5 Alive After Friday (25 page)

T
hree
days had passed. Prowling around West Palm Beach, chasing bad guys and
retrieving their money seemed light years away. Sandy and Martin sat in their
quiet law office in Park Beach. She at her desk and he in the classic
overstuffed brown leather armchair in front of her. She said, “I can’t believe
you’re in the office and not wearing a suit and tie.”

“I can’t believe we’re in our office at all on a
Sunday morning,” he said. “From the looks of things, we might need to start
working seven days a week. Do you believe the phone calls the last two days? I
spoke with the police beat reporter for the Palm Beach Post who was at the
scene Thursday night. He wanted our names and business card and told me there
would be a big spread in today’s paper. He made it sound as though we were
living one of those buddy-movies together. He said the AP will certainly pick
up the story and go national with it.”

“Bring it on. It all started Friday night. And all
those calls yesterday were just from word-of-mouth. One call was from a
personal injury lawyer in Des Moines wanting to refer a case. Imagine what
happens when we hit the national news.”

“We’re going to need office help in here and
perhaps more lawyers. I took the liberty of calling my friend at the Office
Temp service. I told her we needed someone in here to handle the phones
starting tomorrow. Was that okay?”

“Fine, Martin. I went a step further. Do you
remember Linda Call, used to be a local reporter? I phoned her late last night.
Told her to get down here ASAP for an interview. I want you to meet her. If you
like her, she’s a take-charge no-nonsense gal who would be good at managing our
operation.” She made the thumbs up signal. “Do you think we can afford her?”

“Last month we couldn’t. Next month we can. I’ve
met Linda. Call her back and tell she has the job.”

“Lean back and put your feet up on the desk like
this.” The problems were gone. They had conquered the world.

“Someone might come in.”

“Just for a minute. I want to see you relaxed like
this.”

Reluctantly, he put his feet up on the desk.

She clasped her hands behind her head. “Don’t we
look like a couple of big shots? If you stuck a cigar in your mouth right now,
you’d look ready to run for Mayor.” She took a deep breath. “I feel alive. I
feel like shouting. That’s it, Martin, it’s all over but the shouting. Have you
ever shouted in your entire life?”

“I do feel relaxed.” He slowly took his feet back off
her desk. “And nice to see you smiling. We should go celebrate. It’s a
beautiful day. Have a picnic or something.”

“We could go to the beach. Hey, how about that?”
she suggested.

“It’s been some time since I’ve actually been in
the ocean...the pool at home, you know.”

“I know but the ocean’s different, will you go
with me?”

He was slightly flustered and sat up quickly to
cover it. Seeing her in a swimsuit? He enjoyed that thought. “Going to the
beach would be nice. I know we have to go back down to West Palm to give depositions
one of these days, when they get everything sorted out. But yes, we should take
the day off while we still can.”

“We should have caught on earlier who Jane was,”
she said.

“Talk about missing clues,” he recalled. “Looking
back, I see that Jane must have been a local person, otherwise she wouldn’t
have known about the Lover’s footbridge over a dry creek in Lagoon Park, or
that Chip was your lover.”

“True, but she was careful not to call him ‘Chip’,
when I was abducted. She referred to him as ‘That Detective’. So, I didn’t
think anything of it,” she explained. “Also I wondered why she didn’t come over
and speak to me at the service for Chip. Now, I’m guessing she didn’t want me
to hear her voice. In any case, the perfect timing was a big clue. Whoever was
Jane had to know the exact period of time that money would available in my
bank. Vicki Susane knew, because she had just handed you the big check in
settlement of our lawsuit. Another day or so, I’d be writing checks right and
left, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t have put my two
hundred grand back together again in one place.”

“She must have been desperate for money.”

She nodded. “Mel told me she’d stolen around a
third of a million from her clients’ escrow accounts and needed to replace the
money, before it became known. She thought up the kidnap and extortion scheme
thinking it would go off smoothly. She knew we had the money available from the
lawsuit payoff and figured I’d pay up rather than risk Chip’s life. No one would
get hurt. But she needed someone to strong-arm me. She remembered Cal Boyd, the
unruly young guy she once cleared of an assault charge, knew that he’d moved to
West Palm and offered him a ton of money to play Dick. She didn’t need to go
half with him, probably offered him forty or fifty grand.”

