Page 16 of Austin (The K9 Files #29)

As Jake went to ring off, Austin added, “Jake, please drive carefully.”

That shut up the old man as nothing else would have, and he hung up very quickly.

With that done, Austin headed back onto the sidewalk, where he stood looking over toward the entrance to the lawyer’s office. Sure enough, a lawyer-looking guy raced out of the office, heading for his vehicle.

Austin stepped in his way. “Hey, aren’t you John Dikam?” he asked.

The other man frowned and nodded. “Yes, that’s me. Why?”

“I was just in there, trying to talk to you, but your secretary is quite the guardian of your time.”

“Well, yes, I’m a very busy man.” He glared at him. “What do you want?” And his tone was so unfriendly and antagonistic that it set all of Austin’s hackles on edge.

“I was looking to find a lawyer, but I guess that’s not really possible with your attitude. Guess there are plenty of lawyers in town to choose from.”

“Are there?” he asked.

“There was a really good lawyer, somebody we could all count on and could trust, who upheld the law and looked out for his clients,” Austin shared, shaking his head, “but I understand that he died. I’m about to head over to the police station to have a look at the autopsy and see if everything is on the up-and-up involving his death. ”

“What are you talking about?” the attorney asked in bewilderment.

“I just want to confirm that nothing is suspicious about the way he died.”

Dikam’s face turned a molten color. “What the hell?” he sputtered. “Did you just accuse me of murder?”

“No,” he replied, keeping his tone simple and casual. “I don’t even know you, do I? Hell, I can’t even get an appointment to come in and talk to you.”

“And I wouldn’t talk to you now either,” he declared, “not with that attitude.”

As the man raced over to his vehicle, Austin called out behind him, “That’s too bad, since I know somebody who’s on his way in to talk to you.”

He froze and asked, “Who?”

“One of your clients, who needed a helping hand today. I was supposed to come in and talk to you about it, but apparently, unless I’m previously vetted, I don’t even get into your office.”

The irritated man stopped and glared at him. “I don’t know what game you’re playing, young man, but I don’t fool around. My clients are very important.”

Austin had to laugh at that because this guy was maybe forty years old, but he wouldn’t even count on that. “Yeah? Unless they’re clients you’re avoiding.”

“What are you talking about?” Dikam asked in exasperation. “I’m not avoiding anybody.”

“ Right ,” Austin said, with a smirk. “So why don’t you hang around until your client arrives?”

“Because I have another appointment.”

“Yeah, where?” he asked, genuinely curious.

“None of your business,” Dikam snapped, as he loosened the collar around his neck.

“I see you’ve got Chris Remington as a client,” he noted.

Dikam’s eyes widened. “I don’t talk to anybody about my clients. There is such a thing as confidentiality.”

Austin nodded. “There are also things such as illegal proceedings, particularly when conducted by a lawyer.”

Dikam froze and some of the color drained from his face, as Austin just watched with interest. It had been a shot in the dark and something to rattle Dikam. Apparently it had hit home.

Dikam looked terrified, and, with that, Austin knew, without a doubt, that he was on the right track. “Still don’t want to wait for your client?”

Dikam stood here, rooted to the spot for a moment, and then shrugged. “You haven’t even told me who it is,” he stated, “and all I’m hearing from you are innuendos and threats, and I don’t appreciate it.”

“Threats? Is that what you’re hearing? Because honest to God, I didn’t threaten you at all. I just wanted to get in to see you, or at least get an appointment, but apparently you’ve got your dragon of a secretary not letting anybody in.”

“You definitely need an appointment,” he declared. “That’s how I prefer to handle my business.”

“Ah, that’s how handle your business, huh ?” Austin nodded. “As I remember, Richards was very open and friendly with his clients.”

“As you apparently already know, he’s dead.”

“I know, that’s why I’m heading over to the sheriff’s department to check if it was a suspicious death.”

“Of course it wasn’t,” Dikam stated in exasperation. “The man had a heart attack.”

“ Hmm , that’s interesting. A heart attack, huh ? I wonder if it was induced by somebody’s extra efforts? I’ll have to look into that too.” And, with that, he slowly turned and sauntered back to his truck.

“Wait, wait, wait. What are you talking about? Why are you even thinking that? What is going on here?”

Clearly rattled, Dikam called out after Austin, seemingly trying to sort out what was going on and who the hell he even was because, so far, nobody had even asked Austin for his name, something he found fascinating.

“Oh, I don’t think it matters to you much,” Austin noted and kept on walking.

