Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) (9 page)

“Mrs. Howard,” I said.

“Hello, Sam.  Is Landra still here?”

I nodded my head and called out to Landra, and she joined me at
the front door.

“Hi, Sara.  What’s up?” Landra asked.

“I’ve just been so worried about everything you told me
earlier.  I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine.  And I’ve got enough to worry about already without
having to worry about you worrying about me.  So please, quit worrying about
me!”  She stepped out on the porch and gave the old woman a hug.  “Now go home
and have a glass of wine.  I’m trying to have a romantic date here with your
neighbor.”  The two exchanged a smile, then Mrs. Howard looked at me and gave
me her toothy grin.

Apparently I was the only one of us who was uncomfortable about
sharing my sex life with an 80-year-old.

“Now you made me embarrass him,” Landra told Mrs. Howard. 
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”  She shooed Mrs. Howard on her way and rejoined me
at the door, then we waited until Mrs. Howard was back in her yard before we
went inside and closed the door.

Landra cornered me against the door, pressing her body up
against mine.  “Where were we?”  she smiled.

“I think we were right about here,” I said, and I kissed her as
I backed her into the foyer.  I picked her up and carried her to my bedroom,
while Landra laughed and kissed my neck, and I tossed her onto the bed.   She
took off her shirt so that she was left in a black bra with her blue jeans and
that stretch of beautiful flat stomach.  I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. 
She leaned back on her elbows and watched me unbutton my shirt, then she
scooted over to the side of the bed and pulled me over to her so that my bare
chest was pressed up against her flesh.  I unhooked her bra and ran my fingers
over the bruising on her breast.

“Does it hurt?” I asked her.

“Not right now,” she said.

She reached out and started to unbutton my jeans, and I knew
that it was going to take more than a modicum of restraint not to explode the
minute I got inside her.

We took off each other’s jeans and then I stepped back and
checked her out.   A lot of women look better with their clothes on, but Landra
wasn’t one of them, and it crossed my mind that she could probably seduce any
man that she wanted.  She took my hands and brought me back to the side of the
bed and then she laid back and pulled me on top of her.

“What do you like?” I asked her, brushing her hair back from
her face.

Landra smiled and pulled my face down to hers and she kissed me
with such emotion that I thought I might lose it right there.  She directed me
inside her, and it was an exercise in both torture and ecstasy.  She was so
uninhibited.  How I lasted as long as I did, I’ll never know, but I held out
until she was ready and in the moment we came together, I confess that I had
visions of happily ever after.

Landra rolled me over and rested her head on my shoulder and we
laid there talking and laughing until it got dark, then we went for round two at
a more leisurely pace.   By the time we got up, it was already past 8:00 o’clock and we were both starving.

The idea of cooking dinner had long since lost its appeal, so
we ordered pizza and sat out by the pool and ate pizza and drank a beer, then
Landra got started on my walls, measuring off the stones and taping their
outline.  I sat on the sofa and tried working on some stuff for the office, but
I’d catch myself watching Landra instead.  She had her back to me and it was
great to be able to perve openly without her knowing it.  She finally turned
around and busted me watching her.

“Want to help?” Landra asked.

“Not really,” I said unenthusiastically.

Landra put down her pencil and measuring stick and came over
and sat down beside me.  “What do you think is going to happen with the Drake Reeds
stuff?”  It was the first time she had mentioned it since that morning, but it
had been on my mind all day.

“I don’t know,” I told her honestly.  I figured it was a good
thing that she had stayed away from her house all day.  I’d be surprised if the
media wasn’t camped out waiting for an interview when news spread of the
accident.  It had happened too late to make the paper and I hadn’t watched the
news, but I had no doubt it would have been one of the top stories.  I also
felt sure that the police would have further questions for Landra, but I was
confident that no surprises would materialize from their investigation.

“I feel like I should call his family,” Landra said.

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea, Landra.  Not yet
anyway.”

“You’re speaking as my attorney?”

“I’m speaking as your attorney.”

Landra nodded and gave a feeble attempt at a smile.  “Okay.” 
She looked over her work and back at me.  “Why don’t you help me?  It’ll go
twice as fast.”

“You already made me paint the damn base coat.  If  I’d known
you were going to make me do all the work, I never would have agreed to let you
paint the rocks in the first place.”

