Monahan 02 Artificial Intentions (35 page)

I offered Kelly my chair and pointed at the message, leaving it unopened so he could see the subject line. He sat down, pulled his notebook out of his jacket pocket and made a few notes as he peered at the computer screen. He finally reached for the mouse and clicked on the message, opening it.

“Where’s your printer?” he asked and clicked on the little printer icon at the top of the page.

“At Carrie’s desk,” I told him and headed to the outer office to pick up the printed copy. When I came back in the office he was on the phone, talking quietly. I sat in one of the guest chairs in front of my desk and waited for him. Again, my thoughts took me to that angry place where I cursed Tommy. Which on reflection was a waste of time. Cursing Tommy, poor Tom, wasn’t getting me any closer to finding out who and what caused this shit storm.

Kelly and I didn’t talk on our elevator ride to the lobby and I could literally feel heat emanating from him. The car was waiting by the curb outside the building but before we crossed the sidewalk to it, I grabbed Kelly’s arm.

“Why are you so pissed off?” There was no mistaking that the heat coming from him was anger.

“I’m not pis… angry,” he told me. I noted that like most old-style military guys, he didn’t use ‘foul’ words in front of the opposite sex.

“Well, you could have fooled me.”

“Let’s get you home and settled,” he said in his calm southern drawl, and tried to take me by the arm and lead me to the car. I shook off his hand.

“Home? And settled? What do you think I am? An invalid? Or a doddering old fool? Don’t you patronize me!” Now the heat was coming off of me.

Kelly stood quietly in front of me, while I ranted, with his hands clasped in front of him. He didn’t say anything. Passive aggressive son-of-a-bitch! I stormed over to the car and grabbed the handle on the back door. Which only caused me to break a fingernail because the back door was locked. So I kicked the bottom of the door, just like a spoiled fourteen year old brat. Embarrassed now by my behaviour, I took a deep breath and turned around to find Kelly standing close by.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “But I can’t stand being patronized and treated like a child,” I told him. To give him credit, he’d only really known me for a few days, so it was likely he hadn’t caught on to Kate’s quirks and temperament.

“Listen,” he said. “I’m sorry if that came across as patronizing. It wasn’t meant to be. But I’m worried about your safety. And that email has me as jumpy as spit on a hot skillet.” That made me smile a little. “I’m worried about your safety and worried about the investigation. That’s why I’m handing you over to a team of guards. They’ll be with you twenty-four seven.” That didn’t make me smile.

“Day and night? Is that really necessary?”

“Do you want me on the case?”

I nodded.

“Then ma’am, we do it my way.”

With that, he opened the back door of the sedan, and we both slid in the back seat. I was surprised to see two guys up front, neither of whom was Lou.

“Lou’s taking a few days off,” Kelly reminded me. “Meet some of the members of your new team.”

From behind they looked like scary statues. Both had wide, muscular shoulders, and their hair was buzzed short, military style. Both had earphones jammed into their right ears with a curly cord snaking down the back of their neck and disappearing out of sight. Both were wearing aviator-style sunglasses and when they turned around in their seats to meet me, I could see my reflection in their sunglasses.

I smiled at them even though their presence made me nervous. “You guys look like commandos,” I joked. Neither of them smiled at that and the one in the passenger seat said, “Pleased to meet you ma’am.” The one in the driver’s seat put the car in gear and we drove off.

chapter fifty

Kelly and Jay had their heads together at the dining room table, planning out exactly what they needed to do to put a trace on the email.

“Hey, we’re a high tech company. I know we’ve got a few geeks on the payroll. Why don’t we use one of them to help us figure this out?” I offered.

“That’s absolutely true, ma’am, but I have a little-bitty problem with that plan. I’m not sure who we can trust at this point.”

“Well,” Jay said. “We’re going to have to pick one person to trust, because you’ll need to get into the email system at Phoenix and I’m guessing that the only way to do that would be with a Phoenix employee.”

I left them to figure it all out and wandered into the kitchen to make some lunch and some coffee. The Navy Seal sitting at the round table in the kitchen startled me. I had forgotten about him.

“Making yourself at home?” He sat as still as a stone statue and nodded his head, mutely. I pulled out a chair and sat across the table from him.

