Legal Heat

Chapter Twenty


James leaned back in his uncomfortable, steel-framed chair and threaded his fingers together behind his head as he studied Martha Saunders. Not the type of woman he would have expected to associate with a low-life scumbag like Jimmy. Her blonde hair was short and neatly cut, and her black suit, although faded, was clean and pressed.

Her eyes, bright behind her elegant, gold-rimmed glasses, darted around the interview room, but there was nothing to see. The stark white walls and glaring florescent light would serve only to remind her that this was no social encounter.

James allowed himself a brief smile when she began to twist her watch around her wrist. Back and forth. Faster and faster. Betraying her anxiety.

Time to begin.

“How long were you and Jimmy together?”

Martha pursed her lips and frowned. “We weren’t really together. We met in a bar one night. He was really nice. Charming. Hot. Usually guys like that don’t talk to girls like me. He said he was a middle manager for a paper company. I was really drunk and I went home with him. We got together a few times after that, mostly for sex.”

James raised an eyebrow when her voice hitched. Clearly there was more to the relationship than she had let on.

“You used to work for Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, isn’t that right?”

Martha nodded.

“Did you know how Jimmy made a living?”

“Not when I first met him. I found out later…when things went wrong.” She held his gaze without flinching. “Do I need my lawyer?”

James kept his face impassive. “I asked you here for an informal chat, but if you would feel more comfortable with a lawyer, feel free to call one.”

“It’s just…I’m getting the feeling this isn’t only about Jimmy.” Her voice shook and she threaded her fingers together so hard her knuckles turned white.

“True. I’m also interested in the case you started against Hi-Tech.”

Martha shrugged. “The pleadings are public documents. I worked there as a lab tech. I discovered they weren’t acting ethically. I reported it to the regulators and then I was fired. So I started a lawsuit.”

The overhead light flickered on and off. James frowned. He didn’t want anything to disturb the momentum of his questioning. Martha could shed some light on Jimmy and his two swollen bodies, but if he wasn’t careful, he would scare her away, or worse, send her running to a lawyer.

“I read the pleadings,” he said. “Hi-Tech says they dismissed you because you went into the building after hours.”

“I forgot my purse.”

“I think you forgot something else.” James shifted his weight and leaned toward her. “Drug samples. Jimmy had to get his supply from somewhere.”

Her eyes widened and she sucked in a breath. “My purse.”

James reached into the box he had strategically placed on the table before the interview. “I have the security tape from the night in question.”

Her eyes flicked to the tape and back to him. “My lawyer requested the tape from Hi-Tech and was told it had gone missing.”

“I found it.” Did he see her tense the tiniest bit? She would be trying to decide if he was bluffing or if he had indeed found the original tape. Which he had. At Kowalski’s residence. Kowalski must have been trying to protect her. But did she know it had been partially destroyed?

She swallowed and licked her lips. “Then you’ll see I’m telling the truth.”

James smiled. She was sticking to her story, which meant she suspected he couldn’t view the tape. Damn good liar. But so was he. “You want me to play it for you?”

She shook her head and worried her bottom lip. “No, that’s okay.”

“You want to tell me about that night?” The effort of keeping his body relaxed and focused began to take its toll. Sweat trickled down his back. Over the years, he had interviewed dozens of criminals, from murderers to arsonists, petty thieves to irate husbands, and he had always been able to see past the masks and bravado to the hidden core of the man. But Martha was an enigma. Either she was totally guileless or the best damn liar he had ever met.

“There’s nothing to tell. I forgot my purse. I signed in at security. I got it from my lab. I went home.”

James nodded toward her trembling hands. “You afraid of something?”

Martha drew in a ragged breath. “I’m afraid the people who killed Jimmy will be unhappy when they find out you’re nosing around. He told me if I ever talked to the police they would find me and kill me.”

James folded his arms. “If you’re telling me you know who killed Jimmy, I could arrest you right now for obstructing justice, withholding evidence or maybe even conspiracy.” He paused, waiting for the threat to sink in, and then raised an eyebrow. “But maybe we can help each other.”

Martha stilled and her eyes welled with tears. “I’m tired of trying to help people. I made a mistake with Jimmy. A big one. Then everything spiraled out of control. When I tried to fix it by reporting to the regulators, I lost my job. Now you want my help, but this time I’ll pay with my life.”

