“I guess.”
“Jesus, now you got me all upset. Where the fuck are the pills? I need one, or I won’t be able to get it up.”
Sarah sighed, stood up, and walked out of camera range. The man turned, looking directly into the camera. Melanie punched the “pause” button, freezing his face on the screen. She studied it. Hmm, vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t say from where. Had she seen him at the Reed firm? He must work there, right? She pushed “play.”
Sarah returned with a glass of water in one hand. She extended the other hand, palm up. The man plucked a pill from it and tossed it into his mouth, washing it down with a swig of water.
“You, too,” he ordered.
Sarah swallowed the other pill. They sat there for a few minutes. He began to fondle her breasts through her shirt.
“Suck me first,” he said, and Sarah got down on her knees and unzipped his fly. He moaned.
Not likely to be much meaningful dialogue for a while, Melanie thought. She hit “fast forward” and watched them have speeded-up sex, wrinkling her nose. Jesus, whoever this guy was, he was kinky. And ugly! Certainly gave one a different perspective on Miss Sarah van der Vere. Any woman who spent her spare time gratifying this ape must be deeply twisted. Melanie fast-forwarded, looking for some postcoital conversation. She hit “stop” and then “play” again at what looked to be the end of the festivities. The man lay on his back, spent as a beached whale, saying nothing. Sarah got up, naked, and disappeared in the direction of the bathroom. Time passed. Out of camera range, a cell phone rang, and the man hauled himself out of bed to answer it. Melanie shielded her eyes as his large, hairy body filled the screen.
“Yeah?” she heard him answer, off-camera now. “Oh, hey, Mary…right, right…Is the general counsel gonna be on the call? Because if not, you can handle it yourself…Okay, then set it up for four o’clock, and we’ll do it in my office. And make sure you have Word Processing redline the last draft so we can work from it…Appreciate it. Bye.”
Mary. Hale? Had to be. So who would speak to the eminent Mary that way, like he was her boss? Only Dolan Reed, the managing partner himself, right? Sarah had called the man “dodo” at one point. Dodo? Short for Dolan? Could be-these WASPs had the queerest nicknames. And if the man looked slightly familiar, come to think of it, he resembled the portrait in the reception area, except fatter and balder.
Something occurred to her. She pulled her notebook from her bag and found where she’d jotted down that cell-phone number she’d gotten from Sarah’s caller ID. She dialed it.
“Yeah, hello?” The voice was the same as that of the man on the videotape.
“Dolan Reed?”
“Speaking. Who’s this?”
“I’m calling from Verizon with regard to your cell plan, sir.”
“Oh, for Chrissakes. I’m in the middle of a meeting. Never call this number again!” He hung up.
Well, well. So that was Dolan Reed petting the kitty with Sarah on the tape. And it sounded as if something suspicious was going on at the Reed firm, having to do with a company called Securilex. Melanie remembered that name’s being mentioned in the elevator yesterday. Another lawyer had gotten on and asked Sarah if she was still buried in the Securilex transaction. So Securilex must be a client of the Reed firm. Something was crooked on the Securilex deal, and Sarah van der Vere was nervous about getting caught. Dolan Reed was involved, too, and was trying to frame Jed Benson as the fall guy. Dolan Reed and Sarah were having an affair, which Sarah was secretly taping. Sarah and Jed Benson were also having an affair. Wow, the girl got around. And all in all, sinister enough circumstances to have gotten Jed Benson killed.
Jed Benson killed over a dirty business deal involving the Reed firm. Yes. She liked it. She definitely liked it. The thing she liked most about it was, it had nothing to do with anybody she was close to. If Jed had been killed over a business deal gone bad, then Delvis Diaz was full of hot air when he’d accused Dan and Randall of being dirty. After all, what possible connection could there be between Dan and Randall on the one hand and the tony firm of Reed, Reed and Watson on the other? The very thought was ludicrous.
MELANIE UNPLUGGED THE VCR AND LOCKED THE videocassette in her desk drawer. Time to get back to the hospital and meet up with Dan. She might have new evidence on motive and a new lead on who might’ve hired Slice, but that vermin was still out on the street.
As Melanie picked up her bag to leave, Bernadette barged into her office.
“Melanie Vargas! I must have been on drugs when I assigned you to this case!” Bernadette cried, striding up to Melanie’s desk. “I told you to go easy on the Bensons. Romulado called and said Amanda Benson’s bodyguard had to physically eject you from her room. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”
“ Bern -”
“You’re making me look bad, Melanie, and I don’t stand for that. If there’s one thing I expect, it’s obedience to a direct order. If you can’t listen-”
“Bernadette, wait, calm down. Bill Flanagan isn’t telling the whole story.”
Bernadette stopped, mouth half open. “Bill Flanagan? What’s he got to do with this?”
“He’s Amanda’s bodyguard. And he’s misinforming Lieutenant Ramirez about what happened.”
“Oh, Romulado never said it was Bill Flanagan.”
“Yes.”
“Huh.” Bernadette sat down in a guest chair. “Well. That’s a different story, then. I can’t believe Romulado didn’t tell me that. God, I hate it when people give me incomplete facts!”
“You know Flanagan?”
“Wild Bill? Sure, everyone from my generation in the office knows him. He’s famous. Infamous, I should say. I had an indictment dismissed once in the middle of a drug trial because he stole the cocaine from the vault. We couldn’t convict without the drugs, so the dealer walked. The only time I ever lost a case.”
“Is that when he got kicked off the force?” Melanie asked.
“No, that was something else entirely. In my case they couldn’t prove it, but everybody knew it was him anyway.”
“I think he’s an alcoholic.”
“Oh, definitely! The man has an IV drip of booze going into his body day and night. I’m surprised he could get through a job interview without drinking. How do you think Nell Benson hooked up with a degenerate like that?”
“I have no idea.”
“I hope Romulado didn’t recommend him. He always feels sorry for those boozer types when they’re down and out. I mean, buy the guy a hot meal or something-don’t give him a security job. Hey, you don’t think Flanagan’s carrying a gun, do you?”
“Yes, I know for a fact he is. He almost pulled it on Dan.”
“Jesus! Can you imagine? Flanagan shoots a federal agent, and it comes out that Romulado got him the job? Oh, God, that better not be how it happened.” She dropped her head into her hands momentarily and kneaded her eyes with her fingers.
It had to be tough for someone like Bernadette to be with a guy who was sort of a fuckup, Melanie thought. Not Bernadette’s style, but Rommie’s dark good looks had obviously won out over her better judgment. Amor messed you up like that.
Bernadette looked up at Melanie.
“You don’t think Romulado arranged it, do you?” she asked again.
“Gee, I don’t know, Bern. But it’s not too late to do something about it. Speak to Nell Benson. Maybe she’d listen to you. Amanda’s safety can’t be left to that guy.”
“You’re right.”
“You know, I only went to the hospital because of this incident with Slice. To warn Amanda, make sure she was safe. When I got there, her door was wide open. Flanagan was nowhere in sight. I waited at least ten minutes before he returned. She was completely vulnerable to attack during that time.”