16. Deadly Deals

by Fern Michaels

  "Turn on the lights, but be sure to lock the door. I don't have any bad feelings about this little break-in, Myra. The weather is in our favor today, and I for one don't know how we got so lucky. Try calling Charles or the boys while I check out this huge safe."

  Annie dropped to her knees and flexed her fingers as she roll-called everything Tee had taught her. "Someone was definitely here, Myra. The carpet is wet where I'm kneeling, and whoever it was opened this safe."

  When there was no response from the reception area, Annie pressed her ear to the safe and twirled the knob. It took her three tries before the massive door creaked open. She blinked at the jumble of papers shoved onto the shelves. Folders were scrunched, with corners sticking out every which way. It took her only seconds to see that the contents of the huge safe were years old. She twirled the knob to read zero and closed the heavy door, using her shoulder.

  Off in the reception area, Annie could hear Myra talking to someone. That's good, she thought. She's made contact with someone. She moved over to Baron Bell's tidy desk and again dropped to her knees. She pushed the swivel chair aside and was about to slide the heavy sheet of plastic that protected the floor from the rollers on the chair when her hands touched cold water. Someone had been here also, and not that long ago.

  Annie sucked in her breath and slid the hard plastic sheet to the side. She tapped at the floor-boards until she found the one that would pop out. She lifted the panel and peered down at the secret safe and went to work. She wanted to shout at the top of her lungs when she got it right the first time. She opened the door of the safe and stared down at the contents. Small bundles of money. She flipped through the bills and estimated there was twenty-five thousand dollars, give or take a few dollars. Quick-getaway money, nothing more. She riffled through the files but couldn't find anything related to baby adoptions. A huge file about a road project in Bowie, Maryland, took up one shelf in the safe. The second shelf held personal papers, including birth certificates, passports, and other assorted papers pertaining to Bell's family. It also housed other files, one for a senator and some young boy charging him with things he shouldn't be charged with, at least according to the senator. She shrugged, then almost jumped out of her skin when Myra tapped her on the shoulder. She whirled around, her eyes big as saucers.

  "Someone is out in the hallway. I could hear voices. What did you find, Annie?"

  "Nothing, but if you want the skinny on Senator Lantzy, I can give it to you. There's some money, not a lot, but that's it. Someone beat us here. The carpet was wet by the big old safe, and there was a puddle on the plastic before I moved it. What did you hear?" Annie asked as she closed the safe, slid the hard plastic back into place, then pushed the chair under the desk.

  "Just voices. Sounded like men to me. There's a dentist and an insurance agency on this floor, but I can't believe someone came out in this weather to go to a dentist or to buy insurance. We can't leave until they leave, whoever they are. I was going to turn the lights out but decided to leave them on. The light might be reflected on that funny-looking door."

  "Good thinking, Myra. Who did you get hold of?"

  "Jack. Harry is with him, and they're at the house in Georgetown. Jack said it took him almost three hours on foot to get home. The babies are supposed to be taken to Maggie's house. They're there to help. Ted and Espinosa are on the way. Jack said he's been trying to call Nikki and Charles, but there's no signal. He did get hold of Maggie, who is still at the paper. She is sitting tight and doesn't want to attempt the trip home. Jack says we should stay put for a little while since this phone is our only means of communication."

  "Well, I don't agree with Jack on that. I think we need to get out of here, and the sooner the better," Annie snapped. "Sit tight, Myra. I'm going to see if I can find out what's going on out in the hallway."

  "Annie, don't!" She might as well have saved her breath. Annie was up and running to the reception area, where she cracked the door and peered out. She clamped her hand over her mouth and ran back to where Myra was waiting for her.

  "It's the police. Three officers and two other guys. Not the guard, though. They're arguing about something, but I couldn't hear what it was all about. Shit! Shit! Shit! That's what Kathryn would say, isn't it? Myra, what are we going to do if they come in here?"

  "Do I have to remind you this was your idea? Bearing that in mind, I do have a solution. Look!" Myra said, pointing to the Santa suit hanging on the back of the door. "Get some pillows off that chair, and let's get dressed. Move, Annie!"

