Killer Karma

Was it a coincidence? But why would Sara jam it, assuming she had access to the Security office. The more disturbing question was why Sara lied about Gao catching her. That chilled him. He wanted to find an excuse for it. Otherwise, what else might be lies?

“If we’re finished here,” Lamper said, “let’s go back to my office and you can ask Kenisha about Sara’s whereabouts.”

“You should ask Inspector Dunavan, too,” Gao said.

Cole stared at her. If Gao thought he was alive, then she could not have been part of what happened Wednesday night.

Lamper stared at her, too. “Why would Dunavan know?”

Her lips thinned. “Because they’re sleeping together.”

Hamada shot a deadpan glance at Razor. Cole swore. Shit! Leach’s theory just got a boost in Hamada’s book.

Lamper stiffened. “Why- ” He glanced at Farrell. “Let’s go back to my office. Thank you, Mr. Farrell.” And he shuffled out.

Before following him, Hamada told Farrell, “Don’t let anything happen to that tape.”

Crossing toward Bookkeeping, Lamper glared at Gao. Dropping his voice did nothing to diminish the fury in it. “Why didn’t you tell me about Sara and Dunavan before!”

“Well, I- ” Gao flushed. “I was going to make Miss Hayes tell you, but then there was the thing with the computer and we came over to see the tape and…” Her hands fluttered.

Lamper exhaled in a hiss.

Cole spotted Katherine Maldonado watching them curiously from her desk down the hall.

“What makes you so sure Benay had an affair with Dunavan?” Razor asked.

“Because Miss Hayes and Miss Benay talked about it in the restroom on Tuesday. I couldn’t help overhearing.” Gao’s mouth thinned in distaste. “They came in while I was…well, in a booth. Miss Hayes asked how it had gone with Inspector Dunavan the evening before and did handcuffs and a gun on the bed table enhance sex the way Miss Benay thought. Miss Benay said it was an evening she’d never forget.”

Cole eyed Hamada’s poker face and groaned. “Good going, Sara. Tell the truth and make it sound like something else.” Though who could blame Sara for not wanting to admit how humiliatingly the evening ended? “Good going, Dunavan, you stupid shit.”

They reached Bookkeeping. Lamper stabbed a finger toward Hayes. “Kenisha! Joy, too. In my office!” He shuffled in and lowered himself into his chair.

Around the room jaws dropped. Had Lamper never raised his voice before, Cole wondered. Maybe not, considering how Sara talked about him. Hayes and Quon hurried into the office, faces baffled but wary. Cole leaned against the windows where he could watch everyone.

As soon as they sat down and Gao closed the door, Lamper said icily, “How is it Sara is having an affair with a police officer who has been hounding Mr. Flaxx for years with slanderous insinuations!”

Hayes and Quon exchanged quick glances. Hayes licked her lips. “It wasn’t an affair. We’d met him a lunch a few times and she just wanted a fling with him…to make up for missing the cruise to Baja.”

Razor started.

Cole circled behind the women to join him. “Yes…Baja. The cruise was real. So is everything else I told you.”

Razor’s heart rate jumped.

“Fling. Affair.” Lamper clenched a fist. “It was still- ”

“Excuse me,” Hamada interrupted. “If I might please have a minute before you ream the young ladies?” Without waiting for Lamper’s permission, he stepped forward to look down at Hayes. “It’s very important I speak with Miss Benay and she isn’t in Indiana. Do y’all know where I can reach her?”

Hayes blinked. “That’s weird. Last night I dreamed Inspector Dunavan asked me the same thing.”

Razor’s heart jumped again. Abruptly, he reached inside his jacket and pulled out his cell phone, as though it had rung. Holding it up to show Hamada, he hurried out of the office and Bookkeeping. Cole followed.

In the hallway, Razor thrust away the phone and paced in tight circles, shaking his head. His heart raced. Cole saw goosebumps on his neck.

“Hey, take it easy!” Cole longed to grab his shoulders and shake him. “You’re not going wacko. Let yourself admit that I’m around and you see me.”

But Razor looked everywhere except at him. Cole swore. What did it take to crack his resistance?

A minute later Hamada strode out of Bookkeeping. He raised his brows. “What’s going on, man?”

Razor pulled off his glasses and began polishing them on his tie. “Nothing’s going on.”

Hamada grunted. “Right. That’s why you keep acting like someone’s goosed you.”

Razor shrugged. “It’s just spooky…the computer thing…Lockhart and the Hayes woman both dreaming about Cole.”

“Yeah.” Hamada raised a brow. “You have any ideas about that?”

Razor shook his head. “Not a clue.”

“But you knew about Dunavan banging Benay.”

Razor jammed back on his glasses. “No! He wasn’t, in spite of what Hayes says.”

After a long stare at him, Hamada sighed and headed up the hallway for the reception area. “I appreciate loyalty but…Benay had some reason to shoot him. Let’s go see if Dennis is having any luck with the airlines, and start a search warrant for her place.”

13

Cole watched them leave. As much as he needed to keep working on Razor, he also wanted to see what happened here after Lamper reported to Flaxx. A glance into Bookkeeping caught Lamper shooing the women out of his office — Hayes and Quon looking relieved, Gao disapproving — and reaching for his phone. Cole hurried in, moving close enough to the phone to catch Flaxx’s side of the conversation.

Lamper blurted, “Donald, I just found out that Sara- ”

“Who?” Flaxx sounded distracted. Cole pictured him signing letters or checking e-mail while he listened.

Lamper frowned. “Sara Benay, one of my girls here in Bookkeeping…the one those Homicide detectives are looking for. She was having an affair with Inspector Dunavan!”

“What!”

Flaxx’s surprise disturbed Cole. If Sara were forced to talk the way she claimed, Flaxx should know all about Sara and him.

“Tell me about this affair.”

Lamper gave Flaxx a detailed report of Hamada’s visit.

Impatient sighs came over the wire, but Flaxx never interrupted. At the end, Cole was even more surprised to hear a chuckle.

So, clearly, was Lamper. He stared at the phone. “Didn’t you hear me? Sara’s sleeping with Dunavan and she worked on my account files last week!”

“Earl, Earl.” Flaxx’s voice oozed like honey. “I understand your concern, but there’s no need for it. I have every confidence in your accounting passing muster with someone like her. And if she did stumble on…”

Cole mentally held his breath. Come on, come on. Make an incriminating admission.

“…irregularities…”

Irregularities? Oh, very cute. No help at all. Cole grimaced.

“…that gadfly Dunavan would be bugging us again, not Homicide. And if she is shacking up with him, no so-called evidence she thinks she’s found for him is any good in court.”