Dancing With Danger in Las Vegas

by A. R. Winters

She was on the phone when we knocked, but she smiled and waved us in. Ian and I sat down on the upholstered chairs on the other side of her desk, and as she wrapped up her phone conversation, I admired her taste.

  Claudia was stylish in a way that many older women are—confident, and secure in her choices. Her lipstick was a bold red, her almond eyes were lined with a bold winged eyeliner, and her jet-black hair was cut to just above shoulder length. Her earrings were large gray studs that looked like some kind of fancy uncut gemstone, and they matched the chunky gray necklace she wore over her white shift dress.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Claudia was saying into the phone. “It’s not an issue. Not at all. I’ll take care of you wherever I go, you can count on that. Yes, absolutely.” She laughed, as though the person on the other end had made a joke, and said, “Yes, of course. No. Okay, we’ll catch up soon. Bye.”

  When she hung up, Claudia turned to us and smiled. “Ian and Tiffany? It’s nice to meet you.”

  Ian and I murmured our polite greetings, and then Ian said, “I like that bust on your desk. Plato. Most people have Socrates.”

  Claudia nodded. “Yes, it’s interested how similar those two were and yet how different.”

  “You mean their philosophies?”

  “That, and just overall.”

  “Like how Socrates drank the hemlock, but Plato fled when they tried to kill him.”

  “Exactly.” Claudia smiled and looked at me. “But I guess you’re not here to talk philosophy.”

  “No,” I said. I was slightly surprised that Ian knew all this trivia about Socrates and Plato, but then again, Ian knew all kinds of random things. “We were told you worked with Ella a lot.”

  Claudia nodded. “Yes. She was a smart kid.”

  Ian said, “Rob told us you were a kind of mentor to her. Since you’re the female partner and all.”

  Claudia’s smile died down and her eyes flashed with annoyance. “He said that? No, just because I’m the female partner, that doesn’t make me a mentor to all the female associates.” She looked at me and sighed. “I guess I shouldn’t be so annoyed, but there aren’t that many senior female lawyers these days and there’s still all kinds of prejudices. You must know what I’m talking about—are there that many female PIs?”

  I frowned thoughtfully. It was a question I hadn’t thought about too much. “Not that many, actually. It’s not a very convenient job—you need to be able to work all hours and deal with all kinds of shady people.”

  “So you know what I’m talking about.”

  I looked out through the glass wall that separated Claudia’s office from the open-space work area. There seemed to be an equal number of young male and female employees, but I supposed that in Claudia’s day, things were tougher for women. Of course, things were still tough for women, in many ways. Claudia seemed to be in her late fifties, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if most of the female lawyers at this firm did view her as a role model.

  I said, “You’re very successful, though. I’m sure Ella must’ve looked up to you.”

  Claudia looked at me thoughtfully. “Did she? I’m not sure…” She shook her head. “I know, technically I’m a partner at this firm, but it’s been a long grind. I’m not sure I’m someone to look up to.”

  There was a thoughtfulness to her voice that made it obvious she wasn’t just being modest. I noticed the lack of a wedding band on her finger and said, “You never got married?”

  Claudia smiled thinly. “I never did a lot of things. Never got married, never had kids, never had a proper vacation in the last ten years. Sometimes I wonder if it was worth it—which is why I’m not sure young women should look up to me.”

  Ian said, “Not everyone wants to get married and have kids. Some people would rather have an amazing career.”

  Claudia turned to him and said, “That’s nice of you to say. And I guess I’ve been lucky that way.”

  I said, “On the phone, you said that you’d take care of your client wherever you went. Are you going somewhere?”

  Claudia looked at me, surprised. “No. I don’t have time to take vacations.”

  “Then…”

  “It’s just a figure of speech. My client travels a lot, so I thought he’d relate to that.”

  I nodded. “Do you have to travel a lot for work?”

  “Sometimes,” said Claudia. “But most of our clients are Vegas-based.”

  “And what about Ella? What kind of work did she do with you?”

