Payback

by Fern Michaels

  “The revenge is yours, Julia. You and the others have to decide what their punishment is to be. I’m just your backup. I think you all might need the five days that are coming up. The one thing you can count on is that the location will be secure.”

  Charles walked back to his station. He returned with an armful of stapled bundles. “What this is,” he said, handing each woman a document, “is the list of all the Monarch HMO subscribers. It’s a bit mind-boggling at first, but go to the summary at the end where I’ve listed those claims that were denied, the deaths of the subscribers due to denial of claims, pending cases, closed cases. It’s all broken down by age groups. The last page is Monarch’s P&L sheet. You might want to keep those numbers front and center when you decide on the family’s punishment.”

  Kathryn was the first one to bellow, “This is outrageous!”

  “Scum of the earth,” Nikki said.

  “It’s pitiful,” Myra said.

  “I didn’t know it was this bad,” Julia said.

  “We should kill them all,” Yoko said heatedly.

  “Killing them is too good. They need to be punished and I do mean punished. They need to suffer,” Alexis said angrily.

  “I think we’re ready to adjourn for the evening, girls. Let’s head for the kitchen and some nice hot cocoa. Charles, would you care for some cocoa?”

  “Not right now, Myra. I have hours of work ahead of me. We’ll meet again in the morning at eight-thirty.”

  They were a somber group as they meandered around the kitchen getting in Myra’s way as she tried to prepare the hot cocoa. When Nikki’s cell phone chirped, their gaze whirled to the clock over the stove. They listened as Nikki clicked the on button.

  “Hello,” Nikki said quietly.

  “Nik?”

  “That’s my name. What do you want? Do you know what time it is?”

  “Of course I know what time it is, it’s almost midnight. Guess your Tiddly Wink game is over for the night or are you guys having a sleepover? Kind of old for that kind of thing, aren’t you, Nik? What’d you go to Lynchburg for? Never mind, I already know. When is everyone going to leave?”

  “You sneak! You’re spying on me, aren’t you? I’m going to file a harassment charge against you, Jack. Don’t call me again, either.”

  “Come on, Nik. You know you love me. I know what you’re doing. Give it up before I have to arrest you.”

  “I’m not doing anything but playing cards. If you want to make an ass of yourself by trying to arrest me, go ahead. I’ll fry your ass and I won’t need any help doing it either. You’ll be the one who gets arrested. You’re out there, aren’t you, you son of a bitch! I bet if I went outside and waved you’d see me, wouldn’t you?”

  “Why does Myra suddenly need six vicious Dobermans, Nik? What kind of gig are you women running out there at ye old farm, Nik?” His voice was so sarcastic Nikki shivered.

  Nikki sucked in her breath. Her heart started to pound in her chest. “We aren’t running any kind of gig out here and the reason Myra got the Dobermans is to keep people like you off her property.” Without waiting for a reply, Nikki clicked the off button.

  The women clamored for an explanation at the angry look on Nikki’s face. She stuttered and sputtered until she got every word of Jack’s phone call out.

  “So what you’re saying is Jack is on to us,” Julia said.

  Nikki gulped her hot cocoa and then bellowed when she burned her throat. Her eyes watering, she gasped, “What it means is, he thinks he’s on to us. Yeah, he’s on to us.”

  Yoko, the gentlest, the quietest of all the women, started to pace around the kitchen table. “Then we have to…eliminate him, is that not right?”

  Kathryn slapped Yoko on the back. “God, we’re corrupting you, Yoko. What’s gotten into you? You were a pacifist when we first met!”

  Yoko squared her slim shoulders. “He’s spying on us so he can send us to prison. I do not like that. That’s what they do in countries where there is no democracy. And, he’s broken Nikki’s heart. Now he’s threatening all of us. We have to do something!”

  Myra spoke in a soothing voice. “Our plates are rather full right now, Yoko. I don’t see how we can…perhaps we should invite Mr. Emery for tea.”

  “Mr Emery doesn’t sound like a reasonable man, Myra,” Alexis said. “We can’t let him keep doing what he’s doing, which is spying on us. Eventually, he’s going to nail one of us. I’ll kill myself before I let anyone send me back to prison.”

