Dancing With Danger in Las Vegas

by A. R. Winters

I made a face, but I didn’t stop him. If Gavin was right that Ian and Nanna were being kept on as the show’s “jokers,” then perhaps the two of them would make it through to the next round, and they might as well practice their dance routines a little.

  We pulled up in front of Claudia’s house and strode up to the front door, which she opened within a few minutes of our knock.

  “Oh, you two again,” she said when she saw us.

  She smiled with obviously forced politeness and ushered us in. Today, she was dressed casually in Bermuda shorts and a silky-looking blue top. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, but her skin looked creamy and, other than a few crow’s-feet near her eyes, absolutely wrinkle-free.

  “I’m a bit stressed with a client issue,” she told us as we followed her into the living room. “It’s been a crazy day.”

  “You look stressed,” Ian said. “Our friend Karma would say that you’re giving off stress vibes.”

  Ian and I sat next to each other on the sofa, and Claudia sat opposite us in a large armchair. Her large leather handbag with files poking out of it lay at her feet, and just as she sat down, her phone buzzed.

  “Gotta take this,” she said with a sigh as she excused herself and headed out of the room, the phone pressed against her ear.

  She was gone for a few minutes, and then we heard footsteps in the hallway. “Yes,” Claudia was saying, “no matter what. I will definitely take care of you, no matter where I am.”

  When she sat down opposite us again, Ian said, “It’s amazing how you get any legal work done in between all those phone calls.”

  Claudia shrugged modestly. “You get used to it, and you learn to work around the calls.”

  “That’s about the third time I’ve heard you tell someone that you’ll take care of them no matter where you are,” I said. “What’s the deal with that? Are you finally going on vacation?”

  Claudia looked at me and frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You know, you keep saying, ‘I’ll take care of you no matter where I go.’ Where are you going?”

  Claudia shook her head as though she was still confused by my question. “I’m not going anywhere. It’s just a figure of speech.”

  “It does sound like you’re going somewhere,” Ian insisted. “You’re not planning on backpacking through Europe, are you?”

  Claudia laughed. “At my age?”

  And then it struck me. “You’re going to another firm,” I said slowly. “You’re leaving the offices of Elman and Associates. That’s why you keep saying you can take care of your clients wherever you go.”

  Claudia looked at me, her eyes guarded and unsure. “I’m a partner at Elman and Associates. Why would I go to another firm?”

  “Then you’re starting your own firm,” I said. “Aren’t you?”

  Ian snapped his fingers and sat up straighter. “That’s why you’ve been missing work events. That’s why you work from home so often these days—it’s so that you can steal clients away from the other partners.”

  Claudia glanced from Ian to me as though recognizing she had been backed into a corner. Finally, she shrugged. “All right, I’ll admit it—I’m leaving the firm. That’s not a crime. What should be a crime is the way those two men are trying to push me out. They think they can cut costs by getting rid of one of the partners—as if that’ll help them out.”

  I thought back to our recent conversation with Rob, and all the tricks Sam had tried. “We’ve just been talking to Rob. He doesn’t want to push you out.”

  Claudia looked at me hesitantly. “It seemed like they were both in on it.”

  “Rob told us it was just Sam. He didn’t want to encourage Sam—he didn’t even realize you knew about Sam’s plans.”

  Claudia rolled her eyes. “Oh, Sam thought he was being so subtle. Giving me hints about yearlong vacations and retiring to marry my boyfriend. They were getting on my nerves, and I knew that pretty soon, they’d call in a partners’ vote and try to oust me. It was obvious.”

  “But Rob didn’t seem to want to oust you. Are you sure they both wanted you to leave?”

  Claudia paused for a moment. “I’m not entirely sure,” she admitted. “But Sam needed a divorce, and his buddy Rob would help him get whatever he wanted. The nerve of those two! Trying to push me out of the firm I sacrificed half my life trying to build up. I can’t believe—”

  “Hang on,” Ian said, interrupting her. “How do you know about Sam’s divorce?”

