Death Vetoes The Chairman (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries Book 7) (4 page)

Chapter 5

Late the next morning, I was sitting behind my desk at the newspaper office. On the left side of the desk were the articles we were going to print in Wednesday’s edition. On the right were the ones I was considering for Sunday. But my attention was focused on the center of my desk. Dale had wasted no time. Once we confirmed that I had the funds to pay his asking price this morning, he had hightailed it over to his lawyer’s office first thing this morning, and had drawn up the papers for the sale of the newspaper. One of my purple sticky notes was attached to the corner:
Talked to Jake. He will be in to see you today.
So far, he hadn’t shown up yet. Running away to hide wouldn’t do any good; he’d just track me down.

There was a knock at the door, and I braced myself for the onslaught of questions I knew Jake would throw at me. But it was Ellen Carpenter, one of the newspaper’s best reporters, who opened the door. “You have this look of fear on your face,” she said as she entered the office. “Are you expecting the Boogie Man or something?”

“Just Jake.”

“And you’re afraid of him because…?”

I motioned for her to sit down in a chair. “There’s something I need to tell you,” I said.

“Why do I get the feeling you’re about to give me bad news?” Ellen replied. “You’re not going to fire me, are you?”

“Good grief, why would I do that? I’d fire Jake first before I ever fired you!”

Ellen breathed a sigh of relief and sat back in the chair. “Thank God. I really didn’t want to go look for a job at another newspaper in this economy.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” I assured her. “I’m going to need you in the upcoming days and weeks.”

She tilted her head slightly to the right. “Why?”

I took a deep breath. “Dale is selling the newspaper.”

“So he’s finally going to do it.”

“Excuse me?” I said, surprised at her reaction. “You knew?”

She nodded. “He told me a few months ago that he was thinking about it. I think he should have done it a couple of years ago, truth be told. I wonder who the new owner is going to be?”

“Me.”

“You?” Ellen gasped. “You’re joking!”

I held up the sheaf of papers in front of me. “It’s all here in black and white. 80% to me, 20% to Jake.”

“Jake? Wow, I didn’t expect that. Well, I mean, I did. But I thought Dale would sell the paper to him, not to you. No offense.”

“None taken.”

“What did Jake say when you told him?”

“Dale thankfully talked to him. I haven’t seen him yet.”

“I can only imagine his response.” She wasn’t the only one. “How can you afford to buy 80%?”

“It’s complicated…and personal. But don’t worry, we’ll be just fine.”

“Wow, this was not what I expected to hear when I came in here. I just came to tell you that I heard from a contact of mine at the hospital in Dallas. The little girl who was injured in that car accident last week is going to be released from the hospital tomorrow. She’s going to need some rehab, but she should be just fine.”

“That is great news. See if you can talk to the family before she checks out of the hospital. It would be nice to have some good news from this whole tragedy.”

Ellen stood up. “Will do, boss.”

“Really? Just call me what you usually call me.”

“Clueless?”

I laughed. “Get out of here before I change my mind and fire you.”

After she closed the door, I looked over the paperwork again. I had called an old college friend, who was now a lawyer, and discussed everything with her after I faxed a copy to her. After making sure there were no loopholes that Jake could exploit to his advantage, she encouraged me to sign it and wished me luck.

Another knock at the door interrupted me an hour later. “Come in.”

Again, I expected Jake, and I was disappointed once again. This time, it was Captain Super Creepy Crawly, aka Ethan Winthrop. He was wearing a dark blue suit, light blue shirt, brown tie, and brown loafers. “Ms. Crenshaw, I hope you don’t mind me dropping by unannounced,” he said from the doorway.

“Actually, I’m rather busy at the moment.” I slid my phone off the edge of the desk and pressed a couple of buttons.

“I won’t take more than a minute of your time,” he assured me as he came into the office and closed the door.

“Please, by all means,
do
come in,” I replied as he sat down in the chair Ellen had just vacated.