  “We handled a few litigation cases. I haven’t worked with her in the last six months, though—she’s been working with Sam, mostly, during this time.”

  “So, you didn’t actually see her that often during the last six months?”

  “I’m afraid not. I know Rob and Sam think I was a mentor-like figure, but we weren’t close. Ella would ask me a legal question or two sometimes, and we’d make small talk when we met, but I didn’t know anything about her that Rob and Sam didn’t. You’re better off asking the other associates about her.”

  I tried to hide my disappointment. “She never confided in you? Maybe told you something personal off-hand?”

  Claudia twisted her lips in a half-apologetic gesture. “I’m afraid not.”

  “And you didn’t—I know you said you didn’t see her that often in the last six months, but when you did, did Ella seem different in any way? Worried about something, maybe?”

  “No. If anything, she was very busy with work. She and Sam worked on some big cases during that time.”

  Ian said, “It seems like she spent a lot of time with Sam in the last few months. But he said he didn’t know too much about her, either.”

  “We’re quite work-focused,” admitted Claudia. “The economy’s not great, and we need to really wow our clients.”

  Ian and I exchanged a glance. So far, our conversations with the partners had gone nowhere. Maybe it was time to talk to the other associates—Ella had spent all her time working, so at least one person in this place must know why she’d been killed.

  10

  “I like her,” said Ian once we’d left Claudia’s office and were walking toward the associates’ desks. “She’s smart.”

  Ian and Claudia had spent the last five minutes chatting about Plato and Socrates, and how much Ian wanted to visit Greece. I had to agree with Ian that she seemed smart and hardworking, but I was still disappointed she didn’t know anything more about Ella.

  “She might not want to be anyone’s mentor,” I said, “but I’m sure Ella looked up to her.”

  “Maybe, but that doesn’t mean Ella confided in her. It’d make more sense for Ella to confide in someone her own age. Another associate, like herself.”

  We diligently went through the list of employees Rob had given us. Although there were a few senior lawyers at the office, Ella hadn’t done any work for them in the last few months, and chances were slim that she was friendly with anyone who wasn’t an associate like herself. Ian and I headed over to the open-space work area where the associates sat in small low-walled cubicles and worked on cases. We introduced ourselves to all the associates, apologized for the intrusion, and asked questions.

  There were eleven other associates, and they all seemed harried and stressed. Five women, six men. None of them seemed too upset that Ella had been killed, and none of them knew much about her.

  Ian was, as usual, in high spirits. As we shuffled from one employee to another, he gushed, “I love talking to all these people! Everyone’s so different, and it’s so much fun to meet them all.”

  I squinched up my mouth and didn’t say anything.

  But inside, I was grumbling.

  Maybe I’m not a people person like Ian, but none of the associates seemed all that different to me. Okay, so one of them had long hair and the others had short hair. One of them lived with their parents; one of them had five cats, each with individual personalities; and one of them enjoyed watching French films without the subtitles and thou
ght that superhero movies were drivel.

  But deep down, they were all the same person: overworked, and overwhelmed by a life they hadn’t expected. There was a thinness to their smiles, and a lack of enthusiasm that betrayed how tired they were; tired that their careers hadn’t taken off quickly after all those years of law school; tired that they hadn’t gotten all those promotions they’d expected to have gotten by now.

  I felt an odd sense of empathy for the harried associates. A while back, I’d been like them: frustrated with my seemingly dead-end job at the casino and the likelihood that things would never change much. And as we chatted, I felt a wash of gratitude for my work as a PI. Sure, things might get a little dangerous once in a while, but at least I could pretty much dictate my hours, and every job was different.

  The trouble with talking to too many people, even if they’re all quite similar, is that you need to piece together bits of information and try to create a meaningful whole.

  “She didn’t hang out with us all that much,” was the common refrain. “The last six months, she barely came to any office parties, and if she did, she left early. She’d hardly ever come to our Friday night drinks, either. She didn’t come that last Friday…”

  It turned out that all the associates other than Eric had been at work drinks on the Friday Ella had been killed.

