The Taxman Killeth (15 page)

“Just stayed in bed, reading.”

“I suppose that is the truth, in
a way,” Stu chuckled. “What I don’t understand is why you’re so interested,
Amy. Perhaps this is not a personal visit but a business call for you. Did the
partners send you to check up on my whereabouts and to find out how soon I’ll
be quitting town? Is that it?”

Amy shook her head.

“I’m sorry if I appear so nosy.
I guess I was trying to come up with a friendly topic but didn’t.”

“Perhaps I should be the one to
apologize. Teddy and I have been rather sensitive about some work we’re doing
together and see enemies everywhere. Certainly a woman with those beautiful
green eyes can’t be a foe, Teddy.”

“But will she tell them about
me?” Teddy directed his question to Stu as if Amy wasn’t present.

“Perhaps if I were included in
this business you’re both doing I wouldn’t have a reason to talk to anyone.”

“You! I hardly think I need an
office manager, Amy. Right now I don’t even have an office. And, as far as doing
paralegal work, I thought you had gotten bored with it long ago; that’s why you
took your current position.” He smiled. “However, I must admit it would be
tempting to take you along.” Stu’s leer traveled the full length of her. “You
know, Teddy, if we hadn’t made that agreement, you might have had heavy
competition here.”

Teddy threw Amy a look of
disgust.

“From the looks of this room,
there appears to be plenty of work for two paralegals.”

“Forget it, Amy, I’d never be
able to duplicate your salary.”

“I don’t want a salary. I want a
piece of the action.”

At this point Stu broke out in
hysterical laughter, and Teddy stood tall with an amazed look on his face.

Amy didn’t think she was in any
danger as yet; after all, she hadn’t revealed any knowledge of their possible
connection to the murder. She had simply indicated that she knew what the law
partners knew, and she doubted that Teddy and Stu were going to bump them all
off.

Eventually Stu gained control of
his laughter.

“You are a very attractive
woman, Amy, but what you’re asking is almost akin to marriage, and unless you
were going to give me the fruits of that status in life I’m not going to split
my profits with you. How could I even be sure you’d be worth it? Unless we work
something out late this evening.”

“I’m talking a straight business
proposition, not any benefits on the side.”

“Then Teddy’s good enough for
me.”

Teddy smirked.

Had she been too hasty in
cutting him off so soon? she wondered. Perhaps he would have opened up in a
more congenial environment. But Amy knew that meant bed, and she wasn’t
interested in engaging in that activity with Stu.

“Is that the only reason you
came, Amy?”

“I’ll think about what you said.”

Stu chuckled. “You do that.” He
shook his head at Teddy.

“Is she going to report me
because she can’t join us?”

Stu looked at Amy with raised
eyebrows.

“Of course not,” she responded. “Not
if I want in. Think I’m a idiot?” She turned and headed for the door and Stu
followed.

“Here,” he said, pulling a pad
and pen out of his pocket. “I have an unlisted number. If you’d like to...
whatever. Give me a call.”

She felt as if her hand were
covered in invisible grime after he took her hand and placed the paper in it.

At home, Amy stashed the number
inside her address book then washed her hands. How had she ever gotten along so
well with Stu? He seemed totally different. She had known he had been a ladies’
man, but he had always treated her with respect. What could she expect? she
chastised herself: before today he thought she was respectable, now, after
offering to collaborate in his nefarious plans, she had lowered herself to his
rank.

The telephone rang. Todd was on
the other end.

“I’m so glad you called. It
would have been hell to have to wait until Sunday.”

“Same here. I kept thinking about
you all day, hoping you were minding your own business.”

“What happens to you is
important to me.”

“I don’t want you taking any
chances. You haven’t, have you?”

“Is that what you kept thinking
about all day?”

“Hell, no,” he said. “I couldn’t
stand being separated from you before, but after this past weekend I think I’m
going to go crazy without you.”

“Then I guess we should see each
other again. I wouldn’t want to have you committed after this is all over.”

“Honey, you’ve got me thinking
commitment’s not such a bad idea.”

A heated chill swept through Amy’s
body.

