Deadly Justice (23 page)

“I owe her some money. See, I’m a…well, a former customer, if you know what I mean. Kind of a regular, actually. I was short of cash last time, and I wanted to make up the difference.”

“Sonny let you leave without paying in full? That’s not the Sonny I know.”

“Exactly. That’s why it’s so important that I find her quickly. I don’t want her to get into any trouble.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure that’s all you want?”

The man hesitated before answering. “I guess I can’t fool you, can I? It’s not just the money. I thought I might arrange another…date.”

“You got the money this time?”

“Gobs. I was hoping I could arrange one of those pricey picnic jobs. Thought we might go to The Playground with a few of my friends.”

“The Playground. What on earth would you be doing out there?”

“Searching, for eternity,” the man said. “Scaling the final barrier. Achieving a sense of closure.”

“Sounds weird to me.”

“I’m sorry. I tend to wax metaphysical from time to time. Do you know where I might find Trixie?”

“Normally, I’d say right across the street, but she doesn’t seem to be there tonight. Come to think of it, she wasn’t there last night either.”

“Any idea where she went?”

“ ’Fraid not. She don’t check in and out with me.”

“Well, if you do see her, tell her a friend is looking for her. I’ll check back here tomorrow.”

“You do that, lover boy. I’m sure she hasn’t gone far.”

The waitress watched as the handsome man walked out of the diner, his heels clickety-clacking on the linoleum floor. He climbed into his van and drove away.

A few moments later, after she was sure he was gone, the waitress crouched down and whispered, “Did you hear all. that?”

Trixie crawled out from under the counter, brushing the dirt from her knees. “Yes. Every lying word.”

“Did you see what he looked like?”

“No. But I heard his voice.”

“You should have seen his eyes. Most of the time, he seemed perfectly normal—handsome, in fact. Friendly. But for just a second there, when he was talking all high-toned and fancy, he let his mask drop, and I looked into his eyes. There was something real disturbin’ about him, Trixie. Somethin’ scary.”

“You’re giving me the creeps, Marge.”

“Good. What you going to do, child?”

“I don’t know. I can’t stay around here, that’s obvious.”

“What’s Sonny say? He’s supposed to take care of you.”

“Sonny only takes care of himself. He thinks I should be back on the street.”

“That man would find you in a heartbeat.”

“I know. I need somewhere to go, someplace to hole up.”

“Got any family?”

“Not around here. And I’m not going back to my father’s house, no matter what.”

“Maybe you should take a vacation. Got any money?”

“Not enough.” She stretched out her legs, careful to make sure she was not visible through the front windows. “Marge, is there any chance you could put me up? It would only be for—”

“I’m sorry, Trixie. I’d do almost anything for you, you know I would. But I’ve got two children of my own at home. I can’t be luring some sicko to my place.”

“But he’s going to
kill
me!” Tears began to well up in her eyes. “Did you hear about what he did to that nice cop?”

Marge nodded grimly. “I heard. And that’s all the more reason I can’t be inviting that man to my house.” She paused. “Honey, maybe you should consider talking to the police.”

“Get serious.”

“I am.”

“Why? So I can get another bust on my record?”

“They might be able to help.”

“I’ve gone to the police before, and all I got for it was beat within an inch of my life. When did the police ever help any of us? Think about it, Marge. There’s four of us gone now.
Four of us
. In less than three weeks. And the police haven’t done a damn thing.”

Marge tossed down her dish towel. “Well, you’re going to have to do something, honey. And the sooner the better.”

Trixie remained on the floor, her arms cradling her knees, rocking back and forth. “I know, Marge. I know.”

B
EN, CHRISTINA, AND JONES
rode the glass elevator to the top of the Apollo headquarters building. It was almost one in the morning. The night was overcast; there was no moon, no stars. The effect was breathtaking; it was as if they were flying into the heavens. Oddly enough, Ben thought it much less unsettling than most elevator rides. Perhaps the darkness obscured his sense of height.

“I’m still not sure this is a great idea,” Ben said nervously.

“Getting cold feet, Boss?” Jones asked.

