The Taxman Killeth (22 page)

Chapter 23

Dinner Invitation

Amy stayed with Jennie through
the intake interview and watched as someone drove Todd’s sister and the
children to a safe house, then, exhausted, she drove the car home, parking in
the same space she had left earlier. She wondered how well Todd was doing at
his end. Had Morgan come through with the photograph? Amy knew she’d have to
call Morgan to find out, since Todd didn’t want her involved. She was
determined to get a second photograph from Morgan.

Inside the apartment were two
messages waiting for her, both from Trudy. Amy was beginning to feel guilty.
Perhaps Trudy had a serious personal problem to discuss. After all, Trudy’s
tone of voice had sounded more desperate with each ensuing message.

She checked the time. Three-fifteen
in the morning. Amy decided she would give Trudy a return call at a more
reasonable hour. Even if it did involve work, Amy wouldn’t mind trucking in for
a few hours now that she had Jennie and the kids settled.

While slipping off the layers of
clothes, Amy headed for the luxury of her futon mattress in the bedroom. She
now understood why Todd was so cranky that first night when he slept on the
living room floor. Never again would she banish him to that torture. Amy
smiled. He, too, would be able to luxuriate on the futon, she thought, and
plopped her half-naked body on the bed. Or maybe he had a fancy bed like Kay’s.
The name made her wrinkle her nose for a second. Naw, too ostentatious for him.
In truth, she would even be willing to sleep on the floor tonight, if it were
beside him. She dozed off with memories of his arms cuddling her just beneath
the curve of her breasts.

Amy had managed to sleep through
two more of Trudy’s messages. The light was blinking furiously on the machine.
Amy hesitated to shower and eat. If Trudy had bothered to call at five a.m. and seven a.m. something must be terribly wrong. But then, Trudy had the ability
to become overwrought about slight matters that others would never notice.
Maybe the dentist had broken off the relationship while she was in the midst of
having a tooth bonded. That would be typical Trudy. A shower and breakfast came
before Amy called the firm for which she worked. She was amazed when Teddy
answered the reception phone.

“Teddy, how are you?”

“Amy. I’m fine, the greatest.”

“I suppose Stu has already moved
to Texas,” she asked sullenly, recalling how she had been sidetracked by Jennie’s
problem and was unable to follow up on her prime suspect.

“Yes. And I’m on my way.”

“What?”

“Well, everything’s out in the
open now, so I may as well fill you in. Stu had done immigration law while he
was in Texas. When he moved to this firm, he stopped. For a while, that is. He
set up an outside practice and continued immigration work until the partners
found out. They didn’t like the idea of his moonlighting, and, as you know,
asked him to leave. But he was able to go back to Texas and pick up pretty much
where he left off; actually, he says things are booming. Anyway, I’m going to
join him in a few weeks, after I complete work on the Stempel case.”

“You mean you and he were...”

“I was moonlighting for Stu
while he worked here. I even spent my vacation working on his legal documents.”

“Then Stu isn’t going to be
arrested?”

“For what? It was all legal,
except that the partners felt it was a conflict of interest.”

“Then that’s why Stu started to
mail out his own letters.”

“Yeah. He got overwhelmed with
his own work and was doing it at the office. I guess that especially irked the
partners.”

After a brief silence, in which
Amy quickly sorted the story out inside her head, Teddy asked Amy when they
could expect her back.

“Since I’m leaving, they want to
hire another paralegal. They want you to see to the advertising and paperwork
that will be necessary. I’ll warn you, they’ve also hinted at having you double
as office manager and paralegal for a while. They’re serious, I’m sure, because
here I am baby-sitting the reception desk. I feel like I should be buffing my
nails or something.”

“Where’s Trudy?”

“She called in ill this morning.
I caught the call. She sounded very upset. I thought she was about to ask me a
favor, because she stuttered around for a while before she finally hung up.
Between you and me, I don’t want to become involved in Trudy’s flaky boyfriend
problems.”

“How do you know it was about a
boyfriend?”

“What other problems does she
have? Once I had to sit through a harangue about married men.”

