Legal Heat

by Sarah Castille

  “Was he?” Ted arched an eyebrow. “We haven’t received any documents from the court or from his office to that effect. He lied to you and I think it’s obvious why. I never thought you’d be so gullible.”

  Katy sucked in a breath. No documents? There had to be a mistake. Why would he deceive her?

  For a bit of fun.

  She shook her head. She didn’t believe it. Not after everything he had done for her. Even now her gut told her he wasn’t lying—not about the withdrawal and not about the witnesses.

  “It’s not just that,” Ted continued. “Jimmy Rider is dead. Someone beat him to a pulp and left him in an East Side alley. I spoke to the detective in charge of the case. Witnesses saw a tall, broad-shouldered man in a black suit fleeing the scene. The police believe it was personal and not drug-related, but they haven’t said why. I don’t suppose you know someone with a questionable past who might fit that description and who might be upset to find out his girl had been roughed up?”

  “Oh God.” She wanted Ted to stop talking. Stop filling her with head with doubts. Mark had threatened to make sure Jimmy would never hurt her again. Would he have used the experience he had gained on the streets as a youth to make good that threat? Had she misjudged him as badly as she had misjudged Steven?

  No. She couldn’t reconcile the gentle lover from last night with the portrait Ted was trying to paint of a violent and dishonest man. She wasn’t ready to give up. Not on Mark and not on the case.

  “Martin told me lives are at stake,” she said, her voice steady and clear. “Martha is relying on us. It’s not fair to her or to Martin’s memory if we just let this go. No one knows the case as well as I do. I’m on to something and I’ve got the police protecting me now. Let me see it through.”

  Ted shook his head. “I don’t want you involved in this case. Someone shot at you. Two men are dead. I’ll take it over myself and settle with Steele. I’ve already drafted the press release.”

  “Justice won’t be served that way,” Katy said. “I know Martha. She’s a good person. Steele will offer next to nothing and she’ll take it so no one gets hurt. Just give me some time. A few more days. I have a document review scheduled at Hi-Tech on Friday and I might be able to find the evidence we need to expose them. Think about the publicity for the firm if I do uncover something. It will eclipse the publicity of a settlement.”

  Ted exhaled a long breath. “I know I’m going to regret this, but I’ll give you two days. The file is yours until after the document review…then I’m calling Steele.”

  Mark rolled his eyes when he walked into the boardroom. The long, serious faces of his fellow partners told him this “impromptu” partners’ meeting had been planned well in advance. Could his day get any worse? Exhausted and emotionally drained, he didn’t know if he could take what he knew they were about to give.

  “An ambush?” He sat down and waited for the circus to begin.

  Tony took a deep breath. “I’ll get right to the point. You have to break it off with her. We’ve all agreed you’ve crossed the line into conflict territory. If you’re caught, it could damage the reputation of the firm.”

  “And we don’t want to lose the client who is single-handedly keeping the firm afloat.” Curtis didn’t meet his gaze. A contracts solicitor to the core he abhorred confrontation.

  Mark tightened his lips. “After all these years, do you not trust me?”

  “When it comes to her, no.” Tony didn’t mince his words.

  Mark spun his chair around and stared out over the water, bitterly disappointed at his fellow partners. “Over the last few years, Steele has been pushing me close to the ethical line. When he finally he asked me to cross it by scaring Katy off the case, I decided Hi-Tech was not the kind of client we wanted to represent. No client is worth compromising our reputation. I withdrew as counsel before she was shot. What happened after that is of no concern to the firm or to Steele.”

  No one moved. No one spoke. The loss of Hi-Tech’s work could ruin the firm, and they all knew it.

  “Fuck.” Curtis ran his fingers through his hair. “Why didn’t you do what he wanted, but in a roundabout way?”

  Mark shook his head. “You know Steele. If I crossed the line once, he would expect me to do it again and again. Before you know it, I would be destroying documents and forging signatures. I wasn’t prepared to step onto that slippery slope.”

