its military issue by the looks of that magazine.”

  “Maddie, I’ve enjoyed meeting you and talking, well maybe enjoyed is the wrong word for what we discussed. I really have to get going, but the sequined dress thing does bother me, maybe…”

  “Maybe we should get together in the morning and talk to some employees at all the dress shops in the village, there are only a few. I can do some checking on my own tonight, I am an investigative journalist, after all. Besides, I’m here by myself on vacation to relax in the spa, but guess what? I was bored out of my mind after a day and a half. I mean seriously, where are all the hot men in tight ski pants, that’s what I really came here to see,” she said, walking Charlotte back to the stairwell and giving her a card with her cell number, “call me in the morning, please, even if you don’t want to meet up, goodnight.”

  *

  “Hey, the totally determined lady lawyer!” Billy Kipling said as he leaned against the wall eating an apple. He waved goodbye to the grumbling couple who were being moved out of the room next to Charlotte’s to accommodate him. “Bye, don’t look so sad, you’re getting upgraded to a suite and spa services, you might want to check out the high colonic, I hear it’s a moving experience!” he said, and smiled at Charlotte, who rolled her eyes although she hated when people rolled their eyes. “What?” he asked as he motioned for her to enter his newly acquired room.

  “That was just rude, please don’t even speak to my dear, sweet mother-in-law,” Charlotte said. “So how did you get here, Billy? Not to add to your little joke but you really do look like hammered shit! Ah, so the smart-ass bad-boy blushes, you’ll get used to my southern humor if you hang around long enough.”

  “I’m a Kansas farm boy, we dream of sweet little cheerleaders from Ole Miss… and don’t ask me how I know that, but of course, who doesn’t? Okay then, my intel says they’re holding Bly’s fiancée in her hotel room under house arrest with a police guard at the door. Thanks to some fancy string-pulling, I would just bet. The big-dogs from Bly International are sending hired muscle in to pull out all the stops to find Alex Bly as soon as they can land a helicopter. Only problem is, they’ve put the matter in West’s hands and he can’t get from western Mexico to the Czech Republic for at least twenty-four hours. I’m going to take a shower and change my clothes, I’ve been in a Sno-Cat all day, and the damned thing smelled more like a dead cat. It got me here, but it’s definitely seen better days. I just might kick the shit out of the guy I borrowed it from, or set it on fire, I haven’t decided which. Why don’t you let Finn know we’ve hooked up, check on your kid and order us some room service… and a bottle of Belvedere?”

  As he began to undress Charlotte looked away and walked to the door, “Finn said not to order room service,” she said, without turning to look at him.

  “I’ll bet Finn thinks I can handle the room service dude,” he said, and she heard him groan as he stepped under the steaming shower spray, and she went next-door to her room.

  *

  “I’m glad Billy’s there with you and the journalist is fine, her credentials check out. She’s twenty-nine, has worked at Bly Inc. since college, and she’s won a couple of awards for outstanding journalism in areas of military conflict,” Finn said.

  Charlotte held the phone with her shoulder and scooped Atticus into her arms. Henrietta said he’d been fussy, missing his dad and mum, she suspected. It was long past his usual bedtime, but Charlotte didn’t care, she needed some snuggle time with her boy.

  “I’m kissing the neck of the best looking man in the world, as we speak,” she told Finn, nuzzling Atticus so that he smiled and grabbed a handful of her hair.

  “I miss you both like crazy,” Finn said, and when the men grumbled in the background, he said loudly, “JP snores like a snow-blower and I’ll spare you all the other raunchy details. The storm appears to have moved on at this altitude. We’ll do a few test runs on the snow about noon tomorrow to be sure it’s stable, and hopefully we can make it down the mountain then. The wind tore the ski-lifts t
o pieces and the gondola is out of commission too, so we have to come down on skis or snow-shoes. I’ve been in touch with the police, they’ll be out searching for Bly first thing in the morning, they’re going to knock on every door in the village and beyond. We’ll find him if he’s… don’t worry Charlotte, we’re on top of the situation. Stay close to Kipling and be aware of who’s around you, we don’t know what Natalie is capable of. Goodnight, and sleep well my love and my little love.”

