Day Three
July 23, 1952
Wednesday Night
While the seedier pockets of town still kicked with life, the financial district was quiet and motionless. The lights were out, the doors were locked and the bus stops were empty. Waverly and Jaden made their way to the alley side of the building that housed Jackson amp; Reacher, then broke a window and took a position down the way behind a dumpster to see if anyone came to investigate. After two minutes of silence, they climbed in.
Now the trick was to find Gina Sophia’s office.
They didn’t have a flashlight.
Flipping a light switch would be too dangerous.
“Do you have a lighter?” Waverly asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t smoke.”
“Yeah, but you break into buildings. Come prepared.”
“You’re the one breaking in,” Jaden said. “I’m just following you.”
“That’s fine but next time follow me with a lighter in your pocket.”
“I’ll make a note.”
“You do that.”
The law firm was divided into individual offices, each with a door, each door with a glass window and a venetian blind, and each glass window stenciled with a name. Enough ambient light filtered in to read those names when Waverly got her nose right up to them.
Gina Sophia’s office turned out to be an interior one with no outside windows.
The women entered, closed the door and turned on the lights.
The place was a mess.
Papers and files were everywhere, stacked on every conceivable square inch of desk, filing cabinet and chair-even over in the corner on the floor.
“It looks like a bomb went off in here,” Jaden said.
Waverly didn’t disagree.
“Bristol came today,” she said, “so he should be on the top somewhere.” A beat then, “Try to keep things as they are as much as you can. I don’t want her to know we were here.”
“They’re going to know from the broken window.”
“They’ll know someone broke in but they won’t know that this office was the target,” Waverly said. “We’ll go into a couple of different offices and mess them up before we leave.”
“Sneaky.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m not sure I meant that as a compliment.”
Files labeledThomas Bristol didn’t materialize, not on this stack or that one or the other one or on the floor or in a drawer or in the filing cabinet.
“This is useless,” Jaden said.
“Keep looking.”
“We already looked everywhere. She must not have taken any notes. Either that or she took them home.”
“I doubt she’d do that. Keep looking. They’re here somewhere. I can smell them.”
They searched longer.
Ten minutes went by.
Then fifteen.
“We’ve been here more than half an hour,” Jaden said. “Let’s get out of here while we still can.”
“Keep looking.”
“Someone’s going to notice that window and call the cops.”
“There’s no reason for anyone to be back there.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Just keep looking.”
“No. I’m serious. We need to get out of here.”
Waverly exhaled.
“Go if you want, I don’t care.”
The woman headed for the door and put her hand on the knob. She turned and said, “Good luck.”
“Bye.”
Waverly kept searching.
The door didn’t open.
She looked up.
Jaden was shaking her head as if doubting her sanity, then she came back in and said, “Maybe Bristol met with two lawyers. Maybe Gina Sophia was only one of them. Maybe the file is in someone else’s office.”
Waverly considered it.
It made sense.
It also meant going through another twenty or thirty offices. Most of them wouldn’t be interior ones like this one. They’d have windows to the outside. Flipping on the lights wouldn’t be an option. They have to get flashlights and come back.
“Five more minutes,” she said. “If we don’t find it by then we’ll go.”
“Good.” A beat then, “Did you hear that?”
Waverly focused.
She heard nothing.
“Hear what?”
“Quiet,” Jaden said. “Be quiet.”
She flicked off the light.
They stood there in darkness, breathing quietly and listening.
A minute went by followed by another.
They heard nothing more.
Waverly quietly opened the office door and looked down the hallway. Everything was dark. There were no signs of cleaning people, cops or anyone else.
“False alarm,” she said.
“I don’t know-”
Waverly flicked on the light and closed the door. “Five more minutes,” she said. “If we don’t find them by then, we’re out of here.”
A minute later a file caught her eye.
It was labeled John Stamp. The name was familiar but Waverly couldn’t place it. Then she remembered. He was a private investigator, reportedly the only good one in town other than a guy named Bryson Wilde.
What was he doing with an attorney?
Was he being sued by someone for breaking into their house?
Waverly opened the file.
Inside was a single piece of paper.
7/23/52
Meeting with Tom Bristol.
To do: Hire a PI to investigate the murder of Charley-Anna Blackridge. Got dropped off a building last weekend. Find out if there were witnesses. Find out what the police know. PI should keep Bristol’s name out of it. Keep this case strictly confidential.
Retainer received.
Pay PI well. Get him on the case immediately. Pay more than hourly rate to ensure loyalty and confidence.
Waverly passed the paper to Jaden and said, “Read it.” She waited for the woman to comply and then said, “There’s your proof. Bristol must have gotten wind that there was a witness. He hired Gina Sophia to hire a PI to find out who that witness is. Once he finds out, that witness will end up having an accident, a fatal accident. Doing the investigation this way keeps Bristol’s name out of it. The attorney is bound by law to keep his file confidential, even if she suspects later that Bristol hired her in hindsight to locate and kill a witness to one of his prior murders. You got to hand it to the guy, he’s a smart fellow.”
Waverly looked into Jaden’s eyes.
The woman was processing it.
It didn’t take long.
Her eyes narrowed.
“So what do we do now?”
Waverly tapped her foot.
“I don’t know but I’ll tell you one thing, I’ll bet he’s done the same thing with some of his other murders. I’ll bet he’s hired other lawyers to hire PIs to get information.”
“We need to find out what the PI is finding out,” Jaden said. “What’s his name again?”
“John Stamp.”
“Do you know him?”
“Not personally,” she said. “I know him by reputation.”
“Which is what?”
“Which is, he has phone numbers, lots and lots of phone numbers, people low, people high, people in between, lots and lots of phone numbers. Put enough money in his hand to spread around and he’ll find out anything you want to know.”
Jaden tilted her head.
“So how do we get inside his world?”