  “You should have come to us before you so blithely dumped the firm’s major client.” Tony rested his forehead in his hands and stared down at the table.

  Mark gritted his teeth. “I’ll admit I was already looking for a way out of the case. And maybe I didn’t try as hard as I could have to salvage the client relationship, but Steele has gone down a road we can’t follow without giving up our principles. He gave me an opportunity to bow out and I took it.”

  “We can probably make up the shortfall with the Translife Electric litigation.” Always the optimist, Tony broke the silence with a way forward.

  Mark shook his head. “I’ve withdrawn my bid. I asked Ted to pull her off the case, and he wanted something in return. The tender was his price. We were his only real competition. To be honest, after the publicity surrounding the shooting, I think he had planned to take it from her anyway and steal the limelight. I just gave him a reason to do what he wanted to do.”

  “Have you gone fucking crazy?” Curtis growled. “That was the biggest piece of litigation we’ve seen all year. You’re going to destroy the firm over a woman.”

  Mark swiveled his chair. “We were never guaranteed to get the tender, so I’m not affecting our bottom line, and it seemed a small price to pay to keep a fellow lawyer safe. Everyone in the legal community knows what Ted’s like. He doesn’t give a damn about the welfare of his associates, so long as they fill his pockets or get him in front of a camera. She was assaulted by her client, Rider, and Ted didn’t want to pull her off the case until he collected his fee. Now she’s been shot at, the killer is still on the loose, and yet he told me he planned to send her back out on the street, chasing down witnesses.“

  “I don’t think any of us have an issue with saving a fellow lawyer from Ted,” Tony said. “But there is more to it than that.”

  Mark nodded. “You’re right. This isn’t about profits or even looking out for a fellow lawyer. It’s about principle.”

  “At this stage, with our books in the red, I’d give up principles for profit,” Curtis muttered. “If you had just kept yourself under control, you wouldn’t be in the position of having to pay any price.”

  “But then I wouldn’t be able to protect Katy from Steele,” Mark countered. “I don’t think we could have continued to represent him in any event.” He folded his arms and paused for effect. “I think he arranged the shooting.”

  The partners inhaled a collective breath.

  “Go on,” Tony said.

  “I don’t have anything concrete. Steele made veiled threats during several of our meetings and in the last one he said he would deal with the witness and Katy himself.”

  “Why?” Tony scratched his head. “It doesn’t make sense. You said it was a dismissal case.”

  Mark shrugged. “Steele hinted she had uncovered something he wants to keep hidden. He has a big product launch coming up. Something revolutionary. Worth billions. If the two cases are connected, she might have found something worth killing for.”

  Tony pressed his lips together. “I think we all understand the motivation behind your actions, but the bottom line is you put the firm at risk and you didn’t consult us. We’ll have to discuss everything that happened and then form a view as to whether or not we ask you to step down from the partnership or impose some form of sanction.”

  He sighed and looked away, unable to hold Mark’s gaze. “I’m sorry. We all are. But you’re the one who wrote the rules.”

  Mark swallowed and forced himself up, despite the overwhelming sense of betrayal crushing his chest. These were the men h
e had thought would stand behind him no matter what. Men he had trusted.

  Unable to speak, he gave them a curt nod and left the room. He didn’t regret his actions. He had always stood by his principles. But more than that, he would do what it took to keep Katy safe. He hadn’t been there for Claire. But he would damn well be there for Katy.

  “So where are we with our mountain of cases? Surprise me.”

  James looked around the war room at his exhausted investigation team. They were working round the clock and their weariness showed. The cups of coffee were larger, the jokes lamer and the smiles less frequent.

  Mike took a deep breath. “Forensics analyzed the residue of the contents of the two baggies. It’s not a known substance, although the components are readily identifiable. Whatever it is, Wood and Garcia both ingested it and both died as a result.”

  “I think we can tell the coroner’s office we’ve ruled out the possibility of a communicable disease,” Joanna said.

  James nodded for Mike to continue.

