Razor Sharp by Fern Michaels Page A

was gone except the banana peel. “Yeah, it’s going to complicate things. How the president got wind of Cosmo Cricket is something I’d like to know. I’m setting up a conference call with Lizzie and the mountain for later this morning. I’ll know more then. By the way, I had a text message from Bert a little while ago. He’s heading for Vegas, and the Vegas office is hot on the trail of the madam, who seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. Ditto for the madam’s employees. The working girls,” she clarified for Espinosa, who looked puzzled. “Bert said he’ll check in later in the day once he gets a handle on what’s going on.”
    “What do you want us to do?” Ted asked.
    Maggie picked up the copies of Lizzie’s fax she’d made for Ted and Espinosa and handed them over. “I want a complete background on every one of those guys. I mean everything. If there’s a way to protect the wives and kids, I want to know what it is. I don’t give a good rat’s ass about any of those men. Let’s be clear on that. The first inkling that either one of you is siding with those dumbbells, your ass is grass. Tell me you both understand what I just said.”
    Ted and Espinosa said they understood.
    “I want this by the end of the day. My day is going to end at midnight, so get going. Call in every two hours. And, while you’re out there sniffing around, see what you can pick up from the other side. It’s not normal for them to be so quiet on something like this. I could be wrong, but I’m thinking that without the madam and her girls, there’s no case to be made. Legally, that is. After that, it’s a ‘she said, he said,’ or whoever the hell said whatever in the first place. I haven’t heard a thing about pictures. Or video. Keeping in mind that both can be doctored. There’s got to be a rabbit in the hat somewhere—assuming we can even nail down the right hat—or this thing will die on the vine.”
     
    Freshly scrubbed and smelling like flowers, Annie looked little the worse for wear and much better than she had an hour ago. She was pounding on the computer keys as she watched papers shoot out of the fax machine to her left when Myra walked over to where Annie was busy working. Annie looked up, smiled, and said, “I swear, Myra, we both look like we’ve been steam cleaned.” Myra laughed, the first genuine laugh Annie had heard from her in months. Ah, life was on an upswing.
    “Any e-mails?” Myra asked casually.
    “No, my dear, no mail from Charles. You realize one day Charles will just show up. There will be no explanations, and it will be what it is at that moment. At that time it will be up to you if you push him under a bus or not.
    “I also want to give you back your role as CIC. I only stepped in because you were in England. I don’t want you to ever think I was out to steal your thunder. We were floundering, and the girls were turning anxious, so I did what I thought you would do.”
    Myra laughed again. “Annie, you did a wonderful job. Being the Cat in Charge is not a wonderful job. You can have the title if you want it.”
    “I don’t. It’s all yours. I’m only at this computer because you are dumber than dumb when it comes to computers and cooking.”
    “There must be something I’m good at.” Myra wrinkled her nose to show she was teasing.
    “I’m sure we’ll find out exactly what that is very soon. For now, take a look, a good look, at this list of johns. I want to know what you think. And, I’m still waiting for a response to the e-mail I sent Avery Snowden, Charles’s second-in-command. He was invaluable to us in Utah.”
    “Oh, dear! Are you telling me all these men…all these men participated in…in that fiasco involving a summer camp?”
    “Well, Myra, that’s certainly a polite way of wording it. The answer is yes. It must have been a real”—Annie grappled with just the right word and finally came up with it—“ extravaganza!”
    “But what are we