“We can protect you.”

“That’s it?” She lifted her eyes and peered through her glasses. “I need more than that. I want to walk out of here and know no one will ever come looking for me again, including you.”

James shook his head. “I can’t do it. I need to know how you’re involved before I can decide whether or not to let you walk away. Maybe you killed Jimmy. Maybe you supplied him with illegal and possibly deadly pharmaceuticals. I can’t let a killer back on the streets.”

She crumpled, sagging in her seat as she buried her face in her hands. “I’m the victim here,” she sobbed. “I’m the one who was blackmailed and threatened and…used.”

“Talk to me. Let me help,” he cajoled.

Martha shook her head. “If I talk to you, I’ll be the next one to die.”





Katy walked up the steps of the tidy two-story house in Aldergove. The white siding looked new and the lawn had been well kept. Flower boxes decorated the open porch and the two wicker chairs looked inviting after the stuffy car ride.

Her head throbbed from the hour-long trip. She knew she shouldn’t be driving yet, but she had only one more day and she didn’t want to let Martha down. More than that, she needed to get out of town and away from anything that reminded her of Mark. Every time she thought about him, her heart seized up. How could he accuse her of not trusting him when he had gone behind her back and done the one thing that would hurt her most? His excuse about keeping her safe wasn’t enough. She didn’t need anyone to keep her safe. She’d been doing just fine on her own.

Well…except for being shot outside the courthouse and then almost shot at McIntyre’s apartment. Her stomach clenched. She had called the hospital this morning to check up on McIntyre only to find out he had died during surgery. With the possibility of two murderers on the loose, she would never have considered visiting Patricia Cunningham if she hadn’t had the police protection team watching her twenty-four seven.

She glanced over her shoulder and spotted the police car parked across the street. One of the policemen waved. Katy returned the greeting and then rang the bell.

A short, solidly built woman in her mid-fifties answered the door.

“Patricia Cunningham?”

The woman nodded.

“I’m Katherine Sinclair. We spoke about the Hi-Tech case over the phone. I know you don’t want to talk to me, but if you could just spare five minutes to hear me out, I would be very grateful.”

Patricia studied her closely. “You’re the lawyer all over the news. The one who was shot outside the Vancouver courthouse. I recognize you now. How are you, dear?” Her wariness turned to sympathy.

“Good. Just tired.” Katy eyed the couch. “You wouldn’t mind if I sat down for a moment, would you?” She hated to use Patricia’s sympathy to gain her trust, but at this stage she would try anything.

Patricia ushered her into the small living room and Katy settled herself on a worn leather couch. Patricia shooed her cat off the faded wingback chair and sat uneasily on the cushion.

“I didn’t sign it,” she blurted out. “I didn’t sign the agreement that Hi-Tech’s lawyer brought over. You said if I hadn’t signed anything I could talk to you.” She paused and her voice wavered. “I’m sick of secrets. Sick of Hi-Tech. I want someone to know what happened.”

Hope swelled inside her. “You can talk to me.”

Patricia clenched and unclenched her fists, clearly struggling over her decision to talk. The cat stretched out on the worn, stained gold carpet and then curled up at Patricia’s feet.

By way of distraction, Katy picked up a picture of a balding, heavyset man with a red nose and twinkling blue eyes.

“Is this Robert?” She kept her tone light, hoping to ease Patricia’s fears.

Patricia’s eyes teared. “Yes, that’s him, although he doesn’t look like that now, not since the accident.”

“I understand his team spilled some kind of chemical.”

“That’s the story Robert was told to say,” Patricia said in a hushed whisper. “They weren’t supposed to tell anyone what really happened or Hi-Tech would take back the settlement payment. But Robert told me. We’ve been together since we were sixteen. We don’t keep secrets from each other.”

Katy sat still, barely breathing. For a moment she wished Mark was here. She wanted him to hear what Patricia had to say. Not just about keeping secrets, but so he would know she hadn’t been chasing ghosts. She wanted him to understand that bribing Ted to pull her off the case had been the wrong thing to do. She pushed Mark from her mind and turned her focus back to Patricia. “Tell me what happened.”

