Capitol Offense (Texas Heroines in Peril) (10 page)

When she arrived at the Capitol, she could
not imagine what was going on. Newsmen's cars and TV mobile units
were all over the grounds. Her first thought was that FBI agents
had exposed Jim. She could hardly wait to find out what the big
news was.

As soon as she entered the building,
photographic flashes blinded her. She then realized the newsmen
were taking her picture. She did not know why, and she did not want
to ask. She kept walking. The newsmen continued to follow her,
tossing questions all along.

She soon grasped the gist
of their interest in her. She heard repeated,
Congratulations, Lacy
.
Any comment on the Lieutenant Governor's
announcement?

How long are you going to remain working for
Mr. Chambers?

She did not smile.
Oh, God, it must be the wedding
announcement
. She briskly walked straight
to Jim's office.

His secretary said, "Congratulations,
Lacy."

"Thanks. Jim in?"

"Yes. Go right on in."

Lacy almost slammed the door behind her. He
was alone. "What's the idea of announcing this without my
knowledge?"

"I told you Saturday night I was going to
move up the wedding date. I saw nothing wrong in announcing it to
the press."

"Did it ever occur to you that I'd rather
tell my mother about it before she heard it on the radio?"

"I'm sorry, Lacy. I hadn't thought of
that."

"I also think we should have made the
announcement together. Why couldn't you have waited another thirty
minutes?"

"Guess I just wanted to surprise you."

"Surprise! I couldn't imagine what was going
on. When I walked in the building I was mobbed. I didn't even know
why. I was terribly rude, not to mention being noncommittal. I
didn't know, for example, when my own wedding date is. Don't you
think I'm entitled to have a hand in the preparations?" She was
shouting.

"Honestly, Lacy, I'm sorry. It's just that
you led me to believe you didn't care about the details of the
wedding. I only meant to surprise you. Now, why don't you take the
day off and go shopping for a trousseau? You've only got three
weeks to get ready."

"Three weeks! Oh, Jim, that's not nearly
long enough. I've got to figure out guest lists, get invitations to
the printers, plan everything, shop for a gown and trousseau. It's
absolutely impossible." She couldn't subdue her anger.

"You
can
make it. First of all, you don't
have to work her any more. Second, my staff will take care or the
invitations. You give them a list of your friends and relatives
you'll want at the wedding. If you don't have addresses, don't
worry. They'll look them up for you. They'll also plan the
reception, flowers and everything. You don't have to worry your
pretty little head about anything except being
beautiful."

She had to control her anger. The stakes of
this game could very well be her life. She must appease him. She
smiled and in a soft voice said, "Well, first off, I'll need to
evacuate my office. What do you want done with my research files?
I've worked so hard to build them up, I almost hate to turn them
over to someone else, but I suppose my replacement will need
them."

"I guarantee you'll never again need to use
those things."

He got up from his desk and came over to
her, kissing her on the cheek. "Make a day of it." He reached into
his pocket and pulled out a one-hundred dollar bill. "Here, treat
yourself to lunch."

"Oh, Jim, I can't take that."

"Yes, you most certainly can. If you were
marrying anyone else, you wouldn't have to go through all of this,
so take it. Also, I want you to go shopping." He pulled from his
wallet a black American Express card. "You're marrying a rich man.
Go buy a trousseau."

She took it. "I'll try not to buy up the
whole town. But, first, I think I'll call my mom, clean out my
desk, and get a guest list together." She turned to go, then
pivoted toward him again. "When will I see you again?"

"This is one hell of a romance. I'm to be at
the airport by noon. I'm going to El Paso. Won't be back until late
tomorrow night. I'll call you tonight, though."

"Have a nice trip, sweetheart." She blew him
a kiss as she left.

