Splitsville, page 13
“I don’t want new stuff. I want my stuff! I want Maddie!”
“Maybe later. Not now.”
So the impoverished unemployed dad was offering a shopping spree?
Maya glared at her husband. Her anger was barely contained, raging behind the eyeballs. “She needs more mommy time, Michael. It wouldn’t hurt you. You could be there with me.”
“The judge gave you ten minutes. And seven have expired. Don’t waste the final three talking to me.”
How could anyone be so callous? Even by divorce-court standards, this was extreme nastiness.
“You got lucky,” Maya spat back. “If I hadn’t lost my job, this wouldn’t be happening.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Maya. Your problem isn’t me or your job. It’s that damn cult.”
A frown crossed Brittany’s face. “What’s a cult?”
Maya pulled Brittany’s head close to her chest. “Daddy doesn’t like Mommy’s friends.”
“I don’t like Daddy’s friends,” Brittany shot back. “They’re creepy.”
For the first time, Kenzi butted in. “What friends are you talking about?”
“This is none of your business,” Michael growled.
She ignored him. “Who are these friends?”
Brittany clung to her mother. “Daddy took me to this place that has weird people coming over all the time. I don’t like them. They keep asking me if I’ve been saved.”
“Saved from what?”
Brittany shrugged. “I dunno. I just want them to leave me alone.”
Maya whirled. “What’s going on, Michael?”
His face hardened. “You have two minutes left.”
Maya turned back to her daughter, hands on tiny shoulders. “Honey, I want you to listen to me. I need you to be my tough girl. I know you don’t like this. I don’t like it either. But it won’t last forever. I swear it.”
“I want to go home with you!”
“You will. But not today.”
“Please!”
“And I want you to keep a close eye on your father. If he does anything…weird, or anything that makes you uncomfortable, or his friends do, tell me about it. First chance you get.”
“I want to live with you!”
“That’s what I want, too. You remember the story I read you at bedtime when you were littler? About the Kissing Hand? Well, I’m kissing your hand right now.” She did. “That’s Mommy’s kiss, and it will stay with you wherever you go. And whatever happens.”
“Time’s up,” Michael barked. “Thank God.”
He reached for his daughter. She squirmed away.
He gritted his teeth. “You’re making this harder than it needs to be.”
“That would be you,” Maya muttered. “Watch your back, Michael.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I will do anything—anything—to get my daughter out of your clutches.”
“Right.” He struggled with Brittany. She fought him every inch of the way. “There…is…no point in fighting!”
Brittany kicked him in the shins.
“You little—” He raised his hand—then froze.
Three pairs of eyes stared at him.
If only she’d been videoing this, Kenzi thought. But sadly, phone photography was forbidden in the courthouse.
“Just—come,” he said, giving Brittany another sharp tug. The girl tumbled toward him.
“I’ll see you again, honey,” Maya cried. “Soon.”
“Mommy!”
And then she was gone, vanished behind a closed door.
Maya’s face could not have been wetter if she’d just stepped out of the shower. Kenzi strode over to her and, without even thinking about it, wrapped her arms around her.
Maya could barely speak. “He took my baby. He took my baby.”
“I will get your daughter back,” Kenzi said. “I don’t know how. And I don’t know how long it will take. But I will not rest until you’re holding her in your arms.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kenzi knew Asian takeout was the laziest way to put dinner on the table. On the other hand, she was exhausted, and the Pho from Little Saigon was one of the key reasons Seattle was known as an Asian food Mecca.
Hailee listened to a full account of Kenzi’s day. LORE, Maggie, Zelda, Maya, the hearing. The ten-minute meeting with Brittany. If anything, Hailee was even more disgusted than she was. “What can’t they just share custody?”
“They could. Michael doesn’t want to.”
“I remember you told me once that husbands are always assholes during divorces.”
“Watch your language. And yes.”
“Isn’t that why we have judges?”
Kenzi sighed. “Judge Benetti is of an older generation. Very old. Crozier convinced him that Hexitel is a bunch of immoral pagan perverts.”
“No, that’s QAnon. Crozier’s pals.”
“He’s making Hexitel sound almost as bad.”
Hailee took a deep scoop from her Pho bowl. “To be fair, they are weird. But not weird enough to take a little girl from her mommy.”
“Let’s talk about something else. Is my Twitter audience still in decline?”
“’Fraid so. Not dropping as dramatically as before, but there’s still significant attrition. Someone on Reddit said Hexitel members are all witches.”
“Actually, that may be true.”
“Practicing witches. Brides of Satan. Someone posted on your Twitter stream that you were helping Satan seduce his next generation of sex slaves.”
“What?”
“A perfectly logical conclusion to draw from you representing Maya in divorce court.”
“I don’t think you understand the meaning of the word ‘logical.’”
“So people are posting hateful crap. Saying you should be banned from child custody cases.”
“Maya might be better off if I were.”
“Don’t be silly. You’re a great lawyer.”
“You just say that because I’m your mother.”