  “G’night, don’t take any chances tomorrow. We’ll wait patiently and we both love you, Finnegan,” she said, looking down at the baby who was asleep against her chest, his little thumb in his mouth. Charlotte carried the baby with her to Kipling’s room and settled into a deep, soft chair. She hadn’t spent much time with Atticus in the last few days and she needed to feel him near her.

  “Wow,” Billy said, standing over her in fresh jeans and a flannel shirt, “now that’s a cute kid, not that I’ve ever been close to one before, but that one’s kind of damn well cute.”

  “Thank you… I think,” Charlotte said, smiling first at the baby’s content face, then up at Billy.

  “I’ve got one about that age, a baby girl, but I’ve never seen her,” he said, as he opened the door for room service and brought the tray in, dismissing the waiter. He poured two glasses of vodka but Charlotte shook her head. “A girl I was with for a couple of years, she lives in my hometown. She called and told me last summer, but she married an old buddy of mine so she said I should probably stay away.”

  He was yet another version straight out of the Finn and JP mold, former military, fit and muscled all the way. He was a few years older, probably thirty-two or three, and he needed a haircut, his hair was scruffy and sandy-blonde. Billy Kipling wasn’t especially handsome, not in a way that would turn heads. Except for his eyes, they were wide and grass-green and… riveting. She suddenly remembered that he’d stayed with her on the jet in Taiwan, and he liked Van Morrison songs.

  “The storm has blown itself out so I’ll be up and asking questions at dawn, grilling the police for details, first of all. They may know something important and not even realize it. Finn said you’ll be right there with me and it’s no use advising you to wait in your room,” he smiled down at her and ran his hand gently over the baby’s head.

  “My husband is a brilliant man,” she said, standing and walking to the door to leave, “I have a gun and I’m not afraid to use it.” She laughed at the look of surprise on his face, and said, “I’ve always wanted to say that! Okay, so what time is dawn?”

  *

  Billy Kipling was efficient at grilling the police officers who’d questioned Natalie the day before. He spoke Czech fluently and he loosely translated for Charlotte.

  “Bly and the woman arrived in town on December twenty-third around noon, and Bly went to their suite and napped,” Billy told Charlotte, as they left the police station and stopped in at a small bistro for coffee.

  “Bly took a nap?” Charlotte asked. “Is that her way of saying they went to the room to… have sex? Bly doesn’t nap.”

  “She said he was beginning to suffer from altitude sickness, possibly. Then she suggested he have the concierge call a doctor and she went shopping.”

  “Natalie’s a take charge kind of woman, and she and Bly aren’t married yet, why wouldn’t she talk to the concierge herself? You know, protect her rich fiancée at least until the honeymoon?” Charlotte said, sipping her coffee as they sat at a table on the sidewalk.

  “I’ll tell you why,” Maddie Newland said, she was standing above them bundled up against the cold and she looked excited. “Because she went shopping for more than dresses, and she did her homework before she ever left the states.”

  “Sit with us,” Charlotte said, and Billy stood up and pulled an extra chair over to the small table for her. “Maddie Newland this is Billy Kipling, he’s… good at finding people.”

  “I’m a journalist,” Maddie said, sitting in the chair Billy held for her, and she was as captivated by his eyes as he was by her blatant sex appeal, Charlotte noticed. “Alright, I convinced a cop to let me have a quick look at Natalie’s IPhone last night, since they kept it as evidence. It was late and the policeman was all alone, I mean, the police force in this village is what, a grand total of six men? I took him a cup of coffee and a flask of bourbon and he became… cooperative.”

  “Imagine that, and what did you find of interest on the confiscated cell phone?” Billy asked, and his eyes were all over Maddie, with her lovely face, captivating brown eyes and honey-blonde hair that fell in soft waves just past her chin.

  “That sequined dress you mentioned, Charlotte, she bought it from a shop here in the village the day they arrived. The shop is owned by a woman whose husband is in prison for money laundering in the U.S., just the type of woman Natalie was looking for, it seems. We can go to the shop when it opens in an hour. The only thing I couldn’t find, is where she lives.”