  Claudia stopped mid-rant and looked at Ian in surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “Nobody knows about Sam’s affair,” Ian said. “It’s a big secret.”

  “It’s not such a secret,” Claudia said warily. “People know.”

  “Like who?”

  She pressed her lips together, watching Ian steadily.

  I said slowly, “Someone must’ve told you. Keith? No, Keith thought Sam was having an affair with Ella. Ella! That’s who told you—she was working closely with Sam, and she must’ve figured it out somehow.”

  Claudia looked at me and sighed melodramatically. “Fine. Ella told me about Sam’s secret affair. It’s not a big deal, everyone would’ve found out eventually.”

  “But why did Ella bother to tell you about Sam’s affair? Was she trying to help you out?”

  “Sort of,” said Claudia thinly. “She could tell that the firm was going to come crashing down.”

  “Crashing down because of Sam’s affair?” I said, puzzled.

  “You mean because of Sam’s spending habits?” suggested Ian.

  “Not spending habits,” Claudia spat out. “Embezzlement habits.”

  Ian’s brows shot up. “Whoa! Sam was embezzling from the firm?”

  Claudia looked from me to Ian, and then she shrugged. “What’s the harm in telling you? We’ve come this far. And you’re private investigators, you’re meant to be discreet. So I might as well tell you—Sam was embezzling funds to reduce the value of the firm, so that when he ultimately did get divorced, he’d have a secret nest egg, and the firm would be worth much less.”

  “And you’re stealing clients, too,” I pointed out.

  Claudia smiled sweetly. “I only started poaching the clients once I found out about this whole mess.”

  “Which Ella told you about,” I said slowly. So this was the secret Ella had told her friend Felicity about.

  Claudia nodded. “Yes.”

  “And what would have happened to Ella once the firm split up?”

  “She was going to come with me to my new firm,” said Claudia. “She was a smart kid. I promised to fast-track her to partner for all the information she was getting me.”

  “So she really did look up to you as a mentor.”

  Something flashed in Claudia’s eyes, but I couldn’t place what it was. Anger? But she had no reason to be angry.

  But whatever it was died out and her eyes looked sad again. “Poor Ella. I didn’t want her to think of me as her mentor. Look at me—I’m old and I don’t really have the life I want. No relationships, no vacations, and the partners are trying to kick me out of my own firm.”

  “You do have a relationship,” Ian reminded her. “Dancing Jarred.”

  Claudia laughed, but there wasn’t much humor in her eyes. “Sure.”

  Something about her attitude toward her relationship seemed off. Even when I’d been unsure about a boyfriend, I’d never completely forgotten that I was in a relationship. I said slowly, “Sam was the one who introduced you to Jarred. And he’d been hoping you two would get married, and then you’d leave the firm.”

  “But that didn’t happen,” said Ian. “I guess you didn’t like Jarred as much as Sam thought you would.”

  “I like him enough,” Claudia said mildly. “Now, did you two have anything else you wanted to talk about?”

  But Ian wasn’t done. “There was something special about Jarred,” he said. “Rob told us most of your relationships ended after two months.
And Sam did tell Rob that he’d get you a nice boyfriend to keep you busy.”

  Claudia’s eyes narrowed and she said through gritted teeth, “He said what to Rob?!”

  I looked at her carefully. “That he’d get you a boyfriend. A boyfriend who’s stuck around much longer than anyone expected.”

  “Sam’s paying Jarred,” Ian said suddenly. “Jarred’s an actor. Sam’s paying Jarred to act the part of your boyfriend.”

  Claudia’s eyes were glittering with rage, and she opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again. Finally, she said, “This is ridiculous! How dare you insult me and my boyfriend?”

  I watched her carefully. “It’s not really an insult. We’re just wondering what if…”

  “You must think I’m some foolish old lady,” snapped Claudia, her rage not abating, her face starting to go red.

  “No,” Ian and I chimed in unison.

  Ian said, “I’ll bet Ella was the one who told you about Jarred’s being paid by Sam.”

  Claudia didn’t say anything, but she shook her head no and took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.

