by Jan Thompson
Jake snapped his fingers. “Ah. That’s what it is, Your smile reminds me of…uh…you know who.”
“No, I don’t know who.” Beatrice shook her head.
“Are you sure?” Jake asked.
Beatrice didn’t answer.
Chapter Fourteen
Beatrice gave credit to Kenichi for covering the van with new decals while she and Raynelle had been inside the hospital building. By the time Kenichi returned to the hospital parking lot to pick them up, the van was emblazoned with words that said “Plunging Needs Plumbers” and photos of several plungers all lined up.
“Shouldn’t there be a hyphen somewhere?” Raynelle asked.
“What do you mean?” Ken looked annoyed. “I paid a lot for the decal.”
“Shouldn’t it say ‘Plunging-Needs Plumbers’?”
“No,” Ken snapped. “It means if you have a plunging problem, you need plumbers.”
“Who came up with that nonsense?” Raynelle rolled her eyes.
“Shut up, Ray.”
“Seriously, Ken?” Beatrice climbed into the van. “Why not a cable company?”
“This costs slightly less. Single use, remember?” Kenichi handed her a cap and a brown shirt. “Look the part, Bee.”
With her arm in a cast, Raynelle had a hard time taking off her shirt and replacing it with the Plunging Needs Plumbers screen-printed tee shirt.
Beatrice helped her as much as she could while Kenichi worked on his laptop.
“We can’t park at the hospital too long. Cameras.” Beatrice tied up her hair into a knot, and put on her baseball cap. “Give me the keys, Ken.”
Ken tossed her the van key. Beatrice sat down in the driver’s seat.
People entered and exited the hospital entrance. Beatrice spotted Jake. “He’s leaving now.”
Jake walked across the parking lot.
“Okay, I got him. Let’s go.” Kenichi rubbed his hands together. “The trackers I put on him work.”
“Where did you stick them?”
“In his jean pocket and belt.”
“When?” Raynelle asked.
“Back in the forest.”
“I never noticed.”
“If you did, I’d have failed.” Kenichi winked at her.
Beatrice found her sunglasses and put them on. Now nobody would recognize her. “All he has to do is change clothes, and we’ll lose him.”
She sat down in the driver’s seat. “Raynelle, get some rest. Kenichi, tell me where he goes.”
Kenichi had parked the van with its rear against a wall, so all Beatrice had to do was start the van and press the gas pedal to roll it forward.
“He’s walking. Can’t go far,” Kenichi said.
“Even with the new decals, our van is too obvious. He’ll spot us following him.” Beatrice frowned. “Well, strike that. I can’t even see him now.”
“While we were trying to get into traffic, he crossed the street.”
“Is he going to rent a car?” Beatrice wondered what Jake was up to.
“Nope. Right now, he’s at a motel.”
“He is? Maybe he’s cleaning up and taking a nap.”
“We all need a long nap.” Kenichi yawned loudly for effect.
“Yeah, and a shower. How about we circle the block?” Raynelle asked.
“How about we just check into a motel too and forget this whole thing.” Kenichi told Beatrice where to turn. The roads were easy to navigate around the small hospital.
“Jake will be nice and clean and we’re still smelling like the forest,” Raynelle countered.
“She’s right.” Beatrice wasn’t happy about their lack of preparation. “Besides, I booked us two rooms at a hotel some ten minutes from here.”
Somewhere at the back of her mind, she suddenly wished she had gone to graduate school and then teach somewhere afterwards. Life would be so much easier than flying around the world chasing after ghosts and shadows.
Or following former FBI agents around town.
Kenichi directed Beatrice down a road. That was when she saw the dumpy motel. “Not that one.”
“Let’s get a room here for a couple of hours or until he leaves,” Kenichi said.
“I’ve already reserved that other hotel. Five stars.” In Beatrice’s mind, the costs were escalating. “Besides, if he sees us, he might think we’re following him.”
“We have to stay close, in case he loses the tracker I put on him.” Kenichi seemed adamant.
Beatrice had to agree with him. He had a point. If they left Jake, they might lose him altogether.
“Are we very sure he’s going to the cabin one way or another?” Beatrice asked.
“He’s going to need a vehicle to take him there. It’s fifty minutes away and he can’t walk.”
“Stating the obvious, aren’t we, Ken?” Raynelle laughed.
“I thought you were sleeping,” Kenichi snapped.
“He’s going to know we’re here if he looks out the window.” Beatrice slowed the car to a crawl. “The motel doesn’t look very big. How about we give him a few minutes to check in and settle down?”
“Good idea.” Kenichi pointed to a McDonald’s “Let’s get some breakfast and come back. They have dollar meals.”
Beatrice nodded. “I can afford dollar meals.”
“I was just joking.”
“You might be, but I’m not joking at all. Our Gulfstream is sitting in San Francisco waiting to take us back to Charleston. The longer we stay here, the more it will cost me.” Beatrice had to be frank with him. “At some point in time, I’m going to run out of money and I’ll have to sell my majority share of the company to my brother.”