  Annie stared at her old friend. "But, Myra, there's only one Santa suit!"

  "There's an elf outfit behind it. Stop talking and get dressed. Hurry. I'll tie the pillow around your waist with my scarf. We can do this, Annie," Myra said when she noticed Annie's glazed eyes. "Damn it, Annie. I said, 'Move!'"

  Within minutes Myra and Annie were zipped, stuffed, and Velcroed into the Santa and elf suits. Annie was pulling on the shiny black boots when the door to the office opened. Five men, three of them police officers, stood in the doorway.

  Myra whirled around and said, "Baron, your beard needs some more latex. I left it on the sink. Hurry, or we'll be late." She whirled back around and asked, bold as brass, "What can I do for you, Officers? We're running late with the snow and all, but we did promise the kiddies over at Georgetown Hospital we would be there. Now, where did I put that green sack? Oh, here it is."

  "Sorry, Miss Harriet, but Mr. Bell called a while ago and said he thought someone broke into his office," a man dressed in a mackinaw said.

  "It wasn't Mr. Bell. We've been here all morning," replied Myra. "Actually we spent the night here because Mr. Bell's car wouldn't start and I live too far away and today was so important and you know how Mr. Bell is when it comes to Santa and not disappointing the children. Feel free to look around. Baron, what is the problem? Excuse me, gentlemen, while I help Santa with his beard. The dry cleaners cleaned it, and it just isn't feeling and fitting right."

  "No problem," one of the officers said as he looked around while a second officer took Myra up on her offer. The guard, who was out of uniform, was busily explaining to the third officer about Baron Bell and his Christmas schedule. The fifth man, who said he was an insurance agent, remained mute.

  "A day doesn't go by during the Christmas season that Mr. Bell and Miss Harriet aren't parading around in those outfits. The kiddies love it," the guard said happily.

  The officer who was checking out the suite of rooms moved closer to the bathroom. "Sorry to have bothered you. Merry Christmas!"

  Annie gave her beard a jerk and, managing a rumble from deep in her gut, replied, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"

  The guard laughed and said, "Mr. Bell is such a card. He gets right into the spirit of the holidays."

  When the office door closed behind the men, Annie sagged against the old-fashioned sink. "That was way too close for comfort, Myra!"

  "You think? Try this on for size, Annie, dearest. That cop who was making the rounds looked at me a little too close. Didn't you hear what the guard said? Mr. Bell called them. That has to mean Mr. Bell thinks Adel Newsom is or was coming here. Don't ask me how that could have happened, but it's the only thing that makes any kind of sense. I have a feeling they're coming back.

  "That cop's eyes were a little too sharp for my liking. It was almost like he thought he knew me but didn't know where he knew me from. For all we know, those officers might be calling Georgetown Hospital right now to see if we're scheduled to make an appearance. We're going to have to take the stairs all the way to the basement level and make our way in these outfits to the Post apartment."

  Annie didn't have to be told twice. She was at the office door before Myra could turn around. "We're going to freeze out there in these getups."

  Myra tossed her the down jacket as she slipped into her own.

  On the way down the steps in the oversize black boots and Santa outfit, Annie managed to come alive. "Tell me our sleigh with eight tiny reindee
r will be waiting for us when we open that door."

  "Will you settle for a SWAT team and assault rifles?"

  Hours before and hundreds of miles south as the crow flies, Charles Martin found himself in the unenviable position of trying to come to a decision. He looked at one of his old friends, Reginald Clapper, a comrade from the old days when he, Avery Snowden, and Clapper worked for the queen. Retired now, like Charles and Avery, he was just glad to be back in the game no matter how small the job.

  Reginald Clapper, Reggie to Charles and Avery, looked worried. "Don't even think about it, Charlie. Conditions are beyond horrendous. The fact that you couldn't get that damned snowmobile started ought to tell you something. It's an omen, I tell you.

  "You'll kill yourself if you try skiing down that mountain. When was the last time you were on skis? A lifetime ago, I'd wager. I don't care how good you were back in the day. This is now and you're a hell of a lot older and your bones know it. There's no visibility out there."

