The Taxman Killeth (9 page)

“No, it’s all right. I’ve got a
cab picking me up in another half hour.”

“Okay. By the way, I’m sorry I’ve
been so grumpy lately.”

“It’s okay. You must be under a
lot of stress. I mean, I’ve heard about the pending promotion.”

“Yeah, a lot of stress,” he
muttered. “Try not to let it get around about how late I’ve been staying. I’m
working on some personal business and would rather not have to go into
explanations with the partners.”

“I understand.”

“I hope so, because I like you.”

After Stu was gone she tried to
guess at what he had meant. Was it a threat? What had he meant by his last
comment? Perhaps Stu’s office should be first on her investigative list.
However, when she tried the door it was locked. Unusual in the firm, since all
employees were encouraged to keep their work available in case someone else had
to cover for them.

Todd would know how to pick the
lock without any problem. Amy went back to her office and phoned him.

“How does one go about picking a
lock?”

“Amy! Is that you? Where the
hell are you?”

“At the office, but I’ve run
into a snag. See, my prime suspect...”

“Amy, this isn’t a television
show or movie. Wait there and I’ll come and get you.”

“You can’t do that. There’s a
guard downstairs in the lobby. Even if he didn’t recognize you, he still wouldn’t
let you in without ID. I’ve got a credit card and the lock is simple...”

“Amy, it will take me a half
hour to get there. Be in front of the building.”

He hung up.

She rushed out to the reception
desk and rifled the drawers for visitor’s cards. Now what excuse would someone
have for showing up at two-thirty? Amy checked the time. Make that three in the
morning. One of the attorneys kept a Stetson hat sitting on top of his bookcase
attracting dust, but it probably would fit Todd, who could pull the brim down
over his face.

Amy scratched her head. He would
have to be a relative come to pick her up. No client would show up at that
hour. And since she hadn’t completed her work, she was taking him upstairs to
wait.

Amy scrawled a fictitious name
across the card. She went back to Stu’s door to try to pry the lock open with a
credit card, but she didn’t know how to do it. Todd would, she assured herself.

At two-fifty five she took the
elevator down to the lobby. She didn’t know the guard, but showed her
identification and explained that her brother would be arriving soon, and would
he mind if her brother came upstairs to wait for her to finish her work?

The guard nodded and returned to
his thick paperback.

When she saw Todd, Amy rushed
out to meet him, topping his head with the Western hat.

“Perfect fit,” she said,
lowering the brim over his forehead. She attempted to yank him into the
building, but Todd was immovable.

“Come on. It’s getting late.”

“It is late, Amy, and I told you
to come home if it was getting too late.”

“You didn’t specify any time.”

Todd arched a brow and pulled
her into his arms. The smell of his leather jacket mixed with Todd’s own scent
seduced Amy into relaxing into his embrace. Her senses were further heightened
by the feel of his chest beneath her palm. She looked up into his eyes and
found them burning their own heat down toward her face.

“You’re a mighty handsome
cowboy.”

They both leaned into a kiss.
Too soon for Amy they parted.

“Let’s finish this at home,” he said,
his breathing thick with desire.

Amy almost followed his lead
until she remembered the visitor’s card that she held between her fingers. She
tore off the backing and stuck the card on his jacket.

“I think it might be Stu,” she
said, tracing the stubble along his jawline. God, he was looking more savagely
handsome every day, she thought, a chill speeding through her body.

Todd hesitated. He hated
involving her, but if she was on to something he’d rather be with her than have
her poke around on her own. He might never get another chance to enter her
office unseen. Todd checked the time. “We stay an hour, then we’re out,” he
said.

Amy agreed and they walked back
into the building. The guard looked up briefly to see Amy returning. He didn’t
bother to check out her guest.

In front of Stu’s office door,
Amy offered her credit card. Todd ignored her and pulled from within his jacket
a small cloth packet. He eased a narrow steel pick from under the packet’s
flap.

“What time did he leave?” Todd
asked as the lock gave way.

“A little after two.”

“Didn’t I tell you...”

