Death Rites

2 - The part about the rabbit trap

She arrived at Prince and Lexa's maybe ten minutes later, limping, soaked and still catching her breath. 

Lawyer's office by day, hub of criminal activity by night, the establishment of Prince And Associates At Law looked the definition of respectable at any time of day. Teague was severely dragging down the property values of the neighbourhood just by being here. She pushed open the back door and surveyed the room. Any day, the law office was orderly in every place that the public eye could see and it was a mess of paper everywhere else. By day the lobby was bright, elegant and most of all large. Any non-confidential business was conducted out there in the open, and the confidential parts were held in the lawyers' offices; even more eloquent. All a figurehead for the mill of aides and clerks that did the actual lawyering, scurrying away in the back parts of the office away from view. 

Tonight, the always immaculate lobby looked like the aftermath of a hurricane. There were administration papers scattered everywhere, furniture had been thrown about and most of it was broken. Debris from the ceiling covered the floor, and the windows in the skylight had been shattered. There was nobody in sight. 

Astonished, Teague made her way down to the storage room doors. She had no idea what had happened here, and the idea of Prince and Associates' being unsafe made her feel incredibly uneasy. It wasn't supposed to happen, like the monsters from the closet getting under the blankets with you. 

Of course the interesting part of the business was on the upper floors. The clerks and aides thought it was for storage and for all intents and purposes it was. There were loads of filing cabinets full of old legal files, old law books, and so on. In case anyone actually needed anything stored. And then there was another stairway, locked behind a door that was hard to spot off in a corner, that led to Prince and Lexa's 'other offices'. 

Right now, the storage attic had been ransacked. Everything was everywhere. She thought she smelled smoke. The storage was smaller than the ground floor, mostly because half of the room had to give way to the tall ceiling for the lobby, with the skylight. She carefully moved aside some toppled boxes full of what appeared to be receipts and cleared the path to the top floor. There was no sound. There hadn't been since she entered. Then again the attic had been thoroughly soundproofed. The moonlight through the newly added holes in the walls was just enough to see by. She skipped the fifth, sixth and ninth steps - the fifth had a terrible creak, the sixth had a big charred hole in it that wasn't there before - it ran all the way up to the tenth step but the sixth was the worst off. Dust fell down through the hole as she put her foot down on the remains of the stairs, but it seemed solid enough to stand on. Skipping the ninth step was just a superstition. 

The first area of the attic- the reception area, as they called it, was empty. It was a small square room, all wood, with just a comfy chair and a fireplace, no windows, and a single door at the end. There was a guard there at all times to check people for weapons and to make sure none of the clerical staff made it any further than that. The seat was empty, the room was cold. The lights and the fireplace were out - Prince and Lexa had not paid their special exemption, they just blacked out all the windows. 

She put her ear to the door and closed her eyes. She could hear voices behind it, not the words, just the sounds. The smooth bass drone of Prince's voice, definitely, going on about something or other. He sounded calm, but then again Prince always sounded calm. She had never heard him raise his voice or get nervous. He was the cold steel, the bedrock of the operation. She waited to hear another voice. Lexa. Errol the guard. Whoever had caused the mess. Prince had to be talking to somebody. So far he was monologueing. 

Teague considered for a second, then decided to knock. 

Prince stopped talking for all of three seconds.