Fire in a Haystack: A Thrilling Novel (Legal Mystery Book Book 1) Read Free Page B

footsteps.
    He stood in front of the door staring at the hammered copper numbers 6-1-3. The yellow head of a chambermaid dressed in a bluish robe, flashed for a moment in the corridor’s right corner, and then disappeared. He lightly tapped the door with his finger. There wasn’t any answer. He struck the door with his open palm, still no answer.
    He shouted, “Mr. Rodety, please open the door,” but he was speaking only to himself.
    Anger began to bubble up inside him. He lost his patience. What was wrong with this guy? He could have taken a taxi and reached the office by himself like any other client. This is not what I studied law for , Ofer thought . I’m not interning at Geller, Schneider and Associates, the kind of law firm most students can only dream about, to do this kind of job.
    He tried to call aloud “Yaakov” and “Jacob,” but that didn’t help either.
    He didn’t hear the chambermaid approaching him until she almost touched him. He turned to her, startled, when he heard the sound of her breathing. In front of him stood a handsome, ageless woman, slightly taller than he was and very thin. She wore a light-blue gown and flat-heeled white shoes, and her gold braid was pushed to the front to draw attention to it. She must have heard the knocking or the curses or both , he said to himself.
    “What happened? Why you break door?” the chambermaid asked with a Russian accent.
    “He’s not opening, and we’re late,” Ofer explained.
    “Maybe man is not in room,” the fair lady offered her own solution.
    Truly an illumination , he thought as he looked at her chest, which proudly bore a small golden tag bearing her name, “Natalia.” “A lyre worthy to be played by King David himself,” Yoav would have probably said. He recalled the code words he and his best friend used to refer to a woman whom God has equipped handsomely.
    He imagined how he himself must look to her—a man of medium height, head adorned with curls, with elongated features and pointy ears that slanted upwards as if they wanted to detach themselves from the rest of his face.
    “Perhaps you could open the door for me? Please? He went to sleep very late last night. I’m sure he simply took an afternoon nap and forgot to wake up on time,” he said pleasantly.
    “Can’t. Manager don’t allow,” Natalia answered decisively.
    “What do you care? I’ll take full responsibility,” he said in a flattering tone. “You need to clean the room anyway. It’s already the end of the day and you haven’t cleaned it since morning,” he continued while pointing at the "Do not Disturb" sign that hung on the door.
    Natalia shook her yellow head. Obviously, he was confronted here with a woman with an iron will. He examined her from head to toe. She was thin and attractive. A combination not to be taken for granted. If not for the task he needed to perform, she would have been worthy of some special attention.
    “Come on, Natalia, I’ll just wake him up and leave,” Ofer tried the personal approach.
    Her blue eyes and the gray bags beneath them did not even budge. The fact he had read her name off the tag on her chest didn’t make much of an impression either. She pushed her thick braid from the front until it rested on her back and persisted in her refusal.
    He had no other choice. He was determined to pass his bar exam shorty and be the first intern ever to be hired by the law firm. He had already established a reputation as someone who always gets the job done, no matter how impossible it appeared to be. He was not about to ruin his hard-earned prestige because of a stubborn chambermaid who had survived a strict educational system somewhere beyond the iron curtain. Even though he knew this would hurt his pocket, he took out his wallet and fished out a brand new two-hundred shekel bill. There goes a new pair of nice jeans , Ofer thought.
    “I’ll get fired unless I’ll get him to the office right now,” said Ofer to Natalia and