Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) (12 page)

“Are you leaving?” she asked, stretching and looking over at
the clock.

“Yeah.  I’ve got to be in court this morning.”

She sat up and hugged me.  “I’m glad you came by last night.”

“Me too.  When are you going to finish my walls?”

She covered a big yawn.  “Maybe this weekend.  I’m going out
with some girlfriends tonight and tomorrow night I’m going to my parents’
house.  What are you doing Saturday?”

“Playing with you.”

“Good,” she said smiling.  “I think the weather’s supposed to
suck.  If it does, I’ll work on your walls.”

“I’ll see you later,” I said, and I kissed her lightly on the
lips, intentionally keeping all emotion out of it since I couldn’t be late for
my court appearance.  “Call me if you need anything.”

We waited until after dark and went in after the custodial
crew.  Niki had a copy of the floor plan of the building, so we went straight
to the south wing of the first floor to what used to be Maddie’s office.  It
was bigger than I had pictured and Niki started checking out the walls as soon
as we walked in.

“Here it is,” he said.  He had pulled up a chair and was
standing on it, scoping out what by all appearances was an air conditioning
duct.  It was actually a special vent attached to the ceiling that contained a
hidden camera, and it was pointed at Maddie’s desk.

“I wonder how many of these offices have been under
surveillance,” I said.

“I don’t know, but we can find out.  Come on, let’s go check
out her supervisor’s office.”

We left Maddie’s office and went down the hall to the right
until we came to Larry’s office.  It was a corner office but its furnishings
were cheap and ugly.

“He had the surveillance equipment over here,” Niki said,
walking to the far corner of the room.  He pulled out a drawer and came up with
a fist full of wires, a dinosaur video camera, and some cable plugs, then he
stuffed them back in the drawer.

“Check this out,” Niki said.  He handed me an 8x10 glossy photo
of a leather clad guy with a whip in his hand standing over naked women on all
fours.  There was a hand-written caption scribbled underneath the photo that
read, “
Domination
.”  I didn’t know if Larry had written the caption or
not, but either way, I was beginning to think we were dealing with a mental
case.  I handed the photo back to Niki and he returned it to the drawer.

“Now where would he hide the tapes?” he asked, looking around
the room.

There were two walls of bookshelves and he started scoping out
the books, first from across the room, then with an up-close inspection.  He
started pulling books out four or five at a time, or however many he could grip
with one hand.  I went to the other wall and started doing the same thing. 
We’d both covered two entire shelves and I was beginning to think it was a
really stupid idea, when I gripped a handful of books and a whole facade of
fake books came off, covering a two-foot section on the shelf. 
And there
they were
.  Two dozen videotapes, most of which were labeled with
advertising or marketing titles, but some with only initials, and others with
no label at all.

“M.G.” Niki said, pulling a video off the shelf.  “Maddie
Griffin?”

He took the videotape out of its case and went over to the TV,
but there was only a DVD player.  “Let’s see if we can find a place to watch
this,” he suggested.

I would have just as soon taken it with us and gotten the hell
out of there, but he’d hear of no such thing so I didn’t even suggest it.  We
left Larry’s office and walked back down the hall, passing Maddie’s office and
a ladies restroom and found a TV with an old dual player in an executive’s
office.  I was looking around the office while Niki messed with the VCR.  He
had the TV on and was pushing all the buttons trying to get the VCR to work and
I had my back to him when I heard him exclaim, “What the fuck!”

I turned around and there he was with the remote in his hands,
and a horrified expression on his face as he watched my neighbor on the screen.

“What the fuck is she doing?” he asked, clearly unnerved by
what he was seeing.  The angle of the camera made her appear slanted on the
screen and he had his head tilted to the side to bring the picture straight up
and down.

“Damn!  That’s got to hurt,” I said.

Maddie’s shirt was opened in the front and she had these
funnel-like things with tubes coming off them that she was holding up to each
breast.  It was some kind of electric apparatus and the machine would groan and
suck her nipple down into the funnel, and it was pulling the damn things way
out of proportion.  It looked painful as hell.

“Ouch,” I said, as I watched her nipple get sucked an inch or
more into the funnel.

We were both standing there in front of the TV with our heads
tilted watching Maddie’s nipples go in and out of the funnels and we both
winced with every suck.

“What the fuck is she doing?” Niki repeated.

