by Chula Stone
Tobin explained in a low tone, for Jeep’s ears only. “I asked for a cheerleader, but they were all busy, so this is what we got.”
Jeep raised his head to look. “What is it?” Jeep asked.
“It’s supposed to be a beaver.”
“It looks more like a mutant rat.”
“It’s a mascot. Who cares what it looks like as long as it puts on a good show?”
“Where did you…?”
“The owner of the Lancers is a friend of mine. There’s no hockey tonight so he was available.”
“You think it’s a guy in that suit?”
“Those suits are heavy. It would be hard to find a woman strong enough to do what he’s doing carrying that suit.”
“Would a guy wear a g-string and those tassle things?”
“Would a guy have a choice? Besides, who cares? We can’t see his face through that head thing. It could be Salk in there for all we know. Actually, that would be better. I don’t want any strangers this close to—”
There was a faint “fftt” sound and the lights went out. Everyone dove for the ground and there was a crash and a scramble as tables and chairs were overturned.
“Report!” Tobin shouted.
“Stay down. One hostile still moving.” It was the Sniper’s voice.
Tobin heard another shot fired and doors slamming.
Pepper’s voice sounded in the darkness, “This one is still live. I’ve got him subdued.”
Sniper again. “Open the kitchen door to let in some light. Make sure we’re secure, but I think all hostiles have been neutralized.”
Tobin looked cautiously around before standing to a half-crouch. More men died from cross-fire than from enemy fire. “Is that you, Pepper?” He looked over to see the mascot head rolling around on the floor.
“This beaver suit makes a dandy hostile-neutralizer, boss.”
“Let him up before he suffocates. We need to interrogate him before the cops get here.” He could hear the sirens wailing in the distance.
“What was the Sniper doing up there?” Jeep asked Tobin.
“He knew,” Tobin answered in a low tone. “He warned me and he was right.”
“But the courier! We caught him.”
“That was a feint to throw us off and make us less alert tonight. Sniper knew.”
“Sniper seems to know a lot, Mr. Tobin.” When Jeep used that tone of voice and called him ‘Mister,’ Tobin knew there was more to the message than just the words.
“I know,” Tobin answered. “And his knowledge saved our lives. This one was armed. I can see his gun when Pepper moves that beaver tail.”
Tobin watched as Jeep’s face registered recognition. “That’s Warty Quail. Known Van Dyke man.”
“The other one will turn out to be Van Dyke’s, too, unless I miss my guess.”
“So it’s finally over.” Jeep’s voice portrayed his relief to have this all over before the wedding.
“It seems so,” Tobin replied. He nodded to the Sniper as he left, not wanting to be around when the police showed up. He agreed with Jeep that at last, it was finally over, but he knew the Sniper would still be in the balcony at the church.
A gorgeous bride. An eager bridegroom. One beautiful day. Two well-meaning if off-beat ushers. Three florists vans. Four hundred guests. Five minutes to kick-off. And about a dozen butterflies swarming in Jenny’s stomach.
“You look lovely, darling,” her mother reassured her as they waited in the vestibule. “It’s not like you have to perform or anything. Just walk down the aisle and answer when the preacher asks you something. There’s nothing to it.”
“But all those people!” Jenny wailed.
“Our friends and family. They all love you and wish you well, darling.”
Had her mother not noticed that most of the attendees obviously had no idea who Jenny was? If Salk and Pepper hadn’t started by seating all the males on one side and all the females on the other, so that couples and families had to switch around to get back together, there would have been hardly anyone on the bride’s side at all. Of course, she had noticed. Everyone had noticed and had a great laugh out of the mayhem. But Nell Ann’s file, bulging at the seams, held its contents firmly. Her philosophy of “Ignore it and it will go away,” worked quite well with things like wedding problems, boring relatives…and teeth, for that matter.
“Yes, mother. Thank you. And thank you for all you’ve done.”
“It’s been no trouble at all,” she replied happily.
Jenny reflected that it indeed had not been much trouble for her mother. Jenny and Mr. Tobin’s event planner had spent the long hours arranging everything, bringing her mother in only for the final confirmations and signatures. Nell Ann wrote the checks and approved the choices. Jenny took care of all the actual work with the help of Mrs. Abernathy.
And it was paying off now. The church looked lovely. The guests filled the pews. And the line-backers in black suits faced the street at every door, their Glocks hidden under specially tailored jackets.
“Here, let’s take that tiara off and put it a bit further back,” Nell Ann suggested. “I think…“
“No!” Mrs. Abernathy exclaimed. “We already tried it and it’s set now. I sprayed it in. And there’s no time. Listen! That’s the organ.”
“I don’t hear it,” Nell Ann murmured.
“You will in a minute,” Mrs. Abernathy muttered quietly as she passed by Jenny on her way out the door. Jenny was grateful but wondered how Mrs. Abernathy knew that she was too nervous to change even the smallest detail about her hair or dress or anything by that point.
The strains of the organ filtered through to the vestibule forty-five seconds later.
And it seemed to Jenny about forty-five seconds after that, Jeep was escorting her back up the aisle.