  “Shhh. You aren’t going back to prison,” Nikki said. “I’ll take care of Mr. Emery. You know, Myra, inviting Jack for tea isn’t such a bad idea.”

  “What will we do with him?” the new Yoko demanded.

  “We could have those vicious dogs guard him,” Julia volunteered. “Yes, I think that’s a viable solution. But, that means Myra will have to make arrangements for the dogs twenty-four seven. Perhaps we should vote on it.”

  Nikki’s mind raced. Did they dare snatch Jack? She looked around at the women. She saw panic and anger in their faces. Even Myra looked…disturbed. But tea? Yes, Myra would invite him for tea but would Jack take her up on the invitation? For some reason she didn’t think so. Jack was out for blood. Still, it was worth a chance.

  “Should we do it, dear?” Myra asked. “I think we should…what’s that saying police officers use all the time? Oh, yes, chop him off at the knees. That’s what we need to do. Should we tell Charles?”

  “Absolutely we should tell Charles,” Nikki shot back. “I’ll do it now.”

  “More cocoa, girls?”

  “No!” the women chorused.

  “Then why don’t we all smoke a cigarette. Does anyone have a cigarette?”

  “No!” the women chorused.

  One by one they trooped out of the kitchen, muttering a good night as they passed Myra’s chair. Left alone with her thoughts, Myra’s shoulders slumped. Her eyes filled with tears. Jack Emery couldn’t be allowed to compromise what they were doing. He just couldn’t.

  Myra got up and reached into the cabinet over the sink for the bottle of brandy she kept handy for medicinal purposes. If ever there was a medicinal moment, this was it. She didn’t bother with a glass but upended the bottle and took a hearty gulp. Her throat burned and her eyes started to water. She took another huge gulp before she corked the bottle and set it back in the cabinet. She tottered to her chair and plopped down. She started to cry. “Oh, Barbara, honey, I think I might be failing you. If Jack catches us, all this will be in vain. I only set this whole thing up to avenge your death. Now, it’s more than that. I want to help the others, too. What a silly old woman I am to think I could make this all happen. Just a silly old woman.”

  “Mom, there’s nothing silly about it. Stop worrying.”

  “Barbara, is that you? Darling girl, talk to me. Are you at peace? I think about you every day. I miss you so. The others have made my loss bearable, but now with Jack out there somewhere,” Myra said, waving her arm in the general direction of the back door. “I don’t know if we can hang on. Nikki’s living here now, you know.” Dear God, she was babbling to her daughter’s ghost.

  “I know, Mom. I’m glad she’s here with you. Trust her. She can handle Jack. I have to go, Mom. Nikki and Charles are coming back to the kitchen. I love you, Mom. Mom, lay off the sauce, OK?”

  “Where are you going, honey?”

  “Upstairs to cuddle with Willie for a little while.”

  A wild swoosh of air circled Myra and then the kitchen was still.

  Nikki stood in the doorway. She, too, felt the swoosh of air. She knew instantly that Barbara had paid a visit to her mother.

  “Talk to you later, Nik.”

  Nikki knew when she went upstairs to bed that Barbara would be sitting in her old rocker with Willie in her lap. They’d talk like they did sometimes about everything and anything.

  Charles stopped in his tracks. “Was that…”

  “Yeah,” Nikki whispered.
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  “Oh.”

  Myra looked up, her lips trembling, her eyes moist. “I think I’m going to go to bed. I had…What I mean is, I drank some brandy. Maybe it was a lot. Is everything all right?” she asked as an afterthought. “Oh, would you like me to make you both some hot cocoa?”

  “Good God, no, Myra. You make terrible cocoa,” Charles said.

  The heiress to a Fortune 500 company sniffed as she got up from her chair to go upstairs. “So what if cooking isn’t one of my strong points. I have other talents, don’t I, Charles?” She giggled like a schoolgirl as she sashayed past Nikki who did her best to hide her smile. Charles’s ears turned pink. Myra whirled around and almost fell. “Should I wait for you, dear?”

  In spite of himself, Charles chuckled. “Is that an invitation, Myra?”

  Myra drew herself up to her full height. “Damn straight it is, Charles.”

