The Armstrong Assignment (A Janet Markham Bennett Cozy Thriller Book 1)

by Diana Xarissa

“I couldn’t quite believe it when Mr. Armstrong got back from his morning escapades and told me that he’d hired himself a translator named Janet Markham. I was afraid to believe that it was truly you.”

  Janet sighed. While she didn’t want to do it, she also didn’t want to keep any secrets from Edward.

  “That was a deep sigh,” he said.

  “I saw you last night,” she replied in a low voice. “I was walking to the Louvre for the dinner and tour and I saw you with Bobby and the others.”

  Edward stared at her for a minute and then began to laugh. “You’re amazing. How did you engineer a meeting with the man, then?”

  “I didn’t engineer anything. I will admit that I walked back down the street in front of the hotel again this morning, but there was no sign of anyone that I’d seen yesterday. I turned the corner and Bobby walked out of a door right in front of me.”

  “So he went out through the staff entrance,” Edward said thoughtfully. “That doesn’t match up with his story, but carry on. What happened next?”

  “A couple stopped to talk to him, but he couldn’t understand them, so I translated for him. They were simply admiring his hat, but after the conversation was finished, he asked me to join him for coffee so that I could translate his order for him. He was worried that he might not get his chocolate creesant if I weren’t there to help.” She deliberately used Bobby’s version of the word, making Edward laugh again.

  “So when you spoke to him, you knew he was connected to me in some way?”

  “Yes,” Janet admitted. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it, but I hated to see him shouting ‘I don’t speak French’ at people in the street.”

  “And you took the job with him, knowing that I’d be here waiting for you, when you arrived,” Edward continued. “That explains why you weren’t truly surprised when you walked into the room.”

  “I tried to act surprised. I was nervous about seeing you and I was pretty sure that Mr. Jones was going to be here, which terrified me, but I’d forgotten that you didn’t know that I saw you last night,” she explained.

  “You don’t need to be frightened of Mr. Jones. He’s mostly harmless. And you did a good job of acting surprised. I suspect he was fooled, anyway. I know you a good deal better, of course.”

  “Does Mr. Jones have a Christian name?” Janet had to ask.

  “It’s John.”

  “Of course it is,” Janet sighed. John and Jones had to be two of the most anonymous names in the English-speaking world. “What about the other man, the one who is younger and seems almost human?”

  Edward chuckled. “Christopher Porter is most definitely human. He’s a relatively new recruit. He’s working as an assistant to Mr. Jones at the moment, but he’s clever and intuitive. I suspect he’ll be moving up very quickly.”

  “He did things for you without Mr. Jones knowing.”

  “Because he understands people better than Mr. Jones does. He understood how upset I was when my honeymoon was interrupted. Nothing he did jeopardised my mission in any way.”

  “Maybe you should tell me about your mission,” Janet suggested.

  Edward nodded. “In a minute,” he said, pulling her into another kiss.

  “I thought Bobby had a meeting,” Janet said when she caught her breath.

  He sighed. “He does, and we need to be there. I’ll have to give you the short version, not that there is a long version, actually. It’s pretty straightforward.”

  Janet sat back down. Edward sat next to her and took her hand.

  “From what we can determine, someone is trying to kill Mr. Armstrong,” Edward told her.

  “From what you can determine?” Janet asked.

  “According to Mr. Armstrong, there have been several attempts on his life in the past two months. After the first few, he hired a security team to protect him and a private detective to investigate. Apparently, there’s quite a long list of suspects.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “Mr. Armstrong is a businessman with a reputation for being ruthless,” Edward told her. “He’s made some enemies over the years and he’s making a lot more at the moment. He has plans to build a large shopping mall and a huge residential development in an area that’s meant to be protected. Apparently, there are large bird populations that will suffer if he goes ahead with his plans.”

  “Now I don’t like him,” Janet said.

  “Like him or not, it’s my job to protect him.”

  “So lots of people want him dead?”

  “The private detective was concentrating his efforts on a handful of environmental groups. I should point out that the attempts on Mr. Armstrong’s life were all what I would consider amateur efforts. I can tell you more about them later, if you really want to hear the stories.”

  “I do, of course,” Janet told him.

  He chuckled. “Of course you do.”

  “So someone in Texas wants to kill him. Where do you come into all of this? And why didn’t he bring his security team with him?”

  “As I said, the detective was looking at the various environmental protection groups. He involved the local police, and the police appear to have been focussing on Mr. Armstrong’s former wife and her new husband. Everyone seemed to believe that it would be wise for Mr. Armstrong to be somewhere other than Texas for a short while.”

  “Is that why he came to Paris?”

  “That’s certainly part of it. He’s been doing business with a company here for a year or more, but he’s always insisted that the meetings be held in the US. When it was suggested that it would be wise for him to get away, Mr. Armstrong decided to meet with his French business associates in Paris for a change.”

  “And here he is,” Janet muttered.

  “He came on rather short notice,” Edward told her. “It was suggested that he hire a translator and bring some security with him, but he decided that he was going to travel only with people that he trusted completely.”

  Janet frowned. “You say that as if his trust is misplaced.”

