Cafe Underground Presents
River Of Lawyers
Book 1 -- Chapters 11
The Detective Andi Wicksham Series, by RL Bell
Copyright © 1997 RL BELL
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....author RL Bell
Andi Wicksham's INVESTIGATORY SERVICES
Chapter 11
By eight the next morning as Andi returned to her office, the weekend's snow had all but disappeared from Portland's streets. The returning rain had dirtied, then riddled, then melted all but the most protected drifts lingering under eves and fir trees. The air was damp and cold and the hour seemed dark and late.
Last night she'd spent a couple of hours paging through Morse's file. It seemed to her untutored eye that there wasn't much worth copying. Most was column after column of raw data, obscure legal boilerplate and correspondence too arcane to make sense of, but she ran copies of the introduction and conclusion sections and picked out bits and pieces of the rest.
It seemed worthless, but she felt she should add it to her file--Morse's research had been nothing if not thorough, she might as well follow that example. She was still standing by the copier when Lena came waltzing in the door.
"So, how'd it go?" Lena slung her coat haphazardly across her chair and rubbed the cold from her fingers.
"No sweat...veni vidi vici." Andi decided she'd copied enough, tucked Morse's pages back into their brown folder and dropped it on her desk.
"What?" Lena screwed up her face in disapproval.
"`I came, I saw, I conquered'...Caesar's Gallic Wars." Andi smirked. "It was nothing...he came, we exchanged packages and left...piece of cake."
"All right..." Lena gave a thumbs up. "You going to charge a premium for working after hours? ...you've put in a few evenings and mornings--that's more than a standard day..."
"I don't know. I talked my way into a flat fee..." Andi smiled at Lena's attention to business details. "I suppose I could ask Morse."
"Better just bill...if he doesn't like it he can bring it up...you're too nice to be a businesswoman--you got to get more aggressive." Lena straightened her coat and sat down, turning on her computer and reaching for a pile of folders in the same movement.
"I don't want to be more aggressive, thank you. You're aggressive enough. We'll do good cop-bad cop...my job is to charm our clients." Andi smirked. "You can be hatchet-woman."
"Kali...she's my alter ego." Lena spun around in a Karate Kid impersonation. "You deposit the checks?"
"Nope...you want to log 'em in?" Andi handed them over. Delegating responsibility might be something she could get used to.
"How about that two grand from Morse...you note the number before you cashed it?"
"Damn..." Andi bit at her lip. "I was in a hurry and forgot...sorry. I was meaning to have you start a client expense log for him."
Lena said drily, "We'll live...and I already have...no use waiting for you..." She looked over her shoulder and stuck out her tongue as she reached for the ledger.
Andi clicked onto the file with Morse's extra, confidential report she promised. She would check it one more time and print it out--she'd send it along with the file she'd just gotten; she wouldn't even warn Morse it was coming.
Morse's messenger came at quarter to nine. Andi felt smug--she wasn't caught at the copy machine, she just pointed to her desk with a disinterested smile. She'd decided the file was chosen because it was meaningless paper. He wouldn't care who checked it out it as it passed through.
As Andi got out a deposit slip, the phone rang.
"Wicksham..." she answered vaguely.
"Andi...this is Ramone. You got a minute?"
Andi put her pen down and stole a glance toward Lena. "Sure, what's up?"
"I've heard a hot rumor about one of your suspects." Bodega sounded excited.
Andi changed the phone to her other ear and reached for her notebook. "Yeah, what is it?"
"Your friend Drexler's pulling up stakes..."
"What do you mean?" Andi asked a bit confused.
"Out of the blue he's backed out of the big development project he'd been driving. I was guessing that his zoning and exemptions were in the bag, so this is really out of the blue...he's leaving his auxiliary investors in the lurch. There's going to be hell to pay. Rumor has it that he sold off other parcels and Friday afternoon he let half of his office go. It's a big deal...something major's scared him off."
"Could it be retrenching or a scam to bilk small investors?" Andi felt she could play the skeptic.
"No...this is a major back-peddle. They'd sunk a couple of years and a couple of million and were just finishing the paperwork. Why would they walk when they're on the brink of getting it all?"