Raynelle groaned. “That will be bad. Your brother hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you,” Beatrice said. “Once he gets to know you, he’ll like you.”
“I doubt it.”
“I’d rather work for you, Bee.” Kenichi’s voice was low. “Sorry I brought it all up.”
“No.” Beatrice sighed. “It’s not your fault. The cost of this entire operation is on my mind, is all. It just came out of my mouth. If it makes you feel any better, you and Raynelle will still have a job, even if my brother calls the shots in the future.”
Still, would she give it all up to have her father back? Yes, of course.
When Dad died, he left a fortune to Beatrice and Benjamin to the tune of several hundred million dollars each. How he had that much money was beyond her, but at least Dad hadn’t spent it all.
Wouldn’t Molyneux want a chunk of that fortune?
It wasn’t hers to begin with, as Dad hadn’t shared his assets with Molyneux back when they were married. Molyneux walked away with nothing.
Half a billion dollars could go a very long way to funding Molyneux’s nefarious projects.
No way was Beatrice going to let her have it.
Chapter Fifteen
Bad news: Jake wanted to see Beatrice again.
Her often faraway gaze intrigued and perplexed Jake, as though she had a secret garden no one could enter. What was in that garden? What was she cultivating?
Jake wanted to know what Beatrice was hiding and what she was searching for. He prayed that she wasn’t on the other side of the law. The fact that he suspected she had stolen the three-amber brooch didn’t sit well in his conscience.
And then there were certain features of hers that reminded him of Molyneux.
Could it be that he had been so enthralled by the terrorist that she was all he could see in every woman he met?
Still, it was clear that he and Beatrice were heading toward Molyneux. What business did Beatrice have with the terrorist?
Jake had to see Beatrice again.
To find out what, exactly?
Ah. Maybe his mind was wandering due to the long wait. Earl was still in surgery. Helen hadn’t called. Jake had five hours to kill.
At the motel, he showered. He found a Gideon Bible in a drawer and sat down on the bed to re
ad it. He placed a dry towel on top of the pillow behind him because his hair was still damp.
“Lord, we need all the help we can get,” he prayed. “Make Earl well ASAP. Give the surgeons Your healing touch.”
He tried to pray for Beatrice but he wasn’t sure what to ask God for. “Maybe just Your perfect will would be enough.”
Was Beatrice a Christian? Whose side was she on?
Jake brushed off his earlier suspicion that Beatrice was in any way related to Molyneux. He had been undercover in her organization for three years, and never once had Molyneux mentioned that she had a daughter or even a niece.
Then again, she also never talked about her ex-husband who had apparently run off with the nanny, Philomena, whose story ended in San Francisco.
He wondered what killed her. Who did it?
That information wasn’t yet forthcoming.
He called the rental car company to let them know what happened to the SUV. The police report helped his case. The rental car company told him they’d take care of towing it back to San Francisco.
Any extra charges beyond what the insurance paid would be covered by to Hu Knows, Inc., our of Savannah, Georgia, since Jake and Earl had been on official company business when they were ambushed.
He lay down on the bed, facing the popcorn ceiling. The room smelled musty. He could hear the water still running in the commode but he was too lazy to get up to jiggle the handle.
His damp hair soaked into the towel on the pillow as he nearly dozed off.
Everything could wait but sleep couldn’t.
Chapter Sixteen
“The autopsy revealed that Philomena died of a cardiac arrest,” Helen Hu said via secure video on the laptop screen. It was evening in Greece, and behind her were large windows and drapes on both sides.
“Was there poison in the coffee?”
Helen nodded. “Just as we suspected, but they’re doing more tests to find out who did it.”
“Interesting.” While listening to his boss, Jake popped in a new, hopefully untraceable, SIM card into his burner phone. It was his practice to carry spare burner phones and spare SIM cards. Just in case.
As for his old compromised SIM card, he had tossed that one in the trash can back at the hospital.
“I received word that the SFPD have finished interviewing the waitstaff and kitchen crew,” Helen added.
“Any persons of interest?” Jake’s hair was still damp. He sat crossed-legged on the bed, facing the laptop that he had placed facing him on top of a pillow.
“They want to talk to all the customers there at that time, but the restaurant kept no record of people paying in cash.”
“Including the woman at the table next to ours.” Jake didn’t want Beatrice to get into trouble, but he couldn’t be sure she was involved in Philomena’s death.
“No one has any idea who that person is. Grainy camera. Possible wig.” Helen shrugged. “However, the woman at the other end of the room is ex-CIA.”
“Raynelle Dryden, who works for Beatrice Glynn.” Raynelle had been how Jake had spotted Beatrice in the crowd at the Fisherman’s Wharf. “I suspect Beatrice was at the table next to me.”
“Did she admit as much when you met her at the wharf?”
“She didn’t say.”
“Maybe she has several women working for her.”
“Her team in town seems to have only three people on it. They’re always together.” He recounted the forest fight. “Which leads us back to the café. Kenichi was probably in the van. Raynelle is Beatrice’s bodyguard so she goes where Beatrice goes.”