“No, I say that because you took a case no one else would touch. And Grandpa is giving you all kinds of grief about it.” Hailee wheeled over and gave Kenzi a hug. “I’m proud of you.”
“Thanks.”
“But we’ve still got to do something about your numbers. Jeez, eighteen thousand followers? That’s pathetic.”
Her little media manager. Always on the job. “We can focus on that after I win this case.”
“Is that even possible?”
“Of course it’s possible. I just have to figure out how. I need to get Maya out of Hexitel and rehabilitate her rep. Focus on her parenting. The fact that she’s supported Brittany for—”
Her phone buzzed. Maya. Probably thought of some more ugly things to say about her husband.
She glanced at Hailee. “I know I made a rule about taking phone calls during mother-daughter dinners…”
Hailee smiled. “Just answer it.”
She did. “Maya, what’s—”
“Kenzi, I need your help. Can you come now?”
The edge in Maya’s voice conveyed extreme urgency. And there was so much background noise it was hard to understand her. Sounded like a siren, and several people speaking at once, and…some sort of crackling. “What’s going on? Where are you?”
“I’m near my office. I mean, former office. LORE.”
Why would she be at the lab after she was fired? “What’s happening?”
“It’s burning.” She was obviously having trouble talking. Her voice sounded scratchy and she was coughing. “All four buildings are on fire.”
Kenzi felt a hollow feeling in her gut. “I don’t understand.”
“Please come. I don’t know what to do. The police have arrested me.”
Kenzi’s eyelids closed. This was not going to help the child custody battle or the divorce case. “They arrested you? What’s the charge? Arson?”
A long silence elapsed before Maya replied. “No. Murder.”
Terror to Evildoers
Chapter Twenty-Four
As the Sentinel watched the flimsy buildings burn, it was impossible to suppress a smile.
They say Nero fiddled while Rome burned down. A dubious claim, since the violin had not yet been invented. But the point was, one did not have to suffer from schadenfreude to enjoy this illuminated tableau. Misery for others might be perfection for the one manipulating events behind the scenes.
The dominos were collapsing, one after another, tumbling toward an inevitable conclusion. The demise of the status quo. The end of the tyranny. And who would rise from the ashes?
The Sentinel. The leader of the new epoch.
Let the woman who endangered years of work take the blame. That would eliminate Maya, once and for all. She made it all too easy.
The girl would suffer, and that was unfortunate. But parenting was far from perfect. It was hard not to recall all the ugly things Father shouted, all those years ago. Loser. Quitter. Sinner. Seemed pathetic now. Father’s ego was so large he couldn’t see beyond his own success. Anyone who didn’t follow in his footsteps was substandard. Ironically, he worked eighty hours a week and was never appreciated by anyone. Never loved. Died alone in a nursing home. Sure, he made a lot of money, but at the end of the run, no one cared. Was that success? Was that the highest and best endgame?
The Sentinel would be loved. All across the globe.
But one step at a time. Still many obstacles to eliminate.
Had fortune smiled? Yes. Didn’t fortune always smile on the worthy?
Now it was simply a matter of capitalizing on current events. Striking while the iron was hot, to use one of Father’s favorite cliches.
The Sentinel stayed far enough back to avoid attracting attention, but close enough that, with the aid of high-powered binoculars, everything could be seen. Everything could be watched. The fire department appeared to be gaining control over the blaze, though at this point little could be saved. Paper would be ashes. Experiments would be ruined. And bodies would be cinders.
At the far left, a new vehicle moved toward the embankment where police cars were sheltered. Who would be crazy enough to come here? No one would visit unless they had a good reason…
A petite dark-haired woman stepped out of a Lexus SUV.
It was the lawyer. Kenzi Rivera.
By God, she would not ruin—
Stop. Deep breath. Calm.
So what if the lawyer was here? Of course the lawyer was here. Her client had been arrested. It wasn’t as if she could do anything. The bigshot divorce lawyer was hardly likely to descend into the grimy world of criminal law. She liked celebrities and the one percent, not real people. She liked profiteering off human misery, not defending criminals. This case was now officially too tacky for her aristocratic firm.
Rivera was talking to the arresting officer, agitated and angry. The officer didn’t appear much impressed. With an inferno blazing around them, this Latin loser must seem like the lowest item of interest. Perhaps she would be permitted to talk to her client. If not now, then at the jailhouse. Rivera would have to change out of her designer clothes before she went near that joint. For that matter, all this smoke wouldn’t do her any favors. She would have to burn her clothes after tonight. Maybe invest in a long tub soak with a lot of bath bombs…
Was Rivera actually yelling at the officer? That took some chutzpah. And a strong set of vocal chords. Unlikely to accomplish much, though.
Still, this woman must be watched. Not underestimated. Not just when everything was falling into place.
Maya would spend the rest of her life behind bars. Perhaps her lawyer could join her.
Or a more permanent solution could be arranged.