“Agreed to
let
me?” she said indignantly.  “Listen
Mister, this is a $2,000 job I’m doing for you for
free
.  I’d think
you’d be a little more appreciative.”

“Two thousand dollars!” I exclaimed in disbelief.  “You charge
$2,000 for doing this?”

“For all four walls in a room this size?  Yeah.”

“Shit.  Now I
am
impressed.”  I looked at the prep work
she had done so far from a whole new perspective.  It was tedious, time
consuming work and the prep work alone could take days.  I had no idea how long
the actual painting would take, but in truth, I’d rather the whole process take
twice as long if it meant not having to help.  “I’ll pay you the $2,000, just
don’t make me help you,” I whined.

Landra laughed.  “How about we exchange your legal services for
my decorating services?” she proposed.

“You’ve got a deal.  As long as you don’t make me paint.”

Landra shoved my head to the side.  “You’re such a baby.”

“Am not,” I told her, pushing her hand away.  She picked up her
tools and resumed her place at the wall and I went back to my files.  I ended
up falling asleep on the couch at some point, which made two nights in a row,
and when Landra woke me up it was 4:00 a.m.

“What do you think?” she asked.

I sat up and looked at the wall she had been taping when I had
fallen asleep, and if I hadn’t known better, I’d have sworn I was staring at a
150-year-old stone wall.  It was amazing.  She’d even painted a couple of areas
where it looked like the wall was actually crumbling.   The room was completely
transformed and that was with just the one wall finished.  I got up and gave it
a closer inspection.

“I
will
pay you for this,” I said in all seriousness. 
“It’s incredible.”

Landra smiled.  She looked tired but she was still so pretty. 
“I’m glad you like it.”

I walked back over to where she was standing and picked her up
off her feet and squeezed her.  “Thank you,” I said, nuzzling into her neck and
breathing in deeply.  It seemed like a long time since I had touched her.  “You
must be exhausted.”

“I am.”

We walked back to my bedroom and when I came out of the
bathroom after brushing my teeth, Landra was sound asleep, curled up around my
pillow.  I went back out and looked at the wall one more time before getting in
bed, then I leaned over and kissed Landra on the cheek.   As soon as I did it,
I realized how far gone I was.  I’d seen my sister kiss her daughter when the
kid was asleep in bed one night and the fact that my niece never knew her
mother was there, made the expression of affection all the more meaningful.

“Goodnight Landra,” I whispered, and I turned my back to her
and went to sleep.

*    *    *    *

I dragged myself to the door when Mrs. Howard came knocking the
next morning and left Landra sound asleep in my bed.  I think Mrs. Howard
guessed that Landra was still there, but I didn’t give her the satisfaction of
knowing for sure.  She never came right out and asked, and I never volunteered
the information, but she kept trying to peek her nosy head in to see if she
could see anything.

It was a chilly morning so I sat back in my new stone fortress
while I drank coffee, ate muffins and read the paper.  Enough catastrophes had
occurred the previous day to keep Drake Reeds’ accident out of the headlines,
but there was a blurb on the front page,
Tragedy Strikes High Society Affair
,
directing readers to Page 1 of the Metro section for the story:

Details are still sketchy as to what occurred in the
moments before San Antonio businessman Drake Reeds plummeted to his death late
Friday night during a black-tie affair celebrating the 50th wedding anniversary
of an affluent Terrell Hills couple.  Reeds was rushed by ambulance to the
emergency room of Southwest Texas Methodist Hospital, after falling from a
second-story window of the  mansion.  He was pronounced dead on arrival. 
Police spokespersons stated that there had been a struggle between Reeds and
his former fiancée, Landra Krally, in one of the upstairs bedrooms of the
mansion, and several sources stated that Krally had been physically and
possibly sexually assaulted by Reeds.  No charges are expected to be filed
against Krally, who was unavailable for comment.

I sat back and
breathed a huge sigh of relief.  I figured if Landra could make it past the day
of the funeral without much publicity, the story would die down quickly.

“Boo.”  She
said it in a normal tone of voice but it still made me jump.

“Damn it,
Landra,” I said irritably.  “That’s two mornings in a row you’ve done that!”