“Do you do this often?” I asked him.

“Often enough, ma’am.”

Ah, definitely military. Being called ma’am makes me feel as old as Methuselah.

“Ex-military?” I asked rhetorically. Anything to get a conversation going. I figured him to be in his mid-thirties, but with his hair cut so short, he looked about fifteen.

“Yes ma’am. Retired last year.”

I laughed and he looked a little confused.

“Sorry. I wasn’t laughing at you,” I said by way of explanation. “It just sounds so funny, coming from someone as young as you to be saying you’re retired.”

He nodded. “I guess. Had twenty years in. Thought I’d get out while the gettin’ was good.” And then he smiled, and that made him a little more human.

“What’s your first name again?”

“Chris.”

“Well, Chris, welcome to my home. Make yourself comfortable. Help yourself to anything you need. I mean it.” I leaned over the table and pointed at the earplug in his ear. “Were you a Navy Seal?”

“No ma’am. Marine Corps. Military police. I worked with Mr. Northland for years.”

“Can I interest you in some coffee?”

“Maybe in a bit, ma’am. I was waiting for Mr. Northland so we can do a perimeter check.”

Jesus, this was sounding like being back home with my dad.

While Chris and Kelly secured the perimeter, whatever the hell that meant because there were only three entrances to the apartment - not counting the balcony - and seriously that was fourteen floors up - Jay and I ate some lunch at the counter in the kitchen. That’s when he told me.

“I have to go to Toronto. I’ll be gone a couple of days. I know it’s not a good time, but I couldn’t very well argue with them.”

True. Jay was in a job that he was thankful to have. After the mess with our previous employer when Jay was fired, he was grateful for his job and he worked hard at it. There was little I could do or say except let him know it was okay.

“It’s okay. Really. And don’t worry about what’s going on here. Apparently I now have trained commandos at my beck and call, watching over me. When are you leaving?”

His flight was in the morning. We decided to spend the rest of the day together, not talking or thinking about Phoenix Technologies or Tommy, or anything related to either of them. It was easier said than done, though, especially with Chris trailing two feet behind us at the Wildlife Centre and the Central Park Zoo. The zoo was quaint and overcrowded with lots of moms and dads and screaming, squealing little kids.

“What do you suppose the protocol is,” I asked Jay, “if we stop for an ice cream? Do we offer Chris one? Are we supposed to ignore him, pretend he’s not there?”

Jay wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me close to him, in an uncharacteristic public embrace. “Ignore him, pay attention to me,” he whispered into my ear. Which was easier said than done. Especially with Chris the bodyguard hovering nearby and a family of four staring at us.

Jay’s flight was early the next morning and I didn’t hear him leave for the airport. It took me a few seconds to remember that I was by myself in the large, king size bed and when I realized that Jay was gone, I moved over to his side of the bed and wrapped the duvet around me. I hugged his pillow and breathed in his scent. Being with Jay and living with him felt right - as corny as that sounded - and I tried to recall if I had ever felt so content. We had only shared this apartment for a week but we were already acting like a couple who had been together forever. It was strange being alone in the apartment but I relished the thought. As much as I wanted - and needed - to share my life and share my living space with Jay, being alone at times and having my space was important too. Living alone for most of my adult life had made me self-sufficient and self-reliant. And just because I had lived alone didn’t mean I was a lonely person.

The digital clock on the beside table told me it was only 7:19. I kicked off the duvet and stretched and started making a mental list of things I would do today. There was laundry to be done. Some personal phone calls to make. I owed my parents a call and I hadn’t spoken with my brother in over a week. I thought about going out and exploring the neighbourhood. Scout out the local grocery stores. See if I could find a newsstand that sold The Toronto Star, my favourite Sunday newspaper. I wiggled my toes and smiled in anticipation of the perfect day ahead of me.

The smile didn’t last long though when the phone rang and I heard Kelly’s drawl. As usual, I was avoiding the unpleasant and had not even thought about Phoenix in the five minutes I had been awake.

“Morning, ma’am.”

“Kelly. How are you today?” The last thing I wanted to do today was deal with company shit. I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed.

