Kathryn started to laugh and couldn’t stop. Gasping, she said, “This is just my opinion, but I think the guys are trying to give us what they think is a dose of our own medicine.” The others went off into peals of laughter as they gathered up the glasses and snack plates to carry them into the kitchen.
“Time for bed,” Annie said. “Good night, Gracie.” She snickered under her breath, knowing that none of them would understand the reference except Myra, who’d been a great fan of George Burns.
When the Sisters convened for breakfast the next morning, the pleasant aroma of soap, hair spray, and subtle perfume fought with the tantalizing aromas from what Charles was concocting. With all the chatter going on, it was obvious the Sisters were leaving Pinewood.
“Time for me to check in. Today, the last of Lizzie’s files has to be incorporated into our system. Alexis has her work cut out for her, so the sooner we get that out of the way, the sooner we can take over Lizzie’s ongoing cases,” Nikki said. Alexis agreed.
“I’m going to my office and work on the blueprints. I want to have something to show you, Annie, by the weekend,” Isabelle said.
“I’ll be in Vegas, so don’t rush on my account. I’m sure I will approve whatever you come up with. I think I’m going to leave tonight now that we’ve taken care of Mr. Anders. Charles can handle anything that comes up in regard to Miss Evans and whatever else is going on. You haven’t changed your mind about going, have you, Myra?”
“No, I can be packed in twenty minutes. I’m looking forward to the bells, whistles, and bright lights. We can be back here in four hours if you need us.”
“Well, since we’re splitting up, I think I’ll call the depot and hire on for a run,” Kathryn said as she fished a strip of bacon from the platter that Charles was holding out.
“Don’t forget to give me enough notice when you want me to take your slot machines in for repair.”
“I will, dear,” Annie said. “What do you have planned, Yoko?”
“A solid day’s work at the nursery. I have to put my order in for the autumn chrysanthemums. I’m actually late doing so. We need to stay in touch.”
Ever the worrier, Annie asked again if anyone had heard from Maggie. The Sisters shook their heads. “As long as you’re all going back into the District, someone should stop and check on her.”
“I can do that,” Nikki said.
“And no one has heard from the boys, is that right?” Myra said. Again the Sisters shook their heads. Her face puckering with worry, she looked over at Charles and asked him if anyone had checked in after receiving Virgil Anders’s manuscript.
“No one has checked in, Myra. I thought it a little strange myself.” He expertly flipped pancakes, his expression so neutral that Myra felt compelled to say, “Do you know something you haven’t shared with us, by any chance?”
“No, dear.” He held out a plate that Myra reached for.
Eating in the kitchen meant the Sisters didn’t have to obey Charles’s rule of not discussing business while dining. “What do you think that means?” Isabelle asked.
Kathryn grinned. “Boys being boys would be my guess. I’m not worried about them, but I am concerned about Maggie.” She looked down at her plate and handed it over to Charles to refill with his airy buttermilk pancakes.
“What are the boys going to do once they’re finished with Lizzie’s office?” Annie asked.
“I think that’s part of the problem. Speaking for Jack, he doesn’t know what he wants to do. He could go back to his old office, they want him, but he’s dragging his feet,” Nikki said.
“Bert has been talking about opening his own office, but I think it’s just talk. He’s like Jack; he doesn’t quite know where he fits these days,” Kathryn said.
“Harry’s fine,” Yoko said. “He’s acting normal. Well, normal for Harry. He hasn’t said anything to me at all about the boys. Normally, he tells me everything. Maybe they all need an assignment from us, something for them to sink their teeth into.”
“I can’t worry about that now, I want to get on the road and back to the office. It’s going to be a busy day. Alexis, are you ready?” Nikki asked.
“I’ll be right behind you. The only thing left for me to do is oversee the cleaning crew I hired to come in this morning to shampoo the carpets and clean the windows, that kind of thing. I want the offices to smell nice and fresh when the new lawyers take over. After that’s done, I’ll take my things to the office and set up shop.”
“Bye, everyone. Sorry to leave you with the cleanup,” Isabelle said as she reached for her bag, which had several rolls of blueprints sticking out of it.