“I know,” she
said smiling.  She fished around in Mrs. Howard’s basket and came out with a
cherry bran muffin and took a bite.  “I can’t believe I’ve been cooped up with
you for two days now and I’m not sick of you yet.”  She came over and sat down
on my lap and fed me the other half of her muffin.  “Good morning, Sam.”

“Good morning,
Landra,” I said with my mouth full.

We spent most
of the day together, avoiding the topic of Drake Reeds.  As far as I was
concerned, we’d exhausted the subject the previous day and I wanted to
concentrate on more positive things.  So we laid low and just hung out together
and by the end of the weekend, Landra was in a much better frame of mind.  If
only every day could be so nice.

By the time Monday morning rolled around I hadn’t accomplished
anything I’d intended to do over the weekend.  Landra was a bad influence.  I
hadn’t even opened a file since Saturday night and then it was a useless
effort.  That translated into a lot of work I had to cram into Monday morning,
which was something I always hated doing.

Maddie called as soon as I got to the office, wanting to know
what to tell Datacare about why she was quitting.  We had only talked for a few
minutes when she said she’d have to call me right back, so when the phone rang
again within minutes, I picked it up before Penny could get to it.

“Hey asshole,” the caller said.

My chest constricted and it took a second for me to respond. 
“Niki.”

“Did you get my message?”

“Yeah,” I said, dreading what was coming.  “What’d you come up
with?”

“On the Datacare investigation, I had a guy go in with the
janitorial service and there’s definitely something going on there.  He found
surveillance equipment in a manager’s office.”

My interest was piqued.  “What kind of surveillance equipment?”

“Cheap stuff.  Nothing that a professional security company
would be using.  And  Datacare doesn’t engage in surveillance against its
employees.  The only security cameras they have at the place are at the
entrances to the building.”

I knew how Niki operated and he always saved the best for last,
so I knew there was more coming.  “What’d you find, Lautrec?” I said
impatiently, and Niki laughed.

“Your client’s office has a camera in it.”

I’d been leaning back in my chair and I almost fell over
backwards when he said it.  “Did you find any tapes?”

“No.  But I’ll tell you what I want to do.  By the way, did I
tell you I’m marrying a girl from San Antonio?”

I’d met Niki when I was in school at Tulane.  He’d grown up in
New Orleans and his family still lived there.

“You’re getting married?” I asked, in disbelief.  “Anyone I
know?”

“Maybe.  Her name’s Stacy Trent.”

“I do know Stacy. I picked her up just last week in a sleazy
strip club.  The girl was all over me.”

“Fuck you,” he laughed.

“When’s the wedding?”

“In May.  But I’m going to be in San Antonio for a while
starting Wednesday.”

I knew he was telling me this for a reason and I was holding my
breath waiting to find out why.

“Why don’t we go check out Datacare for ourselves some night
this week?”

There it was
.  I didn’t like to hang out with Niki
because he lived on the edge.  He liked to do dangerous shit and although we
had never been caught doing anything illegal, we’d come damn close on more than
one occasion.  Breaking into and snooping around an office complex was not my
idea of fun.

“I don’t know . . .” I said skeptically.

“Oh come on, Sammy.  It’ll be fun.”

Niki Lautrec had a way of making me do things I wouldn’t
normally do.  Whether I did them to impress him or to prove something to
myself, I always found myself agreeing to something that was completely
contrary to my nature.

He ignored my hesitation.  “How about Thursday?  Let’s do it
Thursday night.”

I thought about it for all of three seconds before I relented. 
“All right.  Thursday night,” I said unenthusiastically.

“Good.  Okay, on the other matter . . .” I could hear him
flipping through papers and I reached for my glass of water.  “Landra Krally .
. . it’s nothing conclusive, but she may have killed her husband.”

I dropped the phone and spilled my water all over a brief I’d
been working on.  I yelled for Penny and paper towels and when I finally got
back on the phone Niki asked, “You okay there, Sammy?”

“What are you talking about?” I exclaimed.

“Like I said, it’s nothing conclusive . . . but there was a
question as to whether his death was self inflicted.  He died of a drug
overdose.”

“When was this?” I asked, my head spinning.

“Five years ago.  They’d been married for six months when the
guy carked it.”