  Ian would ask a couple more questions about Ella, and I’d watch the associates as they answered. No, said everyone we talked to, Ella hadn’t been acting strangely recently—but then, they didn’t know her all that well. Nobody was particularly close friends with Ella, but nobody said they disliked her either.

  “We all get along mostly,” said one of the associates we talked to. Her name was Janet, and she was a short, skinny woman with limp brown hair that hung just below her ears. Her face was devoid of makeup, and the bags under her eyes looked like a permanent fixture from weeks of late nights. “Even though everyone knows there are budget cuts about to happen.”

  Ian and I exchanged a glance, thinking about the conversation between Sam and Rob.

  “What cuts?” said Ian.

  Janet shrugged. She seemed to be in her early thirties, and she’d already told us she didn’t have time for relationships or proper meals. “Nobody’s sure,” she admitted. “It’s all rumors—that the firm’s not doing too well, and that there might be layoffs.”

  I said, “Have any of the partners talked about this?”

  “No,” said Janet. “They wouldn’t, would they? That would destroy staff morale. Everyone’s already looking for new jobs, but there aren’t any jobs right now. At least, not ones that pay well enough.”

  Ian said, “We heard Ella was up for a promotion.”

  Janet nodded. “She was doing well. Her and Keith—one of them would’ve been promoted. None of the rest of us had a chance.”

  “I’m sure that’s not true,” Ian said encouragingly. “I’m sure you’re on track for a promotion, too!”

  Janet smiled wanly. “That’s nice of you to say. But I’m not. I haven’t been put on any of the big projects recently.”

  “And what about Keith?” I said. “What’s he like?”

  “You know,” Janet said thoughtfully, “he actually never seemed to like Ella much. I mean,” she added quickly, “I’m not saying he hated her enough to kill her or anything like that. It’s just that he said a couple of mean things about her once. Said she wasn’t a nice person, and that she didn’t deserve the projects she was getting. That he had tons more experience than Ella.”

  I frowned. “Did he?”

  “Oh, sure,” said Janet. “And he’d probably have gotten the promotion instead of Ella. I just—I hardly ever saw him talk to her, and he really did seem to dislike her. There’s another guy, too, who I hardly saw talking to Ella—Eric.”

  I nodded. “But it’s a big firm.”

  “No, I mean, Eric went out of his way to avoid talking to her. One time Ella actually joined us for Friday drinks, and when she sat down next to Eric, he moved away to the other end of the bar.”

  “Maybe he had a crush on Ella,” said Ian. “One time in elementary school, I had a crush on this girl with really nice hair, and she sat next to me one day and I couldn’t even talk to her. I couldn’t even look at her.”

  “Yes,” I reminded Ian, “but you were probably six years old back then. We’re talking about an adult man here.”

  “I don’t think he had a crush on Ella,” Janet said. “He just seemed to be busy avoiding her.”

  “Why would he avoid her?” I mused out loud. “Maybe you’re misinterpreting the situation.”

  “Maybe,” Janet said. “But I don’t think so.”

  Ian and I had already talked to Keith and Eric, and at the time, they’d seemed busy and unhelpful. We’d thought nothing of it, but we had three more associates left to chat with, and when we asked them specifically about Keith and Eric, all three of them agreed with Janet’s assessment—that, come to think of it, Keith had seemed to dislike Ella, and Eric had seemed to be avoiding her.

  So Ian and I circled back to Keith and Eric, to have another short chat with them.

  Keith was tall, with curly black hair and thick-rimmed black glasses. He looked more like an intense artist than a lawyer, and when he saw us approaching him again, he narrowed his eyes for a split second. He immediately pasted a smile on his face and pretended to be happy to see us again.

  “How’s the investigation going?” he said, obviously trying to sound enthusiastic and helpful.

  “Not bad,” I said.

  “Tiffany’s being modest,” Ian said. “We’ve learned all kinds of helpful things! And everyone here’s so nice.”

