Part 22 (1/2)
”I'll take twenty percent.”
”Take it all.”
How could he take it all? He wouldn't feel right. ”You can toss your percentage in the river if you want, but we split or I'm out.”
He finally backed her into limiting his take to a third, and they shook on it.
”When can you start?” she said.
”I've already started.” He rose and threw a twenty on the table. ”Let's take a ride.”
Jack didn't have to tell the cabbie to take it slow past the house. Thirty-eighth Street was barely crawling.
”Thar she blows,” he said.
The security car with the two guards was still parked out front.
He noticed that Alicia didn't even glance out the window. She sat with her arms laced tightly across her chest.
”When do you figure you'll make your first search?” she whispered.
The cabdriver's English had seemed pretty shaky, and Jack doubted he could hear much on the other side of his Plexiglas part.i.tion, but whispering wasn't a bad idea.
”For what?”
”For whatever they think is so valuable.”
”Which is...?”
”That's the zillion-dollar question.”
”Exactly. I'm sure your brother has tossed the place but good behind those boarded-up windows. Obviously he didn't find it. So how am I supposed to find what he couldn't find when I don't even know what I'm looking for?”
She mulled that a moment. ”Maybe it isn't something in in the house-maybe it's the house itself.” the house-maybe it's the house itself.”
”Very possible. But when it's time to search, it won't be just me, it'll be we we.”
”Oh, no. I'm not setting foot in that house ever again.”
”Yes, you are. You grew up there. You know every nook and cranny of the place. Be crazy for me to stumble around in there alone when you could be my guide.”
Alicia seemed to shrink inside her coat as she tightened her crisscrossed arms.
What happened to you? he wondered. What went on in that house that you won't even look at it?
He decided not to push her any further now.
”But search talk is a little premature now anyway,” he said. ”We need lots more information before we do anything like that.”
She visibly relaxed. ”Like what?”
”Like who's backing Thomas. Finding out what they're they're into may move us a long way toward figuring out what this is all about. You said this is a big expensive law firm?” into may move us a long way toward figuring out what this is all about. You said this is a big expensive law firm?”
She nodded. ”Hinchberger, Rainey and Guran. Leo-my dead lawyer-told me HRG is mainly into international business law. He was flabbergasted that they were handling a will dispute. Said it was like having F. Lee Bailey handle a traffic ticket. And I believe him. You should see their offices.”
”You been there?”
She nodded. ”Leo and I had a meeting with Thomas's lawyer in his office early on. It didn't go well.”
”Where are they?”
”West Forty-fourth, just off Fifth.”
Jack had an idea. ”Then that's the place to start.” He tapped on the cab's Plexiglas barrier. ”West Forty-fourth.”
”n.o.body's going to be there now.”
”I know. But I want to get a look at the place. And I want to start work on getting a list of their clients.”
”You mean, besides Thomas?”
”I don't think your brother is a client-at least in the usual sense. It doesn't sound like you can approach-what did you call them?”
”Leo called them HRG. It's easier.”
”Okay. HRG. They don't sound like the kind of firm that lets you pop in off the street with a will problem. So I'm willing to bet that one of their existing clients-an important one-told HRG to handle this 'minor matter' for them. We connect Thomas to one of those clients and we may answer some questions.”
She shook her head. ”So obvious. But how do we connect-?”
”I follow him. But that's all later. Right now, I need you to fill me in on some details.”
”Like what?”
”Like how your father died.”
”He was on Flight 27.”
The words jolted Jack. ”Flight 27? When you said he was killed in a plane crash, I thought you meant some little Piper Cub or Cessna. But Flight 27... jeez.”
JAL Flight 27 from LA to Tokyo had crashed into the Pacific with no survivors, and not too many of the 247 bodies recovered either. The TV and papers had talked of nothing else for weeks. Still no clue as to why. It went down in one of the deepest parts of the Pacific. The black box was never found.
”Did they recover his body?”
Alicia shook her head. ”No. They say sharks got most of them.”
”I'm sorry,” Jack said without thinking.
”Me too,” she said matter-of-factly, looking straight ahead. ”For the shark that ate him, that is. Probably died of food poisoning.”
You are are a cold one, Jack thought. I hope you've got a good reason. a cold one, Jack thought. I hope you've got a good reason.