  "I don't have a choice, Reggie. All our communication has been wiped out. I'll take the dogs. Just tell me where you left the Hummer."

  Reggie Clapper stood with his back to the fire as he did his best to plead his case. "If you kill yourself, what good are you going to be to the women? Think about the dogs. Give it a few more hours, Charlie. This storm can't go on forever. Please. Look, my friend, you don't have to keep proving yourself to Myra and the ladies. You hit a bad patch a while ago. They understand. If they didn't understand, Myra wouldn't be marrying you. I hate to think Myra will be standing at the altar, waiting for a groom who is a no-show because he was too damn stubborn to listen."

  Charles just shook his head. "I've given it too many hours already. It's up to you, Reggie, to hold the fort. Keep trying to raise someone on the phones. The generators are working, so you aren't going to freeze, and the firewood is stacked to the ceiling. There's plenty of food. After you install that...that contraption and make damn sure the bolts are solid, then you can bring in the Christmas tree and set it up. We cut it down the other day, and it's sitting on the porch outside the kitchen so the branches would loosen up and drop into place. If we...if things go awry...you know what to do."

  "Damn it, Charlie, can't you wait just a little while?"

  Charles clapped his old friend on the back. "No. I have to go. The dogs will lead me to the bottom. Just keep trying to raise someone and tell them I'm on the way."

  "You have a good six hours to go once you hit the bottom, Charlie. That's if the roads are in a drivable condition, which we both know they won't be. We're looking at ten hours here. The women might come up with alternate plans and implement them in ten hours' time. As you've said time and again, they're very resourceful."

  "I don't think Mother Nature is interested in resourcefulness today for some reason. Sorry, Reggie. I have to go." Charles whistled for the dogs, and they came on the run. He was surprised that they allowed him to outfit them in Yoko's wool sweaters. It was almost as if they knew what they had to do and were cooperating. Treats in his pockets, a water bottle in one of his vest pockets, flashlight in another, Charles clapped Reggie on the back. "You'll see me when you see me."

  Reggie Clapper stood at the window and watched until the snow swallowed Charles and the dogs. He offered up a prayer, dressed himself to cross the front courtyard, where he first built a fire, then got to work on installing the heavy pole in the center of the big room. He took a moment to wonder how the ladies were going to decorate the pole. Women had such strange ideas when it came to decor. It never once occurred to him that what he was installing was a stripper pole.

  His heart thundering in his chest, Charles started his descent down the mountain, Murphy and Grady in the lead.

  Thirty minutes later he was at the base of the mountain. He offered up a prayer before he made his way to the military Hummer that guaranteed to take him anywhere he wanted to go in any weather condition. He used up another twenty minutes storing the skis and his boots and drying off the dogs. He turned on the engine and cranked the heat as high as it would go before he climbed back out to clear off the ice and snow from the front and back windshields. By the time he got behind the wheel, the heater was spewing out warm heat. He handed out chew bones to the dogs, talked to them a minute or so before he shifted into reverse, and headed out to the highway, where Lady Luck smiled on him a second time with a stretch of highway that had just been plowed and sanded. The huge tires of the Hummer gripped the road, and Charles was on his way, the dogs sleeping peacefully in the backseat, curled up next to each other.

  Charles prayed that the sanitation workers along the route he was driving were as on top of the storm as the North Carolina road crews.

  "I'm coming, Myra," he muttered over and over as he blasted down the road.

  Chapter 12

  By the time Myra and Annie made their way to the Post apartment building, both women were exhausted, physically as well as mentally. Myra held the door open with her shoulder as Annie trudged past her. "I have never, ever in my life been this cold or this exhausted. These damn boots have given my blisters other blisters."

  "My feet feel like two blocks of solid ice in these ridiculous elf slippers," Myra said wearily as she pushed the elevator button.

  Both women sighed with relief when the elevator door swished open.

  "Look, Myra, there's the door. I can see it from here. All we have to do is walk twenty feet, and we'll be warm again. You don't think we'll get pneumonia, do you?" Annie asked fretfully as she took Myra's arm and clomped her way to the door, where she pressed her thumb to the doorbell and held it there. When it didn't open immediately, she screamed, "Open this damn door right this minute!"

