Beyond Blue by Austin S. Camacho Page A

you…?”
    â€œNot important,” Stone said, flipping the cover of the ledger with a finger. “What can you tell us about what’s in here?”
    â€œNot all that much to tell,” Linda said, pointing at the pages. “These entries are payments made by these companies. This column is checks deposited for services. As you can see, a lot of them are regular amounts. That’s retainers. That means…”
    â€œWe know what a retainer is,” Steele said, elbowing hispartner. “That’s money you get whether you do any work or not.”
    â€œRight. I guess P.I.s work that way too. This column is cash payments. He never declares any of that income, of course.”
    â€œP.I.’s don’t work that way,” Stone said. He listened to the Power Rangers playing on his living room television in the background and briefly considered the big-screen TV he’d have in the den if he and Steele were willing to accept under-the-table work. “I see some sizeable payments there. I’d guess that’s money for the cases when the evidence was stacked against Jerome’s client. Do you make these deposits?”
    â€œNope,” Linda said, shaking her head. “I never even see the cash. Don’t know where it goes, but it sure isn’t put in any account I know about.”
    â€œThat’ll make it tougher,” Steele said, sipping his coffee.
    â€œYou got that right,” Stone said. He leaned in close, smelling the musty paper scent of the book as his eyes scanned a page thoroughly, then a second and a third. “I don’t see any mention of Jerome anywhere on this ledger. We’ve got a few known mob fronts listed in here, and some other businesses that the cops should probably watch a lot more closely, but nothing that connects this book to our favorite legal eagle.” Then he looked up at Linda. “Except you.”
    â€œYeah, like anybody’s going to take my word for it. Make no mistake, guys, just cause he’s in with a bad crowd don’t change the fact that Irv Jerome is one hell of a lawyer. You can bet there’s no connecting him to the ledger, and he’d make me look like an idiot on the witness stand.”
    â€œWe’ve seen what he does to cops in court,” Steele said. “Wouldn’t want to do that to you.”
    Stone was still staring at the ledger pages. “There’s a letter code here, in the column next to a lot of the cash payments. Actually looks like Elvin runes or something, like in
Lord of the Rings
.”
    â€œOh, I love those movies. Anyhow, that’s how he knows which case that money was paid against,” Linda said, sounding eager to be helpful. “Each of those symbols signifies a particular client.”
    Stone looked up, wearing his first real smile of the day. “The case connection. Now that’s what we need, to reel this guy in,”
    Linda sat back, her straight brown locks flipping up from her forehead. “What part of
code
didn’t you get? Those marks are just gibberish without the code key.”
    â€œYou used that code key to make all these entries?” Sherry asked. “That’s quite a sophisticated system.”
    â€œSorry, ma’am, but I don’t remember any of it. It’s complicated. That’s why I have to use the key.”
    â€œWhich is where?” Stone pressed.
    â€œIt’s hidden in the office,” Linda said. Her voice slowed, as if she sensed where this was all going.
    â€œArmed with that code key we can put this guy out of business for good,” Stone said to Rico, “and make it so no one would ever dream of touching Linda.”
    â€œBut that would mean putting her at risk now,” Sherry said, her eyes going from Stone’s face to Steele’s, and back to Stone. “You can’t ask her to go back into that office after all that’s happened.”
    Just then Danny appeared