Protecting Lulu (Global Protection Agency) (31 page)

Lulu
tried to wrap her mind around what Noah was saying. “Why did you go to see this
woman?”

He
hesitated before saying, “We were checking Jake’s alibi for the day the car
tried to run you down.”

“Jake’s
a suspect?”
Not Jake. He would never hurt her.

“Was
a suspect. He’s in the clear.”

“Jake
is the nicest man in the world. I’m appalled you considered him a suspect.” She
was a good enough judge of character to know Jake.

“We’ve
had this discussion. Everybody is a suspect until proven otherwise.” His voice
was hard and a little angry. But then he always seemed to be temperamental
around her.

“So
you checked out the alibi. What was she like?” Lulu could hardly contain her
curiosity.

“I
just told you she looks like you, acts like you, dresses like you. She’s a fake
you. She’s made a career out of being you. Most of her clients pay her to be
Lulu Bennington for a night. She does very well pretending to be you.”

“I
wonder if she would come on the show and let me interview her.”

“That’s
bizarre. This woman pretends to be you and you want to interview her?”

“I
have known this fact for a long time, but this is living breathing proof that
I’m right. Men like to look at models, but when they go home they want
something soft and comfortable in their bed. The fact that these men want a
duplicate of me is flattering. It means my marketing campaign is working.” But
who would have thought a prostitute would choose to be her.

“I
don’t understand.”

“I
sell glamour, luxury, and sensuality. It’s classy, but comfortable.” She
reached for a pen and paper to make a note. She couldn’t wait to tell Aiden
about Daphne. They had to step up the campaign. Men were buying her. They were
buying into her philosophy.

“You’re
thrilled about Daphne selling you, aren’t you?”

“I’m
delighted Jake isn’t trying to kill me. I’m thrilled I have a misplaced twin who
has created her own business empire based on her own natural gifts.”

“Which
is against the law,” Noah retorted.

“That’s
just a technicality.” She waved her hand airily. She needed to contact this
woman. The more she thought about it, the more she loved the idea of a woman
selling sex pretending to be her. “I must have her on the show. Can you contact
her?”

“You’ll
have to pay her. She won’t do your show for free.”

“How
much does she charge an hour?”

“You
are too fascinated by this.”

“You
didn’t answer my question.”

“She
charges $3,000 an hour for her services, $30,000 for the whole weekend, and $7,500
for an evening.”

Lulu
was shocked. “Jake pays her $30,000 for a whole weekend, when he had me for
free.” Maybe she should have been charging for her services as well. She tilted
her head toward him. “Would you pay me that much for a weekend?”

He
studied her for a moment then leaned forward. “I’d pay you every dime I had.”

Lulu
felt heat build on her cheeks. She was the first to break eye contact. “You
have to contact her and tell her what I want.”

“She
might think I want to cash in on the freebie she offered.”

“She
offered you a freebie!” Lulu leaped off the sofa. “Oh, hell no. Once this is
over you’ll have the real deal, Mr. Callahan.” She leaned over and grabbed his
tie and pulled him up. She planted her lips on his, not caring about his desire
to keep things professional. He slid his arms around her. She felt the heat of
his body against her. He smelled of soap and aftershave with an undertone of
woodsy musk. Her mouth opened, his breath against her skin. A second later the
door opened.

“Oh
look,” Aiden cried. “Mommy and daddy sex. Can’t you two keep your hands off
each other?”

Lulu
and Noah pulled away. Noah sat trying to look relaxed. Lulu simply smiled as she
stood and straightened her jacket.

Noah
headed out of Lulu’s office.

“We
have something you need to see,” Mark said.

Noah
stopped. “What?”

Mark
continued. “Aiden and I found something on the security tapes.”

The
conference room was in a state of ordered chaos. Open laptops sat around the
table. Files piled high had been bunched toward the middle with papers spread
about. Lulu shuddered. She liked order in her life and seeing the mess made her
fingers twitch with anxiety and the need to straighten the piles.

Mark
directed Noah to sit down at one of the laptops then he touched a key and the
screen sprang to life.

“What
am I looking at?” Noah asked.

Lulu
leaned over his shoulder watching the tape. She saw herself sitting on the
stage surrounded by stage hands. One measured the light, another positioned a
camera, and a third twitched the throw rug into position beneath her feet.

“There.”
Mark pointed.

Lulu
followed the line of the Mark’s black-painted fingernail. “I see a stage hand.”

“Yeah,
you do.” Mark pulled the CD out of the holder and put another one in. He fast
forwarded to another part of the studio, showing the catwalk above the stage
and several stage hands on it. “Just watch.”

Lulu
saw the same stagehand and again when Mark exchanged the CD for another one and
then another. Each time the stagehand was visible doing something. Something
she wasn’t certain he was supposed to do. She knew everyone on the sound stage
and their jobs, but this man was busy doing everything.

“Explain
it to me,” Noah ordered.

“That’s
Benny,” Aiden said.

“Isn’t
he employed here?” Noah leaned forward to peer more closely at the monitor.

“We’ve
been watching the security footage, and while I didn’t think anything of it, Aiden
noticed Benny McCall is all over the place.”

“He’s
a stagehand,” Noah said. “Isn’t he supposed to be all over the place?”

“Bennington’s
is union. On one CD, Benny is working the overhead lights, which is a union
job. And then he’s on the stage fussing with the camera, and then we have him stringing
electrical wire—another union job. He can’t do that. Each job is union,” Aiden
said, “I checked his employment records and Benny McCall isn’t union. He was
hired as a floater for non-union jobs. Someone calls in sick and Benny fills in
on the phones, or in reception, or in the mail room. He can’t string electrical
cords, or change light bulbs.”

