Once Upon a Spy (Humorous Cozy Mystery) (15 page)

Matt looked at his watch. Where the hell were those two? What could be taking them so long? He couldn’t help a ripple of worry to upset him. What could have happened to them? The team was in position. Two men at the back entrance, two men in the front, and the others scattered all around, with one sniper on the roof of the opposing building, keeping an eye on all comings and goings.

The house was quiet. Too quiet. Matt knew it well. He’d come here a couple of times to talk to Brian before the latter had signed up for ASS. A well-liked experienced field agent, Brian had come highly recommended. Even Kathleen herself had pre-approved his assignment. So what would he be doing with Grant? It just didn’t make any sense. On the other hand, if Brian was the mole, it would explain the leaks. Unless Grant himself was a triple agent? Matt quickly dismissed the thought. Grant was a scientist, not a spy. If he’d been selling out, Aaron would have caught him a long time ago.

He took out his phone, and placed a call to Yvonne. “Where the hell are you?”

“Hi, Matt. We’re right here. We’re checking out the garden house.”

What the hell? “The garden house? You mean to tell me you’re inside already?”

“Been here about ten minutes. Where are you guys?”

The woman was amazing. She’d arrived before they had and already was in position! “We’ve sealed off the premises. Do you have eyes on the target?”

“Affirmative. He’s standing right next to me. And he wants me to tell you he thinks you’re doing a great job.”

Matt ground his teeth. “Ask him where Grant is.”

“He says Grant’s in his tomb. Unless somebody decided to move him.”

This was clearly a code of some kind. Grant in his tomb? “You mean he’s dead?”

“That’s a definite yes, Matt. Been dead a long time.”

Dammit! The bastard had killed Grant and was taunting them. “He’s gonna pay for this, you tell him that.”

He heard her transmit the message to Brian, but couldn’t hear the response. “He says he’s paid enough already.”

Of course he did. “I’ve heard enough. Arrest him, V. And if he resists, you have my permission to use deadly force.”

“Arrest him? Um.… On what grounds?”

“Treason. Homicide. Terrorism. You name it. Throw the book at him.”

“Oh, all right, Matt. If you say so. But I don’t think he’ll be happy.”

What a woman. The man was a killer and a traitor of the worst kind, and still she felt predisposed to treat him with respect. He wished he had a dozen like her working for him.

Aaron, in full combat gear, came trotting up.

“What’s going on?”

“Yvonne and Izzy got him pinned down. They’re making the arrest.”

“Arrest? They nabbed him already? Damn, they’re good.”

A surge of pride coursed through Joe’s veins. “We better move in. Give them all the support they need. I can promise you, this man isn’t going to go down without a fight.”

Aaron relayed the information to his team, while Matt did the same with his men.

***

Yvonne clicked off her phone. “Matt says to arrest you, Mr. Whethers.”

“Huh? Could you repeat that, please, honey? Like I said, I’m a little hard of hearing.”

Izzy gave her a look of surprise. “Arrest him? This nice old man? Why?”

Yvonne shrugged. “Beats me. But orders are orders, I guess.” She gave Izzy a blank stare. “How do I do this?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re the one who watches all the cop shows. Isn’t there some sort of procedure or something?”

A thought wrinkle appeared on Izzy’s brow. “There’s a formula they always use. Something like ‘You have the right to remain silent,’ and, erm, ‘You have the right to an attorney.’ Yeah. That’s it. Just repeat that, and you’re good. Oh! And handcuffs! You have to cuff him, V.”

“I don’t have no handcuffs.”

“Maybe a piece of string will be fine.”

Yvonne turned to Mr. Whethers who stood looking at them with a confused expression on his wrinkled old face. Loudly, she said, “Do you have a piece of string, Mr. Whethers?”

“String? Sure. Sure. Wait. Let me get that for you.”

While the old man shuffled back to the house, Yvonne stared after him. “Such a nice man. I really don’t understand why we have to arrest him.”

“Me, neither. But I guess Matt knows what he’s doing, right?”

“I guess.”

She returned her gaze to the garden house. She was certain now that a missile or something had hit it, and exploded inside, blowing off the roof. Must have been a very small missile, though, or else the whole thing would have been obliterated. Judging from the point of impact, it must have come from… She whirled around, and found herself gazing into the garden next door. The floodlights were on on the porch, and she was surprised to find dozens of garden gnomes spread across the smooth turf.

