“How’s your day going?” Simon said as he came in and dropped into one of the chairs that faced her desk.
“Been better.”
One thing you could say for Simon is that he had model good looks. Tall, thin, blond hair that fell easily across his forehead, and deeply blue eyes. His smile was electric and the tiny crow’s feet at the corner of his eyes only added to his charm. As did his chin dimple. Today he wore a tan suit, Armani no doubt, a crisp white shirt, and a yellow silk tie. Lawyer dripped from his pores.
“I imagine so,” Simon said. “I hear the Finley murders were pretty gruesome.”
She nodded. “Very. Add in the murder and robbery over at Shaffer’s and a missing doctor, and my day has been delightful.”
“I heard about those. What’s the story on the doctor? I don’t know him. Is he new?”
“He’s temporary. One of those locum things.”
“Locum tenens.” He smiled.
“Yeah, that.” She shrugged. “Anyway, he was apparently grabbed outside the ER.”
“How do you know that?” Simon asked.
“Marla Jackson. She saw it go down.”
“And you believe her? Her brain makes up all kinds of stuff. What’s left of it.”
Cassie sensed her blood pressure rise. She had always felt protective of Marla even back in school. Maybe even more so now that Marla was vulnerable and apparently spiraling toward total destruction. From drugs or from something even more painful, she didn’t see Marla being around long. So, when a prick like Simon piled on, her hackles elevated. She considered hurling her desk phone at him but refrained.
“I do believe her. She saw two guys, a black SUV, and a gun. They shoved Dr. Buckner in the back and took off.” Cassie opened her palms. “She seemed pretty clear on what she saw.”
“She recognize the guys?”
Cassie gave a head shake. “One tall with a ponytail, the other shorter. That’s about it.”
Simon seemed to mull that over. “I hear there’re a couple of private types here looking for him,” Simon said. “The doctor.”
“Hired by his father. A doc over in North Carolina.”
“That didn’t take long. What, it’s only been a day, actually less, since all this happened?”
“Apparently the father had some military connections that led him to Bobby Cain and Harper McCoy. That’s the two you’re referring to.”
“Bet that makes you happy. Having a couple of interlopers sniffing around your case.”
“I’ll take all the help I can get on this mess. Besides, I get the impression these two are pretty clever.”
“Where’re they from? North Carolina?”
“Nashville. Apparently they have some spook-world military background.”
Simon shifted forward in the chair, stared at his clasped hands for a few seconds, then looked up. “What actually happened over at the Finleys?”
“Looks like an execution more than anything else. They lined them up in the living room and shot them on the sofa. Sort of looked like the Brady Bunch, only with bullet holes and blood.”
Simon smiled. “You sure paint a picture.”
“Trust me, that doesn’t do it justice.” She shrugged. “But they didn’t exactly get away unscathed.”
“Oh?”
“One of the bad guys apparently caught a bullet from Tommy.”
Simon leaned back, smoothed his tie. “You’re thinking all these are connected? I mean, someone kills the Finleys, one gets shot, they grab the doctor, hit the pharmacy to get whatever they might need to fix things? Something like that?”
“You’re pretty smart for an attorney.”
He shook his head. “You’re funny.”
“I try.”
“Tommy’s my client,” Simon said.
“Really? I didn’t know that.” She made no attempt to hide the sarcasm in her voice.
Truth was Tommy Finley had been a sore spot between them for a while now. She had popped Tommy for possession a couple of times and a third for distribution. Simon had gotten him off. The first two were small fines, easily paid from his drug proceeds; the latter, the distribution, led to Simon humiliating her before the judge. Illegal search and seizure crap. The fact that Tommy had tried to sell his poison to a couple of sixteen-year-old high school girls on school property didn’t seem to bother Simon. Judge William Hauser either, for that matter. Simon and Hauser went way back and were a bit too cozy for Cassie’s tastes. Their relationship smacked of bribery, or payola, or whatever the hell you wanted to call it. Something else she could never prove.
He raised his hands. “Let’s not get into that again.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” She leaned back in her chair. “But this time your client just might have gotten his entire family murdered.”
“So this wasn’t just a crazy random thing? The Finleys?”
“Still won’t admit your client was into the drug scene?”
“Not my place to judge.”
Her smile was not a friendly one. “You have Hauser for that.”
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and seemed to examine his shoes. His expensive Italian shoes. “John and Martha were clients, too.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“Nothing big. Just wills and estate stuff.”
“Sorry for your loss.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I’m sure your practice can take the hit. No pun intended.”
“Aren’t we in a pissy mood today?”
“Pissy hardly seems strong enough.” She forked her fingers through her hair. “Actually, I’m furious. To think that Tommy, a scumbag that should have been in jail, brought this horror to his family is beyond anything I could even consider forgiving.”
“Forgiving? You’re laying this at my feet?”
She shrugged. “From where I sit you’re the reason Tommy was still in business.”
Another shake of his head and he stood. “I hope your day gets better.”
“It won’t.”
He hesitated as if searching for a comeback but apparently found none, so he left.
She leaned back again and stared at the ceiling. Why did she let him get to her? She knew better than to engage but he always seemed to push the wrong buttons. Something about his good looks that gave him special privileges. The fact that he was smart and a good attorney and had smacked her upside the head a few times in court certainly didn’t help. Stir all that into the soup of a shitty day and, well…yes, she was