“She’s never dated a married
man.”

“Take my word for it, she has,
and she’s really hooked. Has been for a while.”

“Why would she have told you?”

“We took a long trolley ride one
time. I figure she was going to meet him, because she didn’t get off in a nice
neighborhood. It was the kind of place where one would have a rendezvous on the
sly.”

Teddy’s imminent departure was
apparently loosening his tongue.

“How long ago was this?”

“A few weeks ago. But my
impression is that the affair has been going on for quite some time. You know
we dated for a while.”

“Trudy mentioned it.”

“I’m sure she did. I’m surprised
she kept my secret from you. But I guess it wouldn’t have fit into her scheme.
You see, one night, when I had one too many, I told Trudy about the work I was
doing for Stu. Damn, I’ve got another call coming in. Did you want to leave a
message? Like when you’ll be coming back?”

“I’ll call in tomorrow. By then,
hopefully, I’ll have an idea.”

“Okay. But remember, the big
guys are getting antsy now that I’m blowing the coop.”

“You sound relieved to be going.”

“Stu is practically doubling my
salary.”

“Good luck, then. I hope I see
you before you leave.”

“You’d better, or the partners will
have a collective conniption.”

Amy dropped the receiver back on
the cradle. Trudy dating a married man... Certainly she never mentioned it
during their own conversations. Could it be that the dentist has a wife? No
wonder panic was setting into Trudy’s tone. Amy telephoned Trudy several times,
but the line was constantly busy. She didn’t get through until late in the
afternoon.

“Amy, thank goodness you finally
called. Are you at home?”

“Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t return
the calls sooner, but I had an emergency.”

“Are you all right?”

“Sure. It was a... family crisis
that had to be taken care of. Everything has quieted down now. What about you?”
Amy hesitated to reveal what she had learned from Teddy. He could have been
wrong, but in any event she didn’t want to embarrass Trudy if her friend chose
not to share her secret.

“I’m fine, but I called in sick
because I wasn’t up to facing the world today. I need time to mourn for my
disintegrating relationship with the dentist. And he was just about to start a
small root canal job, too.” She continued in a sulky, petulant voice. “Amy, I
suppose you’re too busy still to have me over. Seems we haven’t sat down and
had a woman-to-woman chat in a long time. Ever since you met that man Todd
Coleman you’ve been avoiding me. Makes me suspect you’re harboring a criminal
in the apartment.”

Amy was sure Trudy wasn’t aware
how close she was to the truth. She had planned on calling Morgan around dinner
time, but maybe she could spare some time for a friend.

“Why don’t you come over this
evening? I’ll make us a dieter’s delight dinner followed by double chocolate
ice cream.”

“I can always depend on you to
lift my spirits. But would you mind if we had dinner on the late side? Say
around nine-ish?”

“That’s fine. Given all that
extra time, I may go for something heftier than a salad.”

“I second that.”

Amy was feeling buoyant. She
could still call Morgan around dinner time, manage to spend time with her
friend, and sneak out a bit later to check out the bar for Todd.

After picking up groceries, Amy
returned the rental car to the agency. At six and seven o’clock she tried
Morgan’s apartment, but there was no answer. He didn’t even have an answering
machine.

Moments after cradling the
telephone, Amy received a call from Todd. She explained that his sister and the
children were in a place where Michael wouldn’t be able to touch them.

“Thank you, Amy. I wish I could
have taken care of them myself.”

“Jennie understands. And she
sends her love. How does it feel to have two attractive women love you at the
same time?”

“That’s assuming I haven’t
before.”

Amy’s hand gripped the receiver
tighter.

“Todd, can’t you say anything
nice to me?”

“Amy, I’m trying to remind you
that our lives don’t jive. How would you feel when I’d be travelling most of
the time, and you wouldn’t know what I was up to? I couldn’t even share a
description of the job I was on.”

“I’m not going to be intimidated
into letting you go.”

“By now, I’m certain
intimidation wouldn’t work. I’m appealing to the rational part of you.”

“I love you, and that’s it.”

