Truth and Justice Read online

  The women settled down at the table and looked at one another. The silence was unnerving. Maggie bounded to her feet and spun around. “I’m not getting any of this. What’s up with all of you? By now someone, usually you, Nikki, or Annie have at least a half plan of action or else the whole thing. Why do I feel like I’m swimming upstream and the water is running low?”

  “Maggie is right. What is it about Bella and her case that’s got us in this funk?” Kathryn demanded, her voice so irritated, the others blinked, wondering if something else was bothering the long-distance truck driver.

  “Maybe because her husband was injured and died, and no one told her for over eleven months?” Yoko said softly. “I think that might make me a little crazy, to say the least.”

  “Eleven months of writing letters and believing her husband was going to come home to her and they were going to raise a family might have something to do with it,” Alexis said, a catch in her voice. “I know that would bother me. How do you get over something like that?”

  “It’s everything,” Nikki said quietly. “Bella is just simply too young. To us, she’s still a kid. Well, sort of. You know what I mean, young. I know it happens, but she’s our . . . our first up-close-and-personal case where love is involved. I think I read somewhere that the military, the army in particular, is so careful about stuff like this. All that time Andy . . . I guess it’s okay to call him Andy . . . was in a hospital almost within walking distance of where Bella lived, and no one told her. This is just eating at me. I want to . . . to do something to someone. I want a payback, and I want it now. I know that’s impossible at the moment, but I feel better having expressed myself out loud.”

  “Whoa! Whoa!” Maggie bellowed. “Before we start dishing out blame, we need to look to Andy. It was his job to notify the military of his new status. I get the in-love part, the two-day honeymoon, and I get the deployment. Even so, Bella and making sure she was taken care of should have been the only thing on his mind. It was his idea to have her freeze her eggs, his idea to donate his sperm. So he was thinking ahead in that regard. Meaning he might come back impaired or not come back at all. So if he was thinking of all that, why didn’t he think to do the paperwork that would see that his new wife was taken care of if something happened to him?

  “I’m thinking of his military life insurance, not to mention his military pay. Where did he think that was going to go? We need to find out where it was going prior to the marriage. It doesn’t make any sense to me whatsoever. Not to Maggie Spritzer, private citizen, Maggie Spritzer, Vigilante in training, and it sure as hell doesn’t compute to me as Maggie Spritzer, Washington Post reporter.”

  “Maggie’s right. She summed it up perfectly,” Myra and Annie said in unison.

  “That means we’re back to square one,” Nikki pointed out. “Let’s do a rehash of what we know. Everything Bella told us and everything we were able to pull out of her with the exception of the one thing she can’t remember,” Nikki said.

  “Before we do that, I want to go on the record saying it bothers me that Bella knows so little about the man she married. Speaking for myself here, Alan and I had a short courtship before we got married. And yet I knew every single thing there was to know about him, practically from the moment he fell out of his mother’s womb. Just the way he knew everything about me. I get it that Bella and Andy were in love and into each other. But so were Alan and me, and yet we talked and talked, kissed until our lips were bruised, and made love twenty-four/seven, and we still talked and learned all there was to know about each other. Tell me it wasn’t the same with all of you. Go ahead, I’m waiting,” Kathryn said angrily. “And yeah, I’m mad as hell here, so there!”

  “I for one agree with Kathryn,” Alexis said.

  Heads bobbed up and down in agreement with Kathryn.

  “It’s almost like there’s some secret to Andy’s past he didn’t share,” Yoko said.

  “Then we need to find out what that secret is,” Myra said. “Let’s make a list of what we do know and what we don’t know, and take it from there. I don’t see any other way to parcel out assignments. I’m certainly up for suggestions. Right now, the only thing we know is that tomorrow morning Isabelle is . . . um . . . going to be doing some . . . um, work that none of us know how to do. What she finds out might turn out to be a whole bunch of nothing. Or it might turn out to be a treasure trove of things we need to know. Now, who wants to go first?”

