Beyond Blue (14 page)

Linda looked around the office for what she knew would be the last time. She had never quit a job without giving plenty of notice before, and this too felt funny. Sure, Mr. Jerome might have people looking for her now, but he wasn't really a bad boss to her. He paid well, complimented her on her work, and had given her a nice Christmas bonus. Mr. Steele and Mr. Mason had told her to
hurry, but they also said they'd be right outside and there was nothing to worry about. Maybe she could take care of that unfinished correspondence before she left.

No. What was she thinking? She should find the book, get it and get out of there before something went wrong. And she would, after she took care of one thing. As quickly as she could, she ran to the powder room, filled the water can, and watered all the plants. That should hold them for a while.

Now Linda felt as if she could get down to business. She sat behind her reception desk and began emptying the lower left drawer. Beneath all her office supplies lay a false bottom, which she could just tip up with her fingernails. Beneath that false bottom lay a plain green ledger book, very similar to the record book Steele and Stone already had. Of course, this was the one that would make the information there make sense. Feeling both relief and guilt, Linda laid the book on her desk and opened it, just to verify that her memory was true. Yes, there they lay, those odd little squiggles that would soon translate into jail time or worse for one crooked lawyer.

The sound of a key in the lock froze her in place. Her heart rate tripled and her hands locked down on the book as if to keep her world from spinning out of control. While she stared at the door it opened inward, and Irv Jerome stepped into the office. He wore khakis and a golf shirt, as if he had stopped off on his way to the links. She might have believed that if not for the three muscle men who followed him in.

“Putting in a little extra time, Ms. Perry?” Jerome asked through his movie star smile. “I imagine you might be hanging around a little longer than you expected.”

Amy Brooks looked for all the world like a typical fourteen-year-old girl. She wore run down sneakers and the popular baggy jeans under a jacket that seemed to be
made of parachute silk. She had her mother's blond hair, only worn in a straight and unflattering style. They were her mother's facial features too, except that Amy's face was makeup free. She walked with that slightly awkward gait that young girls have when they've recently sprouted longer legs and arms. She seemed a little taller than her age would imply, but that was probably because of her thin frame. She had her mother's trim figure, except that no breasts had begun to sprout yet.

Chastity could relate to that. She had lived through that torturous period. Even in that way, Amy seemed typical. Of course, that was the view from the windows of Chastity's Mazda MX-5. She wondered what it was like up close. She also wondered where Amy was going on an early autumn Sunday morning. In some neighborhoods she would be an attractive target for the predators. Here, she wore her innocence like a shield, oblivious to just how safe she really was because she had no idea that she was being followed.

The powder blue Mazda rolled gently in first gear. Chastity pulled to the curb fifty yards ahead of Amy and powered down her window. As Amy came even with the car, Chastity whistled to her.

“Hey, Amy, what you up to, girl?”

Amy stopped, startled but not frightened. She crouched just a little to stare into the window. She seemed to recognize the Asian lady in the powder blue jogging suit that matched her sports car.

“It's me, Chastity. Remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” Amy smiled. “My mom's friend. You were at the hospital, right? Cool car!”

Chastity nodded and returned the smile. “It's cold out. You need a lift somewhere?”

Amy thought for a moment. “Not really. I'm not going anywhere in particular, just, you know, walking.”

“I get it. Well, how about riding instead? And maybe a soda or something?” When Amy hesitated, Chastity held
up her cell phone. “I'll give your mom a call so she won't be worried or anything, okay?”

As Amy's eyes moved back and forth Chastity thought she knew exactly what the girl was weighing in her mind. Solitude? Or loneliness? Time to think? Or a chance to talk? Chastity knew better than to say a word to try to sway her and, ultimately, Amy nodded again and opened the car door.

“It is a little warmer in here,” Amy said, settling into the car seat.

In the furnace room, it was downright hot. Ruby felt perspiration burst from her skin as she heard Rafe's footsteps coming down into the basement. The light coming in under the furnace room door told her that she couldn't go out. What the hell was he doing up? Had she been gone that long?

