“Damn it, Samuel!” she said, clutching her chest, trying to bring her breathing under control. “I didn’t know you were here.”
“What are you doing? What’s in all the bags?” I asked.
“Stuff,” Maddie said. “I bought some fresh flowers for the front table, some Starbucks coffee, healthy snacks . . .” She was digging in her bag, pulling things out as she gave her running commentary.
“Flowers?” I thought I must have heard wrong.
“Fresh flowers have a very comforting effect on people. They put them at ease.”
“Oh,” I said vaguely.
She arranged the flowers in a vase while she explained their purpose, then she disappeared into the kitchen to fill the vase with water, returned, and set the arrangement down on the coffee table.
I was hearing the Twilight Zone theme in my head, and I looked at Penny to see if maybe the whole thing was a joke, but she just smiled sweetly at me and then looked at Maddie like a proud mother.
“Don’t look at me like I’m a nut!” Maddie said. “Most of our clients are women, right?”
“Yeah, most of them,” I agreed.
“Well, you just wait and see.” She said it with such certainty that somehow I knew she’d be right regardless of how ridiculous the idea was, so I didn’t pursue it further.
“Did you say Starbucks?” I asked, changing the subject. I looked through her bag and pulled out the sack of coffee and headed back to the kitchen. Maddie and Penny followed me back with the grocery bags.
“I’ll do that!” Maddie said.
She took over coffee duty so I went back to the groceries to see what other goodies she had bought. There were apples, bananas and grapes, bagels and cream cheese, a bag of big fat pretzels, a bag of Pepperidge Farm goldfish, some funky rice cakes that I wouldn’t be eating, a bag of Oreos, and a carton of Cool Whip.
“I got those especially for you,” Maddie said, pointing to the Oreos.
“A girl after my own heart.” I ripped the bag open. “You get any milk?”
Maddie pointed to the other bag, “In there.”
I thought she was bullshitting, but sure enough, there was a gallon of milk and some apple juice and O.J. in the bag.
“Penny, give my secretary a raise!” I poured myself a glass of milk and sat down at the table and had a dozen Oreos dunked in milk for lunch and Starbucks coffee topped with Cool Whip for dessert.
I took my coffee back to my office to wait for my 1:00 o’clock appointment and when she came in, the first words out of her mouth were, “Where did you get those beautiful flowers? They are absolutely gorgeous!”
I listened while Maddie welcomed her to the office and offered her a cup of coffee, then she buzzed me on the intercom to let me know the client was there.
“Thanks. I’ll be right out.”
By the time I got out to the reception area, Maddie had already returned with the client’s coffee and she handed me the file. I fished a $20 bill out of my pocket and tossed it on her desk. “For the flowers,” I told her.
Her phone rang and as I walked back to my office with the client, I could hear Maddie in the background, “Samuel Collins office . . . he is sir, but he’s just gone into a meeting. May I have him call you as soon as he’s free?”
By the end of the day, I had decided that Maddie’s presence in the office wasn’t so bad after all. In fact, she was a welcome addition to our staff.
* * * *
I had a couple of appointments out of the office the next morning so I didn’t make it in until after lunch, but as soon as I walked in, Maddie cornered me in my office with a stack of messages.
“A guy came in about an hour ago looking for you, but he wouldn’t leave his name. He said he was going to grab a bite to eat and he’d stop back by.”
“What did he look like?” I asked her.
“Well,” she pronounced it whale but with two syllables, “I think he was possibly the most attractive man I’ve ever met,” she said matter-of-factly. “Although, technically I guess I didn’t really meet him since he wouldn’t leave his name.”
Shit. “His name is Niki Lautrec. He owns Lautrec Investigations.”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
I thumbed through the messages Maddie had handed me, waiting for her to leave so I could return some calls, but she wasn’t budging. “Is there something else?” I finally asked her.
“I hate to do this on my second day, but . . .”
