Deadly Justice bk-3

by William Bernhardt

  The elevator dinged and the doors opened. “Well, I feel much better now that I know you’ve got your butt covered,” Ben said. “Let’s go.”

  They crossed the elevator lobby and turned the corner toward Ben’s office and the computer room. They were all wearing sneakers, broken in and nonsqueaky.

  Ben suddenly heard a loud pounding noise. He froze, motioning the others to stay put. “What is that?” he hissed.

  “It came from down the hall.”

  “Oh, great. Just where we’re headed.” Frowning, Ben crouched and tiptoed down the hallway. The pounding repeated. Ben saw the closed door to Herb’s office quiver and shake.

  He crept closer and saw Herb standing outside his office, pounding on the door—buck naked. Herbert the Pervert strikes again.

  “Goddamn it!” Herb yelled at the closed door. “This isn’t funny! What if someone comes?”

  Ben heard a reply from the inside, but it was muffled and he couldn’t make out what was being said. The voice was definitely female, though. Perhaps he’d called Candice a nasty name one time too many.

  “Let me in!” Herb repeated, pounding again and again on the door. “I mean it!” The door did not open. “Look, I’m sorry I said you’d put on a few pounds. I was just teasing. You look great.”

  He waited, but there was still no response from the other side. “I can’t believe you’d take advantage like this, just because I had to go across the hall to the crapper.” He shook with frustration. “Honey, what if someone comes through the front door—”

  He gestured toward the front door, and in so doing, saw Ben crouched on the floor. “Too late.”

  Herb ran behind a secretarial station and tried to hide himself behind a typewriter. “Kincaid! You again?”

  Ben stood up. “This is becoming a distressingly familiar event. What’s the problem, Herb? Can’t you afford a hotel room like everyone else?”

  “That’s none of your goddamn business. What are you doing here, anyway?”

  “I…had some work I wanted to finish before tomorrow morning’s staff meeting.”

  “Sounds suspicious to me.”

  “Says you. At least I have my pants on.”

  Herb made an evil, growling noise. “Look, I don’t want this story going around the office, understand? Especially not to Crichton.”

  “Really? I was thinking about putting it in staff notes.”

  “Hardy har har. Cut me some slack, Kincaid. Guy to guy.”

  “Well, since you put it like that.” Grinning, Ben headed back the way he had come. He heard Herb do some more pounding, then finally heard the office door open. He hated to think about what Herb must’ve promised her.

  To his surprise, Ben hadn’t walked halfway down the hallway when he saw Candice approaching from the other direction. And heading toward Herb’s office.

  “Candice!”

  “True. What of it?”

  “But I thought—I mean—I assumed—”

  “Pull yourself together, Kincaid. You’re not making any sense.”

  “I—never mind. What are you doing here this time of night?”

  “I’m looking for that asshole Herb. Have you seen him?”

  Ben felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead. “I think he’s in his office.”

  Her eyes became tiny slits. “Is he alone?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “That son of a bitch.” She collapsed against the secretarial station. “I might have known.”

  “For whatever it’s worth,” Ben said, “I think the less you have to do with Herb, the better.”

  “Easy for you to say. You were brought in at an Attorney Four level.”

  “At what?”

  “Attorney four. Two levels and twenty thousand dollars above me. Since I started working here five years ago, Crichton has promoted every man in the department on a regular basis. But not me.”

  “Why?”

  “I didn’t play the game. Didn’t communicate my ideas via male intermediaries. Didn’t sit back and let men take credit for my work. And there was the Herb problem.”

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  “Herb had been coming on to me since day one. Suggesting that I should dress like a woman. Asking what I’d be willing to do to keep my bosses happy. Touching me when he talked. Making off-color jokes. Then he got bolder. He started asking if I wanted to come over to his place and watch porn movies. Asking if I ever got the urge to fuck various Apollo employees. Did I like to do it with other women? Did I like to do it with myself? He was disgusting. I rebuffed him at every turn.”