Just then, a vehicle came ripping in around the corner, screeching to a stop next to Austin’s truck.

Dikam looked over at Austin and frowned. “See? That’s what I mean. Everybody in far too big of a hurry in this town.”

“Richards didn’t die suddenly though,” Austin stated.

“What are you talking about?” Dikam asked, shaking his head in disgust. “I don’t understand why you’re here hassling me, but I’m just about done with it.”

“Yeah? You might be just about done with it, or maybe, just maybe, you’re about to be right in the middle of it.”

At that moment, Jake walked into view and glared at Dikam. “I need to talk to you,” he snapped and motioned him to the door of his office.

Dikam seemed to shrink, but then that was Jake. He was huge, rough, and had a heart of gold, yet nobody would dare to cross him.

“He wouldn’t even let me in his personal office,” Austin shared cheerfully, knowing things were about to get very interesting, “and I am not even sure he knows who you are.”

“He damn well better know who I am,” Jake snapped, glaring at Dikam. “Don’t you?” The lawyer opened his mouth, but Jake railroaded right over him. “I’ve just talked to Teglish around the corner,” he shared, “and I’m transferring all my legal documentation over to him.”

Dikam started to sputter. “What? Why are you doing that?” he asked, red in the face. “I’ve been nothing but amiable and helpful.”

“ Sure , you have,” Jake snorted. “Until all that shit that my son started, you were fine. Yet now? I don’t know that I can trust you either.”

Dikam tried to back up. “No, no, no,” he wailed. “I don’t know what’s going on with your son, but I know that families can be difficult in the best of times.”

At that, Austin started to laugh. “Yeah, Jake, you definitely need to transfer your shit, and you need to do it today because I don’t trust anything this weasel’s involved in.”

“I’ll sue you for defamation,” Dikam declared, with a deadly tone.

“Yeah, you go for it,” Austin urged him, “and then we’ll talk about the documents you forged in your office.

” All the color left Dikam’s face, and he started to shake.

Austin pinned him up against the door. “So, let’s take a walk down to the sheriff’s office, shall we?

I don’t know how many of them you’re paying off, but I highly doubt they will all be on your side and against Jake here. ”

“What the hell?” Dikam cried out. “I didn’t do anything.”

“No, maybe not yet, maybe not at all,” Austin conceded, “but your actions are speaking a lot more clearly than your words.” He looked over at Jake. “Don’t worry about us, you go take care of the legals. You need to get this sorted today.”

Jake nodded. “I need that paperwork.”

“In that case, let’s go have a talk with his secretary first, though she wasn’t too friendly five minutes ago.”

Jake’s gaze widened. “Annalise? She’s always been a sweetheart.”

“I don’t know who Annalise is, but the dragon I met up there was definitely not on the friendly side.”

Jake snorted and headed for the front steps. Austin followed him, dragging the lawyer with him.

When they got there right behind Jake, he was snapping out orders to the Dragon Lady, as if he owned the business. The woman, on the other hand, who Jake had just called a sweetheart , wasn’t having anything to do with it, and when she saw her boss, she stood up. “What the hell is going on here?”

Dikam winced and noted, “It seems we have an unhappy client.”

She glared at him, then turned to look at Jake. “Now look. We don’t have a problem here. Everything’s fine.” When she caught sight of Austin, she scowled. “You,” she spat.

He gave her a big fat smile. “Yeah, it’s me,” he said, “and you do have a problem here. I don’t think your legal documents are quite legal.”

She shook her head. “Everything here is on the up-and-up.” She turned and looked at Jake. “Look. I don’t know what this young man told you, but you obviously can’t trust him. Look at him. He can’t even walk in a straight line. He’s probably drunk.”

Jake snorted at that. “Good Christ, I have spent more than enough time with this fine young man to know when he’s drunk and when he’s not.

” He turned, looked back at the lawyer, and barked, “I’m either calling the sheriff right now, or you’ll be giving me all my shit, and then I’m calling the big-town cops. ”

“No need to call the cops at all,” Dikam stated, raising his hands. He turned to his secretary and called out, “Give him his damn files.” She stared at him, wide-eyed, and shook her head. “I said, give him the files.”

“You don’t understand, John. Not everything is completed yet,” she reminded him in a wheedling tone.

“No, I’m sure it isn’t,” Austin added, “but it’s as complete as it’ll be as far as you’re concerned, and, once the authorities find out what you’ve been involved in, you’ll be done with a lot more.”