She knew her father had to have walked her down the aisle. She knew she must have said her vows and exchanged rings with Jeep. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a ring on her finger now. And there was. A large, lovely ring. But she didn’t remember getting anything. She didn’t remember saying anything. It was all a big blur in her mind. A happy blur perhaps, but still a blur.
She didn’t notice much in the limo, either. Jeep kept her busy, kissing her.
“You’ll muss my hair,” she objected in a playful voice.
He kissed her again. “If you insist.”
“No, quit! There’s no room in here!”
“It’s a stretch limo. There’s about an acre of ground to use.”
“It’s still a car and something could happen to my dress.”
“I wish it would, so I would have an excuse to take it off you.”
“Jeep! We’ll be alone soon. Let’s enjoy the reception.”
“I’ll enjoy it better if we stop by the office first. It’s right on the way and we could use one of the dorm rooms to…”
“No time for that, Jeep. But that reminds me. We do need to stop by the office and get the gratuity envelopes from the petty cash drawer.”
“I thought Salk was supposed to take care of that.”
“You’d trust him with that much cash? When I found out who had the envelopes, I got them back from him and locked them up. Have the driver take us to the back courtyard. It will be faster and no one will see us stop.”
“No one will see us do this, either,” he muttered as he closed the sound-proof, opaque window between the driver and the passenger area.
“Jeep, wait!” Jenny squealed as Jeep quickly turned her over his knee and pushed her skirt out of the way. “We’ll be late.”
“You should have thought of that when you took the money away from Salk,” he chided as he swatted her upturned bottom. Hard and fast, he let her know how irritated he was with her, not only with his words, but with his hands as well. “This is just a reminder, but you’ll get much more of the same if you take matters into your own hands like that again.” He finished up quickly and she knew she was lucky there wasn’t a wooden
spoon around.
As she let herself into the office, she noticed a wedding gift sitting on the ice machine. Probably from Tobin, she thought. Probably for me and something completely embarrassing. I’ll have to take it with me and open it in private instead of leaving it with the other presents in the conference room. She rubbed her backside again ruefully. Just like Tobin to give them something like a paddle as a present. Jeep didn’t need any encouragement in that department! But it was too heavy for a paddle. Maybe it was a set of naughty books or something. She hid the present in the carry-all she had brought. Scuttling to the drawer, she retrieved what she needed and hurried back to the limo.
At the reception, people seemed not to have noticed their absence. They slid into place and waited for the receiving line ordeal to end. Then there were the toasts, the dances and the wonderful dinner before the party began to loosen up and people started to mingle and talk freely.
Jenny was scarcely surprised when Le Beau planted himself at the head table and proceeded to dominate the conversation. He flirted shamelessly with every woman in sight, but kept a running commentary on all the Sentry personnel particularly.
“Salk and Pepper! What will they think of next! And there’s Mr. Tobin, looking well with that lovely client. Good dancer, too. And the Sniper. Have you spotted him yet? He’s up among the rafters, I suppose. I see a bulge in one of the ceiling tiles and there’s a slight gap.”
Jenny gave him a concerned look. “Why should Sniper miss all the fun? The danger is over. We caught the courier. You know that, and so does he.”
“Caught the courier, yes, but he is a smart one, that Sniper. He listens to Le Beau. When Le Beau says follow the money, the Sniper follows the money.”
Jenny hated Le Beau’s habit of referring to himself in the third person. “Follow what money?”
“The building, of course. Of course, there is little use of him watching here. It is the office building that is in danger now.”
Tobin seated himself next to Le Beau. “What’s this about danger? This is a wedding. No shop-talk today. I want to know if you found my present, my dear.”
“Yes, sir, I did, but how did you know I would have to go back to the office?” she wondered.
“The office? I didn’t know you were going back there. I left the present on the seat of the limo.”
“Well, someone left us a present at the back door of the office.”
“Back door? What did this present look like?” Tobin asked.
Jenny wondered at the concern in his voice. “It’s here. Do you want me to get it?”
Tobin pointed to Jeep and Pepper, then to the door that led to the emergency exit, then jerked upward with his thumb. They stood and headed toward it without hesitation.
“What’s going on?” Jenny asked.
“No time for questions. Get me that present.” Tobin accompanied her to where she had stowed her bag in one of the corners. Under the ceiling tile that Le Beau had pointed out earlier, he said, “Sniper, the roof. Now.”
She quickened her pace, stooped to withdraw the present from her bag and handed it to Tobin, who turned without explanation.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
“No, you get everyone out to the courtyard.” He turned to the DJ and said in a loud voice, “Change of plans. We’re going to do the fireworks now. Everyone down to the courtyard. The best viewing area is taped off for you.” The crowd headed toward the door and Jenny watched Tobin work his way against the flow of people in the direction of the door that led to the roof. She wondered what was going on, but knew better than to disobey orders.
Up on the roof, Tobin handed the now-unwrapped present to Sniper. “This was left in the building today.” To the fireworks professionals, he said, “We’ll send for you when we get this cleared up. Get down with the others and keep your mouths shut.” They wasted no time in heading for the door.
Sniper hefted the box, feeling its weight. Opening it gingerly, he looked in, then gestured for Tobin to look. Even Tobin, with his limited military experience, knew what he was looking at.