  “Good for you.”

  “Easy to say. Soon Herb was badmouthing me to everyone in the department, including Crichton. I confronted Herb, asked what the hell was going on. He hinted strongly that I wasn’t going to rise in this organization until my male colleagues—like him—stopped reporting that I was an unpleasant bitch. But he had a price for his positive recommendation.”

  “Surely you didn’t—”

  “I resisted for years. But after awhile, after I saw assholes like Chuck and idiots like Doug make Attorney Three and Four while I was still Attorney One, I thought, what the hell. Sure, it was a compromise, but…” She waved her hand shakily in the air. “I started giving Herb what he wanted.”

  “And?”

  “And, just four months ago, I made Attorney Two. First and only woman in Crichton’s department to be promoted. Of course, it was just a token promotion; even Crichton knew he might have legal problems if he didn’t toss a bone to one of the women in the department.”

  “So that’s how it started with you and Herb.…”

  “Yeah. Herbert the Pervert.” She laughed bitterly. “I hate him. All those fights between Herb and me that you thought were fake? They were only fake on one end. Maybe not even that. I came here to tell Herb it was over. I know Herb could still crush my career in an instant, but I just can’t stand it any longer.”

  “I don’t think you want to go in right now.”

  “No, this is fine. He’s made it even easier for me—if I catch him in the act, maybe he’ll feel guilty. Or maybe I can blackmail him. You wouldn’t happen to have a camera on you?” Ben shook his head. “Anyway, I’m going in there.”

  “Do you really think that’s—”

  Ben’s words were useless; she had already passed him and was practically in Herb’s office. Ben decided to move quickly in the opposite direction. A few moments later, he rejoined his group.

  “What’s all the commotion up there?” Christina

  “I’ll tell you later.”

  “Later, schmater. I want to see for myself.” She started down the hallway.

  Ben grabbed her arm. “Believe me, Christina. You absolutely, positively do not want to see for yourself. I have a hunch that in a few moments the whole corridor is going to go ballistic.” He swung her back toward the elevator lobby. “Let’s go around the other way.”

  They tiptoed through the elevator lobby and emerged on the other side of the floor. Ben thought he heard a sound ahead of him—some kind of movement. He approached the corner cautiously, his back pressed against the wall.

  “Be careful,” Christina whispered. “I heard it, too.”

  Ben breathed in and out, trying to slow his racing heart. All this creeping around was starting to get to him. But why should he be afraid? Who hadn’t he met up here already? He spun around the corner.

  “Ahhhhhh!” the man on the other side cried out.

  “Ahhhhhh!” Ben cried back, startled.

  After the initial shock, Ben pulled himself back down to earth and focused. “Loving?”

  It was in fact Loving, Ben’s private investigator from his previous life. Loving was dressed in a T-shirt and blue jeans.

  “What are you doing up here?”

  “Covering your backside,” Loving answered. “I thought you guys might need some protection.”

  “If you’re covering our backside, why
are you in front of us?”

  “ ’Cause you keep changing directions!”

  “Oh. Sorry. How did you get up here? I didn’t hear the elevator.”

  “I didn’t take the elevator. I took the stairs.”

  “All the way up? You must be exhausted.”

  “Piece of cake,” he said, trying to conceal his gasping for air.

  “Look, why don’t you sit down and catch your breath? We have to move on.”

  “No way. You guys might need some muscle. I’m sticking to you like glue.”

  Ben resigned himself to the inevitable, and motioned for Loving to follow. Down the chain of hallways, Ben led them to his office and, on the other side of the hall, the main computer room. Various computer terminals and printers lined the walls, while one much larger terminal rested in the center.

  “That one must be the big mama,” Jones said. “It probably controls the entire LAN.”

  “Think you can get in?”

  Jones wriggled his fingers. “Let’s find out.” He sat down before the terminal and turned on the CPU. “It boots directly into a Wordperfect database. Let me review these files and see if there’s anything that might’ve interested Hamel.”