She turned and stared at him, probably wanting to spit in his face. He smiled. “Go ahead, it’s not as if I haven’t seen a woman lose it before.”

She stiffened. “I’m not the type to lose it because of a brat like you. We’re not turning over anything.”

Austin just smiled, looked at Jake, and asked, “Do you want to handle this, or shall I?”

Jake nodded at him.

Austin walked over to the nearest computer, picked up the monitor on the desk, and smashed it on the floor. Dragon Lady instantly screamed at him to get out, and he just walked over to the second desk and picked up the second monitor as John now screamed at him, “Stop, just stop!”

Austin smiled. “I have no intention of stopping, so go ahead and call the sheriff. Please, call the sheriff,” he urged him in a voice that was just a hair above a prayer.

Annalise nervously wrung her hands and looked over at her boss, who shook with fury. Dikam turned to Jake and said, “Call him off. We’re giving you your files, all your documents,” he said. “No need for this.”

“ Really ?” Jake asked. “There is obviously a need for a full investigation into what is going on here and in what way you have colluded with my son as he continues to raise hell.”

The woman sniffed. “It’s not as if you’ve ever done anything for him,” she snapped, “and look at how you’ve treated my office.”

“Your office?” Jake repeated. “Are you the lawyer around here, or is he? I didn’t notice your name on the door.”

She flushed in fury, an emotion that Austin recognized.

“She may not be the boss, but it looks to me as if maybe she’s been running the place as if she were.

” Austin looked over at the lawyer in time to catch the look of chagrin on Dikam’s face.

“Interesting that you’ve let her have her way in all this,” he noted in a mocking voice. “That works for you, huh ?”

He glared at him. “You don’t know anything.”

“No, I don’t know very much, that’s for sure, and I’m not exactly certain what’s going on here either, but I can tell you that, whatever it is, it really stinks. But we do know that Chris is up to something criminal, and it appears that you’ve become a part of it.”

“I’m not part of anything,” Dikam spat.

“You may have managed to hide your tracks,” Austin suggested, “but that doesn’t mean you’ve hidden everything. Believe me that it will come down to just how good of a job you’ve done in keeping this a secret.”

At that, Annalise chimed in, “We haven’t done anything wrong, and you’ve got no business terrorizing the place.”

“Really? You have a client here looking for assistance, and you’ve refused to comply with his wishes. Jake should just talk to the nearest police commissioner and see how that works out for you and Dikam.”

“Police commissioner?” Dikam asked. “Why not the sheriff?”

“Because we can’t be sure that you aren’t colluding with the sheriff, now can we?” Austin replied, with a hard smile on his face. “Do you think we haven’t dealt with criminals before?”

“Now look,” Dikam began, raising his hand again. “Obviously there has been some misunderstanding. I did direct my secretary to provide everything that you needed,” he said in exasperation. “I’m being cooperative.”

“Yeah, but she isn’t.”

She finally walked over to the desk that still had a computer monitor on it, where she sat down and started to print out Jake’s documents.

“Put every single file of Jake’s on this too,” Austin ordered, handing over a USB key. She frowned, and he nodded. “Right now, while we’re standing here.”

“What good will that do? Obviously we’ll still have records.”

“Thank you for admitting that,” he said, with a smile.

“Pull out the physical files too. Then the electronic files will help us to know when there’s a leak or when something goes wrong.

That way we can determine who had access to the information in question and what they might have done with it, including anyone they may have shared this confidential information with. ”

She flushed, then glanced nervously over at her boss, and started transferring digital files. When she handed the thumb drive back to Austin, he passed it over to Jake. “Now, get over to your new lawyer.”

Jake looked at him curiously. “What about you? Aren’t you coming with me?”

“Nope, I’ll stay until I get the rest of the information I want.

I’ll make their lives miserable, until I know that you’re safe and sound and everything has been transferred over nice and legal, so that you are assured that your will still says what you think it does.

Then you’ll take a digital copy of all this, and we’ll send it off for forensic analysis. ”

With a nod, Jake took off.

“What are you talking about?” John Dikam asked in shock.

“You heard exactly what I said,” Austin stated, as he turned to him and smiled.

“No, no, no, there’s no need for any of this,” Dikam pleaded. “We haven’t done anything wrong.”

Jake looked at him and growled. “You sure as hell haven’t done anything right, and that’s where we’ll start.”

And, with that, the Dragon Lady gave Austin a collection of file folders. Then Austin turned and walked out.