Equivocal Death (46 page)

gotten her?
Never try to explain.
Well, fuck that. Right now, she was 26

going to explain. And Martin Drescher was going to listen.

27

“Perhaps I wasn’t clear,” Kate said. Her heart beat hard in her 28

chest, a caged animal trying to get out. “Chuck Thorpe didn’t just 29

grope me, as you put it. He staged an attack. He ambushed me.

30

When I walked into my office Monday night, I was grabbed by a 31

stranger, forced up against the wall, and sexually assaulted. I —”

32

Kate broke off, overwhelmed by a flood of feeling. For a terrible 33

moment, she thought she was going to cry. She sat silently for a 34 sh

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moment, her hands curled around the edge of her chair. She wasn’t 2

going to break down. Not here. Not in front of Martin Drescher.

3

Drescher shifted in his seat, a smile playing on his lips. He 4

seemed to be enjoying himself. Kate felt a futile surge of rage.

5

“Ms. Paine, I might as well relieve you of your concerns about 6

Chuck Thorpe. The things that you allege are, of course, repre-7

hensible and will be investigated. But Chuck Thorpe did not kill 8

Madeleine Waters. What I’m about to tell you will soon be public 9

knowledge. But I’d appreciate it if you’d keep it confidential until 10

then.”

11

Almost imperceptibly, Kate nodded. Something in Drescher’s 12

expression told her that she didn’t want to hear what he was going 13

to say. She had an irrational desire to stop him. To walk out of the 14

room. To put her fingers in her ears and talk loudly to herself as she 15

had as a very small child, trying to shut out the frightening sounds 16

of her parents arguing. Instead, she sat unmoving in her chair, a 17

prisoner waiting to be sentenced.

18

“Carter Mills, as you know, killed himself,” Drescher said.

19

“What you don’t know, what we only just learned this morning, is 20

that the gun he used was the same gun used to kill Madeleine Wa-21

ters.”

22

Drescher gave Kate a meaningful look. Feeling his eyes on her, 23

she willed herself to stay calm. Her face felt frozen solid, her fea-24

tures carved in ice. But behind the veneer, her brain was scream-25

ing.
It can’t be true. It can’t be.
At the same time, she knew that it 26

was. If Carter’s suicide weapon was the gun used to kill Madeleine, 27

then he must have killed Madeleine, too. A Latin phrase leapt into 28

her mind, a rule of evidence she’d learned in school.
Res ipsa
29

loquitur.
The thing speaks for itself. No wonder Drescher seemed 30

so smug.

31

Unless . . .

32

A saving question flashed through Kate’s mind:
Why should she
33

believe Martin Drescher?
He could be making this up. Or at least ex-ort 34

aggerating. Perhaps it was just the same
type
of gun, and Drescher reg 35

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subtle easing of tension. The fact was she didn’t know anything for 1

sure. Except that she’d heard enough.

2

“Well, I guess that’s everything.” Standing up from her chair, 3

Kate carefully smoothed down her skirt. Now that she was on her 4

feet, it came almost to her knees. Then, without saying good-bye, 5

she turned and walked from the room.

6

7

8

Back in her office, Kate still felt rattled, disturbed by her talk with 9

Drescher. Her brief bout of hopefulness had faded, and she could 10

feel depression setting in. While she didn’t know that Drescher 11

was telling the truth, she couldn’t prove that he wasn’t. The mere 12

possibility that what he’d said was true was too upsetting to con-13

sider. She felt angry at Drescher, angry at herself, angry at the situ-14

ation. She decided to do some filing. Maybe the process of ordering 15

her office would help bring order to her mind.

16

For some time, Kate worked steadily on autopilot. She could feel 17

herself calming down. Then she found herself gazing at a thin stack 18

of papers held together with a binder clip. A set of WideWorld Me-19

dia’s legal bills. What was it doing here? With a start, she realized 20

what she was looking at. The bills from Madeleine’s file. These 21

were the photocopies she’d made the night she was trapped under 22

Drescher’s desk. She’d meant to tell Carter Mills that Drescher had 23

taken the file. But with everything that had happened, the whole 24

thing had slipped her mind.

25

Unsure of what to do next, she glanced over the top sheet in the 26

stack. A bill for June 1996. And at the bottom of the page, a sig-27

nature. J. Carter Mills. She stared at the sheet a minute then 28

flipped to the next page. Another bill. Kate was about to put the 29

stack aside, when she noticed that the page bore the same date as 30

the previous bill. But the amount at the bottom was different. Kate 31

flipped back to the first page, checking to be sure she’d read it right.

32

June 1996. A bill for $87,000. Then back to the next page. June 33

1996, definitely the same date. But this time the bill was much 34 sh

higher, totaling $108,750.

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Strange. She placed the first two sheets side by side. Then she 2

turned to the next page. July 1996. A bill for $94,000. And after 3

that, another bill for the same month. But here the billed amount 4

had jumped to $117,500. Quickly, Kate paged forward, examining 5

the bills one by one. There was a full year’s worth of bills in the 6

stack, each one in duplicate. And in each case, the second bill was 7

larger than the first.

8

Much larger, in fact.

9

Like an animal sensing a distant storm, Kate felt herself growing 10

uneasy. Again, she looked at the two June bills lying side by side on 11

her desk. Line by line, she compared them. For the most part, the 12

two bills matched. Legal services. Travel. Research. The dollar 13

amounts were the same.

