Page 125 of Maddy's Justice

“He’s right,” Melanie said. “I’ll be shocked if she accepts it. You guys have let Troy McGovern run wild and now we have to pay for it. Stop complaining. If you want to know who’s to blame, find a mirror.”

“Since we’re coming up from what MacAlister offered, five hundred each to over two and a half million each, we can use that,” Connie said.

“I should think so,” Stafford grumbled. “In fact, don’t budge. Make them sweat.”

Marc opened his mouth to say something in reply then thought better of it. Dealing with Brandon Stafford was like dealing with a spoiled child.

Instead, Marc smiled and said, “We will do our best, Brandon.

The room went quiet until Melanie asked, “Anything else?”

Some heads shook and a couple people said “no”.

“Cliff,” Melanie said, “would you do me a favor and show Marc and Connie out, please?”

“Sure,” Spenser said.

“We can find it,” Marc said. “I left a trail of breadcrumbs.”

When Melanie was certain Marc and Connie were gone, she looked at Brandon and asked, “What’s going on in the secret room down on thirty-eight?”

Stafford put a puzzled expression on his face and said, “On thirty-eight what? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Someone told me you were seen using an electronic keypad to unlock a door on the thirty-eighth floor of this building. Don’t play coy with me, Brandon. You’re not that good at it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Stafford insisted. “You want to show me this secret room?”

“Yes, let’s,” Melanie said.

“I don’t understand,” Melanie said. “There was a door right here. I saw it. There was a camera in the ceiling and a keypad to unlock it.”

All four of them were standing in the hallway on thirty-eight. The three men, all looking at Melanie with real concern while she looked over the wall.

“I, ah, I swear, it was here.”

“You sure you have the right floor?” Gavin Blake asked.

“Yes! Goddamnit! It was here. The door was here. What have you done, Brandon?”

“Melanie, I swear, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t done anything.”

Realizing she’d been had. That she was spotted by the camera in the ceiling when she was here, they got building maintenance to remove the door and paint the hallway. The room was either closed up or a new entrance installed somewhere else.

“I guess I don’t know,” Melanie said. “I guess I must be wrong. Sorry.”

“Too much stress. Maybe you should take a few days off,” Cliff said.

“No, no. I’m okay. I don’t know. Sorry, I guess,” she said with a slight, insincere smile at Brandon.

“What do you think?” Brandon asked Cliff Spenser. They were back in Brandon’s office, relieved at dodging a bullet.

“That’s a temporary solution, at best. Sealing up the wall and making a new entrance from inside the office next door isn’t practical. Melanie’s no idiot. She knows what we did. All she needs is a five-pound sledgehammer to punch through that wall and see what’s inside.”

“Who saw you go into the room?” Gavin asked.

“Don’t know. Hell, it could be anyone. An associate, a secretary or junior partner,” Brandon said. “Let me call the man and see what he wants.”

“Is he still in Wisconsin?” Gavin asked

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