Rafe called her name a few more times and she could follow him around the basement with her hearing. Finally he approached her. Ruby held her breath as he gripped the doorknob. If he suspected her, he would give the furnace room a pretty thorough search.

“Quit playing around, girl,” Rafe said. As it turned out he just opened the door, stuck his head in, and closed it again.

He couldn't see her of course, stretched out flat on the hard floor covered by the folded canopy and vinyl deck chairs. The dust on the floor tickled her nose, but Ruby knew that a sneeze right then would be totally unacceptable. She had been lucky, she knew. The pieces of yard furniture on top of her must look pretty much the way they did before she burrowed under them.

Now came the really hard part. The furnace started again, offering cover noise. Very slowly, she pulled herself out from under cover and crouched at the door. She had to get past him, draw his attention away from the basement
entirely, and keep him from ever thinking she might have been searching his house. Step one was to make sure the little Ziploc bag was hidden deep in her robe pocket. Step two was to drop the robe belt, allowing it to flow around her. Step three was for Ruby to grasp and slowly turn the doorknob, knees loose and ready for action.

She slowly eased the door open a crack. Rafe was walking toward the far wall, his back to her. This would probably be her only chance to get past him. Ruby took a deep breath, then a second and, with the third she stepped through the door, silently closed it behind her, and sprinted hard for the staircase. Her dark glistening body was chilled by evaporation, but she didn't have time to think about that.

Rafe would hear her rapid footsteps, she knew, but surprise would slow his reactions. In her mind's eye she could see him turning, his attention drawn to where she had been rather than where she was going. If the timing went the way she envisioned, he would have caught a flashing glimpse of her robe flying behind her and even a glimpse of her bare behind just as she reached the top landing. The hardest thing at this point was to force the small touch that would sell her later story. She managed a playful giggle as she reached the ground floor.

Without breaking her stride, Ruby dashed for the black leather sofa in the family room and snatched her purse from the cushion as she dived behind the couch. Breathing with her mouth open to reduce the sound, she divided her attention between listening for Rafe's footsteps and shoving the plastic bag into her purse. Shortly she heard him walk past. He was no longer calling her name. She hoped that was not an indication of anger. After a few seconds of indecision, she heard him head for the stairs. Around the corner of the sofa she watched him go upstairs. He had chosen a silk robe.

Ruby was feeling a little silly, and a little cold as well. It was time to get Rafe's attention, and she had a plan for warming up as well. After a slow ten count, she moved to
the stairs in typically silent fashion. Half way to the second floor she purposely tripped, thumped her knee on a step and moaned, “Ow! Damn it!” in a loud stage whisper. Then she continued, but at the top of the stairs she came face to face with Rafe who was only a few yards down the hall.

“Oops!” she said in her usual loud squeak, flashed a broad grin, and scampered back down the stairs. With Rafe panting at her heels she scrambled back to the basement stairs. At the bottom of the stairs she panted as if exhausted, and slowed until Rafe's arms wrapped around her. She had positioned herself well, so that when he spun her around, her back was to the pool table.

“Now what the hell was that all about, chica?” Rafe snapped, grasping Ruby's wrist. His face held a mixture of confusion, irritation and surprise.

“Just a little hide and seek, sugar,” Ruby said, breathing more heavily than necessary. Her generous breasts were rising and falling in a way that periodically distracted Rafe from her chocolate brown eyes. “I wondered if you'd hear me leave my room. Then I wanted to see if you'd even come looking for me. And I wanted to see if you could even find me in this big old house. And now that you have, well, I guess you get the hidden prize.”

“The prize?” That was all Rafe had time to say before Ruby pressed her mouth over his. She pulled her arms backward and raised her legs around Rafe's waist, causing their balance to tip so that Rafe was pushing her back onto the pool table.

“Hey, is somebody down there?”

Hector's call from the top of the stairs was enough to start Ruby giggling, and Rafe quickly added his laugh.