Here it comes. I knew I’d be sorry I’d hired her. She was going to tell me she needed the day off on her second day of work. Penny wasn’t going to be in at all and I really needed someone there. Damn. If there’s one thing that totally irks me it’s an unreliable secretary. “What is it?” I asked, my irritation obvious.
“Would it be okay if Oliver and the baby get dropped off here at 4:45?” she asked. “My mom is taking care of them today, but she has to be somewhere at 5:15 and she can’t take them with her.”
I was so surprised that I was wrong that I actually stuttered. “Oh, uh, oh.” I fumbled for some bigger words. “That’s fine. That’s no problem.”
Maddie smiled. “Great. I’ll leave you alone.” She left and closed the door behind her, and I didn’t hear another word from her until almost 3:30, when she buzzed me on the intercom. “Mr. Lautrec is here.”
I dropped my pen on my desk and leaned back in my chair. “Thanks. I’ll be right out.”
He launched into me the minute we got back to my office. “Why didn’t you tell me your girlfriend shoved some guy out the window the other night?”
“First of all, I wouldn’t exactly call her my girlfriend. We’ve been out on one date. And second, she didn’t shove him. It was self defense.”
Niki plopped himself down in one of the chairs in front of my desk. “One of my investigators was approached by an insurance company that wanted us to investigate the guy’s death.”
“Bullshit!”
“I’m dead serious. My investigator ran a conflict check and the Krally girl’s name popped up, so he told the insurance company that we had a conflict of interest and couldn’t take the assignment. What the fuck are you doing Collins? Do you have a death wish, going out with this girl?”
“She didn’t shove him out the window,” I repeated. “I know. I was there.”
“You witnessed it?” Niki said, looking tremendously relieved.
“Well no . . . not the actual fall,” I admitted. “But I saw her right afterwards. The guy had beat her up and tried to rape her. She’s still got the bruises to prove it.”
Niki was quiet for a minute then he sighed heavily. “She was the beneficiary of his life insurance policy, Sam. Those bruises she’s nursing are worth a half-million dollars.”
I felt like I’d been punched in the chest. The remark literally knocked the breath out of me. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
“I wish I could,” he said, shaking his head.
I tried to think it through, but it just didn’t make sense. “Listen,” I said. “I know it sounds bad, but I just can’t believe it was anything other than self defense. I was with her. You should have seen her. I’m telling you she was really screwed up, psychologically, I mean. She was a mess. And I was with her for two days afterwards. I just can’t believe that there’s any way she could have intentionally pushed the guy out the window.”
“I don’t know, Sammy,” Niki said skeptically. “This . . . coupled with the suspicion of her involvement in her husband’s death . . . You’re right, it doesn’t sound good.”
“She brought that up without my even asking – her husband’s death. She talked about it openly. Told me the whole story, including how the police tried to prove that she’d mixed the concoction that killed him.”
“Look . . . just do yourself a favor and quit seeing the girl,” Niki said.
“I can’t,” I told him. “I’m her lawyer.”
“Well, she’s gonna need a criminal lawyer before it’s over
.”
“I told her that, but she wouldn’t listen. She said she wanted me to represent her.”
“Then represent her if you have to, but don’t let it get personal.” He fixed those creepy green eyes on me and they felt like laser beams pinning me to my chair. “Stay away from her, Collins.”
“All right,” I said. I knew where Niki was coming from. When I separated myself from my emotions I knew how things looked. And there was a reason why I’d asked Niki to investigate Landra in the first place. I kept trying not to lose sight of that fact. But the whole thing seemed so unlikely now that I’d gotten to know her. And I’d seen enough injustice in my life to know that things are not always as they appear. Of course, there was always the flip side: If it smells like shit . . . and it looks like shit . . .
“You still up for tomorrow night?” Niki asked.
Still? I was never up for it in the first place. “Yeah, I’m ready,” I lied. I looked at him sitting across the desk and tried to figure out his influence over people. Maddie was right in her assessment. Even a man would have to admit that Niki Lautrec was way above average in looks. He had these eyes that were the most incredible, unique shade of green that made him look almost otherworldly. His hair was a mass of loose dark curls that he wore almost down to his shoulders. The guy had a well-established, legitimate business but he got a thrill out of danger and I knew of mercenary jobs he had taken that would put Mr. Joshua to shame.