  “Maybe Jarred had something to do with Ella’s death,” I said, thinking out loud. “He didn’t want Ella to tell you the truth, then when he found out that she already had, he killed her.”

  “We should go talk to Jarred,” said Ian. “See if he’ll admit to killing Ella.”

  “No,” said Claudia suddenly. “Leave him out of this.”

  We looked at her in surprise.

  “I know you must still like him,” I said, “but he might be a killer.”

  “He’s not,” said Claudia, her voice suddenly tinged with desperation. “You have to leave this alone.”

  I shook my head. “How can you be so sure he’s not a killer? You might be in danger yourself. Besides, we’re pretty sure Sam just hired him to act like your boyfriend.”

  Claudia’s eyes watched Ian and me carefully, the rage draining out of them. “That’s not true,” she said. She twisted a strand of her dark hair, and I felt a pang of sympathy for her.

  “You’ve had a tough time,” I said. “And maybe Sam hired Jarred initially, but now he loves you.” I didn’t believe the words even as I said them, but I wanted to cheer Claudia up a bit. She was gazing off into space, and her eyes looked glazed over.

  “No,” Claudia said. “No, no. This isn’t happening. Not now. Not again.”

  “What do you mean, again?”

  But Claudia just muttered to herself and continued to twist her hair. She looked nothing like the self-confident lawyer she’d been a minute ago, and I wondered what had happened to her. All her anger had drained out, replaced by what seemed to be fear and shock.

  “It’s ok,” Ian said, reassuringly. “We won’t tell anyone. Even if it does turn out that Jarred was an actor. He probably was, and he probably never loved you.” Ian was nothing if not diplomatic. “It makes sense that Sam hired an actor to try to get you out of the way.”

  Claudia looked at Ian with wide eyes, and I said quickly, “Even if he really does love you, it’s best to be safe. He might be a killer.”

  Claudia turned to look at me, and shook her head disbelievingly. She seemed to be in shock, and Ian and I exchanged a glance.

  After a long silence, Claudia said, “You two are right. Jarred was hired by Sam. But Sam stopped paying him six months ago. He really does love me.”

  “Did you check his bank accounts?” I said.

  Claudia shook her head. “No, I trust him.”

  “Well, we don’t,” said Ian bluntly. “We’ll have to look into him.”

  “Fine,” said Claudia faintly, “do what you have to. But Jarred had nothing to do with it. You won’t learn anything, so it doesn’t matter if you talk to him.”

  “You seem awfully sure that Jarred had nothing to do with Ella’s death,” I said slowly. “Which means that you know something more.”

  Claudia looked at me, her eyes glinting, and I could tell she was hiding something.

  “You don’t have to protect Jarred,” Ian said. “Just tell us the truth.”

  Claudia shrugged. “I’ve told you everything. I don’t want you to bother Jarred, but I can’t stop you if you really want to.”

  She stood up, as though to show us out, and then I remembered why we’d come here in the first place.

  “Where were you on the Friday night Ella was killed?” I said.

  Claudia looked at me sharply. “I already told you, at that office party.”

  “No,” I said. “You left early.”

  Claudia sat down slowly, and frowned. “Really? I must’ve forgotten.”

  I waited for her to think, and then finally, she shrugged. “I must’ve come home early for some reason. I don’t remember doing anything else that night.”

  “So you didn’t drive over to see Ella?”

  “No.”

  Something in her eyes told me she was lying. So taking a stab in the dark, I said, “I think you did go to see her. In fact, I think you killed her. And I think Jarred’s got something to do with it.”

  Claudia laughed drily. “Why would I kill her after all that girl did for me?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “But I’m sure, if we show photos of your car to Ella’s neighbors, they’ll recognize it.”

  “It’s a generic Mazda,” said Claudia. “None of the neighbors would remember it.”

  We stared at her, shocked, and then Claudia realized what she’d said.

  Before we knew it, Claudia had bent down, reached into the handbag sitting on the floor next to her, and pulled out a small but deadly-looking handgun.

  She pointed it at me and said, “I think we’ve done enough talking for today.”

