Lethal Justice

by Fern Michaels

  Nikki Quinn. Myra’s adopted daughter. Once engaged to Jack Emery, who was now United States District Attorney. On again, off again romance. Has own lawn firm. Top notch defense lawyer. Myra’s right hand in more ways than one. Her legal eye would be on everything.

  A huge red question mark followed Nikki’s name.

  Charles Martin. Powerful man. Scary man. Maggie added a long line of red question marks after his name. British. Brains. Who exactly was Charles Martin? Jack Emery managed to get beaten within an inch of his life when he started poking around into the Brit’s background. Ted was minus a spleen when he followed in Jack’s footsteps. She herself had been paid a visit by some pretty scary dudes. All of the above due to Charles Martin. Maggie noticed her hands were shaking as she added another line of red question marks.

  Move on, girl, move on. The only problem was, she couldn’t move on because she had the shakes. Just remembering the intimidating men who had paid her a visit made her so jittery she couldn’t think straight. Yet, here she was, defying them by poking her nose into things that obviously concerned those same men.

  Maggie was like a disgruntled squirrel as she rummaged in the drawers of her desk for a cigarette. She’d given up the foul habit long ago just the way Ted had, but she kept a pack of cigarettes in a plastic bag for emergencies. She finally found the package and fired up a cigarette. Daisy barked as a plume of smoke circled upright.

  Maggie continued to puff, choke and sputter but she didn’t put the cigarette out. Instead, she shooed Daisy out of the room, closed the door and turned on the overhead fan. When the cigarette was down to the filter, she put it out and lit a second one. “Oh, God, why am I doing this?”

  When Maggie finished her second cigarette, she sealed up the plastic bag and shoved it in the drawer. Then she shoved in Charles Martin’s file and slammed the drawer. She wished there was a key to lock the drawer but there wasn’t.

  The doorbell rang. Ted! Maggie ran to the door and pulled it open. She literally fell into Ted’s arms.

  “Smoking, huh? What happened?” She told him. “Yeah, that guy and his buddies are enough to make you drink and smoke. Look, I’m starved. Let’s have dinner and then we can hash this all out. Maybe I can help you.” Ted held out the loaf of French bread and the bottle of wine.

  They ate with gusto until there was nothing left but a few stray vegetables in the bottom of the crock pot. An inch of bread remained on the cutting board and the wine bottle was empty.

  “What was that?” Ted asked pointing to the crock pot.

  “That was everything in the refrigerator plus a can of beans. I even threw in some left over Chinese from the other day. I thought it gave the whole thing a little extra zip.”

  They made small talk as they washed the dishes and tidied up the kitchen. When they were finished, they retired to Maggie’s spare bedroom that she used as a home office.

  “Wow! This looks like my place! You better not ever call me sloppy again,” Ted said as he stepped past piles of files and stacks of paper. “Did you at least make some headway?”

  “I thought I so until I made a file on Charles Martin. I thought if I created my own files on all of those people, I might get a better grasp on them. Following someone else’s notes doesn’t work for me.

  “The women are such a diverse group. As far as I can tell, they have nothing in common. And, one of them, the doctor is still missing. Think about it, Ted. A doctor, a truck driver, a woman with a menial job, the architect, the lawyer, and the Asian woman who owns a nursery. There’s no common ground here.”

  “Of course there is, you just aren’t seeing it.” Daisy took that moment to leap onto Ted’s lap. She sniffed him from head to toe before she leaped off and onto Maggie’s lap. “Don’t feel bad, it took me a while to figure it out.”

  Maggie stared across the room at a picture of a colorful sailboat skimming over whitecaps. Someday, she was going to have her own sailboat. She sighed as she wondered if she would get sea sick. “Just tell me, Ted.”

  “Nikki Quinn. Think about it. Those women probably engaged or tried to engage her legal services at some point. She brought them all together, some how, some way.”

  “That does make sense.”