“How long do we have? Time to call the bomb squad?”
“No, and this timer can’t be removed or stopped without setting the thing off.”
“What kind of damage are we talking about here?” Jeep wanted to know.
“Hard to tell, but it won’t do us any good, that’s for sure. All of you head downstairs. I’ll drop it from the roof and shoot it on the way down. That will minimize the damage.”
“But you’ll be too close when it goes off,” Jeep objected. “Just leave it on the roof and let’s go.”
“That might bring the building down.”
Tobin knew it was risky, but better one man get hurt than all of them. No one had the skills to take the shot but Sniper.
“Jenny will never forgive me if I let the Sniper get hurt.” Jeep’s voice let Tobin know there was no room for argument. “I’ll throw it. That will give you a little more distance,” he said to Sniper.
Pepper piped up. “Fireworks of a different sort.”
“Head out,” Sniper hissed, pushing Jeep toward the door on his way to taking the box to the side of the roof. “All of you!”
“Launcher,” insisted Pepper as he ran to the equipment set up for the fireworks. He selected what looked to Tobin like a skeet-shooting target thrower and removed some sort of package. Patting the now empty platform twice, he said, “Here. Should fit on this plate. Say ‘pull’ when you’re ready.”
By this time, Sniper had set the box on the small, flat surface, stood back and leveled his rifle.
It occurred to Tobin later that it would have been safer for them to get behind at least the fire door before trying this stunt. If Sniper had missed his first shot and had needed a second one, the box when it blew would have been dangerously close to them. The percussion could have burst their eardrums at the very least. What else it could have burst didn’t bear consideration. But at that moment, no one hesitated, nor did Sniper direct them again to leave. He looked Tobin in the eye, turned to sight where the box would go and said, “Pull.”
“That was some fireworks display,” Jenny declared as she rested her head on Jeep’s shoulder later.
“It was, indeed,” he agreed. The men on the roof hadn’t spoken about what had gone on.
“I still don’t understand why Tobin decided to start it so early.”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“The first one must have been a dud. We heard the bang, but no color or anything. Did you notice that?”
“Yeah, uh…I did. Must have been a trial run or something.”
“And, Jeep, what was in that package? Why was it so important?”
“Never mind about that package. Nothing for us to worry about.”
Jenny made the whining sound which Jeep found so endearing. “Well, will you at least tell me what Le Beau was talking about? What about the building.”
Wanting to get Jenny’s mind off the package, Jeep was happy to fill her in. “Le Beau was looking through old records. Stored with some of the financial statements were some really antiquated tax records. One thing led to another and he discovered that our office building used to be headquarters for a bootlegger.”
“Really? I thought it was a hotel?”
“That, too. It’s had several businesses in it and even at one time housed war offices.”
“So, what does that have to do with anything?”
“Le Beau is a history buff and happened to know that this bootlegger was famous for keeping large amounts of cash and gold. When he was caught, very little was found with him. Everyone assumed it was at his house or the arresting cops took it, something like that. But Le Beau thinks maybe somebody has other ideas and wants to search the building.”
“So the pictures? Why send pictures?”
“Can’t be sure, but Tobin thinks Van Dyke is trying to get him to move out of the building. Older buildings like that are
harder to secure. He wanted to hurt business enough to either make Tobin move to a more securable location or fold up.”
“Van Dyke must have been happy when Tobin closed.”
“And very frustrated when his first ploy didn’t work. Mrs. Abernathy dragged her feet on selling the building, but she had plenty of offers. We figure they were probably straw buyers for Van Dyke.”
While they talked, Jeep continued stroking her hair as it lay over her shoulder. Suddenly she realized that his fingers were stroking more than just her hair. “Watch those fingers, cowboy.”
“I am watching them. They’re wandering on a hill where the scenery is fine.”
“Jeep, we just…You can’t want to…”
“Wanna bet?” He showed her just what he could want and made her want it, too.
“So how are the honeymooners? And how was the honeymoon?” Le Beau asked as Jeep and Jenny entered the conference room two weeks later. “Let me kiss the bride one more time, for luck.”
Jeep stepped between Le Beau and his quarry, staring him down with the kind of scowl Jenny was glad Jeep never turned on her. “It was fine. My wife and I are fine.”
“Stand down, Jeep. Sit down, Le Beau.” Tobin didn’t sound angry but he didn’t sound patient, either.
“Wrapping things up still?” Jenny asked.
“Just a few loose ends,” Tobin answered. “For one thing, I want to announce that I am keeping Mr. Nearfin on as consultant. He’ll need an office but one that’s out of the way so he can move around unobserved if he wants to.”
“Near the alarm monitoring room should be good,” Mrs. Abernathy suggested.
“Speaking of alarm monitoring,” Tobin grinned, “they wanted me to ask you about some funny sounds they heard the day of the wedding.”
Jeep stiffened and Mrs. Abernathy suddenly seemed to find her fingernails very interesting.
“Sounds they heard? Why would I know anything about what the alarm monitoring people heard? I was a little busy getting married.” Jenny’s confusion showed in her face as well as her voice.