Killer Karma

to leave another message, quitting her job.”

The beginnings of belief flickered in his eyes. But that should not last long.

Cole lowered his voice still more. “Unfortunately the trouble didn’t stop with Benay. We’d taken the body down to my car on a dolly, folded up in a toilet paper carton from the supply room, and were about to cram the box in my trunk when who drives in but Dunavan. Of all the fucking bad luck!” He shook his head. “I suppose he and Benay were going to meet. He spotted us and when he parked he came over and made a wisecrack about us hauling away incriminating records. He reached out like he was going to open the box. Donald went white. I didn’t realize he picked up the folding shovel I keep in my trunk. The next thing I know, he’s swung it like an axe, straight down on Dunavan’s head. It killed him instantly.”

Lamper’s eyes ballooned behind his glasses.

“God, the blood!” Cole shuddered. “Donald totally lost it! I had to slap him to snap him out of it before someone came to investigate the noise, so he could help me put both bodies in Dunavan’s trunk.”

Lamper’s belief snuffed out. “Bullshit.” His jaw set. “I don’t know why you’re trying to feed me this crap, but I don’t believe a word of it! Donald is cracking up?” He snorted. “Ridiculous. He’s been acting perfectly normal.”

Cole frowned at him. “You realize if he falls apart, he’ll take us down with him. And no way in hell am I going to jail. I think we need to head off trouble. The two of us can run things without Donald if necessary.”

Lamper went stone-faced. “Is that what this is about? I won’t help you steal this company.”

Cole narrowed his eyes. “True-blue Earl. Donald doesn’t deserve so much loyalty, you know. That rescue in high school? It was a setup so he could use your gratitude to write papers for him and- ”

Lamper’s eyes flashed. “That’s a lie!”

Cole shrugged. “Okay…stay blind if you want. Just don’t get in my way.”

He could hold the materialization a little longer, but this felt like the place to quit. He walked away. Around a corner and out of Lamper’s sight, he let go. And hoped that this time he had played Lamper right.

25

Lamper returned to his office, his forehead furrowed in the expression of someone holding a troubling mental debate. Lamper eyed his phone from the office doorway for a long minute before closing the door and picking it up. He punched an outside number.

“Hello, Maitland,” Lamper said. “This is Earl Lamper.”

Cole sidled close enough to hear the other end of the conversation.

“Why, good morning, Earl. What can I do for you?”

“This may sound like a strange question, but…did Donald come back here to the office last Wednesday evening?”

Cole hoped Lamper was checking whether Irah’s story was a lie.

Maitland laughed. “I’m sure he wished he had. I dragged him to an evening of Stravinsky at the Civic Center. Why do you ask?”

“Oh…I’m just straightening out some questions about computer access times.”

That satisfied her. Hanging up, Lamper wore a satisfied expression, too. For about a minute, then he began looking even more troubled.

Cole cheered him on. Worry, Earl, worry.

After more indecisive hovering over the phone buttons, he punched Flaxx’s extension number.

Flaxx answered. “Yes?” A terse greeting that was followed by a noticeably impatient sigh when Lamper announced himself. “What do you need? I have a group of store managers arriving here any minute.”

On his end on the phone, Lamper grimaced in apology. “I’m sorry to bother you, but…Irah was just talking to me and- ”

Flaxx’s tone sharpened. “Just now?”

“Yes. She had me meet her out by the elevators.” Lamper dropped his voice to a whisper. “She — she tried to convince me that you killed Sara Benay and Inspector Dunavan.”

“What!”

“That’s ridiculous of course. What really concerns me though is she went on to say- ”

“You say were talking to Irah out by the elevator just now?”

Cole frowned. The phrasing sounded as though Flaxx wanted someone else to know what Lamper was saying.

He raced down to Flaxx’s office…and found Flaxx gazing across his office at the conference table…where Irah laid brochures and stapled pages in front of each chair. The bar stood open, with a coffee urn and box of pastries on the counter.

Flaxx’s jaw tightened. “Thank you for telling- … Wait, Earl. I don’t have time to hear the details now.” Hanging up, he caught Irah’s eye. “How long did it take you to bring that security upgrade information from your office?”

She considered. “Maybe two minutes.”

Did that mean she had been here the rest of the time? Cole grimaced. He had expected her to go back to her office, not hang around where she had an alibi for the chat with Lamper. But maybe damaging Lamper’s credibility was just as useful. He welcomed anything that created mutual suspicion.

Irah smiled at her brother. “If you think I saw Earl in that time, it would have been a meeting faster than a two-dollar whore’s blow job.”

Flaxx eyed the phone. “Is your spy camera still in Earl’s office?”

“Yes.” She drew the word out, eyeing him.

He frowned. “It doesn’t make sense that Earl would lie to me, but with him denying that visit last night… I want you to watch him for me. Tell me what he says and does.”

“You got it.”

Cole grinned. It was even more mess in the neighborhood.

She carried unused brochures and papers to his desk. “These are for the group this afternoon.”

Cole walked back to Lamper’s office. The way Lamper’s gaze kept wandering from the computer monitor suggested trouble concentrating.

From behind the monitor, leaning his forearms on top of it, Cole frowned down at him. What now? Make another appearance as Irah, delivering more blatant threats? Except Lamper might know Irah was in this morning’s meeting. So far, no one had realized individuals were in two places at once, but he could not expect that luck to last.

Suddenly that thought connected with two others: Lamper’s blind loyalty and the managers’ meetings. The click of interlocking pieces reverberated in Cole. He studied Lamper with growing excitement. Done right, producing a way to be in two places at once, a duplicate individual, might be just what he needed.

“You stay here and stew,” he said. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

He gave himself another long emersion in internal combustion. This had to see him through two maybe extended materializations.

The first was as Gina. He materialized just outside the door of Bookkeeping and hurried inside into Lamper’s office, putting excitement in his expression and whisper. “Mr. Lamper…you’ve got to see this. A man just came in to see Miss Carrasco and…he looks like he could be your twin!”

Lamper whipped around from his computer. “What!”

“Yes.” Cole grinned. “I had to come tell you. He’s gone down to her office.”

Behind the glasses, Lamper’s eyes narrowed. Cole watched the mental wheels whir. “A double for me…here to see Irah?” He came to his feet. “Thank you. I do want to see him.”

Cole stuck behind him until out in the hallway, then let go and raced ahead to Irah’s door, where he became Lamper. He stood with his hand on the doorknob when Lamper rounded the corner.

Lamper jerked to a halt, staring. When he started forward again he moved with the caution of someone