“Thank you,” Ethan said, ignoring my sarcasm. “I just wanted to come by and apologize for what happened the other night. We got off on the wrong foot.”

“One of us did, and it wasn’t me.”

His light blue eyes narrowed at me briefly. “You’re right,” he conceded. “I was a bit…forward that night.”

“Do you always make passes at women you’ve never met before?”

“Not until I know for sure they are as interested in me as I am in them.”

“Trust me when I say, I’m not interested. Is there something else I can do for you, Mr. Winthrop?”

“Please, call me Ethan.” He looked around the office. “Well, I wanted to make sure that you weren’t going to do anything about that incident, since it was just a misunderstanding,” he smiled. “It was just some harmless flirting.”

“In other words, you want to make sure I’m not going to sue you for sexual harassment.”

“Well, you agree not to sue me for that, and I won’t have you arrested for assault.”

“Let me explain something to you,
Mr. Winthrop
,” I replied. “To me, it was not harmless flirting. It was very unwanted attention. It was a man with an overinflated ego, using his powerful position and his money it to make the moves on a woman. I’m not a pushover, nor am I someone you can come in here and charm.” I got up, walked around the desk, and moved toward the door. “I think you should leave…”

Winthrop reached out, grabbed my right wrist and stood up. “You know, I don’t find a lot of women who will talk back to me like that,” he said. “Frankly, I love a woman who isn’t afraid to speak her mind and stands up for herself.” He pushed a loose strand of auburn hair behind my left ear. “I find it rather exciting.”

“And I hate condescending jerks who believe that flattery will get them everywhere,” I retorted. I slapped him hard with my left hand, and tried to wrench my right arm out of his grasp. I swung my arm to the right, hoping it would throw him off so he’d let go. But the move left me unbalanced, and he used that to his advantage, jerking my arm to the left, and pushing me backwards until I hit the wall. “I came in here with honorable intentions, Ms. Crenshaw,” he growled, holding my upper arms tightly in his hands, “but you are making it rather difficult. If you hadn’t become so aggressive, I would have asked you out to dinner.”

“I wouldn’t go out with you if you were the last man in the county,” I replied as I tried to brace myself against the wall so I could push him away from me. When that didn’t work, I started to raise my left leg to give him another shot in the family jewels again.

“Tsk, tsk,” he said, pushing his leg between my legs to stop me, “you didn’t really think I was going to let you hit me twice, did you?” He pressed himself against me, and started kissing my neck.

“Let go of me.”

“I’m comfortable,” Winthrop said. “Besides, I have your undivided attention. Now, about dinner…I was thinking of an intimate dinner in my penthouse. I have a lovely view of downtown Dallas. When it is lit up at night, it’s very romantic. Who knows, you might change your mind, with a little candlelight, chocolate-covered strawberries dipped in whipped cream. Of course, the moonlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows gives off its own beauty.”

“A root canal sounds more inviting.”

“What name did Jake call you? Oh yeah, I remember. Come on, Lizzie, I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun. I really am a nice fellow, once you get to know me.”

I tried to shove him away again. “I’ll scream if you don’t let me go.”

“Won’t do you any good,” he laughed. “No one was out there when I came in.”

I mentally slapped myself. Ellen had gone to talk to the injured girl’s family, and I had given everyone else the afternoon off to thank them for all the hard work they had done during the fair. “You do realize I’ve been recording this whole conversation,” I said.

“Illegally taping someone without their consent is against the law.”

“I know,” I admitted. “But someone might accidentally publish it online. And then what will you do?”

“Oh, I’m sure I can take care of that before I leave this office,” he said, leaning over and kissing me roughly.

Everything happened pretty quick after that. I heard the office door slam against the wall. Winthrop grunted as someone pulled him backwards, and I saw T.J. punch him in the face. Winthrop stumbled backwards and fell on the floor. T.J. bent over, yanked him to his feet, and punched him again, sending him flying out of the office and against the wall in the hallway. Winthrop slid down the wall and hit the floor. T.J. started to move toward him again.

