“Will do, bye.” Judy hung up, and Mary pressed End, setting the phone down and mulling it over. She wondered if Judywas right that Shanahan wasn’t John’s killer. Maybe ithadbeen a burglar. Or maybe they were missing something, because Mary had to acknowledge to herself that as soon as Judy had said those words, they had struck a chord.
I’m missing something.
Mary eyed the computer screen without really seeing anything. She felt unsettled and uneasy at her very core, like a gut instinct that she was ignoring. Maybe she was missing something, but the only thing that she could see that they would be missing was Machiavelli.
Which was when it struck her.
“DiNunzio, did you hear me?”
Startled, Mary looked up to see Bennie standing in the threshold to her office, a grim look on her face. Her heavy briefcase and purse hung from shoulder straps, and stray blonde curls escaped her topknot. The blue of her eyes seemed diluted, and the lines in her face more prominent than Mary had seen before.
“Oh, hi, Bennie. I didn’t see you there.” Mary set down her phone. “That was Judy, and she has William.”
“Good.” Bennie motioned Mary up. “DiNunzio, come on. Time to go. I’ll walk you out.”
“I can’t go yet. I want to keep looking for a connection between the plaintiffs and Machiavelli.”
“There isn’t one, except that he’s their lawyer.” Bennie’s dry lips made a flat line. “Anne and Lou have gone home. You and I are the last ones here.”
“Bennie, can you sit down for a minute? I just got an idea I want to try it out on you.”
“Okay.” Bennie set her bags on the floor and eased into the chair opposite Mary’s desk. “What idea?”
“What ifMachiavellikilled John?”
Bennie recoiled, frowning. “What are you talking about?”
“Let me just think out loud with you. I think that Machiavellihas been trying to destroy this law firm. And so far, he’s certainly hurting our reputation. We didn’t get Nutrex and we almost lost London Technologies.”
“O-kay,” Bennie said slowly.
“We know that Machiavelli is behind the reverse-discrimination complaint because he’s the opposing counsel, whether or not I can prove that he manufactured the lawsuit. And by the way, Iknowhe manufactured it. I can feel it in mybones.”
Bennie eyed the papers on Mary’s desk. “I couldn’t find any connection between the plaintiffs and him. Could you?”
“No, but Iknowit exists.” Mary heard the strength of her own voice, though she knew she couldn’t prove it, but she went with it anyway. Because maybe it was time to start believing in herself. “But let me return to the point. Machiavelli files a reverse-discrimination suit with a statement by John, and next thing that happens is John turns up murdered, which puts us in the hot seat. Judy becomes a suspect. We become suspects in conspiracy to murder. In case anybody misses the point, he accuses us on television.”
“I think he exploited the tragedy.”
“Unless hecreatedthe tragedy.” Mary found herself speaking faster, convinced of her own words even as they left her lips. “Isn’t it at least possible that Machiavelli killed John? Think about it. We know Machiavelli can be violent. Impulsive. Remember, after that last case with him, I went to see him in his office and he tried to kiss me?”
Bennie glowered. “Yes, I do, the bastard. But murder? Maybe you really are getting paranoid.”
“No, I’m not. Why is it not possible?”
“The question isn’t whether it’s possible. The question is whether it’s probable.”
“You’re dismissing it like it’s out of the question.” Mary threw up her hands. “What makes it so improbable?”
“For one thing, you have to look at who would benefit from John’s murder. It doesn’t benefit Machiavelli to have John dead. If John were still alive, Machiavelli could’ve called him as a witness when the reverse-discrimination case went to trial. That would be very compelling testimony on the plaintiffs’ behalf. John made admissions against us. But without John on the witness stand, it’s hearsay.”
“But we’re not going to trial yet. We’re only before the Human Relations Commission, and they don’t follow the rules of evidence. Machiavelli’s got John’s statements in the record, and it all comes in, admissions and all. Machiavelli even called me and Judy about settlement, remember I told you that? He said he thought his case was stronger now.”
“Right.”
“I emailed that freelancer, Amanda Sussman, who was bothering us, calling her out, so I bet she disappears. But there’ll be more reporters tomorrow, probably some legitimate and some not. We barely recovered from the reverse-discrimination lawsuit before we got hit with a murder case, withus as suspects.” Mary got more excited the more she thought about it. “How many Nutrexes will we lose? Who isn’t hiring us because of these rumors? This is the kind of thing that can bring us down completely. Not just that we discriminate against men, but that wekill them?”
Bennie almost laughed out loud. “DiNunzio, I think you’ve got derangement syndrome. Machiavelli is a massive jerk, but I don’t know if he’s capable of cold-blooded murder.”