  Maggie’s hand shot high in the air. “I’d like to take on Andy and his sister. I wasn’t here when you all talked to Bella, but from what I gather from what has been said here, she knew next to zip about her new husband’s sister. Right off the bat, that strikes me as strange. And she wasn’t interested enough to ask questions. Don’t you all find that strange? Or is it just me?”

  Once again, heads bobbed up and down. “Go for it, darling girl, and leave no stone unturned. We want to know everything, every nitpicking detail,” Myra said.

  “I’m on it,” Maggie said, a devilish gleam in her eyes. As one, the girls shuddered because they all knew how relentless Maggie could be when she was stalking prey. Whatever was out there to find about Andy’s sister, Maggie would find it.

  Chapter 7

  “Listen up, girls. Today is a brand-new day, and we have to make it work for us. I think we’re off to a good start, and you’ll see why in a second. We all need to thank Nikki and Yoko, who rose early and went to the village and brought us back these lovely breakfast sandwiches and . . . they told me . . . they ordered Antonio’s to deliver lunch and Pagoda to deliver dinner. Today, we are good to go, ladies. What that means is we can work straight through the day and not worry about our meals or the cleanup,” Myra said happily. “I just love it when things work out so easily,” she continued to babble.

  An hour later, the girls looked around to make sure they were leaving Myra’s kitchen neat and tidy since Myra was extra particular about her kitchen. Sometimes she was worse than Charles when it came to, “everything has a place, and that’s where I want to see it.” End of story.

  “All right then, girls, let’s get to it,” Myra announced, once everyone was comfortable and seated at the large, round table in the war room. “I’ve been thinking about this case all night. I couldn’t sleep thinking about poor Bella. Why is it things like this happen to nice people like Bella?” Annie asked fretfully. “And yet . . .” Annie hadn’t finished what she was about to say when Alexis started to talk over her.

  Alexis clucked her tongue and shook her head. “Now, Annie, you know there is no answer, and even if there were, we are never going to find out what it is. Things are what they are, and we have to live with it. We also know that no one and nothing is as it seems. I hate to be the one saying this because I am the one that brought Bella to us, but I’m going to say it anyway. Somewhere, something is off. It’s not something I know, it’s more like something I feel, and I, for one, always pay attention to my gut instincts. I cannot explain it any better than to say it’s just something I know. I believe you’ve all had that feeling at one time or another because we’ve talked about it on several occasions. Like I said, nothing and no one are what they seem. Having said that, I’m now afraid to take that thought any further, so I’m tossing it out to you all for your input.”

  No one, not even Annie, knew what to say to Alexis’s declaration, so none of them spoke in response. They all knew time would prove that ditty right or wrong, and they’d deal with it when that happened.

  Nikki and Alexis walked up to the dais, where Charles’s wall of electronics waited for them. The two lawyers worked in tandem as Myra called the meeting down below to order. The room went silent as iPhones came out, were turned to record, and placed in front of each sister.

  It was Annie’s signal to say, “Listen up, girls!” It was the way she started every meeting. “We’re going to do a quick rehash of what we know. Then we are going to parcel out assignments. I just want to know if everyone’s decks are clear
ed before we commit one hundred percent to Bella and her mission. I’m thinking, and this is not based on anything in particular, that this case could go seven to ten days. Bare minimum, a week. What say you all?”

  Nikki and Alexis both said their court calendar was clear for the next two weeks. “What has to be done at the office can be done by our paralegals. That means we’re good,” Nikki said. She quickly added, “I see five to seven days.”

  “The nursery is in good shape. We did our fall decorating last week for the Harvest Ball and Halloween. My pumpkins, according to Kathryn, are on the way. At least some of them,” she corrected her statement. “The college boys that work for me have it all under control. Annie was right when she told me that if I paid extra, the boys could and would assume more control. Any of the four can run the nursery in my absence, and the best part is they’re all honest, really nice young men. That means I’m good, too. I agree with Nikki, I see five to seven days,” Yoko said.