“Don’t worry about Ben,” Christina said. “He’s a scaredy-cat from way back. Nonetheless, he always manages to pull off these escapades with great finesse.”

“And,” Ben added, “I always seem to be pulling them off with you. I thought we swore off break-ins for all time.”

“This hardly counts as a break-in,” she replied. “After all, we do work here.”

“Yeah, but no one expects us to be skulking about at one in the morning. And no one would ever permit us to sift through the computer records.”

“If we asked them.” Christina smiled. “Don’t let him scare you, Jones. Break-ins are Ben’s métier. And who’s going to catch us at this time of night?”

“I’m not worried,” Jones replied. “If I get nabbed, I just plan to blame everything on the Boss.”

That caught Ben’s attention. “Oh?”

“I’ll say I had no idea we were doing anything wrong. Ben hired me to do some computer research, that’s all. I had no way of knowing everything wasn’t on the up-and-up.”

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. “Well, I feel much better now that I know you’ve got your butt covered,” Ben said. “Let’s go.”

They crossed the elevator lobby and turned the corner toward Ben’s office and the computer room. They were all wearing sneakers, broken in and nonsqueaky.

Ben suddenly heard a loud pounding noise. He froze, motioning the others to stay put. “What is that?” he hissed.

“It came from down the hall.”

“Oh, great. Just where we’re headed.” Frowning, Ben crouched and tiptoed down the hallway. The pounding repeated. Ben saw the closed door to Herb’s office quiver and shake.

He crept closer and saw Herb standing outside his office, pounding on the door—buck naked. Herbert the Pervert strikes again.

“Goddamn it!” Herb yelled at the closed door. “This isn’t funny! What if someone comes?”

Ben heard a reply from the inside, but it was muffled and he couldn’t make out what was being said. The voice was definitely female, though. Perhaps he’d called Candice a nasty name one time too many.

“Let me in!” Herb repeated, pounding again and again on the door. “I mean it!” The door did not open. “Look, I’m sorry I said you’d put on a few pounds. I was just teasing. You look great.”

He waited, but there was still no response from the other side. “I can’t believe you’d take advantage like this, just because I had to go across the hall to the crapper.” He shook with frustration. “Honey, what if someone comes through the front door—”

He gestured toward the front door, and in so doing, saw Ben crouched on the floor. “Too late.”

Herb ran behind a secretarial station and tried to hide himself behind a typewriter. “Kincaid! You again?”

Ben stood up. “This is becoming a distressingly familiar event. What’s the problem, Herb? Can’t you afford a hotel room like everyone else?”

“That’s none of your goddamn business. What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I…had some work I wanted to finish before tomorrow morning’s staff meeting.”

“Sounds suspicious to me.”

“Says you. At least I have my pants on.”

Herb made an evil, growling noise. “Look, I don’t want this story going around the office, understand? Especially not to Crichton.”

“Really? I was thinking about putting it in staff notes.”

“Hardy har har. Cut me some slack, Kincaid. Guy to guy.”

“Well, since you put it like that.” Grinning, Ben headed back the way he had come. He heard Herb do some more pounding, then finally heard the office door open. He hated to think about what Herb must’ve promised her.

To his surprise, Ben hadn’t walked halfway down the hallway when he saw Candice approaching from the other direction. And heading toward Herb’s office.

“Candice!”

“True. What of it?”

“But I thought—I mean—I assumed—”

“Pull yourself together, Kincaid. You’re not making any sense.”

“I—never mind. What are you doing here this time of night?”

“I’m looking for that asshole Herb. Have you seen him?”

Ben felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead. “I think he’s in his office.”

Her eyes became tiny slits. “Is he alone?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“That son of a bitch.” She collapsed against the secretarial station. “I might have known.”

“For whatever it’s worth,” Ben said, “I think the less you have to do with Herb, the better.”

“Easy for you to say. You were brought in at an Attorney Four level.”

“At what?”

