Chapter 5
Family Legends and Sabotage

The rest of the weekend flew by and Toni and come up with a few ideas to help with the defense. With some of the wording in a couple of areas she wondered if the three men working on it had really wanted to get the charges dropped from Johnson or not. She had come up with some ways to improve the wording and to add to some places. She had felt that there was more of a chance that they could have won the case even without the new evidence had they just worked a little better on the defense plan.

On Monday Leif was informed that they would meet that night at his apartment to go over the new ideas and find a way to incorporate them into the plans. "Ohhhkay," he had told Placid, trying not to sound to upset. He was not prepared to entertain anyone, much less his senior partners and bosses.

He was a bachelor, and as such he did not always keep his apartment at its neatest shape. Nor was he prepared for the kind of food preparation it would entail. His mind raced through several ideas that he immediately tossed out after a few minutes of analyzing each idea. He did, however, keep coming back to one in particular.

Finally he gave in and went to Toni's office. "Are you busy?" he asked.

She studied him a moment as if pondering the question and how to best answer it. "Not at the moment," she said hesitantly. With sudden realization he understood what she thought he was asking her.

He came in, shutting the door behind him and sat down. "I think I remember Glenda mentioning that you employ a housekeeper?" It was a half statement, half question.

"Yes," he could feel the tension begin to uncoil as she relaxed.

"I was wondering if you could convince her to come by my place and clean it for me? Mr. Placid has requested that our meeting take place at my apartment."

"Yes, I know," she nodded. "I'll give her a call if you like."

"Thanks," he felt relief flood over him.

Muriel didn't have anything scheduled for that afternoon and since it was an emergency she agreed to help. Toni got off early so that she could help her. Leif gave her the key to the apartment.

"He is a bachelor, no?" Muriel asked as they walked down the corridor.

"Yes, he is," Toni nodded her head.

"Then he will take much time to clean."

Toni chuckled as she checked the number and unlocked the door. Muriel's intuition was right. His apartment was a disaster of clothes, food from last century and dust bunnies. It took them several hours to toss all of the clothes into his bed room, carry out the garbage and sweep up all the bunnies. But by the time Leif arrived home that afternoon the kitchen, dining and living rooms were spotless, as well as the bathroom that was nestled between the kitchen and bedroom.

"This is my apartment?" Leif laughed when he saw it. "You two must have worked magic."

"Magic?" Muriel chuckled. "What do you think we are? Genies?"

Toni laughed to cover up her nervousness. She always felt as if someone knew when they made some crack about genies and that they were taunting her with it. She pretended as if it was a great joke and Muriel reminded Leif of his promised bonus.

Once Muriel had left Leif turned to Toni. "So," he rubbed his hands together. "What do you know about cooking?" Toni raised an eyebrow and folded her arms across her chest.

"Why are you suddenly in need of my help and company?" she demanded. She did not entirely trust him. She knew he was suspicious, and in turn she was suspicious of him.

"Well," he shrugged. "I thought, being a woman, you might know something about this. I know just enough to keep my stomach satisfied, but I doubt it would do much good for others." He chuckled.

Toni wavered. Perhaps he was being honest with her. Still, she would be careful. She was glad that her father had insisted she learned how to do things the human way. It made the job of preparing the evening meal so much easier.

By the time Placid, Charles and Goldwyn arrived good smells were wafting through the apartment building. "Let us get straight to business," Placid said as he walked through the door. Toni observed that he always seemed to be absorbed in his work, and almost nothing else. She often wondered how his family must feel being second to his work.

The dinner was not quite ready when they arrived so they spent the next hour going over evidence and reworking the defense draft. When it was done they took a break to eat. The conversation drifted from sports to weather to the best places to spend a vacation. Mostly Leif, Martin and Ace talked while Placid sat sullenly sipping coffee and Toni simply ate. Martin turned to her suddenly during their conversation on vacation spots. "So where do you like to vacation?"

She was a little startled by the question since she had not spoken or been spoken to during the whole meal. "I suppose Florida or Washington." She shrugged. Her vacations were usually spent with either her father or her grandparents. She almost added Bagdad, but caught herself just in time.

"Ah, you have family in Florida. Washington as well?"

"Yes."

"What about you Drake?" Martin posed the question to the man who seemed to be quiet, thoughtful and distant.

The man jumped slightly, but set his coffee cup down and thought for a moment. "The Middle East," he responded. Martin looked at him quizzically, but asked nothing more, turning back to the rest of the group.

After a while the jovial man became restless, so while he finished his cup of coffee he began looking at the knick-knacks on Leif's mantle. There were several pieces from other countries and Martin commented on them. Leif responded that his parents traveled quite a bit.

There was one piece that caught Toni's attention about the same time it caught Martin's. It was a bottle of a frosted yellow, amber coloring. It was hand painted with white designs and had dots of many different colors at the pointed ends of the white designs. "Now what is this?" Martin asked.