  Jones reached for the keyboard—then realized that it was locked in a wooden case. “Uh-oh,” he said. “Someone doesn’t want unauthorized personnel playing with the computer.”

  “Does this prove they have something to hide?” Ben asked.

  “Not necessarily. Corporations are notorious for going to great lengths to keep secrets. After all, if their records were open to any hacker in town, they’d soon have no secrets at all.”

  Ben examined the rectangular pine box. “It’s locked up tight. I don’t see how we’re going to get in without a key.”

  “Allow me,” Loving said. “This is where you need some muscle.” Loving extended his fingers, concentrated, then brought his hand down hard on the top of the box.

  “Owww!” he cried out. “That smarts.”

  “Have you ever studied karate?” Ben asked.

  “No. But that’s how those guys do it in the movies.”

  “Ah. Jones, did he do any damage?”

  “Well, not to the box.”

  “Blast,” Ben said. “We’re never going to get in there. All this risk, all this sneaking around, all for nothing.”

  “Don’t give up yet, o intrepid adventurer,” Christina said.

  “Why not?”

  “Look what I found.” She dangled a single key hooked around a brass ring.

  “Where’d you get that?”

  “From the back of the storage cabinet. That’s where they keep the spare.”

  “How’d you know that?”

  “Well…” Christina glanced at the ceiling. “I just happened to invite Marilyn from Bookkeeping out to lunch today, and we got to talking about the Apollo computer system, and one thing led to another….”

  “You sly dog,” Ben said. “You were way ahead of us.”

  “What else is new? I thought our plan should be more detailed than, ‘Let’s sneak in and see what happens.’ ”

  “Thank goodness you were here.” Ben unlocked the box and withdrew the keyboard. Jones took control and began punching buttons.

  “Great,” Jones said. “Every file is identified and listed in alphabetical order. I’ll just scan them and see if there’s anything that might’ve gotten Hamel killed.”

  Christina gazed over his shoulder. “There are hundreds of files in there.”

  “True,” Jones said. “Maybe you’d better have a seat.”

  An hour and a half later, Ben and Christina were still sitting on the floor watching Jones’s fingers fly over the keyboard. Not exactly the most stimulating way to pass the early hours of the morning. Ben had to fight to keep his eyes open. Loving had posted himself outside the door, to “keep an eye out for trouble.”

  “Seen anything interesting?” Ben asked.

  “To tell you the truth,” Jones said, “I’m more interested in what I can’t see. All the files on this system are subject to easy access, except one. That one file is locked up tight; you can’t get in without a password.”

  Ben scrutinized the computer terminal. “Think you can break in?”

  “Only if we figure out the password. I’m not equipped to generate random letter combos or do any serious hacking.”

  “What can we do?”

  “I’ve been trying obvious possible passwords, but so far, I haven’t had any luck. I tried Apollo, Consortium, Howard Hamel, and several others.”

  “Try Crichton,” Ben suggested. The man was just egotistical enough to use his own name.

  Jones typed it onto the screen. Nothing happened.

  “What about Herbert? Or, if he was feeling romantic, perhaps Candice.”

  Jones tried both. Still no results.

  “What about something more generic,” Christina suggested. “Try Lawyer. Or Legal. Or Murder.”

  Jones tried all her suggestions, and several others that followed, but nothing cracked open the file.

  “Wait a minute,” Ben said, snapping his fingers. “Try Kindergarten Club.”

  Jones gave him a strange look, but obediently typed the words onto the screen.

  A split second after Jones hit the Enter button, the screen faded. A blue blip was followed by page one of a new document.

  “It worked!” Jones said jubilantly. “Great work, Boss.”

  “Lucky guess.” He scanned the document. It appeared to be an address list containing about fifteen names.

  “They’re all Apollo employees. See?” Christina pointed to the screen. “It identifies their departments and phone extensions.”