“Will you be able to open these
file drawers? They seem to be locked, too.”

Within an hour they located
legal documents used to obtain green cards for immigrants.

“That’s it,” she shouted.

“How do we know they aren’t
legit?”

“Because this firm doesn’t do
immigration law. But now that I think about it, Stu used to be involved in
immigration when he worked in Texas. He’s the one, isn’t he?”

“We can’t be sure.”

“He’s been typing and mailing
his own work. Even though he’s not supposed to, he locks his office door. The
firm doesn’t do immigration. He’s the one.”

“Even if he is, do you think he’s
capable of murder?”

“I didn’t think he was capable
of swiping pencils from work before we found these papers.”

Todd put the papers back where
they had found them.

“Let’s go.”

“To the police?”

“Are you crazy?”

“But we have the evidence.”

“All we know is that maybe, and
let me emphasize maybe, Stu Lester is dealing with illegal aliens. That’s all
we know.”

Amy was disappointed. But at
least they had a lead, she consoled herself. She was determined to prove Todd
innocent. She was also uncomfortable knowing she had opened the firm’s books to
a fraud; at least she wanted to prove he wasn’t a murderer.

Chapter 10

So, Where Do You Live?

“You’d better get some sleep,”
Todd said, locking the apartment door.

“It’s almost time for me to get
up.”

“I’m sorry, Amy. I wish you had
followed my instructions.”

“Then you wouldn’t have known
who the murderer was.”

“Stuart Lester may not be the
one who killed Joey.”

“But the evidence points to him.”

“Maybe he’s dealing in illegal
alien traffic, then again, what he’s doing could be legit. Besides, I’m not
certain that the person who killed Joey was actually involved with the alien
matter at all.”

“What should I look for?”

“What?”

“Should I copy down all the
names of his clients and anyone who has an appointment with him?”

“You should mind your own
business.”

“But ever since you barged into
my apartment uninvited, it’s been my business.”

“In a few days I’ll be leaving.
And here, you’d better take this hat back.”

“How can I do that? Just go in
and say I borrowed the hat for an evening? Thank you very much. Anyway, it
looks good on you,” she said, rubbing her hand across the soft brown felt of
the brim.

Todd grabbed the hat out of her
hands, flinging it on the couch.

“Go to bed.”

Miffed, Amy turned away from him
and headed for her bedroom.

Todd plopped down on the couch.
He wasn’t certain they had found any hard evidence. It seemed to come too
easily, and he didn’t like the chances Amy was willing to take. Todd rubbed his
eyes with the balls of his palms while remembering how crazy he had gotten
earlier in the evening, worrying about where she was and how exposed he may
have left her. He realized he should never have asked for her help. She was too
enticing. It felt too good to be near her. If he hadn’t been so moved by her,
he wouldn’t have gone to the beach the night Joey was murdered. Perhaps he
could have saved his partner’s life. Hell, that was the problem with Amy, she
was too much of a diversion. She channeled his energies into an emotional mode
that could also cost his life... or someone else’s.

He stretched his body across the
uncomfortable couch. One leg rested atop the back of the couch, the other lay
on the armrest. He closed his eyes and fell into a disturbed sleep, reliving
the discovery of the dead body on the floor of his bathroom, except this time
it was Amy.

The next morning Amy slipped out
of the apartment without waking Todd. Since her mind was fuzzy from the lack of
sleep, she stopped to pick up two cups of black coffee before entering the office.

Trudy opened her mouth and
pointed at one of her teeth as soon as she saw Amy. After setting her coffees
on the reception desk, Amy ripped the lid off one cup while Trudy made
distorted noises. First Amy took a long drink of the coffee, then peered inside
Trudy’s mouth.

“What am I looking for?”

“Nathan did one of my fillings
last night.” Again Trudy’s mouth popped wide open, and she laid an index finger
on a back molar.

“It’s beautiful.”

Amy joined Mr. Pickens in the
conference room.

“I won’t be needing any more of
Mr. Lester’s material. You can return all his papers to him.”

“Are you sure?”

