Protecting Lulu (Global Protection Agency) (9 page)

This
was his sister’s way of helping him ground himself, distract his mind and keep
the moment light. He took a deep breath and forced his body to relax. He closed
his mind to meditate and when he took a second to breathe, he said, “Thank you,
Lulu.”

She
patted his hand. “You’re welcome, sweetie.” She picked up the magazine twisting
and turning it as she gazed at the cover. “Do you think I should wear more pink
lipstick?”

He
grinned. “You can’t fool me, Lulu Bennington.”

Her
eyebrows rose. “Really?”

“You
keep making your little jokes and thinking everything is okay, let people think
you can’t be bothered by—”

“I
don’t like being scared.” Her voice trembled.

“Then
I need you to follow every instruction Noah Callahan gives you to do.” He put
an arm around her and pulled her head to his shoulder. In his office she could
drop her little happy face and be frightened.

“I
promise I will do everything Mr. Callahan wants me to do.”

“Good,”
he replied, “I don’t like being scared either.”

She
broke away and studied at the cover. “Why did someone send this to you? All the
previous threats have been directed to me.”

“I
can’t pretend to know how a stalker acts, that’s why I hired Callahan. If I
did, I would take care of this myself.”

“Oh,
sweetie, you’re too pretty for prison.”

He
chuckled as he rubbed his forehead. A headache was beginning to throb. “What
would I do without you?”

“Half
the time you don’t know what to do with me,” she replied, turning toward the
door, but stopped with her hand on the knob. “Start playing Magical Mystery
Tour in your head, take a deep breath, count to ten, and everything will be
fine. Remember to take the time to think before you speak.”

She
twisted the knob, opened the door, and stepped aside for Noah Callahan and
Harrison Bain to enter with a strange man following them.

Wilder
handed the magazine to Harrison who dropped it into a brown paper bag. “I’ll
get that sent to the lab immediately.” He opened his briefcase and dropped the
paper bag inside.

“Mr.
Bennington,” Noah said, “Let me introduce Mark Desha. Mark is our bloodhound. If
someone has hacked your security, he’ll find out who they are. He’s going to be
going through your security files. That envelope was delivered directly to your
assistant and left on her desk which means someone used a key card to gain
access to this floor.”

Lulu
glanced at Mark. “My, aren’t you interesting.”

Mark
Desha had the strong featured face of a Native American but with the added
bonus, if it could be called a bonus, of tattoos, piercings and a fierce look
that made Wilder want to hide. He gestured for everyone to sit down. Both
Harrison Bain and Mark Desha perched their iPads on the coffee table and opened
them.

“The
magazine being sent to you changes things,” Noah said.

“In
what way?” Wilder sat down on the sofa and the others took chairs around him.

“Maybe
someone is trying to get to you by threatening your sister.” He typed on his
iPad. “We’re going to need to dig deeper into your personal life, Mr.
Bennington.”

“Welcome
to my world, sweetie,” Lulu said with a half-laugh. “Let me get comfortable.”

“So
who have you pissed off in the last few years?” Bain asked

Wilder
rubbed his forehead again. “I don’t know where to start.”

“Then
let’s start with your parents,” Callahan said. “Have you been investigating the
murder?”

“I’ve
never stopped investigating it. I’m no closer today than the police were twenty
years ago.” Flashes of memory appeared in his mind and Wilder closed his eyes
as he saw himself in the water being towed by Lulu as she swam the lake toward
their grandparent’s house. He remembered the cold and the aching numbness
surrounding his body.

“You
may think you’re no closer,” Callahan said, “but someone else may not feel that
way.”

“Nothing
new has come up?” Bain leaned back in his chair.

“The
investigator I hired to look into the murders died of a heart attack three
months ago. I haven’t hired anyone new.”

Desha
pointed to his computer. “Then how come you have a ten million dollar reward on
the internet? That’s a lot of incentive for someone to come forward with
information.”

“That
reward has been available for several years. I didn’t handle that directly, that’s
why I hired the private investigator. He said a lot of people had theories, but
none ever panned out. My parents’ murder is up there with the Lindbergh baby’s
kidnapping and D.B. Cooper. I doubt it will ever be solved, but I’m never going
to stop trying.”

“Then
business rivals?” Bain asked.

“He
has those aplenty,” Lulu broke in. She sat in her chair with her legs crossed
and a rather sad look on her face.

“Anyone
in particular come to mind?” Callahan asked.

“Presidents
and stockholders of NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, the pie is only so big gentlemen and
we’re always looking for ways to increase our share.”

“Something
a little more personal than that?”

“Like
women?” Lulu clapped her hands. “I’m all ears.”

Wilder
frowned at her. She was back to making light of everything again.

She
grinned. “Mr. Callahan, you probably should talk to Sylvia. She knows more about
my brother’s private life than he does.”

Wilder
shot her an annoyed look.

Lulu
held a finger up. “Don’t scowl at me, Wilder. If not for Sylvia, I’d think you
were a monk.”

Wilder
clamped his lips shut. His private life was supposed to be his private life. He
hated airing his dirty laundry.

Desha
turned his computer around for everyone to see. “Dude, Candace McBride. I’m
impressed.”

On
the screen Wilder saw a photo of him and Candace walking into a restaurant. He
held the door open and Candace was looking up at him with an adoring look on
her face. How had that happened? He hated being stalked by photographers and
went out of his way to avoid them. “I like my private life to remain private.”

Desha
pulled his computer around again. He typed for a few seconds and then his
eyebrows went up. “Says here you fired Danny Mills.”

“I
didn’t fire him,” Wilder said, “I chose not to renegotiate his contract.” Danny
Mills had had a radio show with a station Wilder had bought. Danny had thought
that an expanded audience allowed him to say what he wanted, when he wanted, be
mean and nasty. Wilder had asked him to keep his show on a professional level,
but the man had refused to listen. Making fun of Lulu had been the last straw
in Wilder’s book.

