Client Trap (Nick Teffinger Thriller)

by Jagger, R. J.

  “Did it work?”

  “He ended up absolutely infatuated with her.”

  “So it did work, then.”

  “I wouldn’t necessarily say that,” Venzelle said. “This woman was hot. There wasn’t a guy on campus who wouldn’t eat live frogs to watch her do jumping jacks.”

  “Thanks for the visual.”

  She chuckled and sipped the wine. “The thing that impressed me the most about the voodoo wasn’t whether it worked or not—it was the fact that she really believed that it worked. It was absolutely real as far as she was concerned. That sort of made it real to me.”

  “So you believe in it, then?” Teffinger asked.

  “I believe that other people believe,” Venzelle said. “I also believe that their beliefs make certain things more likely to come true.”

  Teffinger tried to concentrate on her words.

  But she smelled like a flower.

  And sounded like a song.

  He leaned over and put his lips near hers. She didn’t back away, so he kissed her, and she kissed him back.

  She was the one.

  He knew it before, but knew it even more now.

  A PAIR OF HEADLIGHTS CAME UP THE STREET. Teffinger saw them out of his peripheral vision, but paid no attention. A minute or so later, they came back down. That was normal. Teffinger’s house was the third from the end, on a dead-end road, with a turnaround at the end. What wasn’t normal was that the headlights stopped in front of his driveway.

  Teffinger focused on them.

  There was enough streetlight punching through the storm to make out the shape of a midsize sedan. The passenger window powered down, not just a crack, but all the way to the bottom, in spite of the rain. Teffinger tried to see who was inside, but couldn’t make out a thing. He briefly flashed the headlights of the Corvette, to let whoever it was know that he was in the garage.

  Then a small orange light popped inside the car.

  By the time Teffinger registered it as a gunshot, the Corvette’s windshield exploded.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Day Two—July 13

  Tuesday Morning

  ______________

  WHEN RAVEN WOKE Tuesday morning, the marina smelled like rain and the docks were drenched. Clouds hung in the sky; remnants from last night that would burn off by nine. She fired up the generator, got the coffee percolating, and took a jog through the fields, down a path where the lake stayed in view most of the time.

  The chase last night hadn’t turned out well.

  The other car lost them.

  They didn’t get the make, the license plate number or a look at the driver. They did confirm, however, that the vehicle was evading them, meaning that Lindsay was probably right in her theory that she was the target, not Samantha.

  Samantha.

  What a firecracker.

  She would definitely end up being a character in one of Raven’s books. Right now, though, Raven didn’t have time to think about writing. Today she had to be a lawyer. Most of the time she didn’t mind practicing law. But today would be painful. She was defending a deposition being taken by Adam Osborne, a senior attorney at Radcliffe & Snow. This would be the first time Raven stepped back inside the firm after being fired last year.

  Osborne had played a major role in Raven’s discharge.

  She could already picture him later this morning.

  Sitting across the table.

  In his crisp white shirt and red silk power-tie.

  Smug.

  Thinking he was so superior.

  Well, if he came on too strong, Raven would look him in the eyes, run her fingers through her hair and then raise her eyes up to his seriously-receding hairline. He might have been entitled to deference when Raven worked for the firm, but now he had no hold on her. Now he was just one more face in the world, and not a pretty one at that.

  A mile into the run, she still felt good and picked up the pace, not a lot, but some. Even though she’d be thirty next week, physically she didn’t feel much different than twenty-one.

  So screw thirty.

  THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO HER DISCHARGE had been strange. Anderson Glass Products, a manufacturer of bottles and one of Radcliffe & Snow’s largest clients, had a President/CEO by the name of Felix Rock, who ran the place like a dictatorship. When the company’s head of security told Rock that he suspected that employees were selling drugs at the workplace, Rock went ballistic and decided to set up a sting operation.

  Rock’s plan was to hire three people who would seem like new employees. Their job, however, was to infiltrate the workforce, find out who was selling the drugs, actually buy some to get proof, and then feed the information and evidence directly to Rock, who would eventually turn it all over to the local authorities once he felt comfortable that he had ferreted everyone out.

  To funnel money to the undercover “employees,” Rock met with Radcliffe & Snow’s managing partner, Jeff Salter, and together they came up with a plan—Salter would add a $25,000 “management oversight” fee to each month’s invoice; Rock would approve the invoice; Salter would then get the money and funnel it to the undercover employees on the side.

  Unfortunately, the company’s in-house legal officer, Mary Benderfield, Esq., questioned the line item after the third month and, after failing to get a satisfactory answer from Salter as to the nature of the invoice, she went to Rock and suggested that R&S be discharged as outside counsel for falsifying invoices.

  Rock kept her in the dark.

  And hemmed and hawed.

  Benderfield then spoke to Raven Lee, who she trusted, and asked her to get information as to what was going on. Raven dug into it, found out what was going on, and told Benderfield. She in turn confronted Rock, who admitted what was going on. Benderfield informed Rock that the whole plan was illegal, because a private party didn’t have a right to purchase and possess drugs from another private party, even if that private party is motivated by a good faith “sting” operation—only police authorities can purchase and possess drugs.