  “I’m kind of stuck,” Kathryn said. “I don’t know what happened, but Mr. Hanover’s pumpkins aren’t ready to ship yet. I was supposed to pick up and deliver them two days ago, but he didn’t have enough help to pick and load them. What that means is I am on call where he and his pumpkins and his butternut squash are concerned. I might have to leave you all if things get back on track again sooner rather than later. I’m thinking a week, but that could change if I have to bail out on you all and leave you shorthanded.”

  “If that happens, we’ll just have to manage to work around you,” Annie said. “That leaves Maggie, Isabelle, Myra, and me. We’re good. Maggie?”

  “Ted is due back tomorrow, so he can take over. I’m all yours and looking forward to this mission,” Maggie said, as she tapped furiously on her laptop. Then she snorted. “If my opinion counts, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say ten days even with Avery Snowden doing most of the heavy lifting. But I could be wrong, which, as you all know, rarely if ever happens.”

  “I only have two active clients at the moment, and everything is running on schedule. I’m good, too,” Isabelle said. “I am working on . . . um . . . the Pentagon. I’m thinking a week of round-the-clock dedication. I’d say five days if Abner were here doing the hacking, but with me . . . I’m not that confident.”

  Maggie held up her hand, her expression one of confusion. “Who is doing what, and how are we going to go about all of this?” She looked around at the Sisters, her hands fluttering in the air. “I don’t even know where to start. What’s with this case, why is it giving us all this angst? I’m not getting it.” She looked as befuddled as the others felt. Maggie was never befuddled.

  “I don’t think any of us are getting it, dear,” Myra said soothingly. “That’s why we’re here. We are going to figure out how best to handle this mission just the way we’ve done in the past. I think part of it is that Bella was here, here where we conduct our business. This special place we’re in right now has always been sacrosanct. Our private place. For want of a better word or phrase, we all see it now as if it’s been invaded. It doesn’t matter if Bella can be trusted or not, she was here. We broke our own rule. That is not good. We weren’t prepared for Bella because it never happened before, and I’m not blaming Alexis, we all agreed to bringing Bella down here. I think we’re back in the groove now and recognize what has to be done. Technically, we are starting all over again with the information we have on hand—information Bella gave us, which is not all that much, sad to say.”

  “Let’s get to it then,” Nikki called down from the dais.

  “All right, this is what we know, and we only know what we know because it is what Bella told us. Is it all true? We do not know it to be true or false with any certainty. Yet. Would Bella lie to us to gain our help? Possibly, but she did not seek us out, Alexis volunteered our help; so the answer is likely no, she did not lie to us. We need to remember that if we start to parcel out blame here. I, for one, believe that the young lady is on the up and up, so to speak,” Myra said.

  “We know Bella’s three-year courtship, such as it was, was not basically physical for the most part since Major Nolan was deployed most of the time. E-mails, occasional phone calls, some FaceTiming whenever they could. Then they had two two-day furloughs. We’re talking intimacy here, or sex if you prefer that word instead, then the one week of a hard and heavy courtship, when they were glued to one another the entire time and got engaged at the end of the week. That’s about the sum total of their relationship. Then the major was deployed again, managed to get a forty-eight-hour leave, and they got married. They had a two-day honeymoon, and that was the sum total of the relationship after the week-long courtship. As far as we know,” Kathryn said. Always the outspoken one, she added, “The whole thing sucks. What’s bothering me, and I said it before, is that Bella knows next to nothing about the man she married. That absolutely does not compute for me. It shouldn’t compute for any of you, either.”

  “You’re right, it doesn’t compute for any of us, Kathryn, but we aren’t Bella. There is simply no accounting for love-starved people, and that’s what I think Bella was. I don’t have a fix on the husband yet,” Yoko said.

  “Well, he must have loved her as much as she loved him; otherwise, why marry her? Where is it written he has to marry her? That’s because it isn’t written anywhere. Major Nolan, all on his own, made the decision to ask Bella to marry him,” Maggie pointed out.