"I don't know...who's getting hurt?" Andi picked up her pencil. She debated telling Bodega about Drexler's phoney contaminated property scam. Perhaps he already knew.
"Well Drexler and Brian-Core...and Aorta Capital probably..."
"Aorta Capital?" Andi coughed. "That's Bryant's secretary's husband's firm, I thought they did high-tech."
"Is it? Well they put big money into this."
"Anything else?" Andi was too busy scribbling notes to formulate serious questions.
Bodega laughed. "Me and my crowd have been fighting this thing for two years...this is great for Portland...once the flack settles and the property's open...the land will go to something better."
Andi stopped writing. "So when did this come down?"
"Got to have been planned for a week or two." He paused a moment, "They pulled their request for a permit Thursday...let staff go Friday. This morning I got word of Drexler selling off holdings. What'd he say when you talked to him?"
"I never did...been trying to break through his secretaries for a weeks, but he certainly isn't running from me." Andi smiled at the thought. "You sure of this, Bodega?"
"Ramone, please...well, as sure as you can be of rumor. I'm only passing on what I've heard...but it's the hot item on the eco-net...I got a dozen e-mails this morning." He was pleased at being the first to tell her and asked for a coffee date.
Andi begged off with a promise to talk again Wednesday. After scribbling down Bodega's news she debated calling Morse, finally deciding it was worth the call.
"Lionel Morse." he answered bluntly when the receptionist put the call through.
"Wicksham here..." Andi responded though he must have been told by the receptionist, "...there's a rumor that Drexler is folding up his tent..."
The line lay silent for a moment or two. "Yes..." Morse answered cautiously, "I've heard that rumor..."
"Well..." prompted Andi, "is it true?"
"I have nothing concrete on the matter." Morse said guardedly.
It was Andi's turn to take a moment before continuing. "It seems a radical step to take...one that will lose a lot of money..." She offered the implication carefully.
"It'll cost investors..." admitted Morse. "But I've no knowledge of what prompted it."
"Oh..." Andi was surprised at Morse's passivity. "Have you known about this long?"
"Yes, a little while..." he answered vaguely.
"Did you consider that it might have relevance to our investigation?" Andi asked pointedly.
"I'm often given information I'm not at liberty to divulge Ms. Wicksham..." he let his answer drift without explanation. Then tacked on, "Thank you for the report you sent, I haven't digested it, but I'm sure it will be interesting. I value your work."
"Well...thank you Mr. Morse...do you know of Aorta Capital?"
"Know what of Aorta Capital?" Morse's tone was icy. "I'm not at liberty to discuss other people's business."
"OK..." Andi let the phone go silent waiting for him to make the next statement.
"We'll talk midweek about Mr. Bryant..." Morse hung up abruptly and Andi was left listening to the dial tone with the phone in her hand and a final comment on her lips.
"The man's a total jerk." she railed in Lena's direction as she scribbled in her notebook.
Lena looked casually over her shoulder. "Think good thoughts and remember that you should get another passel of checks this afternoon...Morse should be sending his too. Cheer up, you're going to be rolling in money."
Andi shot her a dirty look, but smiled despite herself. "Oh look..." she said looking at her watch, "we get to lunch again."
After wolfing down a salad at Machismo Mouse, Lena launched into the archive closet, pulling out the dusty boxes of files from the first years Andi was in business.
Andi winced at the thought of Lena pawing through her early work, but restrained herself from comment and phoned Lon Lively.
"Mr. Lively...it's Andi Wicksham..." Andi slipped into her businesslike monotone.
"That was quick...your client ready for more?"
"I don't know if he even looked at the first one...I called about ex-employees."
"I said I thought I could find some..." Lively's wary voice held a defensive edge.
"Will it take very long?" Andi asked impatiently.
"Depends...and it'll cost."
"How much?" Andi didn't really care at this point.
"A hundred dollars..."
"We'll see..." Andi responded. "I can probably find other sources."
"Do you want me to look or not?"
"Sure...go ahead...give me a call when you find something." Andi hung up and logged the call in her notebook; so he asked for a hundred dollars? Why did she even care?
"I'll go down and get the mail." Lena volunteered with a cryptic smile. "Wouldn't want you working up a sweat."