“I’m still shocked that she’d do such a thing,” he
said, thinking back to the night with Vicki that began with martinis at The
Club, on the barrier island in Park Beach.

“You don’t know her well enough to be shocked.” She
didn’t know why that statement caused him to frown. “At one time, I’d tagged
either Myra or Tonya for Jane, but should have crossed them off the list much
sooner. Both were in love with Boyd, which should have been a clue considering
how Jane acted toward him. Back in the Everglades, when Boyd had me on my knees
and was suggestively moving my head, Myra or Tonya would have reacted badly, if
their boyfriend were touching another woman like that. Instead, Jane merely scolded
him like a person with no romantic interest in him. A person such as Vicki.”

“Looks as though you’ll be testifying at Gail
Holman’s murder trial. I had a couple of drinks with her and spent half an
evening in her apartment. I know she really wanted that condo and thought she
deserved it. You think Myra told her Boyd was going for the money?”

“Yes, although, Myra knew nothing about the
abduction-extortion she told Gail that Boyd was bragging about getting paid big
money in Park Beach. So, Gail gets the bright idea to follow him up there. She
even asked Brad Powell to go with her. But people who don’t wear skirts don’t
interest Brad.”

“I guess she felt she couldn’t just rob him,
otherwise she’d always be looking over her shoulder. You caught her red handed
in the storage cage with the payoff money, but that doesn’t prove she shot him.”

“Detective Dominic told me she’s a goner,” she
said. “Remember the gun Myra found in the couch and Ryan put it in his office
safe thinking it was Boyd’s—the gun they later determined was used to kill Boyd?
Gail had to have planted that gun in Myra’s house to throw suspicion on Myra
and get her in trouble for screwing up her brother’s life. Anyway, Dominic
found Gail’s fingerprints, not on the gun, but on the bullet clip she touched
when loading the gun.”

He picked up on it, “So at that point, Boyd’s dead
and Vicki is out the money. She knew that Boyd lived in West Palm and figured he
had to have told someone about going up to Park Beach for the money-drop—most likely
his girlfriend, Myra. So, it was Vicki who was searching the house, when Myra
interrupted her. I can’t believe she’d just shoot Myra.”

“You always believe the best about women. Could be
Vicki searches but can’t find the money. She points the gun at Myra who is
pleading for her life and screaming that she doesn’t know anything about any
money. At some point, Myra remembers that she told Gail about Boyd going to
Park Beach to get a bunch of money. So, she confesses to Vicki that Gail knew
about the money-drop. They struggle and somehow, Myra gets shot. Then Vicki
goes after Gail.”

“So, Tonya and Myra were innocent in all this,” he
added. “Except Myra had a mid-life crisis and embezzled money to keep Boyd
interested in her.”

“I’ll bet she’d have received nothing more than
probation with zero jail time by simply promising to pay her employer back.”

“What will become of Ryan?”

“He phoned me. His business is saved and has really
taken off. He landed a contract with a large southeastern bank that has
eighteen branch offices. He’s going to do all new landscaping for them. Right
now he’s busy hiring more workers.” She said. “You wouldn’t know anything about
that would you?”

“I gave his card to a friend. From then on it was
up to Ryan.”

“You just gave his card to a friend and rainbows
suddenly filled the sky. Amazing.”

He returned her smile. “The bank had to use
someone for their landscaping. It might as well be him.”

“So, everything seems to be taken care of and tied
up with a lovely pink ribbon.” In the back of her mind a small concern remained,
and she said. “You know, I wondered why Vicki came after me for a lousy four
hundred grand, when she could have picked on you for millions.”

“Might be she needed the money fast. According to
Mel, a few hundred thousand was all she needed to replace the missing escrow
funds.”

“So, you’re saying this wasn’t about greed. She
just had to correct a slight misallocation of funds. Geez, she held a gun to my
head!”

