Page 108 of Maddy's Justice

They were right. The blank picture was chalked up to a minor glitch that did not last long.

There was, however, one problem. When Maddy stuck her head inside Labelle’s office, she was being filmed. She did not go inside but only took a quick look around. Later, when the film was checked the security person going through film, he thought nothing of it. She appeared to be someone who was lost and opened the wrong door. No harm, no foul, the guard thought.

“I don’t get it,” Carvelli said. “Three days and we haven’t heard a peep of any wrongdoing. Are you sure about this guy?” he asked looking at Paxton.

For the first three nights, after bugging Labelle’s office, Conrad and Carvelli went up and retrieved the recordings. Paxton, Maddy, Conrad, Sean and Carvelli were at Sean’s house watching them. All bored and a bit stupefied.

Paxton shrugged her shoulders then, with a determined look, emphatically said, “Yes. So are the two FBI agents and SEC guys I was working with. He’s just not doing anything in his office.”

“I need a smoke,” Sean finally announced. He took the lid off the humidor next to his favorite chair and removed an Alec Bradley cigar.

“Let me bum one of those and I’ll come with you,” Carvelli said.

“Helen lets you smoke those in here?” Maddy asked.

Paxton laughed and answered, “Not a chance. Let’s get some air.”

They were in the backyard and thirty feet from the house enjoying the cool, late night weather. While Sean and Carvelli puffed away, the others silently watched.

“I didn’t know you smoke,” Paxton said to Carvelli.

“I don’t,” Carvelli replied. “I did many years ago but quit at least, I don’t know fourteen, fifteen years back. I haven’t had one of these for, jeez, I don’t remember,

at least eight or ten years.”

“Let me try it,” Maddy said.

“Seriously?” Carvelli asked.

“Yeah, let me try it. I’ve smoked before. Not much but…”

Carvelli handed her the cigar and signaled with his finger to Paxton. She retrieved her phone and while Maddy exhaled a long plume of cigar smoke, Paxton snapped off two quick photos.

“Delete those, right now,” Maddy said while choking from the smoke and laughing.

“No way. These are keepers,” Paxton said.

Paxton ran off and Carvelli grabbed Maddy’s arm before she could chase her. By now, everyone was laughing, especially Maddy.

“What did you do?” Maddy asked Paxton when she came back.

“I emailed them to Marc.”

This set off another round of laughter. When it died down, Maddy took several more puffs on the cigar.

“Can I have my cigar back?”

“I don’t know, I kind of like it,” Maddy said. She looked at Paxton and said, “No more pictures. Let me see them.”

While the camera was being passed around, Sean spoke up.

“This Labelle guy, he’s pretty rich, isn’t he?”

“Very,” Paxton replied. “Probably a billionaire or close to it. Why?”

“He doesn’t have a corner office. Why doesn’t he have a corner office? All these guys, whether it’s business or government or lawyers, it’s a status symbol. A large corner office. Don’t tell me this guy doesn’t have the ego for it,” Sean said.

“You know, it’s actually a good question,” Carvelli replied.

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