Yoko hugged Myra and Annie, then Charles. “I’m sorry about not helping with the cleanup. I’ll call when I get to the nursery.”
Kathryn was the last to gather up her things. She whistled for Murphy, who was lost without Grady. He barked at the door and pawed it to get out. Kathryn whistled again, and he settled down.
Lady and her four rambunctious pups yipped and yelped as they realized all their friends were leaving them. “They’ll be back,” Myra said soothingly. She handed out bits of bacon to appease the dogs.
“We’ll clean up. Charles, go along to your lair,” Annie said, opening the dishwasher in preparation to loading it.
When Charles was out of sight, and the dogs were romping in the yard, Myra looked at Annie, and said, “Is there a reason why you volunteered to have us clean up this mess?”
“Shame on you, Myra. The girls were in a hurry to get back to town; they do have lives, you know. Charles cooked. Who does that leave but us? I wish you would stop thinking everything I do is devious.”
“You are devious, Annie. Admit it!”
“And you aren’t?” Annie sniped.
Myra knew she could never win an argument with Annie. She threw her hands into the air. “Now, why are we cleaning up the kitchen? What do you want to talk about?”
“Maggie. I’m worried about Maggie. She has never ever not returned my phone calls. The moment I got up this morning, I went online to read the Post. There wasn’t a word in the paper about any of this. She had the information at noon yesterday. That was more than enough time to put some kind of teaser in the paper, but I didn’t see anything. That’s why I’m worried. Maggie never sloughs anything off if the order comes from me.”
“What do you think it is?” Myra asked as she dropped two tablets into the dishwasher.
“That’s just it, Myra, I don’t know. Maggie has always been like an open book. I would like to know what it is if we’re going through with our plans to leave for Las Vegas this evening.”
Myra opened the door for Lady and her pups to come back indoors. “I think, Annie, we should go ahead with our plans. Nikki will ferret out whatever is wrong. I’m sure of it.”
“I hope you’re right. What time do you want to leave? I have to call the pilot to get the plane ready.”
“How does eight o’clock sound? We’ll get there for the shank of the evening with the time change. Who knows, tonight might be our lucky night, and we’ll take Babylon for a pokeful of money.”
“Keep dreaming, Myra. Keep dreaming.”
Chapter 18
Nikki breezed into Maggie’s office and flopped down on the chair facing the EIC of the Post. “Hey, how’s it going, Maggie? We missed you out at the farm. I volunteered to stop by and see if anything was wrong when you didn’t respond to any of our texts and phone calls. Is something wrong, Maggie? You look terrible, so I guess I just answered my own question. You want to talk about it?” It was all said in one long, breathless outburst.
Maggie leaned forward and pointed to her desk drawer, which she opened. Nikki stared down at Maggie’s emerald-cut engagement ring nestled among a slew of candy wrappers. Her eyebrows shot upward. “Ah, man trouble. Join the club, girlfriend. What happened?”
“I haven’t been sleeping, hence the dark circles under my eyes. Worse yet, I’ve lost my appetite. I feel like I’m
going to wither away to the bone. I don’t know if I want to be engaged, and I don’t know if I want to get married. To Ted.”
After a moment of utter silence, Maggie shook her head once, and said, “Anyway, I’m too young to be Mrs. Robinson.”
“Ahhh.”
“There’s a little more to it than that, of course. Can you love two people, Nikki?”
“Sure. But that’s when it gets tricky. I’ve seen all the movies, so have you. You have to ask yourself which one of those loves you can’t live without. Did you ask yourself that question?”
“I did. I didn’t come up with an answer. I’m thinking of kicking both of them to the curb, resigning, and taking a road trip out West to get my head on straight.”
“Do you think that will work?”