Noah
nodded in understanding. “I remember him from the envelope incident. I talked
to him and dismissed him since everything he said checked out.” He stared at
the laptop screen. “Can anyone pinpoint where he was the day the light bar fell
on the stage?”

“No,”
Aiden said. “I checked his time cards and he wasn’t scheduled to work that
day.”

“That
doesn’t mean he wasn’t here.” Noah frowned at the image of Benny coiling electrical
cord, acting like he knew what he was doing. “Did you check with the stage
manager?”

“Yeah,
he doesn’t remember Benny even being on the set.”

“We
have a lot of people running around during shoot days.” Lulu added.

Mark
looked up from his screen. “Harrison is putting feelers out to Military Intel about
Benny McCall, assuming that’s his real name. He should be somewhere since he’s
in the Army reserves. Also, he had his fingerprints on file with his employment
application. Also, I took a photo and sent it and the fingerprints to the
police. We should hear back sometime today.”

“Let’s
talk to him,” Noah stood up.

“I
already checked. We can’t find him,” Aiden said. “He clocked in at 7:54 and
didn’t clock out for lunch, so he has to be here somewhere.”

Noah
pushed away from the conference table and turned to Lulu. “Lulu, I’ll take you
back to your office. I’m calling Ian and he’ll meet us there.” He turned to the
Mark. “Call E.J., Gideon and Dante. I want you and them to conduct a floor to
floor search starting with the underground parking garage and working your way
up. Make sure they all have a clear photo of McCall.”

“Already
done, boss,” the Geek said. “I sent photos to everyone’s phones.”

“Let’s
get started.” Noah took Lulu back to her office. Ian waited outside the door.

He
watched Lulu walk inside knowing this could be over in the next hour. As much
as he wanted her to be safe, this could be his last day with her. He wasn’t
sure how to feel about that.

Noah
sat at the conference table. As each team reported in, he checked off the floor
they had cleared. No sign of Benny. Noah didn’t think Benny was going to be
found. Somehow he’d found out they were looking at him again. The man was gone.

Harrison
opened the door and walked in a frown on his face. “You’re not going to like
this.”

Noah
sat back. “Of course I’m not.”

“We
should have taken a closer look at Benny McCall after the incident with the
envelope.” Harrison sat running a hand over his forehead. “Benny McCall doesn’t
exist. His real name is Benjamin McKenzie. He’s got a juvenile record which has
been sealed, so we’re not getting into that anytime soon, though he’s been
clean since then. I’ve put Debra on it. She’s calling Chicago to find out what
she can.” He tapped his iPad. “Benjamin McKenzie, ward of the state, was
shuttled from foster home to foster home. He was a real troublemaker. Finally
he had the option of jail or the Army. He chose the Army. There’s more.”

“I’m
really not going to like this, am I?” Noah said.

“Nope.
He wanted to be a Ranger, made it all the way through training and was posted
to Iraq, but at the end of his tour he was dropped from the Ranger program. The
reason being, he wasn’t very good at independent thought and action. He told
you he’s with the reserves, but that’s another lie. According to the NYPD, he
tried to get into the academy and couldn’t get in there either. And…” Harrison
paused dramatically.

Noah
knew he was really going to dislike what Harrison said next.

“He
told you he was a medic,” Harrison said, “not true. He was an explosives
expert…”

“Which
means he could rig the explosives on the light bar to detonate by remote
control.”

“Exactly,”
Harrison replied.

“Do
we have an address for him?”

“He
has a home address on his employment record, but’s it an abandoned apartment
building in Queens. Gideon is on his way out there to check it out, but I’m
pretty sure we won’t find anything.”

Noah
tapped the table, his eyes closed, seeing Benny in his mind’s eye. Then he
sighed. How had he missed it? He glanced at Benny’s employment records. The HR
department had checked his references and they appeared on the level. His
registration for NYU also checked out. On the surface everything looked good.

“Says
here he’s registered at NYU.” Noah pushed the employment application toward
Harrison.

“I
did a little digging and he never attended any classes. His references check
out though. I talked to the people in the mailroom and he is a nice enough guy,
does his work, is always on time and never complains. He seemed happy enough
being sent around to the different departments to fill in.”

“Except
when he’s dropping a light bar on Lulu’s head.” Or sending her threats, or
vandalizing her home.

“Something
doesn’t add up.” Harrison tapped at his iPad. “He doesn’t have a stalker
personality.”

“Or
he hides it pretty well.”

Harrison
shrugged. “Who knows? I’m compiling a list of the foster homes McKenzie stayed
at. Maybe someone will give us a new perspective.”

“When
you get them, have Ian start calling to see what he can find out. He can do
that while he’s watching Lulu and we’re out tracking this guy down.” Noah pushed
to his feet. Benny McKenzie had been under their noses all the time.

Lulu
sat at the kitchen table sipping hot tea while Noah drank coffee. She didn’t understand
how he could drink coffee all day and still sleep at night. She’d be climbing
the walls. She and caffeine weren’t friends.

Noah
had his laptop open and a stack of files next to it. The one on top was open.

“So
Benny McCall is really Benny McKenzie. How did he get through the background
check?”

“He
works in the mailroom. What kind of background check would you do?” Noah
glanced up from his computer, one finger poised over a key.

“We
do a standard one on all our employees—police record, employment history,
references.”

“He
managed to pass all of them.”

“But
he had a Social Security number.”

“Fake,”
Noah said. “A fake number isn’t difficult to get. We traced the name to a Benny
McCall who died a few years ago and is buried in Chicago. Right age, enough
similarity in the name and you have a new identity.”