“I should inform you that there is a possibility of another heir being involved…Your father’s will specifically provides that the estate is to be divided equally among his issue…Your father sired a child by a governess who worked here…”
If Julia showed up, there would be four of us, Tyler thought. And if I could control her share, I would then have fifty percent of Father’s stock plus the one percent I already own. I could take over Stanford Enterprises. I could sit in my father’s chair. His next thought was, Rosemary is dead, and she probably never told her daughter who her father was. Why does it have to be the real Julia Stanford?
The answer was Margo Posner.
He had first encountered her two months earlier, as court was called into session. The bailiff had turned to the spectators in the courtroom. “Oyez, oyez. The Circuit Court of Cook County is now in session, the Honorable Judge Tyler Stanford presiding. All rise.”
Tyler walked in from his chambers and sat down at the bench. He looked down at the docket. The first case was State of Illinois v. Margo Posner. The charges were assault and attempted murder.
The prosecuting attorney rose. “Your Honor, the defendant is a dangerous person who should be kept off the streets of Chicago. The State will prove that the defendant has a long criminal history. She has been convicted of shoplifting, larceny, and is a known prostitute. She was one of a stable of women working for a notorious pimp named Rafael. In January of this year, they got into an altercation and the defendant willfully and cold-bloodedly shot him and his companion.”
“Did either victim die?” Tyler asked.
“No, Your Honor. They were hospitalized with serious injuries. The gun in Margo Posner’s possession was an illegal weapon.”
Tyler turned to look at the defendant, and he felt a sense of surprise. She did not fit the image of what he had just heard about her. She was a well-dressed, attractive young woman in her late twenties, and there was a quiet elegance about her that completely belied the charges against her. That just goes to prove, Tyler thought wryly, you never know.
He listened to the arguments from both sides, but his eyes were drawn to the defendant. There was something about her that reminded him of his sister.
When the summations were finished, the case went to the jury, and in less than four hours they returned with a verdict of guilty on all counts.
Tyler looked down at the defendant and said, “The court cannot find any extenuating circumstances in this case. You are herewith sentenced to five years at Dwight Correctional Center…Next case.”
And it was not until Margo Posner was being led away that Tyler realized what it was about her that reminded him so much of Kendall. She had the same dark gray eyes. The Stanford eyes.
Tyler did not think about Margo Posner again until the telephone call from Dmitri.
The beginning chess game had been successfully completed. Tyler had planned each move carefully in his mind. He used the classical queen’s gambit: Decline opening, moving the queen pawn two squares. It was time to move into the middle game.
Tyler went to visit Margo Posner at the women’s prison.
“Do you remember me?” Tyler asked.
She stared at him. “How could I forget you? You’re the one who sent me to this place.”
“How are you getting along?” Tyler asked.
She grimaced. “You must be kidding! It’s a hellhole here.”
“How would you like to get out?”
“How would I…? Are you serious?”
“I’m very serious. I can arrange it.”
“Well, that…that’s great! Thanks. But what do I have to do for it?”
“Well, there is something I want you to do for me.”
She looked at him, flirtatiously. “Sure. That’s no problem.”
“That’s not what I had in mind.”
She said, warily, “What did you have in mind, Judge?”
“I want you to help me play a little joke on someone.”
“What kind of joke?”
“I want you to impersonate someone.”
“Impersonate someone? I wouldn’t know how to—”
“There’s twenty-five thousand dollars in it for you.”