“Too bad I’m not that kind of
man,” Todd clarified.

“Yeah,” Amy sighed.

“Anyway, I wanted to make sure
you weren’t getting yourself into any trouble. Leaving Pickles alone, I hope.”

“They have Teddy working as a
go-between. Seems Pickens wants to stay as far away from me as possible.”

“The guy’s a fool. What about Stu?”

Amy prickled.

“What about him?”

“Is he gone?”

“Yeah. He left the office right
after the partners told him to vacate.”

“Good, because I don’t like the
idea of your hanging around the guy.”

“Why? You do think he’s
involved, don’t you? I have his address, but you’d better hurry and talk to him,
because he and Teddy are loading boxes with—”

“I thought you said he wasn’t in
the office anymore.”

“He isn’t.”

“You went to his home after I
told you to stay out of this.”

“They as much as admitted they
had something going on. Teddy’s afraid the partners are going to ax him next.”

“Damn it, Amy, stop making
yourself so visible. I don’t want to have to worry about what might happen to
you. Amy, listen, I’m out on the street and scrounging around for information.
Bits and pieces may be starting to fall into place, but I’ll never be able to
string it all together if you’re a distraction. Please, go to work, do your job,
as you did before you knew me.”

“How can I, when I’m terrified
of what might become of you?”

“I need all my brain power to
work this one out. I can’t be wondering what trouble you’re getting into.”

“Okay. Okay. But will you at
least take Stu’s address?”

Todd did, reluctantly. Somehow
his instincts were telling him it was a useless detour. He got her to
grudgingly promise not to go near Stu, or to question Teddy. He hoped she didn’t
come up with another suspect to harass.

Chapter 16

The Male Mata Hari

Amy lay back in her bed and
reviewed the cast of characters. Stu and Teddy were prime suspects. Pickens
might know something but was certainly not the ringleader type. More likely he
had been used to set Todd up. She remembered how Pickens had asked to work with
Teddy. Pickens was low on the list but not crossed-off. Most of the other
people in the office hadn’t even had contact with Todd, except for Trudy, and
she was too ditzy to be involved in such a complicated crime. Outside the office
there was Jennie, Todd’s sister. Amy totally wiped her name from her list of
potential perpetrators. Jennie’s husband, Michael, was a bad breed, but he had
no connection with her office. Besides, his brain was probably the size of a
pea. There was someone she was forgetting. She counted the people on her
fingers. Her voice resounded in the darkened bedroom. Roger Davidson’s name
sprang to her lips.

The next morning Amy called in
sick. Both Teddy and Pickens would probably be relieved not to have to walk
giant circles around her.

She spent a portion of the
morning completing tasks that had been put off. Then she took a cable car to
Roger Davidson’s office building. When she got off the elevator, she noticed
the same piece of paper taped to the wall directing her to Davidson’s office.
The paper was a bit wilted and extra tape had been added to keep it from
completely curling up. The chalk mark on the door was smudged and almost
unreadable, but she immediately recognized the place when she opened the door.

Row on row of desks stood before
her. Near where Roger sat was a vacated desk chair. She marched back and swept
the rolling chair over to Roger Davidson’s desk. When he looked up at her, she
thought his already pallid face had blanched a lighter shade.

“I told you I know nothing.”

Amy sat down and stared at him.

“I shouldn’t even be speaking to
you, Miss...”

“Amy Simpson.”

“Miss Simpson.” He pulled his
eye glasses off and dropped them on top of a folder he had just closed. “Did he
send you again?”

“No. I’m worried about him.”

“Don’t be. Stay away from him.
Forget anything he may have told you.”

“Mr. Davidson, I’m not giving
up.” Amy heard a throat clear behind her. Evidently the owner of the chair was
back from her break. The woman was middle-aged going on one hundred. She wore
sensible shoes, baggy stockings, and a black loose-fitting dress. A pair of
1950’s style eyeglass frames hung around her neck. The only thing missing was a
bun on top of her head. Instead her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, stretching
the skin on the sides of her face. Amy couldn’t tell what color the woman’s
eyes were, since they were shrouded by make-up-free lashes into a squint. A
stain of lipstick barely covered the woman’s thin lips.