14

Then she came to a single entry.
Special Services.
$21,750.

15

Glancing back to the first bill, Kate saw no sign of this category.

16

She moved ahead to the two July bills. Again, the charges tal-17

lied perfectly. Except for a single entry.

18

Special Services.
$23,500.

19

Kate didn’t want to think what she was thinking. But she 20

couldn’t help herself. She reached for a calculator and punched in 21

a couple of numbers. Then, flipping to the next set of bills, she re-22

peated the calculation. Over and over, until she’d been through 23

the entire stack. In each case, the result was the same. The amount 24

charged to Special Services was twenty-five percent of the base 25

amount.

26

When the phone rang, Kate picked it up without thinking, still 27

staring at the papers on her desk.

28

“Hello. Kate?” The male voice was hesitant.

29

“Speaking.” Kate glanced at caller ID, but the number was unfa-30

miliar.

31

“It’s Douglas. Douglas Macauley.”

32

“Oh. Hi.” It seemed like a lifetime since she’d seen him.

33

Vaguely, Kate remembered that she’d promised to call. But the ort 34

thought barely registered now.

reg 35

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you must be going through. I know you probably don’t want to 1

talk. But if you need anything, please let me know.”

2

“Actually, I’m okay.”

3

A long silence from the other end.

4

“Look,” Douglas finally said. “This may not be the best time, but 5

I was hoping we could have dinner this weekend. It might be good 6

for you to get away.”

7

“Sorry, I really can’t.” She stared at the bills spread out on her 8

desk. Numbers danced in her head.

9

“Maybe another night?”

10

Why? Why had he done it? Why would a man with every advan-11

tage — wealth, brilliance, professional regard — risk it all for some
12

two-bit financial scam?

13

“Yeah. Okay. I’m just really tied up right now.”

14

“Well, what about coffee? We could meet near your office. I 15

could —”

16

“Listen, I’ve got another call I need to take. I’ll be in touch, 17

okay?”

18

Before he could answer, she’d hung up.

19

Special Services.
A twenty-five percent add-on. She was surprised 20

at how clear-headed she felt. Almost matter-of-fact. Carter Mills 21

had been a crook. And Madeleine Waters had known.
I think she
22

knew something about him, something that would hurt his career.

23

That’s what Sam Howell had said. And now it was clear what that 24

was. At the time, she’d thought Howell was crazy. But she’d been 25

the one with delusions.

26

A knock on the door. As Kate shoved the photocopies into a 27

drawer, Dave Bosch entered the room. Kate stared at the young 28

partner dizzily, still reeling from what she’d uncovered. Was Bosch 29

here to give her an assignment? That would be just like Samson & 30

Mills.
Feel free to take some time off, but hey, as long as you’re sticking
31

around, might as well bill some hours.

32

But that wasn’t it after all. “I just spoke with Martin Drescher.

33

He thinks you should take some time off. I agree. We have enough 34 sh

other bodies on the team for now.”

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Enough other bodies.
An unfortunate choice of words. But Bosch 2

didn’t seem to notice. He was looking at her expectantly, waiting 3

for a response. Why was he so eager to get rid of her? Was it some-4

thing Drescher had said? Or something that she had done? Perhaps 5

her impolitic response to the Danbury case. Or was it just the gen-6

eral tendency to confuse proximity with cause, as if her discovery 7

of Mills’s body made Kate somehow responsible for his death.

8

Whatever the reason, Bosch clearly wanted her gone.

9

Kate stood up from her desk. “Actually,” she said, “I was just go-10

ing home.”

11

Bosch seemed relieved. “If there’s anything we can do . . .” The 12

words trailed off. “Take as much time as you need. Within reason, 13

of course.”

14

Of course.

15

After Bosch left the room, Kate quickly collected her coat. On 16

her way out the door, she stopped to check her office mailbox.

17

There was one piece of paper inside, a memorandum from the part-18

ners of Samson & Mills.

19

A private service for J. Carter Mills was scheduled for tomorrow 20

at 10 a.m.

21

All firm employees were invited.

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

ort 34

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Tuesday, January 19

1

2

The alarm went off at eight. Kate swung her feet out of bed and 3

went to the door for the
Times.
Quickly, she flipped through the 4

pages. LEADING LAWYER’S DEATH CALLED SUICIDE. Bit-5

ing her lip, she read the short piece straight through. Martin 6

Drescher was quoted, along with Detective Mike Glaser. Accord-7

ing to both, Mills had ended his life with a .38-caliber revolver.

8

There had been a note with the body, but its contents were not dis-9

closed. Drescher’s only comment was a vehement assertion that 10

Mills’s suicide had nothing to do with Samson & Mills. “The note 11

made clear that Mr. Mills’s regrettable decision to end his life was 12

due to personal concerns. All of us at Samson & Mills are devas-13

tated by this tragic event.”

14

w

15

Sun glinted through the windows of the Upper East Side church.

16

The altar was laden with flowers. But the propriety of the setting 17 sh

only underscored the strangeness of the scene. Eulogists rushed 18 re

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through their speeches. Mills’s family was conspicuously absent. A 2

weird giddiness infused the proceedings, a certain sense of collu-3

sion. People knew what their neighbors were thinking, but they 4