  This time, Nikki did laugh aloud. “Go!” she said. “Before she kills herself going up the steps.”

  Nikki sat for a long time at the kitchen table. She felt like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. What was she going to do about Jack? If they snatched him, the D.A.’s office would start to look for him. Appealing to his sense of decency was not an option. Jack was a bull dog with the instincts of a bloodhound. And he was angry with her. That alone was motivation enough for him to want to put the screws to her and the others. She wondered how much he really knew and how far he was willing to go to nail all of them.

  Nikki fished her cell phone out of the pocket of her slacks, turned it on and dialed Jack’s number. A cell phone ringing in the woods. How funny was that? She almost laughed when a vision of the ADA, sitting high in a tree, his binoculars trained on the house, appeared before her.

  Jack picked up on the first ring. Nikki figured it was lonely in the woods. “So how’s it going out there in the piney forest, Jack?”

  “I’m not in the piney forest,” Jack said.

  “Liar! You’re up in a tree spying on us. You aren’t the only one with high-powered binoculars. We’ve got the night vision ones. You know the kind where everything looks green. You get yours at Radio Shack?”

  “Smart ass! I’m home in my living room.”

  “Liar! I’m calling to invite you to tea tomorrow.” When there was no response, Nikki said, “Well?”

  “You must have me mixed up with someone who would be impressed with an invitation to Pinewood for tea. You know I hate tea.”

  “OK, coffee. What? You’re afraid of me all of a sudden?”

  “Hell, no, I’m not afraid of you. The woman hasn’t been born who can scare me. I don’t trust you or Myra. By the way, I’ve got a dossier on all those fine women visiting out there all the time. A real mixed bag, Nik. The bunch of you are up to something. I can smell it, and you know damn well I have excellent instincts.”

  Nikki sucked in her breath. Her hand holding the phone to her ear was shaking. “So, is that a no or a yes?”

  “Like I’d allow myself to get within ten feet of you, counselor? Did I say I don’t trust you?”

  “Yeah. Yeah, you did say that. Ten feet, huh? I remember when we were molded to each other. You were my second skin if I remember correctly, but that was when you loved me, right?”

  “Get off it, Nik. I’m not going down that road. Don’t think you can sucker me in with an invitation to a tea party. I gotta go, time for bed.”

  Nikki snorted. “Be careful you don’t fall out of your tree, there, Mr. ADA.”

  “You’re a hateful woman, Nicole Quinn, and yet I still love you.”

  Nikki looked at the dead phone in her hand and started to cry. “And I still love you, too, Jack.”

  Five

  Charles served breakfast on the patio to a group of somber, sleepy-eyed women who also looked angry.

  “Ladies, ladies, how can you look so glum on such a beautiful spring morning?” Charles asked as he held the wrought-iron chair for Myra who was all smiles this morning. His voice dropped to a whisper. “Voices carry,” he said, waving his arms to the thick forest that surrounded Myra’s estate. “Generalities, ladies.”

  Nikki looked toward the piney forest wondering if Jack was still out there. She couldn’t help but wonder if Jack really did have some hightech equipment that would allow him to overhear their conversation. She struggled for something to say. “The patio flowers are so pretty this year, Myra.” The others, taking their cue from her, concurred.

  Myra was still smiling. “Lu Chow, the gardener, brought them over yesterday. They look like a veritable rainbow, don’t you think? I’m thinking I should dispose of this overhead sun umbrella and get one of those retractable awnings. Yes, I’ve made up my mind. Isabelle, dear, can you design something so that it doesn’t look new? You know, have it blend with this old farmhouse?”

  “Of course. What color would you like?”

  “Green and yellow. Outdoorsy, if you know what I mean.”

  And so the conversation went until the girls cleared the table and trooped back inside. Myra closed the patio doors and drew the blinds.

  A whispered conversation followed as Charles instructed Julia to drive back to Georgetown. “It’s imperative that you find out as much as you can from your husband. If possible, you can return here this evening or tomorrow. Once Crawford makes his formal announcement that your husband will be his running mate, the Secret Service will move in and you will be under a microscope.”