“Stop it! He’s had enough.” He stopped and looked at me. “Thomas Jefferson Roosevelt, what do you think you’re doing? I had everything under control. I don’t need to be rescued by the likes of you!” I said.

I saw his eyes flicker over my arms and face. “You could have fooled me.”

“Is he still alive?”

T.J. bent over and checked Winthrop. “I think he hit his head against the wall. I might have broken his nose.”

My legs gave out, and I slumped to the floor. T.J. rushed over and knelt in front of me. “Want to tell me what’s going on?”

I looked over his shoulder at Winthrop, whose light blue shirt had turned crimson from the gush of blood pouring from his nose. “He was trying to apologize for his boorish behavior from our first meeting.”

“Your first meeting? When was this?” I hadn’t told him what happened at the hotel the previous week. So I told him everything. “That’s his idea of an apology?”

“No, I think that’s his idea of flirting,” I replied, gently rubbing my arms. “He was turned on by a woman standing up to him and telling him off.”

T.J. gently took my right arm in his hand and pulled the short sleeve of my polo shirt up. There were red fingerprints from Winthrop’s strong grip. “Did he do that?”

“I’m fine, T.J,” I said as a shiver went through me.

He helped me to my feet. “I’m sure you are, but I’d still like to hold you for a minute, if you don’t mind.” I nodded, and he pulled me close. “You’re one heck of a woman, Lizzie Crenshaw,” he whispered quietly.

“What’s going on in here?” Jake said, stepping over Winthrop’s feet as he came into the office.

“Your friend came to apologize,” I told him.

“And you responded by decking him?”

“No, I decked him,” T.J. replied.

Winthrop came to, and slowly got to his feet, holding his broken nose. “I’m going to have you both arrested,” he said. “Assault, illegal taping, and whatever other charges I can come up with.”

“You’re lucky you can still breathe,” Jake snapped. “I thought I made it clear that you were to stay away from Lizzie.”

“As if I’m going to take advice from you. Someone tell me where I can find the local police department.”

T.J. walked over to Winthrop, who took a step back. “I’m a deputy sheriff. You want to file a complaint?”

“I’ll have your badge.”

“You can try,” T.J. told him. “But keep this in mind. I’m also a retired FBI agent. One phone call from me, and I’ll have every federal agency in the book all over you in less than an hour. I’m sure the press would be very interested in a federal raid on a prominent member of the community. What do you think?” Winthrop didn’t say anything. “Now, I suggest you get out of here before I have
you
arrested for assault and battery.”

“You can’t prove anything.”

T.J. got right in Winthrop’s face. “Try me. Now get out.”

Winthrop looked over T.J.’s shoulder at me. “I’ll be in touch,” he said.

“You come anywhere near her, and you’ll be thrown into jail for breaking the restraining order.”

“What restraining order?”

“The temporary one we’re going to be filing as soon as you leave,” Jake told him.

Winthrop laughed. “You don’t have that kind of pull around here. I can have that thing dismissed an hour after you get it.”

Jake looked at T.J. “You know, I think he looks a bit wobbly on his feet. Did he hit his head on the wall?”

“Why, yes, I do believe he did,” T.J. nodded

“I can’t, in good conscience, allow my old friend to walk out of here without some assistance. He could have a concussion; he might trip over a chair or a desk on his way out and hurt himself further. I think we should give him a helping hand, don’t you, Deputy Roosevelt?”

“I do believe you are right, Mr. Mathias. It’s my civic duty to look after our citizens.”

They each grabbed an arm, and led Winthrop out of the office, down the hallway and into the newsroom. I followed and watched as they “accidentally” ran into a desk once or twice before they made it to the front door. Jake opened it, and they dragged him outside, where his driver was leaning against the limo. I saw him raise an eyebrow at the sight of his boss being held up by two men. He looked back at me, and I could tell he realized what had happened. Shaking his head, he pushed himself off the limo, walked to the back door and opened it.