  “Our street team has confirmed that Rider was the go to guy for black market pharmaceuticals, and he was pedaling some new product before he was arrested.” Mike twisted his lips and looked away. “We…um…have no leads on who killed him.”

  “Are we still thinking this is a new kind of street drug?” Joanna flipped through her file and pulled out a sheaf of papers.

  James shook his head. “Not if we only have two bodies. A street drug would be widely disbursed. There would be other players involved and likely more deaths.” He wrote a few notes on the whiteboard and turned back to the group. Although Joanna and Mike did all the talking, their report was the result of a group effort. A group that was growing by the body.

  “Anything else on Rider?”

  “We’ve talked to people at the club where he used to hang out.” Mike flipped through his notebook. “He was cheating on Valerie Wood with a woman we haven’t been able to identify. Apparently he told his friends she was too classy for them. The only lead we have is a description from the landlord at his apartment building of a woman who didn’t fit the usual profile for his evening entertainment. Early thirties, short blonde bob, gold-rimmed glasses. Always wore a black suit. We’ll keep on it.”

  James nodded. “Joanna, how are you doing on the Kowalski murder?”

  “We haven’t been able to get an ID on the shooter yet. The best we’ve come up with is a tall man, over six feet, with broad shoulders, average build, wearing black and driving some kind of black sedan. Forensics still can’t determine if Sinclair was a target.”

  James scrubbed his hand over his face. “Let’s keep a team on her and her kids. Apparently she’s ruffled a few feathers. She’s also connected to Silver through the same case. I think there has to be a connection between Silver, Garcia and Wood through the facial swelling. Do we have a toxicology report for Silver yet?”

  Joanna shook her head. “The pathologist said he died from the gunshot wound but he was also suffering from aggressive lymphatic cancer. He also had suffered damage to most of the major organs in his body from…get this…a cytokine storm.”

  James smiled. “I don’t suppose forensics found any plastic bags at Silver’s place?”

  “No, sir.” Mike gave him a weary smile.

  “Well good work everyone. I’ve got Sinclair and another lawyer coming in this afternoon. I’m hoping they’ll have some of the missing pieces to the puzzle… if they can stay out of trouble for the next few hours.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear.” Looking as though he would happily throttle her, Mark leaned against the door to Andrew McIntyre’s apartment building, arms folded, white shirt stretched tight over his broad chest. “You were to see Ted and then go straight home to rest before our meeting with James.”

  Katy’s lips thinned. She didn’t have time for this. She wanted to make the most of her two days, and already her injuries were slowing her down. Three cups of coffee, two cans of Red Bull, a handful of painkillers and she still longed for her bed.

  “What are you doing here? How did you find me? I wrote the name on a napkin so you wouldn’t see.” She took a step back, suddenly worried he would scoop her up and carry her away.

  He huffed with annoyance. “You seem to have a nose for trouble. I called your cell. No answer. I called your home. No answer. I called your office. No one could tell me where you were. Right away, I knew you were up to something. So I called James and asked him to track down your fan club.” He pointed to the surveillance team in the police car across the road. “And here I am.” He puffed out his chest with arrogant pride.

  “And here you will stay.” She brushed past him and pulled out the piece of paper with McIntyre’s apartment number. “You are not coming in with me.”

  A guttural sound escaped Mark’s lips, primal and protective. He closed the distance between them and backed Katy up to the wall. “That’s because you aren’t going in. You’re going home.”

  Her mouth went so dry she couldn’t swallow. “I’m going in.”

  “Christ.” He balled his hands into fists. “You’re the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met. I knew you just couldn’t let this go. You’re supposed to be off the case.”

  She frowned. Something he said niggled at her brain. Later. Right now, she had a witness to see. “I don’t want you to interfere.”

  “We’re on the same side now, sugar. I want to find out what’s happening just as much as you. But more than that, I want you to be safe.”

  “Are we on the same side?” Katy folded her arms. “Or are you still acting for Hi-Tech? Ted told me you didn’t make the application to withdraw as Steele’s solicitor for the case.”

