by I. L. Wolf
“I’d say asking for a payout would also be against the ethical rules, so contacting him directly might not faze him.”
She shook her head, a tight side-to-side movement. “No,” she said. “It’s not how it’s done, I’d contact his lawyer, and he’d know it.”
“So contact his lawyer.”
“Michelson? The guy who handled his divorce?” Though she tried to stop it, a snort escaped. “He’d have me at the disciplinary committee so fast I wouldn’t have time to blink. He’s a tough, slightly evil S.O.B., but he’s a completely by-the-rules guy. No doubt that’s why Sway used him, everyone knows that. Judges know that. And though he might have been OK with the stalling with discovery,, he’d never, ever go for anything like this.”
“You can’t even scheme crookedly, can you?”
Venetia thought of her palpitations over pretending to be Delenda when checking into her own notary stamp, and found herself nodding. “Lying’s not exactly my forte,” she said.
“I have Brooks, but I can’t put him into a meeting with Sway, he’s not quite a stable entity. And I can’t risk Brooks actually killing him.”
“Yeah, that could be bad for publicity,” she said dryly. “But Sway’s a savvy guy, obviously. He’d know something was up if his deceased wife’s brother wanted to meet with him. Heck, he’ll probably know something’s off if I want to meet with him. I insisted on doing everything by the book during the case. But,” she said.
“But?”
“But what if I try to get at him through Bloaerd? You said he’s Bloaerd’s main source of business.” She drank her coffee, now less than warm, and clicked the cup back into the soggy saucer. “Wait,” she said. “How far back does that second set of books go?”
“Before the divorce.”
“And Sway was Bloaerd’s main client?”
“Yeah, he had about eighty percent of his cash flow from Sway.”
“Eighty percent?”
“We don’t know if that money flowed through as well, like it did through the money laundering corporations, or if it was actually paid to Bloaerd, but it’s a lot of money.”
“Huh,” said Venetia.
“What?”
“Remember when I told you that I sent Brenna to Bloaerd to draft her will?” His head gave a quick upward jerk. “That’s a major, major conflict of interest, given that her estranged husband was practically his only client. He never disclosed it, meaning I think I have an in.”
“You’re really warming up to this bribery stuff, huh?”
“I prefer to think of it as warming up to sleuthing. If we want to get through to Sway, I think Bloaerd’s our path. And there’s no way in quite like my Aunt Sissy. I can tell Bloaerd I’m trying to help her out with the documents, and if he’s as into her as I think he is—”
“Why would you think he’s that into her?”
“It’s Sissy, believe it or not. The only way a man’s ever left her is dying, which four out of seven did. The rest all begged her to stay and then gave her ridiculously huge settlements when she wouldn’t.”
“Your Aunt Sissy.”
“Yep.”
“The one I met.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“Nope, it’s pretty mysterious to us, too. She’s always had it, this nearly mystical power over men. And animals, too, strangely enough, but at least she treats them well. The men, not always so much.”
“So you think Bloaerd’s on her hook?”
“Only one way to find out,” she said. “But I’m willing to bet the farm I don’t have on it. In fact, given what I’ve heard, he’s probably planning to leave his wife for her.”
“For your Aunt Sissy.”
“Trust me,” she said, “I don’t understand it either.”
“I suppose she’s attractive,” said Cadby, “for an older woman.”
“Don’t you start. Maybe it’s best if you don’t think about it too much,” she said, hoping she hadn’t planted a seed of suggestion. “But my point is that if I tell him I’m trying to help her, he’ll be more likely to want to help me.”
“And broker a deal in the process.”
“Why not?” she said. Her cheeks shone with color, and her eyes were bright. “Why not?”
Aunt Sissy, however, was less malleable. “You want his number for what?”
“I’m considering going back to law,” she said, finding the lying much easier when it was to her aunt, “and he’s so successful.”