“You were blindfolded. You’re not certain who was
behind holding that gun to your head. Anyway, I don’t believe Vicki would pull
the trigger on you.”

“She pulled the trigger on Myra and was ready to
shoot Gail dead.”

“True, but Vicki’s original plan didn’t require
anyone getting hurt. She pays off Boyd and they walk off into the night. Then her
plan starts going terribly wrong, when Gail butts in and screws up everything.
She shoots Boyd to get the money, brings the money back to West Palm thereby
getting Myra fatally involved and shot.”

“Stop making excuses for Vicki! She must have
really made an impression on you, when you two got together for that drink.”

Martin’s night with Vicki, which began with
martinis in the lounge at The Club, was scorched into his memory. He thought of
her long ash-blond hair and cool blue-green eyes. Her charming stoicism and
good-natured cynicism, and her laughter at dinner later in the Blue Room. He
remembered those cool blue-green eyes looking up at him, her long smooth legs
wrapped tightly around his waist and her unhurried rocking movement tossing her
ash-blond hair across the pillow.

After a minute, he said, “Believe me I’m very
disappointed in Vicki Susane. What she did was horribly wrong. She’s a murderer
and should be punished.”

“None of that answers the question that remains in
my mind,” Sandy said. “Why did she target poor me for the four hundred grand
instead of wealthy you for millions?”

“Perhaps, she had other plans in mind for me,” he
said.

He seemed to be deep into that thought. She took
her feet down off the desk and straightened in her chair. “And what are the
possibilities in store for Martin Bronner, pray tell?”

He began, “As you know, by an accident of birth I
wasn’t born into the real world. I don’t live there, never have. My world is
nice and comfortable. Boring but safe. The real world is rather untidy and
filled with many imperfect people. You operate in the real world quite
successfully, and I’ve been impressed with you from the very first. I’ve
decided to try your world.”

She almost giggled, “Boy, are you headed down the
wrong path.”

“I’m serious. The rest of my life is entirely laid
out for me. If I make no changes, there are no worries or surprises that money
can’t get me out of.”

She nodded. “And on the other hand—.”

“And on the other hand,
you
go out into the
real world every day realizing you could get kicked in the gut. Yet, you’re confident
that you’ll prevail. Chip once referred to you as the ‘whatever-it-takes’ girl.
You do interesting and exciting things. And I’ve noticed, in the process, you
touch people’s lives in positive ways.”

“That’s all an exaggeration. Usually I’m full of
doubt and scared shitless.”

“Running around with you the last few weeks, I
discovered I somewhat enjoy going out in the real world and interacting with
various people, even those who might be criminals. I found it exciting to get
out of my comfort zone, you might say. I’m going to try to get out there and be
more involved.”

“Oh, oh! He’s moving out of his comfort zone into the
danger zone. I’ve created a monster. I can see you now, you’re wearing a white
dinner jacket playing Baccarat at a card table in Monte Carlo surrounded by beautiful
but dangerous women, sipping your shaken martini—never stirred. You are busy eliminating
international bad guys during the day and bedding down incredible women at
night. Not to mention saving our entire civilization as we know it, in your
spare time.”

“Your far-reaching scenario sounds exciting, yet
only one part of it interests me.”

“The part about the women?”

“The part about the martini.” He gave her a sly wink.
“No, I prefer to pursue my adventures on a much smaller scale. And I intend to
avoid getting into outrageous tight spots such as you do, because I’d never be
able to wiggle out of them without disaster.’

“I like your attitude of being open to change, but
I love the way you are now.”

“In that case, I won’t change a hair,” he said
with a chuckle. “Seriously, I’m not thinking about anything very adventurous,
mind you. After all, I’m still Martin Bronner. Let’s say I’m open to
possibilities.”

“With your capabilities, I’m certain it’ll all be
for the best.” She considered him for a moment. Then, “And what about your love
life?”

“You know, I’ve been given so much in life, I‘ve
never thought of myself as being unlucky in anything—including love. It doesn’t
bother me. If it’s all the same to you, I’ll skip discussing it just now.”

She wouldn’t worry about him finding true love,
even if he weren’t the most eligible bachelor in Florida.