  Rock, in effect, had committed a felony, born of stupidity but a felony nonetheless.

  At Benderfield’s suggestion, Rock took all the information, as well as all the drugs purchased over the months, and handed everything over to the police. He also pleaded for understanding.

  Luckily the cops elected to not prosecute.

  Benderfield then set out to get Radcliffe & Snow, for going behind her back and for letting the company’s president do something so incredibly stupid. Benderfield began to funnel work to other law firms. The law firm, in turn, set out to get Rock to discharge Benderfield; and eventually succeeded. The firm also set out to get Raven, for her cooperation with Benderfield.

  They eventually came up with an excuse to discharge her.

  Salter said a number of clients had complained about the quality of her work and her inter-personal skills. He said she’d be better off someplace else more befitting her skills and attitude; and gave her three months to find a new job.

  It was all fabricated, every bit of it, but at that point Raven didn’t care.

  She didn’t want anything to do with the place any longer.

  She left and opened her own law firm.

  SOMETIMES, WHEN SHE WROTE, she got writer’s block. That happened when she didn’t know where the story was going—when she didn’t know what would happen next, or when none of her characters knew what to do. That’s how she felt right now, in connection with the Erin Asher case.

  She had investigator’s block.

  She didn’t know what to do next.

  She had already done everything she could think of. What she needed to do was just park her posterior on the back of the sailboat and throw bread to the ducks until she figured it out.

  She ran harder and thought about a dream from last night.

  She and Samantha Dent were together—sitting in the back of the sailboat, in the dark, under a half moon, drinking wine. No one was around and the t
emperature was perfect.

  Then Samantha kissed her.

  Raven thought she would mind but she didn’t.

  Then she woke up.

  Weird.

  What was weirder, though, was that she tried to fall back asleep right away and get it back.

  SHE SLOWED FROM A RUN TO A WALK a hundred yards from the marina to give her muscles a chance to cool down. By the time she got to the sailboat, she knew what to do next on the Erin Asher case.

  Okay.

  Good.

  Maybe the day wouldn’t be a train wreck after all.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Day Two—July 13

  Tuesday Morning

  ______________

  THE COPS DIDN’T TURN OUT TO BE A PROBLEM. Dalton remembered the hundred dollars he kept in the glove compartment for emergencies; and the cops escorted him to McDonald’s and let him pay.

  Back at the machine shop, he didn’t find the wallet in the parking lot or anywhere else inside the building. He put on the ski mask, opened the dungeon door and walked in.

  Lindsay was sitting on the cement in the far corner of the room.

  Dalton spotted the wallet on the floor under the rack.

  He must have kicked it under there while he worked. Lindsay couldn’t see it from her angle. The big question is whether she found it while Dalton was out. He didn’t go to it. Instead, he sat down next to her and said, “How do you like the tattoo?”

  “It’s nice,” she said. “Thanks.”

  An obvious lie, but he didn’t care.

  “I guess it’s only fair that you know my name,” he said. “My first name, I mean, not my whole name. I’m Sean.” As he spoke the words he studied her face, to see if she registered the name as a lie.

  He detected no evidence of it.

  “Nice to meet you,” she said.

  He shook her hand.

  “Likewise,” he said. “I’ll tell you what. We’re going to play a guessing game. Tell me a location somewhere. If it turns out that I live within two miles of it, I’ll let you go.”

  She said nothing.

  “What? You don’t want to play?”

  “You’re just messing with me,” she said.

  “No, I’m not. Go ahead and take a guess. Give me a location.”

  She retreated in thought.

  He waited for her to say LoDo or downtown or California Street, which would mean she had been through his wallet.

  “Golden,” she said.

  Ah.

  Good answer.

  Maybe she hadn’t spotted it, after all.

  “You can’t use a whole city,” he said. “It has to be a specific location.”

  “The Colorado Mills Mall,” she said.

  He frowned.

  “No, sorry.”

  “It doesn’t matter anyway,” she said. “Why are you messing with me? What do you want?”

  “I think I misplaced my wallet,” he said. “You haven’t seen it, have you?”

  Her eyes didn’t turn to the rack.

  “I just want to go home,” she said. “I’ll do sex, if that’s what you want. Just let me go. Please—”

  “We’ll see.”

  He stood up, looked towards the rack and said, “There is it. I must have dropped it by mistake.”

  “What?”

  “My wallet.”

  He walked over, picked it up and said, “You didn’t look through this, did you?”

  No.

  No.

  No.

  That was last night.

  Now it was morning.

  DAWN HOOKER LIVED OFF HIGHWAY 93, on a 5-acre horse property, at the base of the foothills in unincorporated Jefferson County. Dalton parked at a trailhead a half mile south of her place and headed up a hiking path under a blue Colorado sky.

  The path started out through prairie grass.