Roger immediately suggested that
he and Amy go to lunch. He reached into his bottom desk drawer and pulled out a
brown paper bag, and Amy carefully rolled the chair back to the woman’s desk
and heard a strident tsk as she and Roger departed.

He wouldn’t speak until they
reached a small park. There he dusted a bench with a pocket handkerchief and
invited Amy to sit down.

“I always bring extra for
afternoon break,” he said, offering her a triangularly cut sandwich.

“No, thank you.”

“Are you sure? I can run out at
three and pick up some fruit at the deli.”

“No, really. I had a late
breakfast; I’m not hungry yet.”

Roger unwrapped the triangle. It
looked like some sort of dried-out white meat trapped between two slices of
dark whole-wheat bread. There didn’t seem to be any lettuce or mayonnaise. No
frills.

“The police are still looking
for Todd.”

He nodded, chewing the bite he
had just taken.

“I’d like to be able to tell him
something the next time he calls.”

Shocked, Roger looked directly
into her face for the first time that day. “I don’t want to hear this, Miss...”

“Amy.”

“Shh! I’m forgetting your name
as a favor to you. I think you’ve been tricked into helping the man. He’s
always been attractive to women. It’s not hard for him to get them to fall for
his lines and cooperate. He was useful like that.”

Amy felt very small. Todd had
admitted that he had initially asked her to dinner in order to have access to
the firm’s files. But when she recalled his heavenly strokes, she refused to
accept that she wasn’t any different from the rest.

“He had a way of making women
feel special,” Roger continued. “That’s how you feel, don’t you?”

He was reading her mind or her
expression. Amy looked down at the ground.

“He was our male Mata Hari. And
I have no doubt that he enjoyed the job. Joey used to wish Todd’s charisma would
rub off on him. But Joey had his special purpose.”

“And what was that?”

“Guess it doesn’t matter if I
tell you now. He was a specialist in low-life.”

“I’ve been to some of the bars
he frequented.”

Amy sensed Roger move a hair’s
breadth away from her. She looked up at his non-expressive face to respond.

“I wanted to see if I could
collect some information that might help Todd.”

“Miss, ordinarily I wouldn’t
bother talking to you. But given the fact that you’ll no doubt hound me if I
don’t, plus the fact that you look like a nice person, I’ll warn you against
having anything to do with Todd Coleman.”

“Why? Someone has to help him
out of this situation. You refuse, after sending him into this mess.”

“Me? I didn’t send him anywhere.”

“Okay. Todd told me that it was
some contact that only Joey knew.”

“Initially I felt sorry for Todd
and I asked around. There was no job. Todd made the whole thing up.”

“That can’t be. Obviously it was
too much of a secret to share with you.”

“I may not look the part, but I’m
fairly high-up and trusted. They would have told me, and they would have used
me as the contact. Joey and Todd both got their directions from me. No one
else.”

“This is a cover-up, isn’t it?
The plan didn’t succeed, so now you’re abandoning him. He told me you would.”

“Coleman told you that because
he knows there was no assignment. Don’t let him make a fool of you. I’m
surprised he’s still in town.”

“Todd wants to find Joey’s
killer.”

“He is the killer.” Amy was
about to deny that statement when Roger interrupted her. “It took me a long
time to come to that conclusion. I had liked him. Knew him and Joey were close.
I often thought they were too close to be working together. Maybe something
went sour between them. There’s a hint of some illegal dealings. We found out
Joey was deeply in debt and was ready to do whatever he could to save himself,
including cheating his partner.”

“They had a small export
business.”

“It was what they were importing
that caught some officials’ eyes.”

“Illegal aliens?”

“Drugs.”

“You’re wrong!” Amy’s voice was
raised and crackling with emotion.

“Quiet. I’m doing you a favor.”

“No! You’re lying!”

“His brother-in-law was a heavy
hitter on the drug scene a few years ago.”

“And he stopped dealing when
Todd threatened to report him to the authorities.”