“No,” Maggie blurted. “My problem is I’m a know-it-all. But in all fairness to myself, I usually am ahead of the curve and two jumps ahead of both guys. It’s not that I am impressed with myself. Well, I am, a little bit, but they let me get away with it. Take Ted. He lets me walk all over him. If I say jump, he says, how high? I have to constantly keep testing him to make sure he lives up to his potential, or he slacks off. He really is the best of the best, and we’ve been together a long, long time. Plus, I love his cats, and they love me. The sex is spectacular, but there is more to life than sex. I can’t even remember how or why we got engaged. I guess it seemed like the thing to do at the time. And I hate these damn acrylic fingernails that I have to keep up with to show off the ring.”
“Aaaahhh.”
“Then there’s Abner, who has never, ever failed me. Ted hasn’t failed me, either, but with Abner it’s different. In case you don’t know, Abner is my snitch and my hacker. He has bailed us out so many times, I’ve lost count. He charges outrageous sums of money for what he does, but it isn’t the money with him. It’s kind of how he courts me. He looks for the most part like the bad end of a well-used mop, but then so does Ted. They’re both into grunge for some reason. Maybe it’s a guy thing. I don’t know. Right now, as we speak, Abner and his crew are trying to hack into the Witness Protection Program. If he gets caught, he’ll go away for, like, forever. I had to browbeat him, challenge his expertise before he would agree to do it. Never mind how much Annie is paying him and his crew for the job. We already made a payment.
“He was all dressed up that day, Nikki. Nice summer suit, fresh haircut; he smelled all citrusy, and his shoes were polished. He looked like Brad Pitt only better. I thought my heart was going to bang right out of my chest. We got into it, and he said he loved me, had always loved me, and I knew … know that, Nikki, and still I kept baiting him. He pretty much told me to kiss off, this finished us, never to call him again. He’s said that before but he didn’t mean it. He meant it this time. And before you can ask, we have never had sex, but I have sure dreamed about what it would be like.
“When he walked out of here, I knew he meant every word he said. He just looked like I killed him, and he had yet to lie down. When he left, I sat here and cried for hours. That’s when I took off my ring, and I haven’t put it back on since.”
“Aaaahhh.”
“What if he gets caught, Nikki? You don’t mess around with those federal marshals. No one has ever penetrated the WPP. Nor have they ever lost a person they put into the program. God, I didn’t have all that much to give him to begin with. Just a woman and her daughter whose last name was originally Jellicoe. What if I was wrong and I have him doing all this for nothing and he gets caught. I’ll just die, Nikki, I’ll simply die.” Maggie continued to boo-hoo.
“But you say you’re never wrong, Maggie. Either you believe in yourself or you don’t. Why are you second-guessing yourself now? Don’t do that, don’t go there. You’re upset because you can’t decide whom you love right now. Look it square in the face and own up to it. Work from that point on.”
“What if he gets caught, Nikki?”
“It’s a little late for what-ifs. As you said, it’s happening right now. If something goes awry, we call in Lizzie. Lizzie, my firm, and anyone else we can call on will be on board. Do you think he’ll succeed in finding Jellicoe’s long-lost wife and daughter?”
Maggie swiped at her eyes. “If they’re in the program, Abner will find them. That’s a guarantee.” Fresh tears ran down her cheeks. “I’ll never see him again. I’ll never know if he’s the one or Ted is the one.”
Nikki got up off her chair and walked around to hug Maggie. “True love always finds a way, believe it or not. Same principle as that old ditty that the truth will set you free. There is every possibility that when you walk out of this building, you might bump into some stranger who turns out to be that one true love. You have to be open to everything. And, Maggie, you have to be honest with Ted and Abner, but most of all you have to be honest with yourself. If you can do that, whatever happens, you will be able to handle it.”
Maggie nodded tearfully. “How’s things with you and Jack?”
“A bit rocky, but we’re working on it. Now tell me, what did you think of the book we got from Virgil Anders?”
Maggie swiped at her eyes again as she rummaged on her desk for what she wanted. She finally came up with a piece of paper with what looked like a hundred scrawled notes on it. “Since I couldn’t sleep, I worked on this last night. I’m running it in tomorrow’s paper on our book page. Big headline. ‘Best-Seller to Rock Alphabet City. Writer Is Anonymous.’ For now.