Leif laughed aloud. "Well, there's a legend that goes with this thing," he took it from Martin and took off the lid with a pop! "It's an heirloom bottle that is supposedly handed down from generation to generation by my great-great-great-great-great grandfather who found it in the desert. He had been banned from a town and was traveling without food, or water provisions or even his horse. Well he had given up and knew he was a bout to die when he collapsed he hit his head on this bottle." He thunked his head lightly to demonstrate. "When he woke up he was drowning in an oasis. He looked around to see who had brought him there and found a genie standing there. A beautiful genie. After he collapsed and lapsed into unconsciousness he had said 'I wish I had water.'"

Toni could feel the hair on her body stand on end. "Now wasn't he a lucky fellow!" Charles laughed and slapped his knee. He and Goldwyn thought it was a fantastic story. Toni's mind raced with questions. She wondered if this genie were somehow related to her.

"Of course, it's just a story," Leif laughed. "But most people enjoy it. Personally I think this ancestor of mine had a bit too much to drink of something besides water."

"How do you know it's just a story?" Toni without emotion. She kept her face straight and unmoved. She didn't know why she spoke – she knew she shouldn't have, but she hated it when people discredited legends, especially when they were about her people.

"What?" Leif's laughter subsided.

"How do you know he didn't find a genie in that desert?"

"I believe there are just as many genies out there as there are Santa Clauses," Leif replied. "Do you believe there are genies out there?"

She hesitated. She had walked right into this. She wished she'd thought a little more before she spoke. Usually she did. "All I'm saying is that who's to say there isn't any out there?" She shrugged.

"All right," Placid's firm voice cut in. "Let's get back to the matter at hand." Toni slowly let out a breath of relief. This was becoming far to complicated.

Later that night, when everyone had left, Leif picked up the bottle and studied it. He had looked at it many times throughout his life time. Many years as a boy, when his grandfather had told him of the story he had picked it up and pretended that it was a genie bottle. He had had an imaginary genie. But it was a child's game based on the family legend. He didn't believe it was true. Not then, not now. It was a fantasy.

Gently he rubbed the frosted surface as he had done when he was a boy and as Martin Charles had done throughout the evening for laughs. "Aw," he threw it on the couch with disgust. "What do you think you're doing?" he demanded of the empty room.

He picked it up and replaced it on the mantle piece. He thought of Toni's comment. It bothered him, but what did it matter if some people wanted to believe such things? He did not.

The next morning found Drake Placid in a bad mood. He was fuming as Toni slipped into the conference room and took a seat next to Leif. "What's wrong?" she whispered. Leif shrugged. He had not heard what had made the boss so upset.

"Our defense plan can just be tossed right out the door!' Placid shouted, making both Leif and Toni jump.

"Why don't you tell us what's wrong?" Goldwyn asked, concern showing on his face.

"Look at this," he pointed to a pile of broken plastic. "Our one piece of good evidence is destroyed. Someone opened the safe and demolished it." Charles got up to examine the pieces closer.

"It looks like it was deliberately done." He commented.

"Nonetheless it's destroyed!" Placid yelled. "And with the lazy job you folks are doing our client can just expect a sentencing in the prosecutor's favor!"

Toni paced her breath. Usually their boss was a docile man, fair and kind, but she understood his despair over this. She felt it too. "Didn't we have a backup copy?" she asked, an idea forming in her head.

Placid looked at her blankly. "No, this was the only one we had."

"I thought I saw one in there the other day when I put up the papers for the Henderson case," she insisted.

He walked over to the safe and opened it. "There's nothing else in here," he threw his hands out as he opened it, the same time Toni blinked. He rummaged through the papers and securities left there. His hand came out with a tape. He looked at it. "Were there two tapes in here?" he asked.

"Maybe that was one of Ryan's tapes," Martin waved to the pile of debris. Placid took the tape and placed it in the VCR. After a few seconds of snow the picture cleared and was a high quality color surveillance video.

"Who has access to the safe?" Toni asked suddenly when it was confirmed that the tape was of the incident.

"Everyone," Placid shrugged.

"Perhaps you should stick it in your personal safe, sir? Just for safekeeping," he nodded.

"I think I will. I don't want to loose this," they all agreed.

"Why would someone want to sabotage a tape of evidence?" Leif asked no one in particular.

"Are you saying that someone did?" Charles questioned with an edge of defensiveness.

"No," he shook his head. "Just merely thinking out loud. Whether or not that was our tape or Ryan's someone obviously did something to it for some reason."

Toni noticed Goldwyn run his hand through his hair nervously. She pondered, but set aside her thoughts as the meeting came to a close. She realized suddenly that Leif was studying her.

(To Be continued…)