  “But look here,” Jones said. “Up at the top. See the empty space? Someone has deleted a name.”

  “Curiouser and curiouser.” Most of the names were unfamiliar to Ben. “What do they have in common?” he wondered aloud.

  “Apparently,” Christina said, “they’re all members of the Kindergarten Club.”

  “Yes,” he said, nodding his head thoughtfully. “But what in God’s name is that?”

  35

  LATER THAT AFTERNOON, AS Ben struggled to keep his eyelids open, he was relieved to see Christina walk into his office. Not only was he desperately sleepy—he was bored. While the Nelson case was pending, he’d been in constant motion. Now that the case was over, he had nothing to do. He had assumed he would get another case, but so far, nothing.

  “Have you heard anything about Crichton?” Ben asked.

  “I heard he’s going to be released from the hospital soon. Knowing him, he’ll probably be back in the office the next day.”

  “Probably right.” Ben pressed a finger against his lips. “Isn’t it funny? Since you and I came here, we’ve been on two of these macho corporate outings, and both times Crichton has managed to get hurt.”

  “I was thinking the same thing myself,” Christina said.

  “Almost as if someone was out to get him, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah. Almost.”

  “Had any luck with the Kindergarten list?”

  She shook her head no.

  “Blast. Tomorrow’s my deadline with Chief Blackwell. If I don’t have something concrete for him, he’s going to bury me so deep you won’t be able to visit me without a warrant.”

  “I’m doing everything I can,” Christina said. “I pulled the personnel files on the fifteen employees on the list. They’re in different departments, answering to different bosses, doing all different kinds of work. I can’t find any connection among them, other than that they’re all Apollo employees, most of them at a fairly high level.”

  Ben slapped his palm on his desk. “Hell. Maybe we should just ask them what the Kindergarten Club is.”

  “Right. That’s likely to produce results. ‘Excuse me, we’ve uncovered evidence that you’re involved in some kind of weird organization linked to the mutilation-death of four teenage girls and possibly Howard Hame
l. Would you mind talking about it?’ And then we could just sit back and watch the attorneys congregate.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  “Your problem, Ben, is that you’re just too honest. Instead of making some gigantic frontal assault, let’s try something with a bit more élan. Something more…surreptitious.”

  “I’m not breaking into any more offices!”

  “I’m not saying you should. All I’m suggesting is that you take a profitable walk down the hallway.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “Look, everything we’ve learned about this case points right here, inside the legal department. All our best suspects are just down the hall. Hamel seems to have known something that someone else did not want to get out. If Hamel had some sensitive information pertaining to this Kindergarten Club, maybe some of the other lawyers do, too.”

  “Makes a certain twisted sense,” Ben admitted. “But I don’t see how it gets me a course of action.”

  “Go forth and investigate,” she whispered. “Search their offices.”

  “During office hours?”

  “Well, as we’ve discovered, these offices are never entirely vacated. And it will be considerably more suspicious if you get caught rummaging through someone’s office at two in the morning.”

  “This is true.” Ben thought for a moment. “But I can’t just go wandering around, poking into desks and file cabinets. I need some kind of excuse.”

  “Easily contrived. What are you working on right now?”

  “Well, actually, nothing.”

  “Nothing at all? Have you talked to Rob? He’s acting as Crichton’s messenger.”

  “Crichton hasn’t given me an assignment since the Nelson case ended.”

  A deep furrow crossed Christina’s brow. “Is that a fact? Well, all the better. Since we came here Crichton’s been griping that he can’t tell what cases are pending and what cases aren’t. I think you, the bright hardworking young lawyer, should seize the initiative and compile a litigation calendar.”

  “A litigation calendar?”

  “Sure. Identify pending cases, list any pressing deadlines, future plans, that sort of thing. Of course, you’ll have to get information from the other lawyers about their cases. And if they’re not in their offices at the time…you might have to hunt around a bit to get what you need.”