  Julia looked stricken. “I never thought of that, Charles. How…what…I’ll be a liability to all of you if that happens.”

  “No, you won’t dear. Charles will figure out something. This is your mission and nothing is going to stop us from carrying it out, not even the Secret Service. Now, do as Charles says, put a happy smile on your face and go home to talk to your husband.”

  “Today is Saturday. Mitch plays golf on Saturday. He might not be home. I see problems already.”

  Charles placed a comforting hand on Julia’s arm. “There will only be problems if we don’t act as a group. When you get to your car, use your private cell phone and call your husband. Be firm when you tell him you must talk with him today. I think he’ll cancel any plans he might have to talk with you. He needs you now. And the press will be buzzing everywhere. I’ve taken the liberty of writing out some instructions for you. Peruse them when you make a stop at the hospital to pick up your shopping list of possible drugs we might need. You won’t get another chance to go to the hospital again before we begin our mission.” Seeing the panic in Julia’s face, he said, “Julia, you can do this. I wouldn’t ask you to do this if I didn’t think you were up to it.”

  Julia drew a deep breath and squared her shoulders. In a jittery voice she said, “Of course I can do it. I won’t let you down. I guess I should be going. I just need to get my bags.” She looked around. “You know, in case anyone out there in the woods is watching us.”

  One by one the others volunteered to go with Julia. Charles just shook his head. “Trust me, Julia will be fine.”

  They all walked Julia to her shiny black Mercedes. They waved and laughed as Charles instructed. Julia waved back, a sickly smile plastered on her face.

  During the drive to Georgetown, Julia gritted her teeth, repeating over and over, I can do this. I will do this. I have to do this. She reached down for her cell phone and hit the button on her speed dial that would connect her with her husband. She was stunned when she heard her husband’s voice.

  “Mitch, it’s Julia. I’m on the way home and I need to talk to you. Please wait for me. I really don’t care if you have a tee time or not, Mitch. I need to talk with you.” She listened to her husband’s litany of excuses. Suddenly she was sick of it all, sick to death of her husband and sick to death of knowing this was the man who was responsible for giving her a death sentence.

  When he finally ran out of reasons why he couldn’t wait for her, Julia said, “Listen to me very carefully, you son of a bitch. You need me. I do not need you. Y
ou either wait for me or I’ll give an interview to the press and I won’t be shy about mentioning what an alley cat you are. And you’ll be attending Crawford’s announcement party by yourself. How will that look, Senator? Now what’s it going to be? And, Senator Webster, I want to know what you did with all that money you took out of my account, which by the way, I closed out yesterday. You will wait for me, Mitch.”

  Julia hit the end button and turned off her phone. Let him keep hitting his own speed button till his damn finger fell off. That was almost funny because she knew her number wasn’t on his speed dial because he never called her. If and when he did call, it was one of his aides with a message. She struggled to remember the last time she’d had a phone conversation with her husband but in the end she gave up. What did it matter now?

  In the parking lot of the Georgetown Hospital, Julia read Charles’s instructions three times until she had them committed to memory. Her eyebrows shot up once and then twice at the impressive list. Charles was right, she’d never get another chance to do what he wanted after today. When she was sure she had everything clear in her head, Julia tore the list into little pieces and stuffed them in her pocket. Once inside the hospital she would throw the pieces in different trash containers.

  Julia, brisk professional that she was, made no stops on her way to her old office. Inside, she ran Charles’s shopping list over in her mind as she opened and filled her medical bag. Her task completed, she looked at the sorry-looking philodendron on her desk. She wondered why no one had watered it. Maybe, like herself, it was meant to die. Like hell.

  Julia grabbed the plant and raced down the hall to the kitchen where she used a plastic fork to stir up the hard earth. Somewhere in one of the cabinets there was a bottle of plant food one of the nurses had brought in. Six drops to a plant was what she’d said. Julia watered the plant, soaking it thoroughly before she added the six drops of plant food. With a paper plate underneath the plant she made her way back to her office where she set the plant on the desk. With a pair of old surgical shears, she trimmed off the yellow leaves. The plant still looked sickly and half dead. Just like me, she thought. Julia remembered reading somewhere that you were supposed to talk to plants to make them thrive.