Oliver Benjamin
protest.
“That was a fluke,” she countered, “We hired temporary staff that
day. Won’t ever happen again. Everyone is carefully screened and
background-checked. If a store blew up we could easily track any
staff member who disappeared.”
“Suicide car bomb?” the vice president of purchasing suggested.
“What about that van that crashed into the other store? Maybe that
was a terrorist act too.”
One might have thought. Sneaky circumstances. The police
without any leads. Suspects disappeared. But Leona knew what few
others did. It had been an undercover police van that crashed into
that store. Rather than suffer yet another public relations scandal,
the harried Los Angeles police department proved eager to cover that
one up and Leona was happy to help.
But there had been a problem.
“You’re not looking so good,” she told Niles when she went to visit
him in the hospital.
“I’m not feeling so good either,” he replied. His left leg was badly
broken and his face freshly scarred. When the van hit the store, Niles
sailed through the windscreen, rolling away to safety and additional
disfigurement.
“Well honey, what if I told you I could make you look and feel a
lot better?”
“I’ll feel better after I sue the police department up down and
sideways,” he said.
“Sure you will. But that could take years,” she said, “At best you’ll
probably end up settling out of court for a mediocre sum. But then,
you’d still be up on dealing charges. You might get deported back to
Jamaica before you even get a fair trial.”
“What? No way. Seeds are not illegal.”
“Where there’s smoke, Niles.”
Niles peeped out from behind his bandages, tried to focus on the
big lady through the morphine haze. “What’s going on? Who are you
working for? What’s with the fancy getup?”
“I’ve been hired to do a little freelance consulting. Incidentally,
Niles, when’s the last time you werehome?”
“Years. And I sure don’t plan to go back. ”
“It’s funny. You know, Biddenbrooks owns a tiny islet in the
Caribbean, not far from Jamaica. Morris bought it as a vacation
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