“Robert is…was a custodian. He worked for Cleenaway, a contracting company. His team went out to Hi-Tech on a six-month contract. But one night I got a call to come and pick him up. When I got there, his head was swollen and parts of his body as well. He was very ill. They have some kind of medical facility and he was hooked up to all sorts of machines. I wanted to take him to the hospital, but they said they couldn’t move him because of the possibility of contamination. They said there had been a spill in the lab he was cleaning and he had an allergic reaction to the chemicals.”

“Had he ever had an allergic reaction before?”

Patricia shook her head. “Never. Healthy as a horse, except a bit overweight, but we were working on that. I didn’t want him to have a heart attack and leave me early.” Tears welled up in her eyes. Katy offered her a tissue but she shook her head.

“I stayed with him all night and the next day too. They gave him lots of drugs but the swelling didn’t go down. He improved, though, and he could talk and make jokes like usual. He wasn’t the only one involved. There were three others. One of them had a wife, Julia. I talked to her in the coffee room, but I never saw any of them after we left.”

Katy nodded. “Strange they didn’t send him to the hospital when he began to recover.”

“I thought the same thing but they said, as a private facility, they could provide him with better care and they were concerned about cross-contamination from the chemicals. They did look after him very well. He had his own nurse, three-course gourmet meals, fancy bedding and a big screen TV. When I pushed for him to go to the hospital, he said he was happy in their facility. After a couple of days a man came to see us. Said he was a lawyer for Hi-Tech. Offered Robert two million dollars compensation if he kept quiet.”

“That’s a lot of money.”

“Especially for us. I’m a secretary so we had a steady income, but it wasn’t much, and we were worried about retirement. Anyway I wanted to take the document to a lawyer but he said Robert had to sign there and then or not at all.”

“Duress.”

Patricia frowned. “What’s that?”

“An agreement isn’t binding if it’s signed when you are under pressure or if you are being threatened.”

“That’s exactly how it was. Anyway, Robert signed it and they sent us home. The money appeared in our account the next day, which was a good thing because Robert couldn’t go back to work. He had trouble walking and although the swelling went down, his face was never quite the same. Then we found out he had cancer.”

“I’m so sorry.” Katy put down her cup. “Why did you change your mind about talking to me?”

“Well I was going to call you and then Hi-Tech sent another lawyer. Nice fellow. Decent. He said the other agreement had problems and explained what they were. Robert didn’t care. He just signed the new one. He wants to make sure I’m looked after when he dies. The lawyer had one for me too. But I didn’t sign it or accept the money he offered. I didn’t want to have anything to do with that company. He said that was fine but he asked us not to speak about the settlement or the accident.”

“Did he threaten you or blackmail you to keep quiet?” Katy held her breath. Please don’t tell me Mark crossed the line.

“No not at all.” Patricia smiled. “He was very nice. He was concerned we were treated fairly and didn’t lose the money.”

Katy let out her breath with a whoosh. Nice. Honest. Compassionate. How could she reconcile the different aspects of the man she had thought she loved?

Patricia brushed a few loose, gray strands of hair behind her ears. How old was she? Maybe fifty-five or sixty? Too young to be contemplating a life alone.

“Hi-Tech wants to kill you, don’t they?” Patricia asked in a hushed whisper.

Katy startled at the abrupt change of topic. “The police haven’t caught the shooter and if they have any theories about who it was, they haven’t shared them with me.”

“But the newspaper said your witness was going to testify against them and I saw the police are still protecting you.”

Katy swallowed. “I think the shooter was just after my witness but the police don’t believe me.”

“That’s why I want nothing to do with Hi-Tech,” Patricia said. “I thought after the last lawyer’s visit, I’d just keep quiet, but now Robert has taken a turn for the worse and…” her eyes flooded with tears, “…I don’t really care what happens to me after he’s gone. He’s been my whole world since I was a girl.”

Sympathetic tears spilled from Katy’s eyes. She envied Patricia the deep love she shared with her husband—the kind of love that could have lasted a lifetime. The kind of love Katy had only tasted and lost.

“What really happened?” she asked, after they had both dried their eyes. “You said you told the story you were given. What’s the real story?”