“Attorney four. Two levels and twenty thousand dollars above me. Since I started working here five years ago, Crichton has promoted every man in the department on a regular basis. But not me.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t play the game. Didn’t communicate my ideas via male intermediaries. Didn’t sit back and let men take credit for my work. And there was the Herb problem.”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Herb had been coming on to me since day one. Suggesting that I should dress
like a woman
. Asking what I’d be willing to do to keep my bosses happy. Touching me when he talked. Making off-color jokes. Then he got bolder. He started asking if I wanted to come over to his place and watch porn movies. Asking if I ever got the
urge
to fuck various Apollo employees. Did I like to do it with other women? Did I like to do it with myself? He was disgusting. I rebuffed him at every turn.”

“Good for you.”

“Easy to say. Soon Herb was badmouthing me to everyone in the department, including Crichton. I confronted Herb, asked what the hell was going on. He hinted strongly that I wasn’t going to rise in this organization until my male colleagues—like him—stopped reporting that I was an unpleasant bitch. But he had a price for his positive recommendation.”

“Surely you didn’t—”

“I resisted for years. But after awhile, after I saw assholes like Chuck and idiots like Doug make Attorney Three and Four while I was still Attorney One, I thought, what the hell. Sure, it was a compromise, but…” She waved her hand shakily in the air. “I started giving Herb what he wanted.”

“And?”

“And, just four months ago, I made Attorney Two. First and only woman in Crichton’s department to be promoted. Of course, it was just a token promotion; even Crichton knew he might have legal problems if he didn’t toss a bone to one of the women in the department.”

“So that’s how it started with you and Herb.…”

“Yeah. Herbert the Pervert.” She laughed bitterly. “I hate him. All those fights between Herb and me that you thought were fake? They were only fake on one end. Maybe not even that. I came here to tell Herb it was over. I know Herb could still crush my career in an instant, but I just can’t stand it any longer.”

“I don’t think you want to go in right now.”

“No, this is fine. He’s made it even easier for me—if I catch him in the act, maybe he’ll feel guilty. Or maybe I can blackmail him. You wouldn’t happen to have a camera on you?” Ben shook his head. “Anyway, I’m going in there.”

“Do you really think that’s—”

Ben’s words were useless; she had already passed him and was practically in Herb’s office. Ben decided to move quickly in the opposite direction. A few moments later, he rejoined his group.

“What’s all the commotion up there?” Christina

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Later, schmater. I want to see for myself.” She started down the hallway.

Ben grabbed her arm. “Believe me, Christina. You absolutely, positively do not want to see for yourself. I have a hunch that in a few moments the whole corridor is going to go ballistic.” He swung her back toward the elevator lobby. “Let’s go around the other way.”

They tiptoed through the elevator lobby and emerged on the other side of the floor. Ben thought he heard a sound ahead of him—some kind of movement. He approached the corner cautiously, his back pressed against the wall.

“Be careful,” Christina whispered. “I heard it, too.”

Ben breathed in and out, trying to slow his racing heart. All this creeping around was starting to get to him. But why should he be afraid? Who hadn’t he met up here already? He spun around the corner.

“Ahhhhhh!”
the man on the other side cried out.

“Ahhhhhh!”
Ben cried back, startled.

After the initial shock, Ben pulled himself back down to earth and focused.
“Loving?”

It was in fact Loving, Ben’s private investigator from his previous life. Loving was dressed in a T-shirt and blue jeans.

“What are you doing up here?”

“Covering your backside,” Loving answered. “I thought you guys might need some protection.”

“If you’re covering our backside, why are you in front of us?”

“ ’Cause you keep changing directions!”

“Oh. Sorry. How did you get up here? I didn’t hear the elevator.”

“I didn’t take the elevator. I took the stairs.”

“All the way up? You must be exhausted.”

“Piece of cake,” he said, trying to conceal his gasping for air.

“Look, why don’t you sit down and catch your breath? We have to move on.”

“No way. You guys might need some muscle. I’m sticking to you like glue.”

Ben resigned himself to the inevitable, and motioned for Loving to follow. Down the chain of hallways, Ben led them to his office and, on the other side of the hall, the main computer room. Various computer terminals and printers lined the walls, while one much larger terminal rested in the center.

“That one must be the big mama,” Jones said. “It probably controls the entire LAN.”