The next two hours Lacy gave to sorting out
the two years of memorabilia her office stored. Not that it took
the full two hours. Her thoughts kept getting enmeshed in the web
of circumstances which smothered her. Why, she wondered, had Jim
made the announcement this morning? She knew there was a calculated
plan behind it. But what kind of plan she was unable to imagine.
Also, something about him had been different. He had called her
Lacy, something he had not done in private recently. And he kissed
her on the cheek, not the lips.

He was planning something for her, and she
had no way of seeking help. Her only hope was her letter. And it
was indeed a faint hope. To whom could she send it? And how?

While cleaning out her desk, she came across
a souvenir post card she had saved for a couple of years. The photo
was of a sign which greets people entering the town of Hondo,
Texas. It read: THIS IS GOD'S COUNTRY, DON'T DRIVE THROUGH IT LIKE
HELL. Mike Talamino had sent Lacy the post card.

Her thoughts turned to
Mike . She wished now she had listened to him two years ago. He had
guessed even then that something was not right with Jim
Chambers.
Mike 's one man Jim could never
buy
.

And then she knew Mike Talamino was her only
hope.

She looked up Mike's Houston address, hoping
there would not be any other attorneys named Michael Talamino
listed. There weren't. She ripped the envelope from its secure
hiding place in her suit jacket and started to copy his name and
address on to it. But she stopped her pen before it touched the
envelope. What if she were caught with the letter? She could not
jeopardize this innocent man. Perhaps she could think of a code
name he'd recognize, but no one else would.

Then she remembered her first date with him.
She was living in an on campus girl's dorm which required her
to sign out before she left for a date. She was to write down her
date's name. She hadn't, at that time, been able to remember the
Italian surname of the law student she was going out with, so she
had signed him as "Mike Q. Public." Mike and she had quite a laugh
over it, and she continued to sign out that way whenever she went
out with him.

She addressed the letter to Mike Q. Public
at his Houston apartment and put it in her purse.

She had to uncrate reams of paper in the
secretarial pool to secure a box to accommodate her office
trappings. She hated facing the girls in the secretarial pool. A
few were cool toward her; others beamed as they congratulated her
and asked personal questions to which Lacy merely tossed her head
back and sighed a slight laugh. She wasn't about to act besotted
over Jim Chambers for the benefit of these girls.

Back in her office, she gathered up the
things she was going to keep from her desk: a pen set given her by
Jim, a collegiate dictionary, a Spanish English dictionary,
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, Roget's Thesaurus, a secretary's
handbook, her university degree, a photo of the Capitol, and state
stationery which bore her name.

Before closing the door to her office for
the last time, she took Mike's letter and tucked it in the side
pocket of her purse.

On the way to her car she stopped by the
postal station in the Capitol Building. She set down her box and
got the letter from her purse. Just as she was about to put it in
the out of town slot, someone snatched it from her. She
looked up quickly.

The redheaded man who stood before her had a
sadistic smile on his face.

"From now on, we'll take care of your mail
for you, Miss Blair. The Lieutenant Governor wouldn't want you to
have to do secretary's work, would he?"

"And who's going to read my mail?" she
demanded angrily.

"Whoever said we was going to read it? You
must have misunderstood me."

"I think I understand you perfectly."

"In that case, why don't we go see what Mr.
Chambers thinks of your letter?"

Knowing how well trapped she was, Lacy did
not attempt to get away.

The sudden lift she had gotten from thinking
Mike would rescue her had overbuilt her confidence. In her
excitement over getting the letter off to Mike, she had completely
forgotten to watch for her followers.

It had been the most foolish and costly move
she would ever make.

She was escorted to Jim's office by her
redheaded captor. He closed Jim's door behind them and stood at the
door throughout the grim scene that followed.

Jim read over the letter. She stood there
thinking the letter had been her death warrant. There was no
escape. What manner of murder would they choose? It could not be as
violent as Bryson's. Too many questions. It would have to be
something that looked like an accident, she decided. Like Ruth
Chambers'.

At last, he looked up from the letter. He
was not scowling at her as she had thought he would. Instead, he
had a menacing smirk on his face. "I'm not really surprised, you
know."

