Page 117 of Maddy's Justice

“Quinn admitted she plucked a number out of the air.”

“Thirty million? Her fees would be ten?”

“Yep. That’s the usual deal. One third,” Marc replied.

“I’m in the wrong business. I only need one of those each year for two years then I could retire.”

“Uncle Sam gets half,” Marc reminded her.

“While you’re here, I’d like you to come down to thirty-eight and show me the room, you know, the one you saw Brandon go into,” Melanie said.

“Are we done here?” Marc asked Connie.

“Yeah,” she replied.

He told Melanie, “Okay, let’s go.”

“This is it,” Marc said nodding at the door.

While Connie and Marc stood back watching, Melanie put her right ear up against the door.

“I don’t hear anything,” she said after fifteen or twenty seconds.

She stepped back and started pounding the door with the flat of her hand.

“Melanie,” Marc said.

She turned her head to see him pointing toward the veiling.

“There’s a camera,” he said. “I didn’t notice it the first time.”

“That’s nice,” she said while turning back to pound on the door again.

After several more attempts and getting no response, Marc said, “There may not be anyone in there.”

“Why would they have a camera?” Melanie asked.

“I don’t know,” Marc said.

Back in her office, Melanie sat in her chair silently looking out the window behind her desk. She had a gorgeous view of the east end of downtown, the Viking’s stadium, the Mississippi River Valley, and the University of Minnesota. She stared at all of it and saw none of it. Her mind was miles away.

Fifteen minutes into it, she quickly spun her chair around, opened a drawer and found her personal iPhone. Opening the voice activated typing app, she began to dictate what she had been thinking.

“For at least a couple of years,” she began. “I have had serious suspicions about activities occurring in this firm. For too long I have ignored them. I can no longer do so…”

THIRTY-EIGHT

“It has to be you they’re talking about,” Carvelli said. “What other pretty woman might have stuck her head inside Labelle’s office recently then looked around for three point four seconds.”

“I agree,” Maddy said. “The time frame is right, too. We didn’t stop to think about Labelle having his private office wired.”

After following Labelle and his bodyguard to the heliport, Carvelli and Maddy drove back to Schaumberg. The entire crew was in Sean’s living room except for Ava the Burglar. Sean’s housemate, Helen was in with them. Conrad Hilton had brought along yesterday’s recordings. The only thing of interest was the photo of Maddy shown to Labelle by building security.

“This must be why he left in such a hurry,” Carvelli said.

“Why would he leave?” Paxton asked. “Do you think he recognized Maddy’s photo?”

“Maybe,” Maddy said. “He might have but I can’t remember how. I don’t think we’ve ever met.”

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