“It must be some kind of milking machine,” I finally realized. 
“She told me she was breastfeeding her kid.  Yeah, look . . . there’s milk in
those little bottles,” I said, pointing to the screen.

“What kind of sick bastard would come up with a milking machine
like that for a woman?” Niki asked.  “It looks like some kind of Chinese
torture machine.  It’s inhumane!”

“Well no one’s
making
her do it,” I pointed out.

We were both still watching in fascination.  It wasn’t a sexual
turn on, but more of a freak show like when you see something so bizarre that
human nature dictates that you gawk.

“Have you seen enough?” Niki asked after a couple of minutes.

“Yeah.  Turn it off.”

Niki pointed the remote at the VCR and hit stop, then he
ejected the videotape and handed it to me.

“You going to take it with you?” he asked.

“Yeah.  I don’t think Maddie would appreciate me leaving it
here.”

We walked out of the office and started back down the hall, but
Niki stopped and called me back.

“What do you make of this?” he said.  He was standing outside
the ladies restroom, but it wasn’t the same one we had passed earlier.

“What about it?”

“Well, it’s an add-on,” he said, like I was stupid not to
notice.

“Okay.  They added on a ladies restroom.  What about it?”  If
it was obvious, I sure wasn’t getting it.

“Why would they add on another ladies restroom when there’s one
right around the corner?”

Call me dense, but I didn’t think it was any big deal, and I
told him so.  He opened up the door and we both poked our heads in.  There was
only one toilet and a sink with a mirror over it.  Niki walked up to the mirror
and poked his nose right up against it, and I finally realized what he was
getting at.

“No fucking way!” I exclaimed in disbelief.

Niki laughed.  “I think your settlement figure just went up.”

We went back into the executive’s office where we had watched
the video and Niki led the way to the area that would back up to the ladies
restroom.  There was a private bath within the office and there was a built-in
cabinet attached to the wall.  Niki looked at me and smiled before he opened it
to reveal a window the size of the mirror in the ladies room with a head-on
view of the toilet.

“What a pervert,” Niki said laughing again.

I was in shock, just standing there staring at the damn toilet,
shaking my head.

“What kind of sicko gets his jollies by watching a woman take a
piss?” he asked when I hadn’t said anything.  He took out a little camera and
started snapping away.

I went back out into the office and picked up a business card
off the executive’s desk and examined it.  “He’s the damn CEO!” I exclaimed. 
My heart was racing at the thought of deposing the guy.  I was so engrossed in
the thought that I didn’t hear the door open.

“What the hell are you doing in here?” a man asked angrily.

I didn’t want to turn around because I didn’t want the guy to
see my face.  I reached into my shirt pocket and put on my shades and I pulled
my cap further down over my face.  Thank goodness Niki had already come out of
the bathroom and closed the door before the guy came in. 

“We’re with the janitorial service,” Niki said.

“If you’re with the janitorial service, then you know you have
no business being in this office,” the man said.

“We’re with quality control, and no one told us not to enter
this office,” Niki replied.

“I’m calling the police,” the man said.  He grabbed my arm and
tried to turn me around, while he reached for the phone with his other hand.

This was so typical of the kind of situation Niki would get me
into, and I was furious at myself for letting him do it to me again.  If I got
caught breaking and entering, I’d lose my law license.  And for what?  All so
that Niki Lautrec could get his thrills.

I was getting ready to turn around and gut punch the guy when
Niki stepped forward and took the phone away from the guy and told him, “That
won’t be necessary.”

In literally a split-second, the guy was unconscious, sprawled
out on the floor.  If I’d seen it in a movie, I’d have thought it was the biggest
bunch of bullshit I’d ever seen, because all he did was pinch the guy’s neck
and he dropped like a rock.  Witnessing it myself, I still couldn’t believe it.

“I guess we better go,” Niki said, as if nothing had happened.

I was shaking and my legs felt weak as we walked back down the
hall and out the front door.  I had been walking a couple of feet in front of
Niki the whole way to the car, which we had parked off the premises, and I
hadn’t said a word, but I was fuming at almost getting busted in that office
building.  We got to the car and I couldn’t hold it in any longer and I turned
around and threw a punch at him with everything I had behind it.  He didn’t see
it coming and it landed squarely against his left jaw and I saw his head jolt
back with the punch.