Andi waved her on and kept working. Just for the hell of it she dialed Brian-Corp and asked for Drexler--he was unavailable--no surprise.
Would Ibbe be frantically trying to get out of town like Drexler? Andi dialed and spoke to the receptionist--Ms. Ibbe was out of town on business for the remainder of the week. Would Andi like to speak to her voice mail?
Andi replied with a noncommittal "Thanks..." listened to Ibbe's recorded voice, but didn't leave a message.
She called Ramirez.
"So, what's new with the Bryant case?" she asked without their usual small talk.
Ramirez grumbled. "We got his credit card records...he bought a bunch of clothes and some luggage last month, but no airplane tickets."
"Is the luggage in his house?" She couldn't remember seeing them, but she hadn't known they should be there.
"Somebody asked that at yesterday's meeting...but I don't know yet...they could have been a gift."
"...investments?" Andi glanced down at her notebook's list.
"Liquidated most a year ago. We couldn't find but a few hundred dollars in any of his accounts. Seems he was cleaned out before being offed."
"Nothing new on his personal life?"
"The man was a hermit...he evidently didn't ever talk to anybody."
"The blackmail?"
"There's no evidence of blackmail Wicksham...what you've got is a theory of blackmail. His bank accounts might argue he was a victim of blackmail."
"Well it works for me..." Andi said grouchily. "Bryant, Morse, Chang-Turner, Ibbe and Drexler all have something they're hiding..."
"Well...brilliant observation, gum shoe." Ramirez drawled sagely, "...but everybody has something they're hiding."
"Cut me some slack, Ramirez."
"Look," he continued. "what you're saying might be true, but none of the victims are complaining. Truth means nothing without bankable evidence...now if you had financial statements or a witness or anything, it might be a great theory...what you have is a waste of time."
"Thanks for the encouragement..." Andi retorted sarcastically.
"That's what I'm here for. So...Tanya wanted to know, we still on for tomorrow night?" Ramirez seemed more than ready to change the subject.
"Sure..." Andi didn't want to be shuffled off, "Morse is supposed to get back in touch after looking into Bryant's finances, but he doesn't share anything important."
"C'est la vie, my friend..." Ramirez said expansively, "What do you want ...perfection?"
"He's not helping any..." grumbled Andi.
"Paying you big money isn't enough huh? Gee, it's hard to get good clients these days." he quipped sarcastically. "I'm glad to be in the public sector."
"Save it for your boss, Ramirez. I'll see you tomorrow." Andi hung up, slamming the phone down on her desk. Lena looked over and smiled.
"No luck on the information highway?"
"I'm scraping up road kill...and still don't have anything."
"Mail came..." she tossed a pile of envelopes into Andi's lap. "...this should cheer you up."
With the obvious junk mail were another dozen letters, one from Templeton, Morse and Bryant. She ripped it open and laid its check on her desk. From the other letters she got nine other checks--not a bad haul at all.
"How long you think this'll go on?" Andi asked vaguely as she handed the checks for Lena to log in. She had more important things to do.
"Maybe a week...maybe two before it peters to a trickle and we send out second notices...it's all a game." Lena spoke with an air of confidence as she leafed through them.
Andi mumbled something unintelligible and tapped her fingers on her desk top. The way Morse shifted to chasing Lively's files lent credence that she hadn't been hired to track down Bryant's killer. She was playing some part of his game without knowing what the script was. He certainly could open doors to Bryant's private life if he wanted and he was probably behind the "political" pressure on the police brass.
Incongruity and unanswered questions didn't seem to phase Ramirez. He'd burnt out his share of naive enthusiasm early in his career and had mellowed into a warm hearted cynic--not a bad role model at all, Andi mused silently.
Lena finished logging the checks and Andi filled out another deposit receipt. Andi stuck the checks in the envelope with yesterday's and pulled on her coat and hat.
It was pleasant to contemplate a bank balance exceeding her expenses for the next few months--even with Lena's wage figured in. Of course this job was almost over and the back billed accounts were a one-shot thing. She'd deal with Lena later--no guarantees, few benefits, but she seemed to enjoy being there. Andi had a sudden twinge of guilt at exploiting her. Being an employer wasn't what it was cracked up to be--she wasn't sure she liked it.