  Edward sighed. “The group flew from Dallas to New York a few days ago. There was a further attempt on Mr. Armstrong’s life in New York. I was called in when that happened so that we could have security in place as soon as Mr. Armstrong’s party landed in France.”

  “But they didn’t arrive until yesterday afternoon. You disappeared in the morning.”

  “I needed a briefing. Mr. Armstrong’s arrival was also delayed several times, for various reasons. I was considering abandoning the job, actually, after all of the delays, but then I learned that one of the delays was because of yet another attempt on Mr. Armstrong’s life.”

  “What happened?” Janet asked.

  “They flew from New York to London and then on to Paris. At some point during the long flight from New York to London, someone attempted to stab Mr. Armstrong.”

  Janet frowned. “How could he or she not get caught?”

  “It was a private plane and each person was in an individual enclosed area. The lights were off, aside from some floor lighting to help people find their way to the loos. From what I’ve been able to ascertain, the passengers all took a walk through the plane at some point during the five hours when the lights were off, with the exception of Mr. Armstrong himself. When the lights came back on, Mr. Armstrong found a knife stuck in his chest.”

  Janet gasped. “How did he survive that?”

  “He was wearing a bulletproof vest. He’s been wearing one since the first attempt on his life. The knife went through several layers of clothing and then stuck in the vest.”

  “That’s further proof, then, that someone from his entourage is behind the attempts,” Janet said thoughtfully.

  “Except Mr. Armstrong doesn’t want to believe that. He trusts everyone with whom he is travelling.”

  “And what do you think of them?”

  Edward shook his head. “I want you to meet them all before I say a word. You’re a very good judge of character. We’ll
talk again later and compare notes.”

  “How many people are there in the group?” Janet asked.

  “Counting Mr. Armstrong, six, and I’m not saying another word about any of them, so don’t ask.”

  “If he’s in so much danger, why aren’t you with him now?”

  Edward chuckled. “One of my counterparts is with him at the moment. I can’t be with him twenty-four hours a day, although I’m meant to be with him during waking hours. In this instance, it was felt that I needed to be a part of the team interviewing the woman that Mr. Armstrong had suddenly hired as a translator.”

  Janet grinned. “And do I get the job?”

  “If it were up to me, of course,” he told her. “But it isn’t up to me. Mr. Jones doesn’t want you here, and I do understand his concerns. You’re going to have to spend the rest of today making yourself indispensable to Mr. Armstrong. That’s the best way around Mr. Jones.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Janet said, with no idea how she was going to manage it.

  “Just be yourself,” Edward told her. “Mr. Armstrong already thinks you’re amazing. I happen to agree.”

  “What time is the meeting?” Janet wondered.

  “We have five minutes,” Edward replied, pulling her into another kiss.

  Chapter 6

  In a small loo next to the conference room, Janet reapplied her lipstick and ran a comb through her hair. When she emerged, Edward offered her his arm.

  “Ready?” he asked as he led her to a lift.

  “Not at all,” she replied as the doors slid open.

  They rode in silence to the top floor. Edward escorted her down a long corridor to the last room in the hall. He knocked and then gave her an encouraging smile.

  “It’s going to be fine,” he assured her.

  The door swung open and Janet found herself staring at the business end of some sort of gun.

  “Put it away,” Edward snarled at the man in the black suit. “You should know better than to have that out.”

  The man shrugged. “Mr. Armstrong and I were talking about guns. I had it in my hand already.”

  Edward frowned. “Ms. Markham, this is Mr. Harrison. He’s another member of Mr. Armstrong’s security team. Mr. Harrison, this is Janet Markham. She’s going to be working as a translator for Mr. Armstrong.”

  “Excellent,” Bobby said loudly from across the room. “I was afraid the men in suits would scare you away,” he told Janet.

  “This one very nearly did,” Janet replied, nodding towards Mr. Harrison, who was still holding the gun.

  “Put the weapon away,” Edward said tightly.

  Mr. Harrison shrugged and then slid the gun into a pocket or a holster or somewhere. Janet didn’t want to know.

  “I hope the men in suits didn’t give you a hard time,” Bobby said to Janet. “I told them it wasn’t any of their business who I hired, but they didn’t seem to agree.”

  “They were perfectly fine,” Janet assured him. “You should be pleased that they’re doing what they can to look after you.”

  He shrugged. “I hate feeling caged in. I’d almost rather take my chances against whoever it is that’s trying to kill me.”

  “If you keep sneaking out, you may find yourself doing just that,” Edward suggested.

  Bobby shrugged. “I didn’t sneak out. I just went to get some coffee. Everyone else was jet lagged. I didn’t want to bother you. It didn’t seem like a big deal.”

  A loud buzzing noise kept Edward from replying.

  “It’s time for the meeting,” Bobby said. “Janet, this is simply a meeting between myself and the others who came to Paris with me. The entire conversation will be in English, but I’d like you to come along so that you can begin to understand what’s going to be happening in future meetings, the ones where I’ll need you to translate.”

  Janet nodded. “I’m looking forward to meeting everyone, as well,” she said.