  But it soon gained elevation and transitioned into trees and boulders. The sweet scent of pine hung in the air. A hawk rode a wind current high above, on strong silent wings. An occasional black squirrel scampered across the trail. A half hour later, Dalton came to a rock outcropping.

  He sat down on a boulder and trained a pair of binoculars on Dawn Hooker’s property.

  He saw a small ranch house, two stories, accessed from Highway 93 by a gravel driveway 150 yards long. A red Jeep Liberty and three Harleys sat next to the house.

  Behind the house was a small barn.

  Two horses stood near each other, in a dirt area enclosed with barbwire. The gray one had a hoof in a watering trough, splashing.

  Suddenly the woman came out the back door.

  She wore jeans, boots and a white T-shirt.

  Very attractive.

  About thirty.

  With long chestnut hair.

  The cowgirl next door.

  A black lab walked at her side.

  The horses trotted over and met her at the gate. She gave each one an apple and then disappeared back inside.

  The lab too.

  Five minutes later, three large men with long hair came out of the house, fired up the Harleys and rumbled off.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Day Two—July 13

  Tuesday Morning

  ______________

  THE BULLET SHATTERED the Vette’s windshield and passed directly between Teffinger and Venzelle. Luckily, even in 1967, cars were equipped with safety glass; otherwise their faces would have been sliced to ribbons. The shooter disappeared too fast to give chase. Teffinger’s best guess was the murder attempt was directed at him, not Venzelle, and probably related to one of his cases, maybe an old one.

  Nothing specific jumped to mind.

  He called the Lakewood P.D. A fairly competent detective by the name of Jack Woods responded. He dug a .357 bullet out of a garage stud, took their statements and wrapped up by eleven. As Woods’ taillights disappeared down the street, Teffinger told Venzelle, “You shouldn’t stay here tonight. The guy could come back.”

  “Screw him.”

  “You sure?”

  “Positive.”

  “How positive?”

  “Positive enough,” she said. “Besides, someone needs to be here to protect you.”

  Teffinger picked her up, carried her into the bedroom and laid her down on the bedspread. Then he peeled her clothes back, slowly, revealing one incredible part of her body at a time.

  Outside, the storm pummeled down.

  So perfect.

  That was last night.

  THEY GOT UP AT FIVE THIS MORNING. Venzelle was scheduled to be on the air at six and turned herself into a whirlwind. Somehow she managed to shower, wash her hair, shave her legs, dress and grab her purse by 5:35. As she ran out the front door with wet hair she turned and asked, “Are you going to listen to me this morning?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Perfect,” she said. “I’m going to talk about you then.”

  “Don’t say anything good,” he said. “I have a reputation to maintain.”

  “I don’t know anything good.”

  Then she was gone.

  Suddenly the door opened.

  And she was back.

  She ran over, gave him a kiss and said, “I get to see you later today—right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “I was thinking that maybe I should move in,” she added.

  Teffinger’s mouth opened.

  “You want to move in?”

  “Okay,” she said. “As long as you’re asking.”

  Teffinger chuckled and said, “You don’t even know me.”

  “That’s why I need to move in.” She rubbed her stomach on his. “So, do you have a problem with it, or what?”

  Teffinger thought about it.

  And the answer surprised him.

  No.

  He didn’t.

  TEFFINGER LEFT THE HOUSE five minutes later and ate a bowl of cereal in the Tundra as he drove to work. He kept the radio off, pushed Venzelle out of his mind as
much as he could, and pulled up Lindsay Vail. She was out there in the world somewhere.

  Maybe dead but maybe not; missing more than two days at this point.

  He inhaled coffee and paced back and forth by the windows as the world woke up. When Sydney walked into the room shortly after seven, Teffinger said, “This guy’s face has been on the news for more than a day and no one’s called yet with a name. That means he’s from out of town. And none of her friends have seen him either. That means he’s not part of her social structure. ”

  “Here’s the problem,” Sydney said. “You have coffee in your gut. I don’t.”

  Teffinger chuckled.

  And Sydney poured coffee.

  “A stranger from out of town,” Teffinger said. “That’s who we’re looking for.”

  Sydney didn’t disagree but didn’t seem overly impressed.

  “There’s more to it than that,” she said. “He might be a stranger in the sense that he wasn’t part of her social circle, but he can’t be a total stranger. A total stranger doesn’t target someone at their house—they bump into someone in a parking lot or a dark street.”

  “He could have picked her out of a crowd and followed her home,” Teffinger said.

  “That’s a lot of work,” Sydney said. “Somehow, they have a connection.”

  Teffinger chewed on it.

  She was probably right.

  Then something occurred to him.

  “Assume you’re right,” he said. “Also assume the guy’s not part of her social circle. That tells me one of two things. Either the connection occurred very recently, or it occurred back in the past, in an older social circle.”

  Sydney nodded.

  “Or it could be some kind of connection that doesn’t become part of her social circle,” she added. “A fender-bender; or she wouldn’t let him buy her a drink at a club; we could think of scenarios all day long.”