  “I tried sifting through court records to find out if any cases went to trial for those women but I came up with zip except for Isabelle Flanders, but Nikki Quinn didn’t handle her case until recently. This is purely a guess on my part but I think all those women fell through the legal cracks and were denied justice. The Rutledge woman, too. So, she gets all these women that Quinn screens and we have the ladies of Pineswood. When Senator Webster disappeared, so did Doctor Webster, whose name is Julia. Now, they’re down to six. The Thorn woman has no background. It’s like she was born the day she started to work as a personal shopper. By the way, when I checked her out, I found Nikki Quinn was her sole reference. Quinn said Thorn shopped for her because she was too busy. Most of Thorn’s clients are elderly. She does a good job, her clients love her.

  “We know about Isabelle Flanders because we were part of it. We know the Hershey woman set her up. She wants revenge, so she goes to Nikki Quinn.

  “I wasn’t able to come up with anything at all for the truck driver other than that her husband died way too young. She’s an engineer, so was her husband. They bought an 18 wheeler and took to the open road when they found out he was ill. Neither Jack nor I can figure out how she fits into the group. Ditto for the Asian cutie.”

  “We’re assuming here, Ted,” Maggie said. “So, let’s assume a little more. The ladies go to China. That must mean they were after the man who killed Myra Rutledge’s daughter. That’s one down. The Websters disappear. That’s two down. The Flanders woman makes three. What’s your best guess as to who they’re working on now?”

  “Whatever they’re doing in Manassas has to be either for the Thorn woman or the Asian cutie. I’m thinking we should do a little B&R. If the ladies are in Manassas, the Quinn law firm will be unattended. You know how to get in since you were mugged in the parking lot. You said the front is locked at six o’clock. Want to take a crack at it?”

  “Now? You want to do it now? You really do run with an idea, don’t you?”

  “Why not? We need to work off that heavy dinner,” Ted said, his eyes alight with excitement.

  “What about the alarm system? There’s quite a bit of light in the parking lot. Even though it’s getting late, there might be other people working in the building. For all we know, the police might be keeping an eye on the building after the mugging. I think it’s risky, maybe even dangerous. Convince me, sweet cheeks.”

  Ted’s chest puffed out. “There’s an element of risk in everything we do. You can slip and fall in the shower. You can get hit by a car crossing the road. Your microwave oven can blow up in your face. I say we do it. I’m real good with a sling shot.”

  “You’re no David, Ted. Cops play with guns. G-u-n-s!”

  Ted shook his head. “No, no, I’ll shoot out the lights in the parking lot. Jack showed me how to disarm an alarm system a couple of years ago. I think I remember how to do it. Parking lot lights go out all the time.”

  Maggie looked horrified. “You think?”

  “Okay, I’m sure. We’ll need a few things to take with us. You game?”

  Maggie looked around at her safe little apartment that she’d furnished one piece at a time. Then she looked at her dog who was sleeping on the sofa. If she was arrested, she might not be able to come back here. Who would take care of her dog? She’d get one phone call if she was hauled off to jail. Instead of calling a lawyer, she would have to call her mother to drive down from Delaware to take Daisy. Then again, if she went along with Ted’s plans they might find out for certain that Nikki Quinn was the adhesive that glued the Pinewood ladies together. Think Pulitzer, she told herself. “Okay, I’m game. What do we need to take with us?”

  “A heavy duty magnet, not one of those little ones on your fridge. Screw drivers
, big and small. Small flashlight. I want you to change your clothes. Dress like a lawyer. You’ll need a brief case and if you have a hat, wear it. You’ll be the lawyer, I’ll be the client in case anyone is in the building. Go on, get dressed.”

  Maggie shouted from the bedroom. “What about those guys?”

  Yeah, what about those guys. Ted walked back to the bedroom. He whistled approvingly to Maggie’s delight. She was wearing a dark pinstripe pant suit, high heels and a soft white Fedora. “I modeled this outfit for the paper’s fashion show last year. I liked it so much, I bought it and never got another chance to wear it. Damn, where’s my briefcase? I haven’t used that in ten years.” She rummaged in the closet for the Gucci case. It looked flatter than a pancake. She stuffed two folded towels into it to plump up the brown leather.

