Chapter 10: First Blood

Rachel undid Mark's belt and opened the front of his suit pants. After she eased his pants down to his ankles, she helped him sit back down on the couch. She was careful not to jar him as she knelt in front of Mark and removed his loafers from his feet. She pulled his trousers down and helped him stretch out on the couch again. "Rachel," he whispered and closed his eyes.

"Where can I find a blanket for him?" Margaret asked. "You stay with him and let me get it."

Rachel bit back the sharp rebuke she almost gave as an answer. "Try the closets down the hall over there." She waved her hand in the general direction of the downstairs guest room that had been turned into a study. She kept her eyes on Mark's face.

"Thank you," Margaret told her. She realized Rachel had at least given her conditional acceptance as one of the new team. She found the blanket and brought it back for Rachel to cover Mark.

Mark's eyes were closed. Rachel bent over and kissed his lips. She stood and motioned Margaret to follow. "Let's talk."

Cole called out to her as they walked by, "Hey Mom, this computer is great." Lorna had moved the chair away from Clair's downstairs computer station in the den. Cole bragged, "It took a while to crack the password. I did it though. I was good on that old piece of junk we had. On this baby, I'm the greatest!"

Rachel felt a pang in her heart as she smiled at her son. She vowed she would kill to keep him away from the conditions they had lived in before Mark "punished her" and gave her this wonderful chance. Aloud she said, "Way to go Tiger." She looked away so he couldn't see the tears in her eyes.

Rachel now realized she had all but given up and was almost ready to surrender and die. Mark had changed all that and her. "Oh god, if only you weren't so young," Rachel said half aloud as she fought back the sob she felt try to escape her lips.

Margaret asked her, "What is it?" Then in an act of humility she told Rachel, "I made a bad mistake and I am more sorry than you could ever know. Please permit me to help you."

"Mark was right, Margaret. We need to work together. We seem to have at least three sets of enemies. In fact, since what happened at the Willows and with the sheriff's department we may have four."

Rachel was surprised at herself, with how she responded to Margaret. It was so easy to accept the mantle of authority Mark had thrust upon her. "You get the rest of your team here as fast as you can. Mark's and my welfare are the primary needs to be met at this time. I want you to hire an army, if necessary, to keep us all safe and sound. That includes my son Cole. Especially Cole."

Rachel thought hard. "Tomorrow it is imperative I go to the bank and begin to organize things from there. We'll begin to consolidate our position at that point. I have hired a competent office manager whom I trust implicitly. However, I do need to develop a legal team.

Rachel frowned, "Next, we must find a way to track down a whole segment of the Hunter holdings that have disappeared into thin air. Hunter Investments International is first on our list. For the time being, we're groping around in the dark. Most of those records have come up missing and are the ones we need most."

Rachel looked at Margaret and wondered aloud, "How in hell did this bank lose an accounting firm?"

Margaret asked in a pensive voice, "What about Hunter Manufacturing?" She still smarted that her team had failed in their attempts to investigate the management of Hunter Manufacturing.

Rachel ignored Margaret's question. "We need at least two sharp and aggressive lawyers, as well as a legal research staff. We also need a new accounting firm we can trust. God, it seems like the more I set out to do, the more there is to do."

Margaret snapped her fingers and grinned. "Call Rhonda. Now that Bill is no longer a part of her life I have a hunch she will be a great resource. For instance she knows two young lawyers who were fired from a large firm after they refused to falsify an accident report about a toxic spill."

Rachel made a face. "Oh? Why do we need a couple of lawyers who can't hold a job?"

Margaret laughed. "They are both about as aggressive as sharks in a goldfish pond and twice as lethal." She laughed, "Between them they have worked their way through most of the swinging females at the Willows. They need a new challenge. I believe the Trojan Condom people want them to become poster boys for rubber products that work."

"Will Rhonda be willing to help? Mark was quite hard on her." Rachel had her doubts. She remembered how Mark had spoken to and treated the woman.

"When I talked to her on the phone she said she owed that arrogant young prick an apology and she intended to give it to him in person even if it killed her. She was ashamed that Bill ever got so close to her before she learned just what he was like inside."

Margaret gave Rachel a sad look. "She never knew about Bill's cruel side. When I told her what happened after we gave our statements she was sick. She had been in an abusive marriage years ago. In fact her ex almost killed her before she got away from the sadistic monster. Actually Mike was the one who rescued her."

Lorna came out of the kitchen. "I need to go home. Would you like Cole to stay at my place tonight? My grand daughter is coming over to visit. She is Cole's age."

"Can I Mom?" Cole begged. Rachel had a hunch Lorna and Cole set this up in advance.

"What about Cole's wheelchair?" Rachel looked toward at her son. He grinned as he looked back and shook his head yes. "They set up a ramp when Cole's power chair was delivered. What about your house?"

"All of the houses in this square block have side patios at ground level. Since our patios face each other, we can go out of one house, roll next door and into the other. Are you aware the chair makes out into a bed?" Lorna smiled at her young charge.

For the first time Rachel noticed the bruise on Lorna's face where Claude struck her. "Are you certain you wish to be saddled with him?"

A wistful look came over Lorna's face as she answered. "I have had no one to care for since my own children are all grown and moved out on their own. Cole is a godsend to me."

Rachel saw the loneliness on the woman's face. "Go ahead. Cole you behave."

Margaret interrupted them. "I'm hungry. Let's order take out. I'll go get it." She laughed, "I'm a little short of cash, you'll have to give me your plastic."

Rachel had no intention to permit her corporate credit card out of her possession. "There is a small flight bag in the den. Take a thousand out of it and remember to keep all receipts. Get whatever Lorna and Cole want also."