"I know."

"I'm not even going to plead innocent.
You're too smart for that. I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I
had to have Bryson killed. That was the only way to silence him.
But I'd rather not risk any more deaths. There's another way to
silence you. I'm going to silence you by marrying you."

Lacy gaped at him in disbelief.

"I said I was going to possess you. It
doesn't matter to me if you don't love me. I'll get what I want
even if I have to at gunpoint. And you better get used to looking
at Pete's red head because it's going to follow you around for the
rest of your days."

"That might not be long," she said
sarcastically.

"You won't get off that easily, my
dear."

"Thanks."

"And, dearest, don't get any ideas about
getting in touch with the authorities. Most of them I can buy off.
I might add that we are now laying the foundations to use in
framing you for a crime. If you ever leave me, I'll have you on
death row for it. Now you and Pete run along. You do have a lot of
shopping to do, my love. By the way, everyone thinks it's so
romantic of me to hire a bodyguard for my bride to be.
Don't you?"

Not for a minute did she believe she'd live
long enough to marry him. This was another of his evil schemes to
make himself look like the poor, grieving fiancé when an "accident"
claimed her life.

Chapter 12

If Pete was going to be her constant
companion, Lacy decided he might as well work. With no regard for
price, Lacy charged hundreds of dollars worth of clothes on Jim's
cards, and after each purchase, she gave Pete the bags to
carry.

"I don't suppose this is your cup of tea,"
Lacy said to him as she charged a couple of blouses in a chic
clothing shop.

Pete completely ignored her remark and
stared at her with cold blue eyes. She had no trouble believing he
was a murderer.

"Just one more stop now. I've got to pick up
some wash cloths and towels at Sears. Then you can see me
home."

She needed no wash cloths or towels, but she
did need an excuse to get to Sears. At Sears, she purchased a half
a dozen white wash cloths and a pair of matching towels. As they
got close to the rest rooms, she said, "I've got to go in there
now--so sorry you won't be able to follow." She turned on her
finest smile as she gave him her bag.

In the ladies' room, she had to act quickly.
She went straight to the window. It was a small one, but with a
nearby chair to step on she would be able to manage it.

Unfortunately, she was not alone. A young
woman with two small children shared the facilities. Lacy knew she
would have to wait until she was alone to make her daring escape.
She stood before a mirror brushing her hair, pretending to be
intent.

The young mother was having quite a time
managing her two toddlers and several packages. Just as Lacy
thought they were going to leave, the oldest of the two children, a
boy, broke away from his mother. He climbed under a locked door to
an out of order stall.

"Todd! Come out right this minute," the
mother demanded.

"I can't, Mommy. The door won't open."

"Well, get out the way you got in."

"I don't want to. The floor's all
dirty."

"If you don't come out right now, I'm going
to give you the biggest spanking you ever got."

"Why don't you find the man with the keys?
He can let me out."

Lacy's stomach churned. This small guy not
more than three years old could stand between her and freedom.

"Okay, Todd, Tammy and I are going to go
find the man with the keys right now. Don't worry if we don't get
back for while. I don't think anything will happen to you.
Bye bye." She started for the door.

Just then his little blond head peeked out
from below the door, and he came on through. "I decided I could get
a little dirty."

The mother winked at Lacy, who was putting
the brush back in her purse.

As the outer door was swinging shut, Lacy
snatched the chair, put it under the window and climbed out as if a
swarm of bumble bees were chasing her.

No one saw her. She raced to the car service
center and told the first attendant she saw that she wanted to pick
up her green Plymouth and that she was in a terrible hurry. He
wrote up the bill. It totaled close to sixty dollars. She gave him
the one hundred dollar bill Jim had given her, got her change, and
drove off in Becky's car.

She immediately got on the expressway. By
instinct now, she continuously checked her rear view mirror.
No cars appeared to be following. She had to leave Austin.