  26

  I froze. My mouth felt dry, and I wasn’t sure what to say. Finally, I gulped and said, “That’s okay, we don’t need to talk about it anymore. You don’t need to have that gun out.”

  “I think I do,” Claudia said. She swiveled the gun from me to Ian, then back to me again. “I knew the cops would think it was a mugging, just a general ‘bad neighborhood’ crime. Then you two came along—I thought you were amateurs, but you just kept poking and poking…”

  Her voice trailed off, and beside me, I could feel the fear emanating from Ian. Claudia had killed once, which meant she wouldn’t hesitate to kill again. What did she intend to do with us? Maybe she wasn’t sure herself. Maybe I could stop her from killing us if I just acted a bit sympathetic.

  I tried to look understanding and forced myself to say kindly, “Why don’t you tell us what happened? It must’ve been a very difficult situation for you, with the firm and Jarred and everything happening at once.”

  Claudia sighed and looked at me. The faint, unnoticeable lines in her face seemed etched deeper, and her eyes looked tired. “It was all Sam’s fault. He’s the one who’s the real criminal, not me. Embezzling from the firm, paying a man to act like my boyfriend, trying to push me out… he forced me to snap.”

  I nodded. “What a horrible, horrible man.”

  “Exactly. And if it hadn’t been for Ella, I wouldn’t even have known.”

  “Then why kill Ella?” I said. “She was your friend.”

  Claudia’s eyes dropped to the floor for a split second, and I wondered if she was upset and could be overpowered. But in the next instant, she looked back at me again, the gun in her hand not wavering.

  “I was wrong,” Claudia said softly. “I was wrong about Ella.”

  I waited for her to go on, and when she didn’t, I said, “You thought she wasn’t your friend.”

  Claudia took a deep breath and nodded. “It feels good to get this off my chest. I never thought I could keep it a secret, but once I tell you guys everything and then get rid of you, I’ll have shared everything, and my secret will still be safe.”

  A chill ran down my spine and I pressed my hands together to stop them from shaking. She had it all planned out. I wasn’t going to
make her feel sorry for us and let us go, but I needed to buy some time to figure out what to do. No way was I going to die at the hands of some maniacal lawyer. Beside me, Ian let out a soft whimper of fear. I forced myself to sound calm and said, “Yes, it’s a good idea to share what happened. You’ll feel much better.”

  Claudia nodded. “I’m starting to feel better already. You see, the whole thing was a mistake. Ella told me about the embezzling and the move to push me out of the firm, and I was grateful. But then I thought, maybe she’s taking advantage of me. On the night of the dinner, she called me to say she had learned something new.”

  “So you picked her up from her apartment.”

  “Yes, and she told me that Jarred was actually an actor hired by Sam to seduce me away from the firm. She’d heard Sam laughing to Rob that I was a silly, love-starved middle-aged woman.”

  Claudia fell silent, and I prompted her, “And you didn’t like that.”

  “No,” said Claudia vehemently. “I didn’t, and I didn’t believe it. I was furious. I accused Ella of trying to manipulate me, trying to get more out of me than she deserved. I was driving her home and made a detour to Balzar Avenue, where I told her to get out of the car. I just wanted to scare her, wanted her to have to find her own way home late at night from Balzar.”

  “Wow,” I said, unable to help myself. That was pretty cruel. “What did she do?”

  “She refused to get out of my car,” Claudia said, her voice rising an octave. “I needed to think about what she’d said, and the girl stopped cooperating with me. I pulled out my gun, just to get her to leave the car, and then when we were out, she told me she’d changed her mind, she wouldn’t come to my new firm, and she’d press charges against me for assault. She turned and started walking away, and that’s when I snapped. My life was crumbling, this girl was using me and now she’d claim I’d assaulted her—it was too much. I yelled something at her, telling her off, and when she turned around to look at me, I did it. I pulled the trigger before I knew what I was doing.”

  There was silence for a few seconds. And then, Claudia said, “I didn’t really mean to kill her. I just saw red… and then, afterward, I found out she was telling the truth about Jarred. Men. That’s the issue. They use you and get you in trouble.”