She walked up Hawthorne to the bank machine. When she returned to the office there was a telephone company truck parked at the curb and a man with a handset hanging off a pole.
Lena glanced over as she came in the door. "I called Bobby and he'll be over in a few minutes to hook up this second line. Do you know he answers his phone saying `Soxx here.'"
"Yeah? I answer `Wicksham'."
"And you got his name filed under `Soxx' not `Bobby'"
"Whatever. So he uses a chosen name. You think that's weird? What planet did you say you were from?" Andi shrugged off her coat and poured herself another cup of coffee, humming smugly to herself.
"...and the creep called you back."
"How many creeps are we dealing with lately...you must mean Mr. Lively!" Andi pantomimed a light bulb going off above her head. "I suppose he wanted me to call him back."
"If you would please." Lena said primly.
Andi pulled the phone closer and punched in the number.
"Yeah, what do you want..." Lively sounded drunk.
Andi looked at her watch, it was almost four o'clock. "Andi Wicksham, here...I'm calling you back."
"I found another veteran of Templeton, Morse and Bryant...how do you want to pay?"
"I'll send you a check like last time..."
"Can you bring me cash right now?" It was almost a whine. Lively didn't come across with self assurance when he was drinking.
"No, I'm sorry...I'm far too busy..." Andi figured it was safe to play hard to get.
"Where are you located?" he slurred.
"Mr. Lively..." Andi didn't want him here. "...let me send you a check...I'll put it in the mail this afternoon, you might even get it tomorrow...now what's the name of person who worked there?"
"A hundred?" Lively whined.
"I have my checkbook in front of me." Andi said patiently. "A hundred dollars...did you work there at the same time as this person?"
"No...she worked there later...but she worked for Bryant. I don't really know her, but I have a name and number..."
Andi briefly considered making it hard for him, maybe pretending she already knew the woman once she got the name. "Fine..." she said, "...OK..."
"Brenda Shabazz..."
Andi asked him to spell her last name.
Lively said he didn't know. He recited the telephone number slowly and repeated it.
Andi was anxious to be finished. "OK, Mr. Lively...I'll give her a call and send you a check..."
"I'm pretty sure she worked there...you'll pay me?" Lively was truly pathetic.
"First I'll give her a call...but I'll write out the check this very minute. Thank you, Mr. Lively...I'll give you a call when my client is ready."
Lively grumbled and hung up. Andi shook her head and wrote out the check like she promised, then dialed the phone number.
A female voice with a mechanical/recorded flatness said. "This is the message machine for Brenda and Hakeem, leave a message and we'll call you back." Short and sweet.
Andi pondered whether she should leave a message, decided against it and set the phone back down. She'd try again this evening, after work. At least the name he'd given seemed right. Despite her distrust and dislike, Lively had been right about nearly everything else he given and she'd promised she'd mail the check. Even if he was scamming it would be one of her good deeds--she reached for an envelope and stamp--it was Morse's expense account anyway.
She reviewed files to feel justified in billing the time, then called Samuel Lee again--no answer.
The outline for this week's report was thin, something had to happen or she'd be embarrassed to keep charging. Good thing she'd held back that page of software distributors, she could bio each of them and quote the nasty comments Lena'd noted in impeccable long hand.
At quarter to five Lena, looked up to catch her eye and Andi nodded. Without speaking they began doing the afternoon clean-up. It felt good to be a team.
She tried Brenda Shabazz again from her kitchen. A woman answered on the first ring.
"Hello, Ms. Shabazz? This is Andi Wicksham, I'm a private investigator looking into the suspicious disappearance and I was hoping you might be able to help me."
"Who are you with...Miss..." Shabazz asked cautiously.
"Wicksham, Andi Wicksham, with Investigatory Services...I've been hired to look into the disappearance of Robert Bryant of Templeton, Morse and Bryant..." she let the sentence float, unfinished.
"So somebody finally got the guy, huh?" Shabazz laughed derisively.
"You don't sound positive about Mr. Bryant..." Andi smiled to herself but kept her voice a disinterested drone.
