William Bernhardt - Deadly Justice

“Great,” Jones said. “Every file is identified and listed in alphabetical order. I’ll just scan them and see if there’s anything that might’ve gotten Hamel killed.”

Christina gazed over his shoulder. “There are hundreds of files in there.”

“True,” Jones said. “Maybe you’d better have a seat.”

An hour and a half later, Ben and Christina were still sitting on the floor watching Jones’s fingers fly over the keyboard. Not exactly the most stimulating way to pass the early hours of the morning. Ben had to fight to keep his eyes open. Loving had posted himself outside the door, to “keep an eye out for trouble.”

“Seen anything interesting?” Ben asked.

“To tell you the truth,” Jones said, “I’m more interested in what I can’t see. All the files on this system are subject to easy access, except one. That one file is locked up tight; you can’t get in without a password.”

Ben scrutinized the computer terminal. “Think you can break in?”

“Only if we figure out the password. I’m not equipped to generate random letter combos or do any serious hacking.”

“What can we do?”

“I’ve been trying obvious possible passwords, but so far, I haven’t had any luck. I tried Apollo , Consortium , Howard Hamel , and several others.”

“Try Crichton ,” Ben suggested. The man was just egotistical enough to use his own name.

Jones typed it onto the screen. Nothing happened.

“What about Herbert ? Or, if he was feeling romantic, perhaps Candice .”

Jones tried both. Still no results.

“What about something more generic,” Christina suggested. “Try Lawyer . Or Legal . Or Murder .”

Jones tried all her suggestions, and several others that followed, but nothing cracked open the file.

“Wait a minute,” Ben said, snapping his fingers. “Try Kindergarten Club .”

Jones gave him a strange look, but obediently typed the words onto the screen.

A split second after Jones hit the Enter button, the screen faded. A blue blip was followed by page one of a new document.

“It worked!” Jones said jubilantly. “Great work, Boss.”

“Lucky guess.” He scanned the document. It appeared to be an address list containing about fifteen names.

“They’re all Apollo employees. See?” Christina pointed to the screen. “It identifies their departments and phone extensions.”

“But look here,” Jones said. “Up at the top. See the empty space? Someone has deleted a name.”

“Curiouser and curiouser.” Most of the names were unfamiliar to Ben. “What do they have in common?” he wondered aloud.

“Apparently,” Christina said, “they’re all members of the Kindergarten Club.”

“Yes,” he said, nodding his head thoughtfully. “But what in God’s name is that?”

35

LATER THAT AFTERNOON, AS Ben struggled to keep his eyelids open, he was relieved to see Christina walk into his office. Not only was he desperately sleepy—he was bored. While the Nelson case was pending, he’d been in constant motion. Now that the case was over, he had nothing to do. He had assumed he would get another case, but so far, nothing.

“Have you heard anything about Crichton?” Ben asked.

“I heard he’s going to be released from the hospital soon. Knowing him, he’ll probably be back in the office the next day.”

“Probably right.” Ben pressed a finger against his lips. “Isn’t it funny? Since you and I came here, we’ve been on two of these macho corporate outings, and both times Crichton has managed to get hurt.”

“I was thinking the same thing myself,” Christina said.

“Almost as if someone was out to get him, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. Almost.”

“Had any luck with the Kindergarten list?”

She shook her head no.

“Blast. Tomorrow’s my deadline with Chief Blackwell. If I don’t have something concrete for him, he’s going to bury me so deep you won’t be able to visit me without a warrant.”

“I’m doing everything I can,” Christina said. “I pulled the personnel files on the fifteen employees on the list. They’re in different departments, answering to different bosses, doing all different kinds of work. I can’t find any connection among them, other than that they’re all Apollo employees, most of them at a fairly high level.”

Ben slapped his palm on his desk. “Hell. Maybe we should just ask them what the Kindergarten Club is.”

“Right. That’s likely to produce results. ‘Excuse me, we’ve uncovered evidence that you’re involved in some kind of weird organization linked to the mutilation-death of four teenage girls and possibly Howard Hamel. Would you mind talking about it?’ And then we could just sit back and watch the attorneys congregate.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Your problem, Ben, is that you’re just too honest. Instead of making some gigantic frontal assault, let’s try something with a bit more élan. Something more…surreptitious.”

“I’m not breaking into any more offices!”

“I’m not saying you should. All I’m suggesting is that you take a profitable walk down the hallway.”

“I don’t follow.”

“Look, everything we’ve learned about this case points right here, inside the legal department. All our best suspects are just down the hall. Hamel seems to have known something that someone else did not want to get out. If Hamel had some sensitive information pertaining to this Kindergarten Club, maybe some of the other lawyers do, too.”

“Makes a certain twisted sense,” Ben admitted. “But I don’t see how it gets me a course of action.”

“Go forth and investigate,” she whispered. “Search their offices.”

“During office hours?”

“Well, as we’ve discovered, these offices are never entirely vacated. And it will be considerably more suspicious if you get caught rummaging through someone’s office at two in the morning.”

“This is true.” Ben thought for a moment. “But I can’t just go wandering around, poking into desks and file cabinets. I need some kind of excuse.”

“Easily contrived. What are you working on right now?”

“Well, actually, nothing.”

“Nothing at all? Have you talked to Rob? He’s acting as Crichton’s messenger.”

“Crichton hasn’t given me an assignment since the Nelson case ended.”

A deep furrow crossed Christina’s brow. “Is that a fact? Well, all the better. Since we came here Crichton’s been griping that he can’t tell what cases are pending and what cases aren’t. I think you, the bright hardworking young lawyer, should seize the initiative and compile a litigation calendar.”

“A litigation calendar?”

“Sure. Identify pending cases, list any pressing deadlines, future plans, that sort of thing. Of course, you’ll have to get information from the other lawyers about their cases. And if they’re not in their offices at the time…you might have to hunt around a bit to get what you need.”

“And if they are in their office?”

“Make sure they aren’t.”

“I dunno, Christina. Sounds dangerous.”

“True, this is a risk. But Chief Blackwell is a certainty unless you come up with something in the next twenty-four hours.”

“Well, since you put it like that…let’s get to work on the calendar.”

36

BEN DECIDED TO START with Shelby’s office. His first choice had been Doug’s, but Doug was poised squarely behind his computer and appeared unlikely to move unless a power shortage blanketed Tulsa. Shelly was much easier—she was out of her office, and probably wouldn’t cause trouble in any event.