  A heartbeat later the door was opened by Kathryn, with a gun in her hand. Another heartbeat later both women's feet left the floor. The black boots stayed by the door, as did the elf slippers.

  The Sisters were rushed to the two bathrooms in the apartment, stripped down, and shoved into steaming showers.

  "Who are those women tied to the table legs?" Myra asked from behind the foggy shower door.

  "The two surrogates. Snowden's people brought them here. We took over and they left," Nikki said.

  "What about Baron Bell and his paramour?" Myra asked.

  "I don't know, Myra. Our only contact with the outside world is through Maggie. None of our special phones are working. The cable isn't working either. It's a good thing there's a landline in this apartment, which, by the way, is not too shabby for a corporate overnight stop. It works for a while, goes dead, then comes back on. Right now it isn't working. This apartment is no frills. You know what I mean. No pictures, no doodads, no green plants. But it has two bedrooms, two full baths, and the fridge has food in it thanks to Snowden's people." Nikki knew she was babbling but couldn't seem to stop herself.

  "Does this place have a washer and dryer?" Myra asked.

  "It does. One of those stackable apartment things. Why?"

  "Dry the Santa suit and beard and the elf suit. We might be needing them."

  "Okay. Do you want hot coffee, hot chocolate, or hot tea?"

  "Coffee, dear. Thank you."

  When Nikki made her way to the kitchen, she found the Sisters huddled up against the refrigerator. She waited until the swinging door settled into place before she spoke. "Myra said to dry the outfits, and she wants coffee."

  Isabelle pointed to the dryer, which was humming softly. She then pointed to the coffeepot.

  "What now?" Kathryn asked. "I haven't heard a word from Bert. It's like we're caught in a time warp, and there's no way out. There has to be a way to get in touch with the guys. Do any of you have any ideas?" She walked over to the window and looked out at the storm, which was blanketing everything in sight. "I don't mind telling you I'm worried. All of this," she said, pointing to the snow outside, "is beyond our control. I don't like it when we have no control. Way too many things can go wrong."

  "Shhh," Yoko said, her finger to her lips. "I'
m calling Maggie. The line just started working again."

  The silence in the kitchen was deafening as Yoko listened to Maggie's latest update. When she hung up the kitchen phone, she said, "She can't get anyone on the mountain. She can't reach Ted, Espinosa, or Harry and Jack, but she does know that Harry was with Jack, and Ted and Espinosa were on their way to her house to help with the arrival of the babies. But she said that was hours ago. She assumes they're in position. No news as to whether the babies arrived or not. She spoke to Bert a little while ago, and he's still in the Hoover Building. But he did make arrangements to have a snow truck with a plow break down in front of this building. That's how we get out of here, assuming we get out. That's it! She did want to know if Myra and Annie were okay. I said yes."

  As if to prove they were okay, Annie and Myra appeared in the doorway. Both women reached for the steaming coffee cups Isabelle was holding.

  "I see our supplies arrived," Annie said, motioning to the outer room.

  "Everything was here when we arrived. This is going to be one giant fiasco if Snowden's people don't find Baron Bell and Adel Newsom," Nikki said. "What time is it?"

  "It's after eight. And it's still snowing," Yoko said, her voice sounding ominous.

  Annie thought Yoko looked like someone who was holding a lit stick of dynamite with only an eighth of an inch to go before the explosion. "I think it will taper off soon, honey. Let's all just try to think positive. Have the two...uh...ladies tied to the dining-room table said anything?"

  "When we got here and they saw us, they were screaming and yelling, but once Snowden's men left, they clammed up and haven't said a word. Although they have been fixated on our supplies. They can't seem to take their eyes off that delicious-looking stuff," Kathryn said. "However, they only whisper to each other."

  "So at the moment we have no plan. Is that everyone's understanding?" Myra asked as she peeled a banana.

  "At the moment, Myra," Nikki said. "But you know things can turn on a dime in a heartbeat." As if to prove the truth of her words, the two surrogates screamed as the front door flew open and all hell broke loose as four snow-covered people stumbled into the room.