  “We have to sneak out of here,” Ted told her. “How about if we go down the stairs and out through the basement? We’ll go out one at a time, walk over to the Avenue and catch a cab. I’m hoping those goons think we’re in for the night. Look, we’ll deal with it if they catch on.”

  Maggie adjusted her Fedora. “I hope those aren’t famous last words.”

  “Yeah, me, too.”

  Forty minutes later, Maggie knew there was no point pretending she wasn’t nervous. Ted had appointed her the “lookout” after he shot out the parking lot lights with the homemade sling shot he’d fashioned on the fly. Her voice jittery, she asked, “How long is it going to take you to pick the lock?”

  “Hey, I’m almost a pro. I did it. These latex gloves make for slow work. Be sure to put yours on. Now, where’s the alarm?”

  “At the top of the stairs and around the corner. There’s a dentist on the floor, his offices are at the end of the hall. When Quinn’s business went south after that horse trial, she rented out office space to a dentist. I read that in the paper in an ad the dentist took out. Dentists close at five o’clock so that means no one should be on this floor at this hour.”

  “I wasn’t planning on getting my teeth cleaned, Maggie, but thanks for sharing that information. Hand me that magnet. I think we have ninety seconds, maybe a full two minutes since who ever comes in this entrance has to climb the stairs. If we’re lucky it’s a three minute delay. You’d think there would be an elevator,” Ted grumbled.

  Maggie didn’t realize she was holding her breath until she saw the tiny red light turn to green. She slumped against the wall. Ted joined her, his face wet with sweat. “Did you lock the door after we entered?”

  “Yes.”

  Maggie headed down the hall on wobbly legs, Ted trailing behind her. She pointed to the plate glass doors that led to the firm’s offices. Ted set to work. Maggie leaned against the wall again as she forced herself to take deep gulping breaths to steady her nerves.

  “Told you, a piece of cake. No lights. We have to work in the dark. Point the beam of that little flashlight downward at all times. I don’t suppose you know where the file room is, do you?” Maggie shook her head. “Then let’s split up. Keep your eye out for a safe. It’s probably a built in and probably in Quinn’s office. Whistle if you find anything.”

  “Did you lock the office door?” Maggie asked, her voice still quaking as she teetered along in her high heels.

  “Of course.”

  Twenty minutes later, Maggie was on her knees, off in the corner, her penlight pointed at the floor as she pawed through the T’s for Alexis Thorn. She whistled. “Hey, Ted, I found one of the files. Are we taking it or are we making copies?”

  Ted pondered the question. “Take it,” he said boldly. “The copy machines are rented and they have a digital counter. If the office manager is on the ball, she’ll know what the number was at the close of business today. I don’t think anyone will be looking in the files tomorrow morning. Unless we screw up.”

  “The rest are here, too, all five of them,” Maggie announced.

  “Good. Take them all. Hurry up, we have to get out of here.”

  Maggie rocked back on her heels. “How come this was so easy? Shouldn’t these files be hidden? Why are they even here?”

  “How many people do you know who break into a legal firm? A law office is considered as safe as a church. We did the unexpected. There was an alarm if you recall. That’s the good news. The bad news is Jack didn’t tell me how to rearm the alarm.”

  “What?”

  “C’mon, c’mon, put those files in your briefcase. Whoever was the last one out tonight will think they forgot to set the alarm. If there’s a night watchman he’ll get blamed. Be sure you put everything back exactly like it was.”

  Maggie stuffed the five files between the two towels in her briefcase. She took a long minute to look around. Satisfied that everything looked the same as it did when she entered, she stood up. “Okay, let’s go. Are you sure you can’t arm the system? It’s going to be a dead giveaway. Won’t it be the reverse of whatever you did to disarm it?”

  “I don’t think so. I’d need one of those digital counters to reset it. Maybe if I can find the fuse box I can turn off the power. They might think there was a power surge. It’s a risk no matter what. Are you sure those files weren’t under lock and key?”

  “Hell, yes, they were under lock and key. I picked the lock with my hat pin. See!” Maggie said, pointing to the hat pin on the side of her Fedora.

  “Oh.”

  “Are you ready?”

