Dig Two Graves: Revenge or Honor Read Free

heard from your father?”
    “No sir, I haven’t,” he said. And I hope I don’t.
    “Well, I am sure he just got busy with his depositions in Boston. I had an email from him last evening. We’ll hear from him in time, I’m sure. If he calls you, please ask him to get in touch with me.”
    “Yes, sir. Thank you for your call,” AJ said. His father had scuttled his partnership nomination.
     
    AJ breezed past his secretary, and closed his office door behind him. He slipped off his custom Savile Row suit coat, carefully putting it on a hanger on the back of his office door then flopped down in his desk chair.
    He sighed as he took in the morning sun reflecting off Biscayne Bay. The view from the twentieth floor was breathtaking, but AJ hardly noticed. He had worked for years for THE corner office and the full partnership it represented, but his father had derailed all that.
    Dear old dad had voted against him without even calling, without telling him. The other managing partners appreciated the cash flow he’d established but didn’t want to go against his father’s wishes.
    AJ was a disappointment to his father. The hint of his involvement in a cheating scandal had meant more to his father than when he graduated in the top 5 percent at Yale Law School. Joining the U. S. Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps hadn’t impressed his father either because he was passed over for promotion twice. Dear old dad and the Army disapproved of his methods. Those methods got him bounced from JAG, but he’d never lost a case. Those methods won cases for his high-dollar clients, but Andreas Pantheras didn’t like their “tainted money.”
    “Well, my money is as good as yours!” AJ said aloud as he scowled and turned from the window. With his father out of town, AJ would just have to wait to confront the old man and confront him he would. The ringing cell phone brought him back to reality.
    “Hello.”
    “AJ … AJ, is that you? Thank God, I found you. I tried your home,” a relieved Luis sighed.
    “Luis! What a surprise. I was just preparing for a deposition.
    What may I do for you?” AJ said, attempting to be subtle with his kowtowing to his boss.
    “Listen, my boy, I’m sorry, but this is urgent. Are you sitting down?” Luis said.
    “Luis, what’s wrong?” AJ was getting worried. Were they going to take back the promotion?
    “My boy, I’m so upset. I, I will … I will just say it. The Boston police called. It looks like it was a mugging. It happened the evening of his depos, that’s why he didn’t call yesterday. AJ,
    I’m sorry, but Andreas, your father has died.”
    Now maybe they’ll make me a partner AJ thought. Without a word, AJ ended the call and dropped the phone on the desk.

Chapter 2
    “Mr. Pantheras, we’re deeply sorry for your loss,” said Dr. Archer Frisco, Associate State Medical Examiner, but AJ was only half listening. He was fed up. Bureaucratic double talk, especially to cover incompetence, made him see red, and he was on his fourth shade with this guy. The doctor continued, “Sir, under Chapter 38 of the General Laws of Massachusetts, this office provides a comprehensive system for conducting medico legal investigations in the Commonwealth. We provide ….”
    “Doctor, let me stop you right there,” AJ said firmly, holding up one hand. “I don’t give a damn about your mandate. I am telling you, you made a mistake. I tried to tell you that on the phone several times, but you blew me off. I had to call the Chief Judge to get an appointment with you. Judge Grantham, who’s a family friend by the way, was quite disturbed you were ignoring me. For the record, I have close ties with the Miami law enforcement community. I requested the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s office review your findings. Do you know what they found?”
    AJ didn’t wait for an answer.
    “They concluded my father did not die of natural causes, but was murdered. A homicide you missed.”
    AJ picked up a file,