Patricia tensed. “It wasn’t an accident; it was an experiment. They offered my Robert and three of his co-workers three thousand dollars to try a new drug. They told him it had already been tested and it had only minimal side effects. So he agreed. But right after he took it, he began to swell up and he was in so much pain. When I got there, he was crying in agony. They all were. My poor Robert.” Her eyes flooded with tears again. “I hate them. They must have suspected what would happen. They treated Robert like some kind of lab rat.”

“Do you know if he signed anything at Hi-Tech? A consent form or something like that?”

Patricia shook her head. “If he did, he didn’t tell me.”

“Did they tell him what the drug was supposed to do?”

“No,” she sniffed. “He was going to use the money to take me on a holiday. We were going to go abroad. He always wanted to see France.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Now he never will.”





“We didn’t get the warrant to search Hi-Tech.”

James froze. “Say again, Joanna?”

“I’m sorry, sir. The judge denied our application. He said we didn’t have enough evidence to tie the bodies or the cleaners to Hi-Tech.”

“Is he crazy?” James threw his pen across the room. “I can understand Garcia and Wood alone. That was a shot in the dark. But we have four men, all who work for the same company on the same contract to Hi-Tech. We now have bank records showing they each received a transfer of two million dollars. We have copies of their settlement agreements with the company. We have established they all suffered from similar injuries, and contracted the same rare form of cancer. It doesn’t take a genius to do the math. What more does he want?”

Joanna took a step back, her eyes wide. Ah…she had never seen him lose control. Usually he managed to keep the pens on his desk.

“The judge agreed there may be a link between them, but we don’t have enough evidence to establish Hi-Tech has done anything wrong.” She stared at the pen on the floor and her voice wavered. “He said it is plausible the four men were injured at work and settled out of court. Or that all six people had similar symptoms but different causes. He wants something concrete. He’ll reconsider on an expedited basis if we can give him one hard piece of evidence. I have a feeling the judge wouldn’t be as cautious if Hi-Tech wasn’t such a high-profile company.”

“F*ck.” James slammed his hand down on his desk. “We need a connection between Garcia, Wood and the four cleaners. Saunders is the key but she’s afraid to talk.”

“How do you think she’s involved?”

James sighed. “I think she took drugs from Hi-Tech and gave them to Jimmy Rider to sell on the street. If she was being honest in the interview, then I suspect the drug was highly successful and Rider started blackmailing her for more. If she had given him even one sample, he would have had something to hold over her head.”

“Makes sense.” Joanna nodded. “Maybe he sold something to Garcia, who unfortunately had a fatal reaction, but for the most part everyone was fine. But when Martha got caught sneaking into the building to replenish his supply, he would have been cut off.”

James picked up her train of thought. “He might have had an extra stash at Wood’s place but before he could get to it, he was arrested. Wood might have found it and tried it out.”

“And had a fatal reaction as well,” Joanna said.

“Yes.” James punched the air as more pieces fell into place. “That ties in nicely with the assault on her lawyer. He must have thought she took the drugs when she went to Wood’s apartment.”

Joanna picked up the phone. “So can we bring Saunders in for theft, dealing and obstruction? We should have enough leverage to get her to talk.”

“We’re still missing a few pieces of the puzzle.” James drummed his fingers on his desk. “Did Wood take all the drugs or did someone get to her apartment first and empty the bag? The break-in suggests she had a visitor before the lawyers found her. Jimmy was in jail, so it wasn’t him.”

“What about the same people who scared Saunders away?” Joanna’s face brightened. “Maybe they’re the ones who also shot at Sinclair to scare her, thinking she had the stash.”

James sighed. “But that means someone else took it, and I find it hard to believe that we have another player involved in the whole mess. I still think Kowalski was the primary target of the shooting.”

Joanna’s shoulders slumped. “We still haven’t established a connection to the cleaners.” Exhaustion lined her face. The team had been working round the clock and the stress and late nights were beginning to take their toll.

Time for a little outside intervention.

James grabbed his leather jacket from the back of his chair. “Bring Saunders back in. Make sure she understands her right to have a lawyer present. But not Katherine Sinclair. I can just see the case being thrown out on the basis of a conflict of interest.”

“Where are you going?”

James slung his jacket over his back. “To see my fairy godmother.”