"They're snakes...smiling, natty dressed, prosperous snakes." Shabazz wasn't laughing when she said it.
"Just who did you work for while you were there?" Andi took her background quickly and efficiently; dates, co-workers--she'd worked in Lively's place, doing research for Bryant under Chang-Turner's supervision.
"They weren't good people." Shabazz stated firmly. "We were digging up dirt, personal stuff, relationships, business deals, friends...and all in the name of `business.' Ha..." Shabazz had a hard edge to her voice.
Andi wrote as fast as she could. "Suspect anything illegal or unethical while you were there?" she asked as neutrally as possible.
"Their manner was sneaky, I know that...but there's a difference between legally unethical and morally unethical and while they were certainly immoral slime, I don't know how far they strayed cross the legal line."
Andi found she liked Shabazz. "Did you observe any interactions between Mr. Bryant or Ms. Chang-Turner and their clients?"
"Naw...I was just a law student doing research. They kept us in back rooms with our noses deep in files."
"Could an employee make copies of files and sneak them out of the building?"
"Probably..." It was a guiltless, matter of fact answer.
"You note friction between Mr. Bryant and his partners?" Despite liking the woman, Andi wasn't getting much of worth from the interview.
"Serious bad vibes for sure..." Shabazz asserted flatly. "There was something going on between Mr. Bryant and Mr. Morse that wasn't good. They never yelled, but you could tell..."
"How about Chang-Turner?"
"She and Mr. Bryant were tight, like hand and glove...she was sweet to him and a terror to us...she ran the show, no doubt about it."
"But you no longer work there?" Andi knew she didn't.
"It wasn't what I've studied law for...that type of law don't help people--it's a legitimization of greed. I got out."
Andi could hear a child in the background calling "Mommy..." She asked if she could call back if she had other questions.
Shabazz said "Certainly..."
They let it go at that.
The storm outside was flooding rain-gutters and backing up storm drains until manhole covers floated in the rush of out-flowing water. Andi curled up on her couch and read the latest Tony Hillerman. She thought about the Navaho Reservation as she heated a frozen enchilada and steamed some broccoli. A third of the people there still lived without water or electricity. She'd learned that on a trip seeing Anazai ruins.
Hillerman didn't make a big deal out of the poverty. His main characters weren't that poor and the ones without indoor plumbing seemed rich in Indian culture--interesting and ethnic.
The homeless under the Portland bridges were as poor and were never portrayed as interesting--she always got depressed when she thought such thoughts.
She looked out the window. There but for fortune... throughout Portland at that very moment people huddled in doorways and under overpasses.
God...what had they done in sleet and slush?
Wednesday morning the rains continued, pounding squalls interspersed with steady drizzle. All in all she liked the rain, it meant life and health and clean air--one had to like it to remain in Portland.
She had Bodega's file in front of her, but she sat debating whether to go out for a mocha or make a pot of coffee. After dragging herself to the office she hadn't done a thing but toy aimlessly with a pencil. She didn't want to work and felt uneasy at the thought of Lena coming in. She wanted to duck out to a coffee shop. Manager's prerogative--the yuppie version of an overseer standing tall while workers hunched over short-handled hoes.
The guilt was class culture residue--the hell with it. She pulled on her coat and ducked out the door, calling to Lena as they passed on the sidewalk that she'd see her in an hour.
The Cup and Saucer would be fine. She'd read Tony Hillerman, swill a mocha and repress her guilt--after all it was the turn of the millennium--anyone who didn't feel guilty about their place in the world wasn't paying much attention.
When she returned,, she brought Lena a mocha in a paper cup, as an act of penitence.
Lena was typing names from that nearly forgotten era--she thanked her with a casual smile.
Andi took a deep breath and tried to focus on work. She straightened her piles and picked up the file on Bodega she'd left.
A half hour later she impatiently shut the file, threw it on the desk and spun around to stare out the window.
The scuttlebutt of the environmental world was interesting stuff and Bodega was fascinating to talk with but it was a futile avenue to follow--none of it would lead to solving the mystery of Bryant's disappearance. There was far too wide a gap between the rumors and real evidence, a veil around corporate management she'd never pierce. There were dozen on her list who might hate Bryant enough to want to see him floating in the river and she knew next to nothing of any of them.