“I know,” she said, “he really is. Amazingly so. You should see the ring he bought me. And he bought three tables for my Free the Beasts Gala last month. Three whole tables.”
“He bought you a ring? Isn’t he married? Also, can’t you get someone to help you with the names of these benefits? They don’t sound the way you think they sound.”
“The names are very clever. Everyone says so. Why do you always have to be such a downer? Besides, marriages aren’t forever,” she said.
“I think they’re supposed to be. That’s the point.”
“Not always,” she said. “Anyway, before I do a favor for you, I need you to confirm that you’re coming to my Cash for Creatures benefit next week.”
“You do realize it sounds like you’re selling them, right?”
“Of course it doesn’t,” she said. “Can I put you down for a table?”
“No, you can’t put me down for a table.”
“I’m afraid I can’t find Walter’s phone number for you, dear. I’m too despondent over the poor animals who will find themselves homeless.”
“I can’t afford a table,” she stopped herself from adding the “aunt,” as much as she wanted to, “Sissy, I water plants for a living.”
“You should be using that law license, Venetia. It’s embarrassing.”
“To whom?”
“What about your poor mother,” she said. “Did you tell her I’ve been trying to reach her?”
“Mmm-hmm,” she said quickly. “She’s OK with it. But if you give me Walter’s number, I can try to get back into it. And stop being embarrassing.”
“I don’t understand why you can’t call him at the office.”
“You know how these things go, Sissy. It’s all about networking.”
“That’s true,” she said. “You’ll buy at least a ticket, then?”
“Yes, I’ll buy a ticket,” she said. The lying thing was really starting to click. It may actually be a worthy cause, but the tickets were $600. Each.
“Fine,” she said, “and tell him if he has any questions, he can talk to me.”
“Will do,” she said. “By the way, Sissy, how’s your eye?”
“My what?” she said.
“Never mind,” said Venetia. “Thanks for the number.”
***
She called Bloaerd and told him what she’d told Sissy, that she was thinking about coming back to law and she wanted to talk to him about it.
“That’s great,” he said, “but can you meet me at my house? I’m in the middle of a project I can’t quite leave.”
“Sounds perfect,” she said. She was halfway out of the door when she went back and grabbed the notary stamp. Might as well make full use of the visit. Then she thought again, circled around and placed it carefully in the top drawer. Probably better not to have it on her, she decided.
She pulled up to the massive neocolonial and pressed the button at the gate, surprised that, given the size of the house, Bloaerd answered the buzzer himself. The iron scrollwork swung open, and she rolled up the long drive.
Though that whole idea that all lawyers made a killing was a myth she’d unraveled early on in her law career, it was true that some of them made big, big bucks. And if Bloaerd’s house was any indication, he was right up there with the biggest.
Like the gate, he answered the door himself, opening one side of the heavy wooden entranceway. “Interested in joining the dark side, are you?” he said to her as she made
her way up the stairs.
“Something like that,” she said. “Maid’s day off?”
“Everyone’s out,” he said, “it works out better that way, I think. Always better to discuss business in private.” He noticed her empty hands. “I thought you were going to bring me something.”
“Bring you something?”
“I think we both know what this is really about. No use in talking around it.”
“You’re astute,” she said. “And right. But I didn’t say I’d have them with me. I need to know what you have to offer first.”
The smile remained on his face, but his jaw went tight, only long enough for her notice. “Fair enough,” he said, the words clipped. “I hope you’ll forgive my attire,” he waved vaguely at his worn jeans and spotted long-sleeve shirt, “but as I said, I was in the middle of something. I hope you don’t mind if I continue.”
He grabbed a pair of work gloves from a gleaming mahogany table in the foyer and put them on. “We’re going this way.” He took the hallway to the right, and she followed, finding herself first in a dining room with a heavily beamed, enormous fireplace, and then in a vast kitchen of white lacquer and stainless steel. He noticed her noticing the stark modernity.
“A bit incongruous, I know,” he said, “but my wife insisted.” He stopped halfway through the kitchen. “Does it bother you that I mention my wife?”