  He shrugged. “My security team here seems to think that one of my entourage is trying to kill me. Maybe you’ll be able to work out who is behind the various attempts on my life.”

  “I thought you had security just because that’s what wealthy people do,” Janet said. “Are you telling me that someone is actually trying to kill you?”

  Bobby nodded. “Luckily for me, they’re not very good at it. Still, even amateurs get lucky sometimes. That’s why I have men with guns around me.”

  “I can see why those men were upset that you went out alone this morning,” Janet said.

  “I’ll be more careful from now on,” Bobby promised. “But we’re going to be late. Come and meet the team and learn all about our business strategy.”

  He offered his arm and turned towards the door. “Where are we going?” he asked Edward.

  “Conference room three,” Edward replied. “It was booked for eleven.”

  “It won’t take more than an hour,” Bobby told Janet. “Because I’m starving. Actually, I was ready for lunch an hour ago.”

  He led her and Edward to the lifts. Mr. Harrison remained behind in Bobby’s suite.

  “So, Janet Markham, you told me that you own a bed and breakfast with your sister. Does that mean you aren’t married?” Bobby asked as the lift descended.

  Janet froze for a moment. “Actually, I am married,” she said eventually. “My husband was supposed to be with me in Paris, but at the last minute something came up with his work.”

  Bobby frowned. “You’re married to someone like me, a workaholic. How long have you been married?”

  “Not long. My husband is supposed to be retired, but, as you say, he’s a workaholic.”

  The lift doors opened and Bobby led Janet and Edward down the corridor. He stopped outside the door to the conference room.

  “Everything we say in here has to be confidential,” he told Janet. “If word gets out about what we’re planning, it could ruin more than one deal.”

  Janet nodded. “I understand.”

  Bobby opened the door and stepped back to let Janet enter first. She smiled brightly as she walked into the room. There were five people already sitting around the table. Two of them gave her curious looks, but the other three were busy on their mobile phones and didn’t even look up. When Bobby entered, he cleared his throat. Mobile phones quickly disappeared and everyone sat up and looked at Bobby.

  “Good morning,” he said. “After flying from Texas to New York and then New York to London and then London to Paris, I’ve lost all track of time. All I know is that I’m starving and ready for lunch.”

  “I can have food brought in,” the youngest man at the table offered. He was wearing black trousers, a blue shirt, and a tie with his cowboy boots and hat.

  Bobby shook his head. “I want to go out and get something at a real French restaurant. The restaurant here does American food. If I wanted American food, I could have stayed in America.”

  “Most of the guests here prefer to have the option to have food that’s familiar to them,” the younger man told him.

  “Well, I didn’t come this far to eat the same food I can get at home. We’ll go out after the meeting,” Bobby replied.

  “If you have a specific restaurant in mind, I can have it cleared before we get there,” Edward suggested.

  Bobby sighed. “I thought we could stroll into the middle of the city and pick a place that looked good.”

  “Of course we can,” Edward told him. “That’s just slightly riskier.”

  “You’ve all met Edward, of course,” Bobby said to the others. “He’s in charge of spoiling my fun, mostly.”

  Edward shook his head. “That’s the last thing I want to do. I simply want to keep you safe.”

  “Allow me to introduce the very lovely Janet Markham,” Bobby continued. “Ms. Markham has graciously agreed to act as a translator for me while we’re in Paris. She speaks fluent French.”

  Janet blushed. “Of course, you must all call me Janet,” she said.

  “Um, Bobb
y, I did offer to hire a translator for you,” the young man said. “I’m not certain where you found Ms. Markham, but I do have some, um, concerns about bringing in someone random.”

  Bobby waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter where I found her,” he replied. “Add her to the payroll. She’s getting five thousand dollars a day, starting today.”

  “Five thousand?” The man was clearly shocked.

  Janet glanced over at Edward. He looked surprised as well.

  “That is considerably more than the going rate for someone to help you order your lunch and dinner,” the young man argued.

  “She’s going to be doing a great deal more than that,” Bobby countered. “We have a lot of business meetings coming up over the next two weeks.”

  “And each of the companies with which we are going to meet has already promised to have translators available if necessary,” the other man countered.

  “Do you trust them?” Bobby demanded. “Do you trust them all to be completely honest and above board? I want someone in the room who can listen to the conversations taking place and let me know what’s really being said.”

  “You’re paying her to spy for you?” the man asked.

  Again Janet glanced at Edward. He looked amused and, when she caught his eye, he winked at her.

  “I just want someone in the meetings who can understand everything being said and who I know is on my side,” Bobby replied. “Janet, the man arguing against you is my assistant, Theodore Bradley.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Bradley,” she replied, suppressing the urge to call him Teddy.

  “Call me Theodore,” he replied unenthusiastically. “I’ll need some information from you before I can put you on the payroll. We’ll have to talk later.”

  Janet nodded. “Of course.”

  “I think hiring your own translator is very clever,” the man sitting next to Theodore said. He was the man who’d looked so out of place the previous day.

  As he had been yesterday, he was wearing a suit. He had a cowboy hat on his head, but it very much looked as if it had been put there by mistake. Janet could only imagine that he’d be removing it as soon as he possibly could.