She was rescued from those thoughts by the telephone. She was going to let it ring at least three times out of orneriness, but Lena picked it up and answered.
"Investigatory Services." Lena answered in a professional voice. "Yes sir, she is..." she looked over to meet Andi's eyes and silently mouthed Morse.
Andi reached for the phone. "Yes Mr. Morse, this is Andi Wicksham."
"Is it possible to meet you sometime this morning? I've got some material I would like you to see."
Andi pulled over her appointment book, "Sure, of course... what time is best for you." Any time at all, her meter was running, he'd already bought her time.
"Can you be here by ten-forty?"
Andi looked at her watch, it was just after ten. "Yeah sure...twenty to eleven, do you want me to prepare anything?" It was a shot in the dark hoping for a hint of his agenda.
"No...I'll expect you then. Thanks..."
Andi quietly lowered the phone and noted the meeting in her notebook. Maybe he was going to terminate her contract. "Lena, would you pull together a quick update of Morse's account... retainer against hours and expenses."
"He pulling the plug?" she asked.
"I don't know..." said Andi as she turned again to stare out the window.
Andi found a parking place within a block on her first pass by his building and Morse ushered her into his office immediately. She sank into her chair and put her slim folder on the table between them.
"Ms. Wicksham, I've reviewed Mr. Bryant's accounts and feel there may be evidence of improper payments."
Andi looked up, but remained silent.
"Trust accounts were set up without fixed purposes and moneys syphoned into apparently fraudulent businesses. Much of that billing seems excessive."
"Widespread?" Andi smiled grimly.
"It will be hard to ascertain with clarity...I'm not ready to approach his clients."
"Payment for blackmail?" Andi asked. Why was he telling her this? Did he want her to do something? Was it a way of asserting innocence?
"That's my first assumption, but it conveniently provides motivation for Robert's murder."
"You don't want motivations for Bryant's murder?" Andi blurted.
Morse smiled a benign smile. "I don't want to jump to conclusions Ms. Wicksham, they have the tendency to influence me." He gave an almost sheepish grin--a very practiced, innocent farm boy in the city, Huck Finn sort of grin.
"Is Chang-Turner implicated?" Andi asked, perhaps a bit more bluntly than she should have.
"I..don't..know." Morse stroked his chin and mused silently.
"Two ex-employees place her in the middle of this, pulling strings, directing research..."
"That is her job description...we'd need more than that." Morse stated. "I'm keeping her employed until we have this issue settled, once she's gone it will be hard to question her."
"So you suspect her." Andi pushed.
"She had opportunity to play a significant role." Morse said carefully. "I've avoided questioning staff and had our auditors come after hours. And I sent her on an errand so she wouldn't see you now." He looked up as if asking "Does that answer your question?"
Andi nodded then asked pointedly. "Are you going to go to the police?"
"Not at this time...I have no desire to involve clients or expose any peccadillos. This is a law office, its supposed to be a place where confidences are kept."
And it keeps the heat off you. Andi thought silently. "Even if it lets Bryant's murder's go free?" was the question she allowed through her lips.
"There's more to this picture than you understand Ms. Wicksham. Our clients would more than likely keep silent about whatever occurred between Mr. Bryant and themselves. Bookkeeping irregularities are hardly substantial evidence in themselves and Mr. Bryant seems out of the picture. I don't want to soil the firm's name...it would serve no purpose." Morse was defensive now.
Andi watched Morse as he talked. He was trying to give an impression of opening up to her, of taking her into his confidence, of being allies. She felt herself brace against the smile while still nodding and looking helpful.
"The police'll need to know any substantive evidence..." She felt silly telling a lawyer the law.
"I don't have any substantive evidence, certainly not anything pointing to specific suspects." Morse argued.
"There's Chang-Turner...there's Drexler and Sandra Ibbe. Complicity in a felony or victims of blackmail...those are certainly motivations for murder." Andi felt compelled to challenge.
"But attorney-client privilege shields our clients and if Chang-Turner is involved it's most likely as Robert's accessory. That lessens her motivation to kill him."