  “Did I mention that Natalie has the legal right to control all Bly’s assets in case of his absence?” Charlotte asked, “I talked to Jack Sheppard yesterday, I called his law office when Bly first went missing. He said they’d received a letter from Bly International saying they were changing law firms with no other explanation. He’s tried to reach Bly over the last week, but Bly didn’t answer and his calls were never returned. Bly’s office assistant said he was out of the country and didn’t want to be bothered.”

  “I’m sure I’d be attacked if I suggested that you both need to let me check things out, so I won’t even say it,” Billy said, and the look on the women’s faces said, “you’re damn right, we’re going with you!”

  “Let’s go now,” he said, “someone has to be there to open that shop every morning.”

  *

  “I’m only filling in for a few days,” a girl who looked to be about sixteen said, she was unlocking the front door of the tiny dress shop when they arrived. She spoke English extremely well, with no trace of a Slavic accent. “My sister works here and the owner’s out of town for the holidays.”

  “Why isn’t your sister here today?” Billy asked, as he walked through every room of the shop quickly, opening doors, and looking behind dressing-room curtains. Then he stood over the girl menacingly. “Where is your sister right now? You know, you’re pretty young to spend your life in prison, and in a foreign country, at that. Have you heard about foreign prisons? Man, people in America have it damned good compared to…”

  “She’s at the house with that man everybody’s looking for! We’ve been backpacking through Europe and we rented a room here for the month and the lady who owns the house and this shop…” the girl blurted out, but Billy stopped her and asked where the house was.

  “It’s a couple of miles out of town, right off the main road, it backs up to the river,” she said and started crying, “I’d better call my parents.”

  “Did you drive here, do you have a car?” Billy asked, and when she nodded her head he said, “Get your keys and let’s go, now! I’ll drive and you point the way, is he hurt, the man in the house?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t go in there, my sister crushes pills and puts them in whiskey and it’s all she gives him to drink. She says she isn’t supposed to feed him and not to be afraid because he doesn’t really wake up and he’s tied up or something. I just want to go home, please let me call my parents, I don’t think the man is hurt, I’m sure he’s just fine,” she whined.

  Charlotte and Billy sat in the front seat of the new BMW. The girl said the woman who owned the shop and the house had taken a car service into Prague the day before. She told the two sisters she’d be back soon to deal with the man. Maddie sat in back with the girl and it was all she could do to keep from backhanding the living daylights out of the stupid little fool.

  “Oh yeah, sounds like he’s just fine, fit as a fucking fiddle. Whiskey and pills and no food or water, are you impaired in some way?” Maddie asked, and she seriously wanted to kn
ock some sense into the girl.

  “What room is he in, where in the house?” Billy asked, they parked just down the road from a tiny, wood framed house that sat on edge of the frozen river. It was barely visible through a thick stand of trees. He took a gun from an inside pocket of his coat and Charlotte thought it looked a helluva lot scarier than the one she carried.

  “The downstairs bedroom that faces the river, at the back of the house, go all the way down the hall from the front room,” she said.

  “Come on,” he said, pulling her out of the car, “you’ll get us in the house, then wait outside in case shots are fired, go to the car and lie down on the seat if you get scared, understand?” Billy looked around and there were two other cars in the driveway, one had a rental sticker on the back window.

  The front door was locked and Billy could hear two female voices yelling inside, he whispered to the girl to go back to the car. When he saw that Charlotte held a gun in her shaking hands he told her to stay behind him, they would check out the back door. He whispered to Maddie to go to the car and call the police.

  There was a deck in back that jutted out over the frozen river, and two doors leading into the house. Billy climbed the stairs and looked in the windows with Charlotte at his side.

  Inside the bedroom was a nicely made bed but they could see Bly passed out on the floor near a partially opened window, his hands were duct-taped to an old iron radiator. He still wore his ski pants and jacket, but his face was ghostly white and his lips and hands were blue from the cold. Two women were arguing in the next room, yelling at each other so loudly they didn’t hear Charlotte enter through the second door.

  “Fuck!” Billy muttered under his breath, as Charlotte pointed her gun at a woman with long black hair and told the other one to lie down on the floor. “Keep your fucking hands out to your sides,” she screamed as the younger woman dropped to the floor.