“My secretary is the client involved in your Datacare investigation,” I told him.
He looked at me like I was crazy, which for all practical purposes, he was probably right. “The one out there?” he asked laughing.
“It’s a long story,” I said wearily. “She resigned on Monday and I told her she could work here. She’s got two kids, no husband . . .” I let the sentence hang, thinking maybe he’d drop it.
“And this became your problem . . . how?”
“She’s my neighbor,” I said lamely, as if that explained anything. “You would have done the same thing,” I accused.
“Did you tell her there was a camera in her office?”
“Not yet. I thought I’d wait to see what we find. But I have a pretty good idea what it’s going to be. Her supervisor promised she’d survive a reduction in force if she had sex with him and she did it. Her husband had just died in a car wreck and she has two little kids to support. She felt like she didn’t have a choice.” He sat there silent, just looking at me, and it really irritated me. “Quit being so damned judgmental!” I told him.
He threw his hands up as if to surrender. “I didn’t say anything! I was just thinking that someone ought to break that fucker’s legs to teach him a lesson.”
“You think you want to break his legs now, wait ‘til you hear why she quit.” I explained the whole story of Oliver getting in Larry’s car and going out for ice cream and we both agreed that Larry was going to need a lesson in manners before this whole thing was over. It was close to 5:00 o’clock when we concluded our business, so we decided to go to Chris Madrid’s where we could sit outside and drink a beer and eat a burger. I opened the door to my office and Maddie was nowhere to be seen, but Oliver greeted me enthusiastically.
“Hi, Samuel! Mommy’s in the bathroom. Here, I drawed this for you,” he said, handing me a sheet from a legal pad with pencil scribbles all over it.
“You drew it for me. Hey, thanks. Let’s tape it to the fridge.” I picked him up and carried him over to Niki. “Oliver, this is my friend Niki Lautrec. Niki, this is my friend Oliver Griffin.”
Niki stuck his hand out and shook Oliver’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Oliver,” Niki said.
“You have a lot of hair,” Oliver said.
Niki laughed. “Yeah, I do.”
“Yeah,” Oliver agreed.
“Want some Oreos?” I asked.
The three of us went to the kitchen and Oliver stuck his artwork to the fridge, then we hung out eating Oreos until Maddie came in with the baby and reprimanded me for feeding Oliver junk right before dinner.
“Milk’s not junk!” I said, trying to defend myself. I leaned down and whispered to Oliver, “You better eat all your dinner tonight or you’re going to get me in trouble.” He gave me a conspiratorial smile and nodded his head.
“Why don’t you come eat with us,” Niki suggested to Maddie. I had the distinct impression that he was trying to do some quick maneuvering to keep me away from Landra. Maddie looked at me, I guess to see my reaction to Niki’s invitation. It wasn’t going to bother me if they came along, so I shrugged my shoulders.
“Why not?” I said. “Chris Madrid’s?” I could see that she wanted to come but that she didn’t feel right because of the boss/secretary thing. “I’m only your boss between 8:00 and 5:00,” I told her. I looked at my watch. “Now I’m just your neighbor. Or your attorney, whichever way you want to look at it.”
Chris Madrid’s is a San Antonio tradition in burgerdome. The place remains consistently packed with a loyal following, some of whom wouldn’t consider consuming a burger or nachos anywhere else.
Maddie and her kids joined us for dinner, then afterwards Niki and I went out for a couple of beers to the 5050. Named because of its address on Broadway, I’d been carried out of the place on more than one occasion in my college days. We were sitting in a booth and I was watching the cars go by on Broadway, and I realized that no matter what we were talking about, Niki kept bringing the conversation back to Maddie. I finally got fed up.
“Let’s get this straight,” I told him. “I’m not interested in pursuing a relationship with Maddie Griffin.”
“Why not?” Niki asked, as if I owed him an explanation.