“I didn't realize that you were so ambitious, Ms. Perry,” Irv Jerome said, standing at the front of Linda's desk and staring down at her. He seemed to be enjoying her discomfort. “I naturally want to know exactly why you're here so early on a Sunday morning. But since we are all here, and you haven't officially tendered your resignation, why don't you make us a nice pot of fresh coffee?”

Linda had never realized how menacing Jerome could be. He never raised his voice, but there was an edge to it that made her shiver. Of course, having Doc, Frankie and Psycho standing there behind him didn't make her any more confident. Any one of them could snap her neck like a twig. But she saw that Jerome wanted to play, and Linda needed time, so she forced a smile and headed for the coffeepot.

One door down and across the hall, Rico Steele's face was glowing red under his thatch of blond hair.

“We got to get in there now,” he said through clenched teeth. “There's no telling what they'll do to her. That guy's a nut case. And you know those three bruisers will blame her for the ass-whooping we gave them.”

“Got to be cool, partner,” Stone said, hands deep in his pockets as if to counter Steele who was waving his gun around and pacing like a madman. “I hate to leave her with those goons as much as you do, but you know damn well that if we go busting in there, guns blazing, they'll kill her
on the spot. Let's give it a minute. They'll want to take her somewhere else to do the deed.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Steele said, pacing toward, then away from Stone. “Unless they don't think that far ahead. Unless Jerome can't control that guy Psycho. Unless they plan to just slap her around or rape her first.”

“Not likely,” Stone said, one eye on the door's peephole. He had replaced the one they found there with a reversed lens that gave them a broad view of the hallway. Through it they had seen Jerome and his crew enter the office.

Steele stopped his pacing for a moment, and stood staring into his partner's ebony face.

“You sound so sure. So what if it was Sherry in there. Huh?”

“If it was Sherry in there, you know damn well we wouldn't be having this conversation, 'cause I'd already be all shot up across the hall. But luckily, it isn't Sherry, and I got my head on straight, and we're gonna wait until we see how this all plays out. Look, Rico, the girl's no dummy, I figured that much out yesterday. Give her a chance to come up with a play, and I'm betting she squirms out from under them guys.”

“You think she's that slick, eh?” Steele asked.

“Rico, she's from Jersey.”

Linda played Suzie Homemaker as best she could, pouring and handing over cups of coffee with shaking hands. She knew Jerome just wanted to make her squirm before he lowered the boom on her, but she wasn't about to let him think he had her rattled. When she was finished with coffee service she returned to her desk and waited. Jerome pulled a visitor's chair up to the desk, sipped from his cup and smiled.

“You still make a good pot of coffee, Ms. Perry. I hate to see you go.”

“Well, it wasn't really working out anyway, not after the
three stooges here accused me of letting those cops in here. I know they blamed me, but I swear to you I didn't do it. They broke in some other way while I was gone to look after Danny.”

“I see,” Jerome said after another big gulp of coffee. “And are you going to deny that you took my ledger with you when you ran?” His smile and his courtroom voice chilled her. It was as if he was setting her up on the witness stand.

“Yes, I took it. I was scared, you know? Didn't know what to do, but I thought having that book might give me a little protection.”

Jerome rested his chin on a hand. “Sure, that makes sense. But then you come sneaking back in here this morning. That's rather incriminating, don't you think?”

“Yeah, well, who knew you were such an early riser? How did you even know I was here? I can't believe that security clown downstairs recognized me.”

“Not likely. But I did tell them to keep watch for your pass card being used. You see I knew you'd be back and that was the only way you could get in. I wanted to see you again, see? But you weren't at home. Where were you last night?”

Doc had stepped behind Linda, and she could feel his hot breath on her scalp as if at any moment he might open up and bite her head off. She thought about his fight with Rico and how mad he must be about the outcome. She looked into Irv Jerome's eyes, searching for a sign of compassion.

“Mr. Jerome, with all due respect, you know I hid to keep my boy safe. And you know I won't give up my son. Not for anything.”