“Why?”
Callahan asked.

“When
you call the boss’s sister a fat bitch on air, there are consequences.” Wilder
gritted his teeth. If Lulu hadn’t intervened Wilder would have beaten him to a
pulp.

“Yeah.”
Bain smiled. “That would be bad.”

“What’s
the story,” Callahan asked after a quick glance at Lulu. Lulu sat in her chair
looking strained.

Lulu
took a deep breath and exhaled slowly as she said, “Danny Miller’s ex-wife,
Summer, is a friend of mine. When Danny kicked her out of the house, I took her
in and helped her get a lawyer. She’d been married to him for eight years and
he treated her like dirt. I told her not to marry him. He’s a jackass on the
air and a jackass in his personal life.”

“Didn’t
he try to sue you,” Mark said, “for wrongful termination?

This
man knew a lot about a case he’d kept out of court. “Where are you getting all
this information?” Wilder asked curiously. He had kept much of that out of the
mainstream news.

“I
read the blogs, Dude. Don’t you? This guy has threatened you physically? He
says he’s been blacklisted by you and he can’t get a job anywhere with
anybody.”

Wilder
inclined his head to Lulu. “That wasn’t exactly my doing.”

Lulu
grinned. “When he called me a ‘fat bitch’ my fans did a massive write in
campaign to every station he applied to. They were very vocal about boycotting
their sponsors should anyone hire Danny.”

Noah
took a deep breath. “You don’t seem too sad about it.”

Lulu
put a hand over her heart. “I’m devastated. I’m fat and sometimes a little bitchy,
but I’m a fat bitch with money and a loyal fan base with exceptional writing
skills. That equals a lot of power in this business. You shouldn’t pick on me. Besides,
I did help him get a job in some little town in Texas where he can’t bother too
many people. After all, he has child-support payments to make.”

Wilder
didn’t like Lulu when she talked like this. “Lulu--”

“It’s
okay Wilder. I’m grownup. I can handle the truth.”

Her
ability to be so pragmatic always irritated him. “Lulu, I told you I don’t like
negative self-talk.”

“Have
you been reading my psych books again?” She’d minored in psychology in college.

“Shit,
Lulu,” Wilder said. Suddenly he felt beyond tired. He wanted to put his head
down on his desk and sleep for a week. Would this situation never end ?

“Back
to business rivals?” Callahan said.

He
liked the way Callahan could derail Lulu. “The usual suspects,” Wilder said
wearily. “Everyone is treading water right now wondering when the economy is
going to get back on its feet.”

“But
you just bought a satellite,” Noah said.

Wilder
smiled. “I didn’t buy a satellite; I ordered one and paid for it to be built. After
the disgraceful way London Media has conducted business, hacking into my
personal phone line and the personal phone lines of a number of my staff I
decided to build my own communications satellite for the use of all my
companies and my employees. I do not want my business phone calls being hacked
and my personal information being stolen again.”

“Thank
the Lord, you’re so boring, Wilder,” Lulu said.

“That’s
not the point, Lulu,” Wilder said.

“Don’t
get all in a twist. I said it with love.”

Wilder
wanted to tell her to stop being childish, but would never do so in front of
Callahan and his people. He knew she needed to be snarky so she wouldn’t be
scared. “Back to the situation at hand, I’ve filed suit against them. When I’m
done, I’ll own them.

“That’s
quite an undertaking.” Callahan looked impressed. “So I think we need to put Nigel
Davenport and probably his whole Boards of Directors for London Media at the
head of the list of people who don’t like you.”

Wilder
only nodded. “I think Nigel Davenport doesn’t have the stones to face me in
court, but he is angry enough to want to settle this with a bullet.”

“Dude,”
Mark piped up, “If you ever need someone to consult on how to create an
unbreakable encryption, I’m your man.”

“You
better take him up on his offer,” Noah said, “the Geek is very, very good.” He
glanced down at his notes. “Tell me about this issue you have with the Police
Commissioner. How ugly is it?”

Wilder
sat back in his chair. Where did he start? “How far back do you want to go?”

“How
complicated is this going to get?” Noah countered.

“I
have always supported the police department,” Wilder said trying to think his
way through this and why he disliked the man. “Neil Barrett is an outsider. He
never walked a beat in New York City. That man’s pedigree is almost as good as
mine and he was handed his job because he’s a frat buddy of the mayor. He
couldn’t get any higher than Deputy Commission in Dallas and so he came to New
York City claiming to be a man of the people.”

“No
one would ever accuse you of being a man of the people,” Callahan said.

Wilder
liked that he didn’t dance around an issue. It showed his fearlessness. That’s
what he needed to keep his sister safe. “I don’t claim to be a man of the
people, but I try to be a man for the people. Barrett is not interested in the
people. He’s more interested in his retirement program and bonuses than he is
in the officers he’s supposed to lead and the people he’s supposed to protect. He
wants to cut benefits for officers, decrease the payroll, and pension off
experienced officers so he can hire newbies at half the salary. His policies are
not in the city’s best interest. I will fight him tooth and nail to ensure my
city is protected.”

Harrison
looked up from his laptop. “Do you think he’s willing to get dirty to destroy
you?”

“He’s
a petty bastard, he might.”

Lulu
spoke up, concern on her face. “If you and I are targets, what about Aunt Julia
or Grandma Penny? Are they targets, too?”

“Where
are they?”

“Grandma
Penny is in New Orleans and Aunt Julia’s on a camel somewhere in the middle of
Morocco. But she’ll be home in time for our monthly Sunday brunch. She’s never
missed one. Today is Wednesday, so I’m thinking Saturday the latest.”