“For one thing, she’s my neighbor. How bad would that suck when we broke up? Living next to the chick I used to date. I’d end up having to sell my house. No, thank you. And for another thing, she’s got two kids.”
“What, you don’t like kids?” he asked.
“Yes, I like kids. But other people’s kids. I don’t necessarily want my own, at least not right now.”
“Are you kidding? Maddie’s kids are great. I’d adopt them in a second.”
“Then you date her.”
Niki smiled. “I can’t. I’m spoken for.”
“Speaking of that,” I said, “where is your girlfriend?”
“Fiancée,” he corrected.
“Whatever.”
“I don’t know. Let’s call her.” He pulled out his phone and speed-dialed her number and I watched his eyes light up when she answered. I’d never seen Niki with a girlfriend so I thought it would be funny to see them together. As it turned out, I’d get that chance sooner than anticipated because when he got off the phone he announced that she was on her way down to meet us. It was another 20 minutes before she walked through the door and I picked her out immediately from Niki’s description: The hottest redhead you’ve ever seen. And damn, was she ever. She had long, straight red hair and big green eyes, and she was wearing this short skirt that showed off her tanned legs. Every guy in the place checked her out as she walked through the bar towards our booth. Niki had his back to the door, so I said, “Your girlfriend’s here.”
“Fiancée,” he repeated. He got up and walked over to meet her and came back to the table with his arm around her. “Stacy, this is an old friend of mine, Sam Collins. Sammy, this is my fiancée, Stacy Trent.”
I stood up and she offered her hand and gave me a firm handshake with a genuine smile to match.
“Hi, Sam. It’s nice to meet you,” she said.
“Likewise. Why do you look so familiar?” I asked.
She must have been asked that question a thousand times because she answered with one word – “Colombia” – and I remembered instantly where I’d seen her. She’d been all over the news the year before after being abducted during a bank robbery and escaping from a week in captivity in Bogotá. She certainly didn’t look like she suffered any long-term effects from the ordeal.
> “That’s it. I saw you on TV after your escape.”
She sat down in the booth and slid over next to the wall, and Niki scooted over beside her and held her hand. They looked like Barbie and Ken. And then it struck me that their eyes were the exact same color, which was bizarre, because Niki’s eye color was unique. They looked like a pair of exotic aliens, or maybe a couple of hybrid humans. It was downright creepy being on the opposite end of their gaze.
“You’re eyes are the same color,” I said, looking from one pair to the other.
“You think so?” Niki said laughing, and he looked over at Stacy like there was an inside joke.
“What have you guys been up to?” Stacy asked.
“I’m trying to keep Sammy here out of trouble,” Niki said, and I knew he was only half joking.
Stacy looked at me. “He looks like he can take care of himself,” she said. “You’re a lawyer right?”
It wasn’t exactly an accusation, but it was damn close, and right then, I decided that I liked Stacy Trent. “Is it that obvious?” I asked.
She smiled and elbowed Niki. “He warned me.”
I looked at Niki and he shrugged his shoulders, then he and Stacy went into a lawyer repartee that was so good it sounded rehearsed.
“Lawyers should be required to tattoo an “L” on their forehead so people can see them coming,” Niki asserted.
“That’s a good idea,” Stacy said. “Except an “L” could be mistaken as standing for loser.”
“Same difference,” Niki countered and Stacy nodded.
“Okay, they could tattoo an “A” for attorney,” she proposed.
“That’s a good idea,” Niki said. “Except an “A” could be mistaken as standing for asshole.”
They looked at each other and nodded. “Same difference,” they said in unison, and they laughed and high fived.
They were good together and it made me miss Landra. I’d been trying not to think about her, and when I did, I tried to think of her as a bad guy, but it was pretty hard. I’d flash back to the mailbox kiss, or to lying in bed with her naked, or to her painting the stones in my fortress, and I couldn’t deny my feelings for her. I hadn’t seen her for two days and I missed her. And the truth was that I’d started missing her as soon as we had parted company after the zoo.
Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) Page 10