“Ouch!” he said, rubbing his jaw as I threw a second punch.  He
caught my hand in a grip of steel and slugged me in the gut with the other, but
he held on to me to keep me from hitting the ground.  Not only did it hurt like
hell, but it knocked the wind out of me and I was pathetically gasping for air
as he held me up.  Once I caught my breath I came in for a second round,
swinging a left-right against his chest like he was a big punching bag.

“God damnit, Collins!” he exclaimed, and he kneed me in the
stomach and then clobbered me on the head when I bent down.  I managed to get
to my knees, then put forth a last ditch effort and tackled him around the
waist and brought him down to the ground.  He landed with a thud and groaned,
and I got in a couple more good punches before he flipped me over and stood me
up with my arm twisted up behind my back.

“Are you finished?” he asked.  He said it in a really calm
voice like he was asking if I’d finished dinner or something, and it pissed me
off all over again.  Unfortunately, I was too tired to fight any more.  My head
was pounding and my knuckles were raw and my stomach hurt like hell.

“I’m finished.”

He let go of me and I shook out my arm and he rubbed his jaw
and moved it from side to side.

“Is your jaw okay?”

“My jaw’s fine, but you slugged me right where I got shot,” he
said, unbuttoning his shirt to examine his chest.

“Shot?”  I didn’t even know the guy had
been
shot.  “Are
you okay?  Let me see.”  It  was pitch dark outside, so it wasn’t like I’d be
able to see anything, but he wasn’t going to let me near him anyway.

“Get away.  I’m fine,” he said, shrugging it off.

I knew he’d tell me if he was really hurt, but I also knew he
was trying to psyche me out.  It wasn’t the first time we’d fought.  In fact, I
liked to pick fights with him because it reminded me of when I was little,
picking on kids who were bigger and meaner, just so I’d keep up my reputation
in the hood.  He’d usually let me get in a couple of punches before putting me
down, but he’d never let me really hurt him.  And not that I wanted to hurt him. 
That was the beauty of fighting Niki Lautrec.  If you didn’t know better, you’d
feel like you’d gotten in a good fight, and sometimes you’d even think that
you’d won.  It wasn’t until you got to know the guy that you realized for him
it was all a game.  The thought that I could have actually inflicted damage
caught me off guard and I felt guilty as hell for picking a fight with him for
no reason.  No reason other than his almost getting me disbarred and ruining my
entire life, that is.  Then again, he could be bullshitting about the bullet
wound, which would also be just like him to pull that on me to make me feel
guilty. 

I drove him back over to Stacy Trent’s high-rise condo and the
two of us rode the elevator up to the penthouse.  Stacy answered the door
wearing a big T-shirt and she and Niki kissed, which instantly made me think of
Landra.

“Oh my God!  What happened to you?” she said, checking out his
ripped shirt and his red jaw.  She looked over at me and I didn’t look much
better.  There were grass stains on my shirt and pants and my knuckles were red
and swollen.  “Did you hit him?” she asked, and her accusatory tone took me by
surprise.  I felt like a kindergartner who had just been caught fighting by the
teacher.

“Yeah,” I said, looking to Niki for support.  It wasn’t
forthcoming.  He was going to let me squirm under the scrutiny of his
girlfriend . . . no . . . fiancée, who launched into me like a Pit Bull.

“What the fuck is your problem?”  She turned to Niki and put
her hand to his cheek, then she started unbuttoning his shirt.  “Are you okay?”
she asked him.

She peeled his shirt back to expose a vicious purple scar that
I assumed was the bullet wound. 
So much for making it up
.

“I didn’t know,” I said lamely.

“Well, what are you doing going around fighting him, anyway.  I
thought you were supposed to be friends,” she said angrily, examining the scar.

I looked at Niki again for help and this time he burst out
laughing at the discomfort that his fiancée was inflicting on me.

“It’s not funny,” Stacy said, turning on Niki.  “He could have
really hurt you!”

“He can’t hurt me,” Niki laughed.  “We were just playing.”  He
looked over at me and said, “She’s mean as hell isn’t she?” and he picked her
up and squeezed her.

While I was in total agreement, I wasn’t about to say so.  I
knew he was baiting me again to get me in deeper trouble.  I decided to change
the subject.

“How’d you get shot anyway?”