Why not? The smile returned. It had happened before. And worked spectacularly well.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Over the course of her legal career, Kenzi had endured many unpleasant client conferences in many unpleasant venues. In her first year of practice, she’d represented an elderly woman who insisted Kenzi meet her at the beauty shop. Seriously? And there was the woman who insisted that Kenzi come to her ranch on Bainbridge Island and ride horses while she told the sad story of her ruined marriage. Still had saddle sores from that mistake. And what about the woman she had to talk down from the ledge of the Museum of Pop Culture because she believed Paul Allen was using telepathy to read her mind?
All memorable. But this conference had them all beat. She was trying to have an important meeting against the backdrop of a blazing inferno—noisy, hot, smoky, and intimidating—with police surrounding them, a client in tears, and the absolute certainty that the days ahead were going to be worse than she had imagined.
She felt as if she’d entered a scene from Dante’s Inferno. Even though it was late and no stars were visible, the area was as bright as day, not because of the sun but because of the burning buildings. LORE in flames.
She covered her mouth with a scarf and tried to navigate the confusion. The officer in charge, Major James McConnell, had agreed to let Kenzi talk to her client. He warned them that the conversation would be brief, but at the moment, he was too busy dealing with the blaze to haul Maya back to the station. He seemed hostile from the start for no apparent reason—
And then she realized why he looked so familiar.
Kenzi had represented his ex-wife during their divorce. He, of course, had recognized her immediately.
And if she, given those circumstances, could persuade a cop to do anything for her, she was Lawyer of the Year.
Maya wrapped a black wooly blanket around herself. She didn’t need it for warmth. They were all sweating from the heat and she didn’t appear to be in shock. More in the nature of a security blanket, Kenzi suspected. She noticed Maya clung to it with both hands.
“We don’t have much time,” Kenzi said. “Tell me what happened.”
“Not much…to tell.” Maya struggled to speak, and it wasn’t just because of the smoke. “I came to clear out my office. A few minutes after I left, the buildings were on fire. I watched, wondering if there was anything I could do.”
“Did you call 911?”
“Eventually. They already knew. I walked to a convenience store on the far end of the front lawn. Across the street.” She pointed. “Got some water, then returned. The police arrived shortly after that.”
“They say you were hiding.”
“I was sheltering. I didn’t want to go up in flames. My car is here and it could be traced. What would be the point of hiding?”
Maya had thought it all out. Was that good or bad? “The police say your boss, Maggie Price, died in the fire. Apparently they found her corpse.”
“Maggie tended to work late. She was usually the first one in and the last one out. Zelda works late sometimes, too.”
“Why did the police arrest you?”
“I guess they think I set the fire.”
“Yes, but why? The fact that you’re in the vicinity might create suspicion. But they wouldn’t charge you unless they had more.”
Maya’s shoulders heaved, then cratered. She had a hollow look in her eyes.
“What is it? Spill.”
Maya looked up but didn’t speak.
“Maya, I cannot help you unless you level with me.”
Maya covered her mouth with the blanket, then spoke, barely audibly. “The police found chemicals in my car.”
“What kind of chemicals? Incendiary?”
“They could be used to start a fire, yes.”
Her legs felt wobbly. “Maya, if—”
“I didn’t do it. I would never do that.”
“Then why did you have—”
“I got fired, remember? I was told to clean out my office.”
“You had chemicals in your office?”
“I…took home some of my experiments.”
“Did Maggie know about this?”
“Of course not. She said all our work is owned by the company that pays our salary. Like we’re work-for-hire, basically. Which I consider immensely insulting.”
“Did you sign a contract?”
“Yes. I had no idea—”
“No one ever does.” Kenzi’s mind raced. Lawyers were supposed to simplify cases. This one got worse with every passing second. “So you stole your experiments.”
“I’ve been working on some of those for months. One for more than a year. Do you think Maggie would continue them after I was gone? More likely she’d trash them to make space for my replacement’s work.”
“You still didn’t have the right to take them. We could’ve initiated some kind of arbitration or…something.”
“This seemed simpler. I’m sorry. It was a mistake. An error in judgment.”
“Do you have any idea who set this fire?”
“I didn’t see anyone.”
“Who would have a motive?” She’d managed to excise the word “else” before she spoke.
“There’s a religious group that’s been harassing us.”
“So I’ve heard. Anyone else?”
“You should see where Michael was tonight. See if he has an alibi.”
“Why would he burn LORE down?”
“To frame me. To make sure he can keep Brittany forever. And if I go to prison, he’ll get control of my money, too.”
“I’ll check it out. Anyone else?”
“Have you read some of the hateful things people have posted about me on the internet?”
Thanks to Hailee, she had. “I’ll have my social media expert run a search and see if anyone online is bragging or taking credit for this.”
“Sounds like a good idea.”
She looked her client straight in the eyes. “Tell me the truth. Did you have anything to do with the fire? Was this some sort of…revenge plot that got out of hand?”
“I would never do anything like that. I’m not a violent person. Hexitel opposes violence of all types.”
Major McConnell was giving her serious stink-eye. She suspected they didn’t have much longer to talk. “Maya, I’m not going to minimize this—”