“It’s a bit odd,” she said, “given your relationship with my aunt.”
“Sissy really is a remarkable woman,” he said, continuing his forward progress. “I’m leaving my wife for her.”
Venetia stopped where she was. “Wait, what?”
He opened a door at the back of the kitchen. “I said I’m leaving my wife for her,” he said, going through. Venetia had to hurry to catch up, and found herself in a small mudroom. “Over here,” he said. He’d gone through another door and was partway down a flight of unadorned stairs.
“That seems like pretty personal information to share with me,” she said.
He didn’t respond, and was already all the way down to the lower level. Looking around her, Venetia wondered if she should follow
“I’ve got to get this done,” he said, “so if you want to talk, you’re going to have to come with me.”
A strange light radiated from below. She reconsidered following him, but there was only one way to get to Sway, and this was it. She headed down the stairs.
The ceiling was low, the walls a medium, rock-like brown. On either side of the passage, recessed into the walls, glass aquarium tanks punctuated the drab, each filled with greenery, each illuminated from within. Bloaerd was far down the passage, but she stopped to look.
At first, all she saw was the foliage and the small pool of water in the tank in front of her, but as she watched, tiny, brightly colored frogs resolved themselves. She crouched to look at the tank below. With a little searching, she found them there, too, in all four tanks, top and bottom, left and right. She looked down the hall for Bloaerd, didn’t see him, and whipped her phone out of her purse. She snapped a quick picture of each tank.
The next set had lizards of some kind, also well-camouflaged, and then snakes. Bloaerd reappeared. “Are you coming?”
“Sorry,” she said, “these are fascinating.”
“Yes, herpetology is my hobby,” he said, “as I suppose you could see.” His lips moved outward and upward, but there was no kindness in the gesture. “They’re all exceedingly rare, as well,” he said. “It’s more special when they’re rare.”
He went back down the hall, and this time Venetia followed, the tanks continuing all the way down the length.
“It’s a pretty extensive collection,” she said, “do you care for them all yourself?”
“Of course,” he said, “I couldn’t risk others seeing them.”
“So Aunt Sissy doesn’t know about them?” she said to his back. They’d reached a glass-lined room. He found a key on his big metal ring and unlocked the door. “She’s such an animal-rights person, I don’t know how she’d feel about your keeping them…” She trailed off as the door opened and she saw the inside. Artificial brown stone and the same strange light from the tanks made it feel like a cave. The bottom sloped downward toward a pool of water, and potted trees nearly grazed the ceiling. A three-quarter glass wall divided most of the room from the remainder.
Under a heat lamp, its eyes closed, lay the largest reptile Venetia had ever seen that close. “What is that?” she said. Bloaerd pulled on the pair of rubber boots next to the door and unwound the hose against the wall.
“My own dragon,” he said above the squeak of the wheel holding the hose.
“As in a Komodo dragon?” she said. As if it recognized the name of its species, the lids of the beast fluttered, but then remained shut. Venetia took a step back. And then another.
“The only kind we know to exist,” he said. He turned on the water, and, careful to leave the area around the animal alone, hosed down the false stone. “There’s a filtration and drainage system built into the pool,” he said.
“Aren’t they dangerous?”
He laughed, and for the first time ever, she saw a light take up behind his eyes. “There’s not a thing you walked past that couldn’t kill you if given the chance.”
“What?” she said.
“Toxic, poisonous, take your pick.”
She thought of the tiny frogs, nearly comical in their cuteness. “Even the frogs?”
“Especially the frogs,” he said.
“And Aunt Sissy doesn’t mind about all of this?” she asked again.
He carefully shut off the hose and placed it, gingerly, on the ground. He covered the distance between them faster than she would have expected in the rubber boots.
“Your aunt doesn’t know about the animals,” he said. “And you won’t tell her, either.”