“Look, Iz. More garden gnomes. Must be a real craze.”

“Yeah. Looks like.” She shivered. “They give me the creeps. Like some horror movie.”

Just then, there was a lot of shouting and screaming erupting from inside the neighboring house. Suddenly, the back door was thrown open, and a man came running out. Meanwhile, inside the house, it was as if someone had lit a dozen firecrackers simultaneously. Smoke and fire lit up the house.

The man, whoever he was, made a dash for it across the garden, and now came running in their direction!

And as he drew closer, Yvonne thought he looked oddly familiar. Flapping his arms and running full out, he was almost upon them when Yvonne directed the flashlight in his face. She gasped when she recognized him.

“Grant!”

Remembering how he’d almost gotten away from them that morning, she was determined not to allow this to happen a second time. Though she had a vague recollection this Grant guy was one of the good guys, you could never be too sure.

The moment the light flashed in his face, Grant cried out in surprise, then abruptly changed directions and tried to get past them.

“He’s getting away, Iz!”

“Oh, no, he isn’t!”

Izzy wasn’t very strong, but she sure was fast. Putting in a quick sprint, she’d caught up with the fleeing man in next to no time, and with a flying tackle, wrestled him to the ground. He tried kicking her, and when his foot connected, Izzy yelled out in pain and anguish. And he would have succeeded to get away if Yvonne hadn’t arrived on the scene, and with a loud grunt, threw herself on top of the man, squashing him like a bug.

When finally she rolled away, he didn’t move.

Izzy nursed the bruise on her back where the man’s foot had connected. “He dead?”

“I hope so.”

“Yvonne! Izzy!”

It was Matt, accompanied by a dozen other men, all dressed in black.

“We got the bastard,” she assured him, and pointed at the lifeless figure at her feet.

Matt turned him over on his back. “It’s Grant.” His face turned grim. “And he’s dead.”

Yvonne was surprised. She hadn’t hit him that hard. “I’m sorry, Matt. Sometimes I don’t know my own strength,” Yvonne began to say.

“He was shot.”

Just then, Marshall Whethers came pottering up from the house, waving a ball of twine above his head. “Officers Smiley and Sweetie! I’ve got the string!”

Immediately, ten special forces agents piled on top of the old man, pinning him to the ground. One agent came up for air, and announced proudly, “We’ve got him, sir! We’ve got the killer!” As they hoisted him up, Mr. Whethers didn’t look very happy. “If this is about the garbage,” he croaked, “I confess! I put batteries in the general trash! I won’t do it again! I promise!”

Yvonne shuffled up to Matt. “Um. I don’t think Mr. Whethers is our guy, Matt.”

Matt eyed her wearily. “I think you’re right, V.” To the men, he barked, “Let him go, boys.”

Aaron, Izzy and Frank had joined them, and they stared down at the body of Oswin Grant.

The man responsible for ASS and EYE was no more.

“We messed up.” The curt statement wasn’t contested by anyone. Matt gazed at the dozen faces in front of him. The ASS conference room was filled to capacity. Aaron had brought in his own team, as Kathleen had decided the ASS compound would now be headquartering both Matt and Aaron’s units.

“Any news on the killer?”

Matt shook his head. “None, Aaron. But rest assured we’re doing everything within our power to draw a bead on him.”

Aaron shifted in his seat. “I’m sorry to be so blunt, Matt, but this needs to be said. How is it possible that Brian Wright worked for you all this time, and you never once suspected him of foul play? I mean, you’re in charge of the most sophisticated piece of surveillance software ever built by man, and you couldn’t even see what your own guy was up to?” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I find that very hard to believe.”

Matt gritted his teeth. “The man had a built-in backdoor. You know this. Your scientist built it for him!”

Aaron flicked an imaginary piece of lint off his suit. “Still. You should have known. He was your guy.”

Frank piped up from the first row. “Let’s not get into a fight, you guys. We need to work together on this.”

