Page 109 of Maddy's Justice

“On each disk, every day, in fact several times each day, he gets a phone call and listens for a minute then says, “I’ll be right there. He gets up, leaves and where does he go? We didn’t see him go next door into the trading room. Where does he go?”

“Good question,” Maddy said. “He’s gone for only two or three minutes each time then comes right back to his desk.”

“If you’re facing his office door from the hallway,” Maddy said, the only one who had done this, “there’s his office, then the trading room to your left. To your right, at the building’s corner, is another office. There’s a door there with a key code lock, no room number and no sign on the door.”

“What’s going on in there?” Paxton asked.

“Give me that back,” Carvelli said to Maddy again.

She took several more puffs then handed what was left of the cigar to Carvelli.

“You kind of like this, don’t you?” Carvelli asked.

Maddy nodded her head a couple of times before saying, “It’s okay. I can see the appeal. Maybe once a year.”

“Nothing like a good cigar,” Sean said.

“You know you stink now,” Carvelli told Maddy.

“It’s okay. I’m sleeping alone tonight,” Maddy replied. “How about you?”

“Very likely,” Paxton quickly said.

“Take a shower, use a mouth wash, you’ll be all right, Tony,” Sean said.

“It’s okay, Sean. I can use the rest. Younger women. God bless them.”

THIRTY-FIVE

Maddy and Conrad exited the elevator on the southside of the Cardiff Building. They were on the thirty-eighth floor, two floors below their destination. Keeping their heads down to avoid the cameras, they walked around to the northside stairway and up to forty. Fifteen seconds later they were in the small office with Conrad’s equipment.

While Conrad replaced the disk with a fresh one, Maddy took a quick walk around the small office.

“What do you think?” Conrad asked.

“I think it’s about twenty feet short,” Maddy asked. “If we want to wire it, we’re gonna have to find a way to hide at least that much wire.”

“That’s about what I figured,” Conrad said. He looked at his watch, 10:20, and asked, “You think it’s late enough?”

“I don’t know. I’ll go check the door and play the ditzy, lost chick if anyone’s there.”

“Just looking at you, I don’t think anyone will buy the ditzy, lost chick claim,” Conrad said.

“You want to try?” Maddy asked. “I’ll be right back,” Maddy said before Conrad could answer.

Maddy had her hair up in a bun and, fortunately, the weather was raining off and on. She was wearing a trench coat borrowed from Paxton with the collar up. Hopefully, this would fool any cameras.

In under twenty seconds, she walked to the office next door, found it locked, looked through a small window next to the door and saw the lights dimmed, then back to Conrad.

“Okay, it’s locked and looks empty. Fortunately, it’s not a law office. They probably don’t work late,” Maddy told Conrad. “I’ll call down to Tony and have him bring your stuff and Ava up,” she added.

“How do we do this?” Carvelli asked.

“Easy,” Ava said. “The camera facing that hall is on the other end of the hallway. I’ll walk around and come up behind, then Conrad’s camera can print a copy after I take a shot of the empty hallway. Then I’ll place it in front of the camera so anyone watching will see an empty hall.”

“Just like Mission Impossible,” Maddy said. “Cool.”

“Yep,” Ava replied.

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