"I'm working for you...does that bind me to confidentiality? This is a major felony..." She knew which side of the issue Ramirez would weigh in on.
"You probably couldn't be held criminally liable either way Ms. Wicksham." Morse stated evenly. "I hope your sense of discretion and business ethics will guide you...I would like to keep you working on this matter as we untie the remaining knots."
Andi assumed that was a veiled threat of termination if she didn't toe the line. "Are there other aspects of this puzzle you're not telling me?" She asked directly. She sat back in her chair and met his eyes in a level stare. "Have you put pressure on the police to be `careful' in their investigation? There were some influential people at that party..."
Morse blinked and shot her a questioning look.
Andi looked calmly into his eyes.
"I'm aware of pressure being put on the city from a number of sources...there were a lot of influential people there." He was very careful with his words.
He didn't answer the question. Andi observed silently. "You assume there are other reasons for them to do that than guilt in Bryant's murder?"
"People have reasons beyond felonies to be devious. In public life there's guilt by association." He stated it as a fact. "Being at the scene of a crime provides unfortunate associations, being questioned implies that one's a suspect. Image and press is business--investors shy away, deals fall through, presenting new ideas is impossible if you don't have credibility."
"Is that why you chose me to investigate the case...because I don't have access to the political and business sectors?" She had to ask, whatever the price.
Morse fell silent, stroked his chin again and looked into her eyes as if reappraising his opinion. "In part..." he admitted candidly. "...not having prior ties to Bryant was another plus...but you had great references too..." He fell silent another moment.
Andi let the seconds tick by without responding.
"Robert Bryant and I had a very rocky relationship. I'd suspected him of extortion last year--confronted him and he denied it. I'm not entirely sorry he's out of the picture, but my major concern is damage control..."
"Not justice?" Andi asked softly.
"I'm a lawyer, Ms. Wicksham...justice is a myth. Law adjudicates disputes and solves practical problems, it doesn't dispense justice. Justice is a theological matter...whatever Robert may have done, he's absent and unlikely to return...my task is to address his impact on my clients and firm."
He glanced out the window and back to Andi. "Worse criminals than murderers walk our streets Ms. Wicksham...the police will catch somebody or not...it's not the end of the world."
"So what would you like me to investigate?" Andi wasn't sure of where she stood.
"What happened to Robert Bryant?" asked Morse simply.
"He was killed and his body probably washed to sea." answered Andi.
"Are you sure?" answered Morse quietly.
Andi sat stunned...what was he saying--was Bryant kidnaped? Had Morse been asked for a ransom he'd never pay? Now that was a thought! Andi mused on the implications and had to smile. "You think he's alive?"
"He might be..."
"You don't like him?"
"I don't trust him...let's leave it at that." Morse said as he rose from his chair. Their meeting was obviously over.
"What's going to happen to Lon Lively?" Andi asked conversationally
Morse stroked the back of his chair and smiled smugly. "I've already taken care of him. My work was recovered from his files and replaced with recycled paper from the insurance office next door." He chuckled smugly.
Andi curbed her urge to smile--she didn't want to give Morse the satisfaction, but the image of Lively eventually discovering the switch rose in her mind like a tableau. Morse did have a certain style.
Andi picked up the unopened folder containing Morse's final bill and followed him to the door. It wasn't time for it yet.
He accompanied her to the elevator, but neither of them spoke. He nodded and gave her a tired smile as the doors shut between them and she half-raised a hand in goodby. She rode the elevator puzzling on her role.
Bryant alive? It was an interesting thought...she wondered if not asking Morse if he'd gotten a ransom note was the right thing to do.
He would have denied it if he had--would she have been able to read anything in his eyes?
Probably not. If he wasn't kidnapped or murdered...then Bryant might have arranged his own disappearance. It was plausible.
Andi's mind started clicking as she drove back to her office, she had to reread all the files and reevaluate everything against the possibility that Bryant had set up his disappearance to look like murder.
She got back to the office just a little after twelve. Lena was standing looking out the window.
"I figured it was my turn to buy lunch." Lena said as she came in. "Good meeting?"
Andi rolled her eyes and let out an exaggerated sigh. "Get your coat, this is going to take all noon-hour to explain."
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