I sat there in shock trying to absorb what I was hearing. 
Landra
had been married?  She may have killed her husband
?  “But she wasn’t ever
charged with anything?” I finally asked.

“No.  There wasn’t enough evidence to get to the grand jury. 
But she walked away with all the sucker’s money.”

“Damn,” I said under my breath.

“Damn?” Niki said confused.  “I thought you
wanted
me to
come up with something on her.  You told me to keep digging.”

“Yeah, but that was before I met her,” I said grumpily.

“What’d you do, go out and date her after you asked me to
investigate her?”

Hearing it out loud, made it sound as stupid as it was.  “Kind
of,” I admitted.

Niki laughed out loud and I wished he was there so I could pick
a fight with him.  Not because I had anything against him, but because I really
needed a good fight and Niki was safe.  I knew that I couldn’t seriously hurt
him, but he’d give me a good fight without killing me in the process.  Not
because he couldn’t, but because he wouldn’t.

“You’re an idiot, Collins.”

Obviously
.  When I didn’t respond he laughed again, this
time harder.

“You slept with her, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

I could just picture him shaking his head and rolling his
eyes.  “Why didn’t you wait until I’d finished my investigation?  Shit, maybe
you’re next on her list.  Did you ever think about that?”

“Yeah, but not recently.”  He must have realized that I wasn’t
taking his goading well, because he lightened up on me.

“Well, if they had anything on her she would have been
prosecuted, so that should be some consolation.”

“Yeah.”  I sighed heavily.  “Is there anything else?  She
didn’t slash her dog’s throat or sacrifice a live chicken or anything like
that?”

“That’s all I’ve got.  You want me to keep looking?”  I could
tell that he thought I should say
yes
.

“I guess so,” I said reluctantly.

“Good answer.  I’ll see you Thursday.”

Maddie called as soon as I got off the phone with Niki, but I
didn’t tell her what he had come up with in his investigation.  I told her she
should put her resignation in writing, stating that she was being forced to
quit in retaliation for having filed a sexual harassment charge with the EEOC. 
She had given Datacare two weeks’ notice, but when she handed Larry her letter
of resignation, he gave her five minutes to pack up her things and get out.

I called the EEOC and spoke to the Investigator handling
Maddie’s charge and made a formal appearance on her behalf and let him know
that we would be amending the charge to include retaliation and constructive
discharge.  We discussed the charge and the Investigator assured me that he
would expedite his investigation due to the egregious nature of the
allegations.

While I was on the phone with the EEOC Investigator, Penny came
in and stuck a note in front of me that said, “
Landra holding,
URGENT,
” 
so I concluded my call with the EEOC as quickly as I could and got on the phone
with Landra.

“The police want me to come down and answer some more
questions,” she said nervously.  “I told them I’d be there at 11:00 o’clock.”

Shit.  I looked at my watch.  “Come down here and we’ll go
together.”

“Okay.  I’ll be there around 10:30.”

I wasn’t sure how to broach with Landra the subject of Niki’s
disclosures without revealing the fact that I’d had her investigated.   But if
the police were calling Landra back in for questioning, her husband’s death
could have a direct bearing on the investigation of Drake Reeds’ death.  There
was no doubt in my mind that Reeds’ death had been an accident, and I think
anyone who had seen Landra that night would have agreed.  I was sure that her
being called back in was just a formality, but if the police had come up with
the same information that Niki had, things could get complicated.  Although, in
Drake’s case, there was no apparent motive.

We got to the police station promptly at 11:00 o’clock and took
a seat in one of the offices.  I reached over and squeezed Landra’s hand to
reassure her before the officer came in and she gave me a feeble smile.   He
asked many of the same questions he had asked on the night of the accident,
presumably to see if Landra gave the same answers.   She held up well under his
scrutiny and I could see the officer’s demeanor change from antagonistic to
conciliatory as the interrogation progressed.  As it turned out, it was only a
ruse to lure Landra into a false sense of security, as became apparent when he
changed his line of questioning.

“You said that Mr. Reeds picked you up and carried you back in
the room and that you grabbed a vase and hit him over the head.”

“Yes,” Landra agreed.

“Which way were you facing when he was carrying you?  Towards
him or away from him?”

“I was facing away from him.”

“How were you able to hit him over the head if you were facing
away from him?”