  “As soon as we find the fuse box. I didn’t see one when I went through the rooms. I wonder if there’s a supply room or a storage unit. Give me a minute.”

  Maggie waited, tapping her foot. When she saw the hall light go out, she panicked, but followed Ted’s voice. He snapped the lock and the two of them sprinted down the dark hall and down the two flights of dark stairs. At the outside door, Ted looked at the door and grinned. “Self locking. Take off those shoes and run like hell.”

  Run they did, across the dark parking lot and out to the street before they slowed down to allow Maggie to put her shoes back on.

  Hand in hand, they walked along, trying to decide where to go.

  “The paper,” Ted said.

  “Good choice,” Maggie said.

  Chapter 16

  Nikki had no idea why she was drinking coffee at four o’clock in the morning with her eyes closed. Then again, two hours of sleep in forty-eight hours might account for her droopy eyelids. She was so tired she was cranky and out of sorts. Walking over to the sink took every last ounce of her energy. She turned when she heard her name called.

  “Go to bed, Nikki. Thank you for all your hard work.” Charles pointed to his briefcase that contained all the work she’d done in the past two days.

  Nikki looked down at the travel bag. “Are you going somewhere, Charles?” Did the man ever sleep?

  “I’ll sleep on the plane. But, to answer your question, I’m going to Barcelona. I expect to be gone at least five days. Possibly less if I accomplish everything on my agenda. I will be returning with a guest. Get some sleep, my dear. Go along now, I’ll lock up. The information you gathered was just what I need.”

  Nikki struggled to summon up enough energy to respond. “It’s old Spanish law, Charles. While you’re there, check on things. I’m sure a lot of the old laws have changed over the years. Fly safe.”

  By the time Nikki’s feet touched the bottom step, Charles was gone.

  In her room, Nikki looked around. How could everything look the same? She fell across the bed and was instantly asleep.

  Nikki rolled over, her arms grappling for a blanket that wasn’t there. A phone was ringing somewhere and a voice was urging her to do something.

  “No, no, don’t roll over. You have to get up, Nik. Hurry, it’s important. The phone is ringing. Nikki, get up. Now. Time is of the essence.”

  Nikki ground her face into the bedspread. “I can’t, I’m too tired. Go away, I’m going to sleep all day,” she mumbled.

  “Get up, Nikki. You have to get up. You can sleep later.”

&
nbsp; “Go away, Barb. Come back when I wake up.” Nikki rolled over onto her back. “Now you woke me up. What’s so damn important? Listen, the phone stopped ringing. That means the person gave up.”

  “Now, Nikki. Please, you have to get up.”

  “All right, all right, I’m getting up. Can I take a shower?”

  “No, you cannot take a shower. Check the phone.”

  Nikki reached for the phone on the night stand, clicked a button and listened to her office manager’s frantic voice. “Nikki, call me as soon as you get this message.”

  If there was one thing she didn’t need right now it was bad news. Well, whatever it was, it was going to have to wait till she showered and had a cup of coffee in front of her.

  Twenty minutes later, dressed in khaki slacks and a bright yellow sweater, Nikki made her way downstairs to make fresh coffee. She was stunned to see Isabelle sitting at the kitchen table.

  “Wow, you look…tired,” Isabelle said. “I just got here a few minutes ago and made coffee. Where’s Charles?”

  Nikki looked at the kitchen clock. It read 9:20. “He left for Spain around four this morning. He had me working on Spanish law for forty-eight hours. I only had two hours sleep and it wasn’t restful. How are things at the farm?”

  “We’re ahead of schedule. That means we’re doing well. I try to get over here every morning around this time to just sit without someone hassling me over something. Thirty minutes of R&R. Any news from Manassas?”

  Nikki shrugged as she held out her coffee cup. Isabelle poured. “I’ve been out of the loop these past two days. You probably know more than I do.”

  “Today is the first face to face meeting with Gillespie and Sullivan. I think it’s scheduled for two o’clock this afternoon. Kathryn just said to stand by. Can I make you something to eat?”

  “Toast with jam if you don’t mind. I have to call the office. Maddie called and she sounded frantic.”