“Not so good. I’d like to give you a briefing. We’ve had some developments over night and I need to bring you up to speed.”

Kelly’s developments were no doubt bad news.

“Where are you?”

“Outside your building.”

“I’ll buzz you up and you can make the coffee while I take a shower.”

“Yes ma’am.”

I wanted to crawl back under the duvet but instead I threw on some sweats and a T-shirt and waited at the front door for my daily dose of crap to be delivered.

Kelly placed a steaming mug of coffee in front of me when I climbed up on the stool at the kitchen bar. He had spent plenty of time in the apartment the last forty-eight hours and knew his way around the kitchen. It felt familiar, sitting at the bar with a coffee but Kelly was standing where Jay usually did - on the other side.

“Help yourself to some food, if you like,” I offered.

Kelly shook his head. “Not hungry.”

I agreed. I’d lost my appetite when the phone rang twenty minutes ago.

“So, Staff Sergeant,” I gently teased him. He looked so damn serious all the time. “What’s going on?”

“Well, for starters, we’ve lost touch with our guy on the ground in Flagstaff.”

“What’s his name? Jerry?”

“Right. Jerry Rigley. We haven’t heard from him since Friday night.”

Fuck.

“He was supposed to be checking out those addresses for Natalie and Ben. What happened with that? Is he the type of guy to stop calling in?”

“No,” Kelly said. “He’s usually very reliable. Most of my guys are.” Kelly’s face was grim - more so than usual.

“You said ‘my guys’, Kelly. Is he one of our employees? Should I be thinking the worst?”

“No,” Kelly said. He reached his hand across the counter, as if to touch me, but he pulled it back quickly. “No, he’s not an employee. He’s just one of my guys.” Kelly sipped at his coffee.

“How so?”

“One of the guys in my network. There’re dozens of us. We all knew each other in the military, in one capacity or the other. We’re all retired now and a lot of the guys freelance. They do contract security work. I needed someone to investigate in Flagstaff, so I called up one of my guys.”

“My escort yesterday, Chris, and the gentleman driving? Your guys?”

Kelly nodded. “Of course. It’s all about trust. When you serve in the military and see some action, you trust the guys who have your back. We’ve all stayed in touch and we all help each other out, from time to time.”

“So, not hearing from Jerry is unlike him?”

“Very.” Kelly put his empty coffee mug in the dishwasher. What a good man.

“Frankly, it’s totally unlike him. He did call me later Friday afternoon and let me know that he was still working on tracking down some individuals who might have known those two out in Flagstaff. That was the last contact. He’s not answering his cell phone. We checked all the motels and hotels and he hasn’t registered at one of those.”

“Does he have family that he might have called?”

“Just his mom and dad, and when I spoke with them last night, they said they haven’t heard from him in while.” Kelly put both hands on the counter top and leaned forward a bit. “That’s just one of the things we needed to talk about,” he informed me.

“There’s more?” I shook my head. “Jesus Christ, Kelly, what the hell is going on?” I slid off the stool and rummaged through my purse that was sitting on the counter. “That poor man’s parents must be worried sick. He’s out doing work for us and he disappears and you’re standing here, all business, not worried at all.” I found my pack of cigarettes and greedily lit one. “Just standing there, listing off the bad news, as if you’re reading a newscast.” That was nasty, and I knew it as soon as I said it. “Sorry,” I quickly offered. I had to stop acting like a spoiled child.

“Fine,” he said in a low voice. “But please keep in mind that one of the reasons I’m good at what I do is I try to keep it
all business
. But don’t think for one minute that this is just business for me. I’m a professional but I care about the people I work with. Jerry’s a friend. Yeah, I’m worried. But Jerry’s a big boy. He’s been known to be able to look after himself. Do you see me screaming and crying and making a huge fuss about it? No. ‘Cause I’m all business. And I’ll find him.”

I felt chagrined and looked down at my feet. When was I going to learn to keep my trap shut?

“I’m sorry,” I told him again. “I didn’t mean to imply that you didn’t care.” He nodded in acknowledgement of my lame apology.

“What’re we doing to try and find him?”

“Two guys drove up from Phoenix yesterday afternoon. They haven’t found him yet. I’m expecting to hear from them this morning.”