“He’s been hassling me quite
enough. Even called me at home last night to question me about how long I would
be here.”

“He’s never complained before,”
Amy said out loud to herself.

“Well, he is now,” Mr. Pickens
responded. “Get his stuff out of here.”

Amy returned the material to
Stuart Lester’s secretary then spent the rest of the day slipping around
hallways, trying to keep tabs on Stuart. She wanted desperately to collect more
evidence, so that they could pin more than illegal alien entry on the lawyer.
The only unusual occurrence was the fact that Stuart and Teddy secreted
themselves together in an office for several hours.

“Teddy, I notice you’ve been
spending a lot of time with Stuart,” Amy blatantly asked at the end of the day.

Teddy had been putting on a
light jacket.

“I’m helping to get a case
together that should be going to trial soon. The court gave Stuart a beeper the
other day, so that they could call him in as soon as they had the case
scheduled.”

“Oh.”

“You sound disappointed. What
did you think we were up to?”

“It wouldn’t be about some
illegal aliens, would it?” she brazenly inquired.

“What? Oh, you mean the case. Naw,
you should know we don’t deal with immigration issues here.”

After Teddy left, Amy wondered
whether she should stay late again. Todd wouldn’t like that and she certainly
was tired. But Todd didn’t have time on his side. Just then the telephone rang.

“Leave,” she heard Todd say to
her salutation.

“But...”

“Leave, or I’ll come and get you
right now.”

“You can’t do that. There are
still people here, and it isn’t dark enough for you to leave the apartment.”

“Amy, I swear, if you don’t
leave now, I’ll either be marching into that office within a half hour, or I’ll
be sitting in jail.”

“I’m leaving.” Amy slammed down
the receiver. Idiot, she thought, didn’t he realize that he needed her help? He
couldn’t rifle through the documents on file in the law office. She could
barely get access to most of them.

By the time she got home, she
had built up a fury, and Todd didn’t lessen her rage by ignoring her when she
berated him for his unreasonable behavior. Finally, at dinner there was a
freezing silence between the two. Todd’s chin and jaw were covered with the
dark beginnings of a beard. His hair, which had been on the long side, was
falling low over his forehead. His eyes now seemed to gleam among his hooded
features.

“You’re not leaving, are you?”
Amy’s voice was soft as she patted down the lumpy mashed potatoes. He wasn’t as
good a cook as he had promised.

“In another few days I’ll be
taking the cowboy hat and riding into the sunset.”

“That’s not wise.”

“Amy, I appreciate all you’ve
done, but I have to get out there and find out what the hell happened.”

“Let me do it for you,” she
said, reaching for his hand. He, too, was playing with his food.

“You don’t understand what could
happen to you, do you? When I found Joey he was awash in blood, with his guts
spilling out.”

Amy raised her napkin to her mouth.

“I’m sorry, but maybe you need
to be shocked into comprehension, because, lady, that could be you some day if
you don’t keep out of this.”

“Okay. Go out evenings and see
what you can find out, but then stay here during daylight hours.”

“I’m not going to bring danger
to your front door, Amy.”

Todd got up from the stool,
leaving most of his dinner in the checkered plate. Swiftly Amy cleaned up then
joined him. Once she sat down he used the remote control to turn on the
television and flipped through noisy channels.

“There’s no news, Todd, and I
know you can’t stand most of the shows. You’ve complained several times about
the trash on the air waves. Can’t we talk and come to a compromise?”

He muted the sound.

“Compromise?”

“If you won’t stay here, at
least keep in touch with me somehow.”

Todd shook his head.

“You owe it to me, Todd. What if
after you leave, someone finds out you had been here and comes looking for you?
What if I get into trouble with these people because I don’t know where you
are? I’m involved. The minute you took me out to dinner, I became involved.
Trudy knows I was with you that evening, and she has a big mouth.”

He grimaced and flung the remote
control on the floor.

“Don’t be angry,” she said,
rubbing her fingers on the back of his neck. His hair was soft and thick. “Please,
don’t block me out.”