“Well, I was fighting him and I managed to turn sideways in his
grasp.  And I picked up the vase and twisted.  And when he saw that I had the
vase, he put me down to try to get it away from me and that’s when I hit him.”

“What part of his head did the vase come into contact with?”

“I think it was the right side.  But it all happened so fast
that I’m not certain.”

“Tell me again about when you tried to get out of the room. 
Was the bedroom door open or closed when you tried to escape?”

“Drake had closed it.”

“Was it locked?”

“I don’t think so . . . or at least, I didn’t have to unlock it
to get it open.”

“Do you know why your fingerprints would be on the lock?”

“I wasn’t even aware that there was a lock.”

“You stated that Mr. Reeds stumbled and fell into the window
and then went right through it.  Is that still what you contend?”

“Yes.  That’s what happened.  I pushed him away from me after I
hit him with the vase and he stumbled over a chair and fell through the window.”

“How much momentum would you say he had behind him when he
fell?”

I was intentionally staying out of it because I felt that
Landra was holding her own, but I had to jump in on that one.  “What kind of
question is that?  How much momentum compared to what?” I interjected.

The officer looked at me with an annoyed expression.  “Maybe
compared to the momentum of being pushed.  The positioning of Mr. Reeds’ body
on the cement was inconsistent with that of a mere fall.  There was
considerable force behind him when he went through that window.  His body
landed a good way out from the house.”

“Ms. Krally has nothing further to say,” I told him.  “Now, if
you’re not going to bring charges against her, we’ll be leaving.”

The officer got up and left the room and returned in a few
minutes.  “You’re free to go,” he told Landra.

We left the police station and as soon as I drove out of the
parking lot, Landra broke into tears.  “I can’t go through this again, Sam.  I
swear, I can’t.”  She was fumbling through her purse and pulled out a Kleenex
and wiped her eyes.

“What do mean
again
?” I asked her.

“I was married before,” she said.  “But he turned out to be a
druggie, and six months into our marriage he overdosed on a mixture of coke and
heroin.  I found him on our kitchen floor laying in his vomit and his skin was
all blue.”  She was quiet for a minute.  “They tried to blame me for it,” she
finally said.  “No charges were ever filed, but they conducted a whole
investigation, trying to prove that I had mixed the concoction that had killed
him.”

“Why?  Did you do drugs together?”

“Never.  I didn’t even know he did them until we’d been married
for four months.  I tried to get him to check himself into a rehab program, but
he wouldn’t do it.”  Landra looked over at me.  “They’re going to try to bring
that back up now, aren’t they?”

“I don’t know.  But we need to get you a good criminal
attorney.”

“You’re my attorney,” Landra said.

“I’m not a criminal lawyer, Landra.  And listening to the
questions he was asking you back there, it doesn’t sound like they’re going to
drop their investigation.”

Landra leaned her head back against the seat.  “Why would I
kill him?  What would I possibly have to gain?  And if I
was
going to
kill him, why would I do it in public in front of 200 people?”

“You don’t have to convince me, Landra.  I’m on your side.”

“Then be my lawyer.  I don’t want anyone else.”

I’d been driving while she’d been relating her story and we
ended up back at my office.  I didn’t feel like arguing with her.  “Let’s just
take things one step at a time.  Try not to worry, okay?  Why don’t we get a
bite to eat so you can calm down.”

“I’m not hungry at all,” she said.  “In fact, I think if I ate,
I’d throw up.”

“Gross.  Then let’s do something else.  Wanna go to the zoo?” I
suggested.

“Don’t you have work to do?”

“Nothing that can’t wait,” I lied.

“I really appreciate you trying to take care of me, Sam, but I
know you have stuff to do and to tell you the truth, I think I need to be by
myself for a while.”

“Bullshit,” I said.  I put the car in drive and took off.

“Sam!  You can’t take me with you against my will!”

“Yeah, I can.”  I stopped at a red light and unbuckled my
safety belt and leaned over and kissed her.  When the light turned green, the
bitch behind me honked and I shot the finger at her.  “Will you go to the zoo
with me?” I asked her.

Landra turned around to see who had honked.  “Yes, Sam.  I’ll
go to the zoo with you.  But only because I think it’s where you belong.”

“That’s my girl!”