There was approving murmur from the teams, and Aaron rolled his eyes. Whatever the man’s qualities, he was still a dick, Matt thought. He simply couldn’t imagine working with him on a daily basis. At least their joint effort had led them to the discovery that Brian Wright was their guy. After using Aaron’s backdoor, they’d managed to draw up satellite imagery, along with footage from one CCTV camera that clearly showed how Brian had escaped from the house moments before the team had arrived, dragging Grant along with him. The scientist had then made a run for it, and Brian had shot him. It still wasn’t clear how he’d managed to escape. It was as if he’d simply vanished into thin air after that, and he hadn’t popped back onto the grid since.

“I know this is hard for all of you. Most of us have worked with Brian for months, and others—like me—even years. We all valued him as a loyal and valued colleague. Now we need to change our perception of the man we considered a friend, and that’s hard. It’s hard for me, and hard for you. Still. He has betrayed our trust, and we need to figure out why he did what he did, and who he was working for all this time. But most of all, we need to pinpoint his exact location so we can retrieve him, and the secrets he stole. ASS and EYE cannot fall into the wrong hands. But I don’t think I need to remind you of that. So man your stations, help your new EYE colleagues settle in, and let’s make this work. Together, I’m sure we can catch our guy and make things right.”

***

All things considered, it was a great speech, and Yvonne felt the sudden urge to applaud Matt for it. Something told her this wasn’t the time or the place, though, so she sat quietly, and when the briefing was over, filed out of the conference room along with the others. But Joe’s voice held her back.

“Yvonne? Izzy? A word?”

The two women hung back, and when the room was emptied out, Matt closed the door. He folded his arms across his chest, and eyed them sternly. “Can you tell me why you were at the wrong address last night?”

Yvonne knew the answer to this one. Izzy had accidentally typed the wrong address into her GPS, something she was prone to do. It was also the reason they’d been picking up garbage in the wrong alley the first day they’d met Matt. She had the distinct impression confessing as much would look bad, so before Izzy could open her mouth, she quickly interjected, “We wanted to approach from the rear, in case Brian tried to make a run for it.”

Joe’s face revealed nothing. “If that’s true, then why didn’t you inform me? As team leader, I need to know at all times where my team members are, and what they’re up to.”

Yvonne displayed her best contrite face. “I’m sorry, Matt. We thought we—”

“We wanted to make a good impression, Matt,” piped up Izzy. “We’re still new, you see, and we wanted to impress you.”

“What Izzy said,” mumbled Yvonne, thinking it was pretty astute of her friend to come up with this on the spur of the moment.

Matt continued stern-faced, then he nodded. “Excellent thinking. But next time? Don’t leave me in the dark. Keep me appraised of your positions at all times during an operation, all right? We don’t need any loose cannons on our team, no matter how good you guys are.”

“Thanks, Matt.”

“We will, Matt.”

“Pity you didn’t catch Brian.” He stared off into the distance for a moment. “I don’t know
how
he got past us.”

“Maybe he had an alternative escape route?”

“He must have had, Izzy. But in spite of combing the grounds, we still haven’t found it. It’s a real mystery.”

“Just like when Grant disappeared from the hospital.”

“Exactly, V. We still don’t know how he managed that. It’s almost as if he simply disappeared into thin air. Which is physically impossible, of course.” He sighed. “And not only did we lose our best scientist, we also lost a great colleague. All in all, not our finest hour.”

Izzy displayed that innocent face again. “I still can’t believe Brian would betray his country. He seemed like such a nice old guy.”

Matt bridled. “Old? Brian wasn’t old. He was my age.”

“I thought he looked old. Sixty something, wasn’t he?”

“Sixty? Brian wasn’t a day over forty.”

“Oh? Weird. I thought he was almost retired.”

“It’s the gray hair,” Yvonne knew. “It made him look old.”

“Brian’s always been gray. He was gray when I met him ten years ago.”

“Like George Clooney. I think it’s sexy.” Yvonne threw a surreptitious glance at Joe’s dark hair. No, not a trace of gray. She wondered how he would look like with some streaks of gray. He’d probably be even sexier than he was now.

All this talk of gray hair seemed to irritate Matt, for he shook his head, and turned to leave. Then he remembered something. “We still on for tonight, V?”

Yvonne’s heart rejoiced. She’d figured with all the trouble going on, all dates were off. “You bet.”

He gave her a sly grin. “Pick you up eight.”

She couldn’t help but smile like a moron. “I’ll be ready.”

After what she perceived as a smoldering gaze, he turned and stalked out, leaving her simmering like one of her mother’s pot roasts on the stove.