  “That’s good to hear,” said Keith politely.

  Before I could tiptoe around Keith’s supposed meanness to Ella, Ian said, “Lots of people are telling us you hated Ella.”

  Keith looked guilty and laughed nervously. “What? That’s ridiculous!”

  “Is it?” I said. I tried to sound sympathetic. “You and Ella were both up for the same promotion, and from what we’ve heard, you were far more experienced than Ella.”

  Keith smiled modestly. “Well…”

  “So, it’d be normal for you to dislike Ella,” I suggested.

  Keith shook his head. “No, I didn’t dislike her. I mean, I’m busy and stressed with work all the time, so I might’ve been a bit abrupt. And maybe someone misheard what I said once or twice. But I didn’t hate Ella. That’s simply not true.”

  I didn’t buy his story. Why look so guilty if he had nothing to hide?

  Ian said, “It’s cool, man. You can hate someone you’re competing against for a promotion.”

  But Keith just shook his head again. “You’re wrong there. I never hated her.”

  “A couple of people mentioned you said mean things about Ella,” I reminded him. “That you said she didn’t deserve the projects she was getting and that she wasn’t as experienced as you.”

  Keith shrugged. “So I’m a little abrupt sometimes. That doesn’t mean anything—I’m like that about everyone.”

  I wasn’t so sure. If Keith really was “like that about everyone,” then his coworkers would’ve mentioned it. I said, “But it’s true that Ella wasn’t as experienced as you.”

  Keith nodded. “I’ve worked here two years longer than her. I’ve worked on bigger projects with better-paying clients. I’ve had a couple of job offers, too. I could’ve left—I probably would’ve if I didn’t get the promotion.”

  I frowned, and Ian said, “And now the promotion’s in the bag for you.”

  Keith looked at Ian in mild surprise. “I guess so. But I never… I mean, I always hoped I’d get it. Since I’m the better candidate.”

  “The best candidate doesn’t always win,” Ian said. “In fifth grade, there was this teacher’s pet who was a bully, but he got away with everything because the teacher believed whatever he told her.”

  Keith looked at Ian warily. “Are you sa
ying Ella was a bully?”

  “I didn’t know Ella,” said Ian. “What do you think?”

  Keith sighed and looked at me. “Are we done here? I didn’t hate Ella, and I don’t know anything about her death. I’ve got a lot of work to get back to.”

  I nodded. “I guess we should let you get back to whatever you’re working on.”

  Ian and I headed out of Keith’s cubicle, and I stopped myself from saying anything out loud, since the other associates might overhear us.

  I didn’t quite buy the story that Keith didn’t hate Ella, but a mild professional jealousy wasn’t usually enough to go and murder someone over. Perhaps there was something else that we didn’t know about Keith and Ella’s relationship—perhaps Keith had some other reason for disliking her. But on the surface, it seemed like the usual rivalry that happens in workplaces sometimes, especially when two people are competing for the same thing.

  On the other hand, Eric’s behavior sounded a little odd to me. That, coupled with the fact that he’d left the work party early on Friday, made him seem like more of a suspect than Keith.

  Eric was in his late twenties, and handsome in a preppie kind of way. He had dark brown hair that was fashionably cut, a square jaw, and charming eyes. There was something about his manner that was happy-go-lucky, and he was visibly surprised to see Ian and me return to his cubicle again.

  “You guys’ve been here a long time,” said Eric. “I thought you would’ve been done talking to everyone by now.”

  His tone was friendly and teasing, and I smiled politely. “It’s taking a little longer than I expected.”

  “Everyone’s been really helpful,” said Ian. “They told us that you left the work party early on Friday.”

  Eric looked at us, surprised. “Didn’t I tell you that myself?”

  “I’ll have to check my notes,” I admitted. Perhaps Eric had told us that after all. “Where did you go after you left the party?”

  “Straight home,” said Eric, sounding bored. “Just like I told the cops.”

  “People also told us that you avoided Ella,” said Ian. “They said you pretty much ran away every time she approached.”