  Mark gave an exasperated sigh. “The documents were filed over a week ago. You know these things take time.”

  “All I know is I wouldn’t have gone as far with you as I did if I had thought you were still on the case. Maybe you lied to me so you could have your bit of fun.”

  A shadow of hurt crossed his face, but in a second it was gone, replaced by a mask of cold indifference. “If that’s really what you believe, then I’ll leave you alone, but not before I make sure you’re safe inside the apartment.”

  Her gut clenched. He didn’t deserve to be on the receiving end of her anger with Ted, or her stress at having only two days to solve the mystery. But his threat to stop her from going in had unsettled her. McIntyre was her last lead. Unless she found something in Hi-Tech’s documents on Friday, she would have nothing to show for the two days Ted had given her to finish the case.

  The door swung open. A pretty young woman with long, curly brown hair struggled out, her arms laden with boxes.

  “Here I’ll give you a hand.” Mark took the boxes and Katy held the door while he carried them to the woman’s vehicle parked down the street. For a split second she considered running inside and leaving him to figure his own way in, but knowing Mark, it wouldn’t take long and she would have to deal with an angry…what? Boyfriend? Lover? Friend? Colleague? What was he to her? Don’t go there. Not now.

  Mark returned and followed her into the foyer. “I didn’t think you’d wait,” he murmured.

  Katy looked over her shoulder. “Neither did I.”

  The building contained only twelve apartments and it didn’t take them long to find number two. Katy reached up to pull the old-fashioned doorknocker on the sickly pink door, but Mark stayed her hand.

  “Look,” he mouthed. She followed his gaze to the partially open door.

  “Come.” He grabbed her elbow and tugged her down the hallway.

  Katy shook him off. “What if something is wrong? What if he’s ill or hurt?” She pushed the door and it opened with a soft creak. Fingers of light poked through small windows facing the back alley. The main room had been decorated in a Southwestern style, with a colorful Mexican rug, soft orange furniture and a shelf full of tequila bottles. A large, framed picture of a cactus hung over a flat-scre
en TV. They walked across the tiny living space to check the kitchen, more an alcove than a room, and then the small adjacent bedroom.

  “Looks like no one’s here.”

  A soft groan sent her flying into Mark’s arms. Her heart pounded frantically against her ribs. “What was that?”

  Mark pushed her behind him and they followed the sound to a small bathroom decorated with black and white tiles. The edge of the door had been splintered. A man lay on the floor, clutching his stomach. Blood smears covered the tiles, the toilet and the rim of the tub.

  Katy pushed past Mark and grabbed a towel. “He needs an ambulance. The police should still be outside.” Mark rushed out the door and Katy pressed the towel over the man’s wound.

  “Are you Andrew?”

  He nodded and licked his lips, then coughed a bubble of blood. “Someone broke in. I tried to hide, but he was after me, not my stuff.”

  Katy squeezed his hand. “An ambulance will be here any minute. Just hang in there.” She pressed harder, applying pressure to his wound. The front door creaked and footsteps thudded across the floor behind her.

  “Mark, I need another towel.” She looked over her shoulder and froze.

  Not Mark. Black clothes. Ski mask. Gun.

  Her heart thundered in her chest. She had always imagined what she would do in a life-threatening situation, and in every imaginary instance, she screamed and assaulted her attacker before running away. She had never had any doubt she would rise to the occasion if her life was ever in danger.

  She didn’t rise.

  She didn’t even scream.

  Instead she crouched on the floor, frozen in place, eyes wide, pulse racing, as she desperately tried to staunch the bleeding from Andrew’s stomach.

  She shifted her gaze away from the shiny black gun, the first real one she had ever seen, and into the eyes of a killer. No doubt about it. His cold, black eyes held no emotion. No fear. No anger. No joy.

  “You always seem to get in my way.” Ordinary voice. Calm. Smooth. The gun clicked when he cocked the trigger. She drew in a ragged breath and prepared to die.