“If Hank Jellicoe is within our distribution area, he’s going to see it and make his move. Hey, if nothing else, all those damn agencies are going to go nuts.”
“Now you sound like the old Maggie I know and love. Good going. You really should call out to the farm. Everyone is worried about you. By the way, Annie and Myra are planning to leave for Las Vegas this evening. You might want to check in and tell them to fly safe. Annie’s big on that, as you well know.”
“I will. Come on, I’ll walk you to the elevator. Thanks, Nikki.”
Nikki grinned. “For what? All we did was have a little girl talk.”
“Easy for you to say. I owe you for this one.”
“Okay, I’ll collect one of these days.”
Back in her office, Maggie managed to while away her time until she saw Ted settle down at his desk and turn on his computer. When she looked up again, Espinosa was doing the same thing. She waited until Ted looked in her direction. She took a long, deep breath and motioned him to come to her office. Espinosa pointed to himself, and Maggie shook her head.
“Close the door, Ted,” Maggie said quietly.
“What did I do now?” Ted asked as he hopped from one foot to the other.
“You didn’t do anything, Ted. Why do you always ask me that when I want to talk to you?”
“Well, duh. Because at these little meetings you always rag my ass. So, what is it this time? What didn’t I do to your satisfaction?” Maggie’s stomach turned sour at the expression on Ted’s face.
Maggie took another deep breath. “I don’t want you to say anything until I finish what I have to say. I’m sorry, Ted. It’s not you, it’s me. I mean that. I want to apologize to you for … for so many things. I don’t want to be engaged. I don’t want to get married. I’m … I’m just not ready for that kind of commitment. I don’t know if I ever will be. I do love you. At least I think I do. Don’t look at me like that. I’m trying to be honest here. I just feel … all twisted and frazzled and I can’t eat or sleep.
“What… what I’m trying to do right now until I can get a fix on things is to simplify my life. To pick out the areas that appear to be giving me the most angst and deal with them until I know which direction I want to go in. Just so we’re clear on this, from this point on, we’re friends. I don’t know right this minute if that means friends with benefits or not.”
Ted closed his mouth and stared at Maggie. He didn’t say a word when she held up her hand to show it was minus the ring. She reached into the drawer and took it out and handed it to
Ted. “What you do with it is up to you, Ted. I can’t give you any guarantees that I will ever ask for it back. Okay, you can say something now.”
Ted fought a head rush. Now that he was officially off the marriage hook he didn’t know what he felt. “So we are officially unengaged but will maybe or maybe not be friends with benefits, which means maybe or maybe not there will be sex? Do I have that right?” he said, rubbing the ring between his fingers.
He was momentarily stunned at how cold the diamond felt in his hand. For some reason he thought the beautiful stone should feel warm and full of fire since diamonds were supposed to be a girl’s best friend and a guy’s route to the poorhouse.
“Yes, that’s what it means,” Maggie managed to say.
Ted opted for the high road. When in crisis, never let them see you sweat. He tried for a light tone and was surprised when he pulled it off. “Okay.” He suddenly felt so relieved he had another head rush. “You got my assignment sheet?”
“Right here,” Maggie said, handing the assignment sheet over. “Espinosa is with you for the day.”
Still tripping on the high road, Ted grinned and realized he wasn’t forcing it. “See ya.”
Maggie blinked, then blinked again. “Well, he took the wind out of your sails, now, didn’t he, Maggie? I should feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders,” she continued to mutter to herself. “Crap!” she said succinctly.
Maggie slid her feet out of her sneakers, fumbled under her desk for her heels, and put them on as she dialed Pinewood, spoke hesitantly at first, then more forcefully with Annie. Her sigh was so loud when she powered down after the call that she thought it could be heard all the way out to the street. The truth will set you free. Yeah, right. Then why wasn’t she feeling free?
Backpack in place, Maggie marched toward the door. She offered up a sloppy salute to her office as she made her way to the elevator, Ted’s and Espinosa’s eyes glued to her back. She pretended not to notice.
“Abner Tookus, here I come, like it or not.”
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