“I care about you, Amy, but that’s
all I have to offer. I’d better go, I’m running out of change for this public
phone.”

“You’ll be at the bar tonight,
won’t you?”

“You know I don’t want you
hanging around that place.”

“Not tonight. I have company
coming over for dinner.”

“Company? Like a date, or what
the hell are you talking about?”

She grinned. She almost refused
to reveal her guest’s identity but couldn’t imagine being that cruel.

“Trudy’s dropping by around nine o’clock for a late dinner.”

“Oh, Trudy, the receptionist.”
He sounded relieved.

“Doesn’t mean that someday I may
not be tempted to prepare a late dinner for a male friend.”

“Forget trying to make me
jealous.”

“You sounded upset a few seconds
ago.”

“I have to hang up. Somebody’s
waiting for the phone.”

Chapter 24

A Photograph

At eight thirty Todd pulled on
his jacket and headed down the wooden steps leading to the makeshift lobby of
his hotel. A single grey folding chair leaned against one wall of the lobby,
and on the opposite side a horse racing enthusiast had parked his rear on the
cold tile floor.

“I can’t believe I blew the
whole wad.” The gambler was speaking to the desk clerk who simply shook his
head.

“A man can’t sleep on the
street, Bill.” The gambler appeared to be ready to plead for the room from
which he had just been evicted.

Bill, the desk clerk, continued
to shake his head.

“Business is slow. You’re not
going to need all the empty rooms you got.”

“Maybe not.” Bill was
non-committal.

“I’ll tell you what. Why don’t
you give me back the key to my old room, and if you need the space I’ll high
tail it out pronto.”

Bill shook his head.

As Todd approached the front
door, he noticed several green army bags sitting out on the front steps.

“They yours?” he asked the man
who was crinkling up the racing sheet.

“Yeah. Bill won’t let me keep
them in here.”

“I’m not going to let you keep
them out there, either,” Bill said.

“What do you expect me to do?”

“Take your ass out of here, and
pick up your shit on the way.”

Todd walked over to the front
desk and threw some bills down. “Give him another night. Maybe he’ll have
better luck tomorrow.”

“Luck doesn’t know he exists,”
said Bill, pocketing the money.

“Thanks,” said the man as he
fought his way to his feet.

Bill threw him the keys. Todd
was sure that Bill purposely had thrown them out of the man’s reach, but he
stooped and picked them up without complaint.

Todd helped the man carry his
belongings back to his old room, and then headed for the bar to look for Morgan
and hopefully learn the identity of Joey’s secret woman friend.

Once inside the bar, Todd sat at
his usual place and watched the front door, awaiting Morgan’s arrival. Walt
robotically filled a beer mug and planted it in front of Todd, who was about to
ask whether Morgan had dropped in as yet. The sound of police sirens drowned
out his voice. He looked past the bartender and saw Morgan coming from the dark
alcove leading to the back exit, rest rooms, and telephones. Several policemen
walked through the front door and spread out. Morgan nodded his head at Todd.
Walt backed away from Todd, whose gut by now was twisting into a giant knot.
Fearing it might be his last opportunity for a long time, Todd swallowed down
his beer. The suds tickled the edge of his nose. Suddenly he saw a quick
movement from the side of his eye. One of the men seated at the large round
table jumped up and brandished a knife. Taking this for the only diversion he
was going to get, Todd rose to his feet and started for the door as the police
circled the man with the weapon.

“Where do you think you’re
going?”

Two cops barred his exit. They
had been waiting outside for their partners.

“Hey, we just concluded that
this place doesn’t get the best clientele, and we wanted to move on,” said
Morgan, while throwing his arm across Todd’s shoulders.

“They’re okay. They didn’t have
anything to do with the fight. Matter of fact, the dark one just came in here.
Neither of them saw what happened. The other one was taking a leak at the time,”
clarified Walt.

Todd turned around and saw that
the knife-brandishing man had been easily subdued, and the police were
attempting to take the story from eager bystanders.

“What the hell’s going on?”
muttered Todd.

“Come on, I’ll buy you a drink
at a more respectable establishment down the street,” Morgan said.