  “Well then, he should have damn well followed through and done what he was supposed to do, see to it that his brand-new wife was taken care of. Which he did not do,” Isabelle snapped. “He did not arrange for her to receive his military pay. He did not have her named the beneficiary of his military life insurance. The blame goes to him, not Bella, and yes, I’m sorry he’s dead, but he was still alive when the time came to make the life-altering decisions one expects a husband to make about his wife’s welfare.”

  “Maybe that’s the way Midwesterners do things,” Myra said.

  “This is what we know. Major Nolan was from Oklahoma and Bella from Kansas. They first met in San Francisco; then Bella followed the major here to Washington. I think I have that right,” Annie said.

  “Yes, dear, you have it right. That’s what Bella shared with us,” Myra said. “Bella really has no family with the exception of a distant cousin somewhere in North Carolina. She said she barely knows her. It’s more of a case of she knows of her rather than knowing her as we think of knowing each other. I’m thinking it’s a Christmas card thing and maybe a phone call once a year, something like that. That’s why Bella was going to relocate to North Carolina. The cousin is all she has in the way of family, so it’s understandable. Even a distant cousin is better than no cousin at all when that’s the end of the bloodline.”

  “Major Nolan had a sister that Bella really knows nothing about. Or did know nothing about until the army apprised her of what they had on file, which we now have and which is skimpy at best,” Annie said.

  “Bella said Andy never talked about her other than to mention that he had a sister. I believe her name is Sara, and according to Andy’s records, she was at one point married to someone named Steven Conover, from whom she was later divorced. I don’t think we know the when, the why, the how of it all because Bella didn’t share any of that, so it probably means she never knew. Or cared, for that matter. I have the impression brother and sister were not close. At least that’s how Bella made it sound,” Myra said. “I’m not sure of this, but I got the impression the sister was older than Bella’s husband. Anyone think differently? Not that that means anything to the case. She’s older, so what?”

  Maggie let out a loud whoop. “I got it! I got it!”

  “Then by all means share!” Kathryn snapped.

  “Sara Nolan was married to Steven Conover for three years. But it says here that her name was Sara Windsor Nolan Conover. So either she was married to someone else or she was adopted or the siblings had a different parent. When she was married to Conover, the
y lived in Baltimore. He still lives there. He’s a sculptor. I went on his website. His creations sell for five digits. They’re quite beautiful. He’s actually famous. No children. Their divorce was finalized the week that Bella and Andy were married. Sara, that’s the sister’s name, did not attend the simple justice of the peace ceremony in the courthouse. I’m guessing on this, but I think it doubtful that Sara even knew that her brother got married. I can’t find out what she does for a living or if she ever had a job. I can’t find a trail. Isabelle will have to try to find out her social security number so we can track her,” Maggie said, as she shuffled the papers in front of her. “According to this army report, the only address they have for Sara Nolan is the husband’s address in Baltimore. As we all now know, their records are hopelessly outdated. Back to you, Annie.”

  “I was up a good part of the night, couldn’t sleep for some reason, so I went down to the kitchen to make some coffee and fiddle with the computer. Myra was there waiting for me because she couldn’t sleep either, so we more or less, sort of, kind of, started looking into things. We decided, and of course it will go to a vote with all of you, but we think Avery should go to Oklahoma and Kansas and find out everything he can about Major Nolan and the sister, Sara. He’s got the manpower, and we don’t want to spread ourselves too thin here.

  “We also need to find out more about Bella. Doesn’t matter that she’s our client. Clients have been known to gild the lily, as the saying goes, so in the interests of leaving no stone unturned, we think it’s a wise move to have her checked out as thoroughly as her deceased husband is. So, later that’s up for a vote, too.”

  “We need a tracker on the sister. That means a vehicle and her phone, and the only one I know capable of placing and monitoring them is Avery Snowden. Once we locate her, I want her under surveillance twenty-four/seven. My gut is telling me she’s the key to this whole sorry mess,” Alexis said. “Avery will be able to do all of that plus more depending on what he runs into for us, and that frees us up to do other things. Avery’s people will be able to get the sister’s early background, but we need to know what happened to her, the how, the what, and the when of it all when she left Oklahoma, probably around the age of eighteen or so.