“But if you’re planning to be with her—”
“I really don’t think any of that is your concern,” he said. “You were here to discuss business. Let’s get to that.”
“Are you even allowed to have one of those?”
“What does ‘allowed’ actually mean? It’s one of those words that people use as though it’s nothing, but it’s really about asking permission. Venetia, would you like to have a house like this one?”
“I think I could do without the killer lizard army,” she said.
“Frogs are amphibians, not lizards.”
“I think you know what I mean,” she said, edging back even further. The Komodo dragon opened its eyes in earnest this time, and sleepily rose to its feet.
“You don’t make as good a living as I have by being ‘allowed.’ If you want something, you have to seize it. If you can’t get it, it’s your failure.”
“I don’t think I follow,” she said. His cheeks had taken on a red flush, and his gaze darted from her left eye to her right and back again.
“I have to tell you, give the way you handled the Sway divorce, I was skeptical about this meeting. I think I was right to be.”
“No,” she said, “no. It’s only that it’s new to me.” Her thoughts felt sluggish and scrambled, and no matter how she tried to clear her mind, the images of the snakes and the frogs and the dragon, now slowly padding its way into the water, revolved in her head. This room may not be the only room to hold something like this, and she couldn’t be sure there was any other way out but the way she came.
He shook his head. “Brenna got the same look on her face when she found out, and we know how that went.”
“Why don’t you tell me how that went?” Venetia said. It dawned on her that she was in an enclosed space with an animal. And a very large lizard.
“We know how that went,” he said again. Impassively, he went back to the hose and returned to washing down the surface, the creature on the other side of the glass appearing oblivious when occasionally sprinkled.
“So Alden Sway did kill Brenna?”
He turned to look
at her, not pausing his cleaning. “Of course he did,” he said, “but you knew that. The contract hit cost a fortune. At least telling him where she’d be helped, we actually got a discount.”
She swallowed hard. “So the trafficking. It’s in exotic animals?”
“We prefer import/export. Regulations on wildlife are far, far too restrictive.”
“The judge you bribed—”
“Bribed is a very harsh word.”
“The judge. With Aunt Sissy’s estate case. Did he know?”
Bloaerd laughed, and it echoed in the man-made cave room. The hairs on Venetia’s arms stood. “Know? I didn’t know anyone still came this naïve. In a way, it’s kind of sweet. He knew, all right, he knew to the tune of a tiger cub, a cheetah and a civet.”
“To keep in his basement?”
“Of course not,” he said. “They were for hunting. He got them all, too. Of course, it’s a little easier when it’s an enclosed course, but a kill is a kill.”
“I don’t understand why you’re telling me this,” she said.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s information you wouldn’t want me to know?”
“It doesn’t matter if you know it or not,” he said. “Not a bit.”
The standing hairs were joined by chills. “Why do you say that?”
“Do you really need me to spell it out for you? You’re not leaving this house today. At least, not in one big, living piece,” he said. He finished with the hose and started to wind it again. She scanned the room for anything she could use to defend herself, but there was next to nothing there.
“You had Tammy send the chocolates,” she said. “You poisoned them using one of these animals, and you killed Delenda. You tried to kill Detective James, too.”
“Poison dart frogs,” he said. “They’ve been incredibly useful. Of course you can’t get the toxin from the ones you get at the pet store, you need frogs that have grown up in the wild.”
“But why Delenda?”
“I will be with Sissy,” he said. “No one’s getting in the way of that. She was fine when she’d take the money and forge your signature like a good girl, but then when she found out Sissy was her mother, she got all protective. It was kind of creepy, Delenda with emotions. She knew about my animals, she threatened to tell Sissy, threatened to tell the press, end of story. Besides, she’d gotten ridiculously nosy since she married Higson, asking all these questions about that idiot, Shane whatever, the one who was convicted for Brenna. That stupid marriage. Figured I could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak, by messing up Delenda’s will. The money would go to Sissy and me, and that Boggs would have no more reason to hang around.