"Pizza," Cole shouted. Lorna nodded. Margaret removed one thousand dollars from the bag and left to buy food.

For the rest of the afternoon and way up into the evening, Rachel and Margaret tried to plan a course of action. "Get the rest of your team here and go armed at all times. I'm worried," Rachel told her.

"I'll keep this piece," Margaret said and showed Rachel the gun she had dropped on the floor. "I believe I had better teach you at least the rudiments of gun safety. You are not supposed to just drop a weapon on the floor when you no longer need it." Rachel blushed.

The next morning, after she checked on Cole one last time, Rachel drove to the bank and confronted Harold Osterman. "Harold, I want a meeting with the department heads who had oversight into Hunter affairs."

Margaret came up behind her as Harold started to reach out to grab Rachel's shoulder. "Don't you dare touch her," she told Harold. She slapped him alongside his head.

Rachel glowered at the frightened man. "Thanks to your stupid blundering my son was placed in great danger when you canceled the order for security at Mark's house. You had absolutely no authority to do that."

His cheek stung from Margaret's slap. "I saw no reason for the expenditure and decided it was unnecessary." He tried to justify his actions and failed.

"No, you fat pervert, you tried to exert authority over me and also go around behind my back. I warn you, if you ever do that again Margaret here will break your fat neck." She frowned at him and muttered, "You disgusting pig."

"But I can't order them to come to a meeting or do anything." In a split second, Harold was afraid. He became more aware of his personal danger while he looked back and forth between the two angry women. He also realized he had underestimated Rachel. She had changed in all so many frightening ways.

"I'll be back here at two o'clock. You had better have those people waiting for me. If I'm late, they are to wait for me. Do you hear me?" Harold nodded. "If you screw up then your butt is mine." Other bank employees listened awestruck as Rachel overwhelmed her former boss.

He stood in front of them with his eyes closed and nodded. He was defeated. Harold realized it was a good time for him to look for another job. He decided it would be best if he found one in another state, perhaps another country.

As a way to reinforce her authority over Harold, Rachel told him, "Now you get that security system ordered and installed at Mark's house today." Rachel gestured for Margaret to follow her and headed toward the elevators.

On the top floor they got out and walked toward an office door with a simple brass sign with "Hunter" etched on it. Rachel grabbed the door handle and tried to open the door. It was locked. Then she heard a muted "buzz" and the door opened into a small foyer. The inner door clicked and Margaret shoved it open.

Gina stood behind a secretary's desk. She grinned. "You said you wanted things secure. I went out and ordered this setup myself."

Margaret looked around and nodded. "Nice."

Rachel became all business. "Margaret, call Rhonda at the Willows. Ask her to get those two legal sharks on the phone. Contact the rest of your people. I want at least one of our most trusted people here in this office at all times. If you have another female, send her here for me. Two would be better. Until we have a better handle on things, I want Mark and I covered day and night.

"Get your best two people over to Lorna's to protect her and Cole. I changed my mind; I don't trust Harold to follow orders. You make the arrangements for the security system for the house. Tell him I said you were to arrange it. I want us to work from the inside out. Tell Harold you'll take over the security because he'd never get it done right." Rachel grinned and added, "Make certain you tell him in front of witnesses."

She looked toward the open mouthed Gina and frowned, "Good morning, Gina," Rachel greeted her, "Mark has been hurt. As of right now, I'm running everything and we have a lot of work ahead of us."

"Uh yes." Gina cocked her head to one side. "You've changed." The remark went unnoticed.

"Telephone Rachel," Margaret told her. "The two lawyers are on an open speaker phone."

"This is Rachel Jones. To whom am I speaking?"

"Del James," answered a deep man's voice. It put Rachel in mind of a successful televangelist.

"Will Brand here," a neutral voice came over the wire. His was a voice that would drone on and put the listener to sleep.

"Are you naked?" Rachel asked. Gina stared open mouthed as Rachel conducted her interview.

"Yes," they answered at the same time.

"Get some clothes on. I want one of you to head in to the Sheriff's substation in Alta Vista. Then I want the other one of you head right in here to our new offices."

"I believe you may have forgotten to mention something." Del James told her.

"To start you shall receive seventy-five thousand a year base salary each, with full medical. You either get a raise in ninety days or you're out of here. Rhonda vouches for you. That got your foot in the door. Are you okay with that?"

"I'll be there in less than an hour. What do you want Will do when he gets to the substation?"

"Demand the release of certified copies of the statements made by Margaret Fender and me. Also, demand the abridged versions of those same statements they tried to force me to sign. They will refuse and claim no statements were ever asked for or made."

Will Brand looked puzzled. "Why bother if we are certain to be refused?"

"I want one of you to carry a recording device so we have their denials on disk. Need I say more?"

"Give us your office address. We'll be right in," Del James told her. "I better tag along with Will. I see a problem here. Lieutenant Warren Talbert has a reputation."

Rachel pictured the helpless Mark in her mind's eye. She shuddered and told the lawyer, "Your call, just do it."

She turned back to Gina, "When will you have your office staffed and ready to produce?" Rachel tried to sound confident and in charge. She felt helpless and afraid.

"Two or three days at least before we will be able to function. I need at least four more people," Gina answered.

She changed subject, "It will be difficult to find a reputable accounting firm with the resources to do a forensic research of the Hunter Manufacturing records. I believe we must do everything in house, at least to start."

Rachel made a fast decision, "Wait until the lawyers get here and ask them. They were with a large law firm until they developed a conscience. Oh yes, we need an office for them."