“You think it’s Beatrice Glynn.”
“Yep.” Usually his instincts were right.
“That’s all I have for now.” Helen hesitated. “Look, Jake. With Earl in the hospital, I don’t have enough manpower to send you a new partner. Can you go solo for a little bit?”
“How long?”
“A couple of weeks.”
“All expenses paid?” Jake studied her demeanor on the laptop screen.
“Please don’t be high maintenance,” she said.
“Me? Nah.” He laughed, even as he recalled how much it had cost Helen to rescue him at sea and fly him back to the States to chase after informants.
“Make sure you fill out the expense reports twice a week,” Helen said.
“That often? Am I going to spend that much?”
“Oh, I don’t know. You tell me. Two flat tires. One tow truck. Gunshot wounds—”
“That’s Earl, not me.”
“Lost brooch. Dead informant. I could go on.”
“Speaking of informant, I need to go over everything we know about Philomena.”
“The fact that she showed up means we’re getting close to the fire. I’ve gone over your phone conversations with her so many times, but I can’t tell if she was telling the truth about Chisolm Wright.”
“What she said makes sense though.” Jake leaned back on a couple of pillows. “They lived a quiet life in the cabin for years until Chisolm received some sort of letter in the mail. He left and never returned. It has been two years. Without any income, Philomena started selling what they had in the cabin.”
“Including the brooches.” Helen made a face. “Since Chisolm had been hiding from Molyneux, I don’t think he would have kept all three brooches in plain sight in his cabin.”
“Philomena said he hid them in a safe in the basement.”
“Still…”
“I hear you. You’d think he’d split up the brooches if they held the map to some of the Amber Room panels.”
“Exactly.”
“In any case, I’m sorry we lost the three-amber brooch.” Jake knew he had to go back to San Francisco to retrieve the one-amber brooch that he and Earl had kept in a safe-deposit box at the bank.
“Yeah, that was super careless of you, Jake.” Helen didn’t mince her words.
“You blaming Earl too?”
“Both of you should be reprimanded.”
“You wouldn’t believe how sorry I am.”
Helen didn’t smile. “I forgive you.”
“You’re not smiling.” Jake recalled someone else who did smile. “Let’s talk about Beatrice Glynn. Who is she? Why is she here? We’re working in parallel so much that I’m getting a bit suspicious.”
“You want to hold her close?”
“What?” Jake would have fallen off his chair if he were on a chair. But he was on this sagging motel bed.
“I meant you want to keep your enemies close.”
“Right. But I don’t know if Beatrice is an enemy.”
Helen raised an eyebrow. “Beatrice, huh?”
“That’s her name. I told her to call me Jake.”
“Tired of living undercover?” Helen asked.
“Maybe.” In many ways he was. “Tired of being tired, to tell you the truth. I’ve been chasing Molyneux for so many years that I just want to be done.”
“Don’t we all? The sooner the better, before she kills again.”
“About that, doesn’t it strike you as weird that she hadn’t bombed any city in a year?” Jake could not recall any news reports.
“It just means she’s gathering her troops.”
“Or she’s short on funds.”
“If she finds the Amber Room, she will sell the panels on the black market. Even though Mr. Buchanan is gone, there are other arms dealers who would take his place.”
“If she sells such a historic masterpiece in the underground, the world will never see the original Amber Room again,” Jake said.
“Those pieces they found in Crete are all they have left of it,” Helen said.
“I remember your story.”
“It didn’t end there. There were so many unanswered questions.”
Jake nodded. “Which is why I think I need to work with Beatrice.”
“What do you have to offer her?”
“That’s the million dollar question.” Jake yawned. “Let me
decompress for a little bit, and I’ll think of something.”
“In other words, you’re going to take a nap while Beatrice et al raid the cabin.”
That had crossed Jake’s mind, but somehow he wasn’t worried about Beatrice and her team. They had come to his rescue, and he had reciprocated, saving her life. They were equals.
Aren’t we?
“While you nap, Prince Charming, I’m going to dig around for more information about Beatrice Glynn.”
“Raynelle is her bodyguard. She broke her arm in the fight, so you might be able to get some hospital records about her name and such.”
Jake gave Helen the hospital name and their approximate arrival time.
“Kenichi is the silent one,” he continued. “From the way he fought in the forest, I think he used to be in Special Ops. Or at the very least, he had martial arts training.”
“Never heard of him. Or Raynelle, for that matter.”
“I had never heard of the three of them until San Francisco. However, they know a lot about us.”
“I’ll see what we can do. Okay. I have to go. Reuben wants to take a walk in the moonlight.”
“How romantic.”
“That’s what married life looks like, Jake. Don’t wait too long.”
“Ah, Helen. You’re turning into Mama Hu.” Jake recalled the matriarch of the Hu family telling everyone what to do with their lives. Earl avoided her at all cost.
“Am I? So sorry. I try not to be.” Helen laughed.
“Speaking of whom, how’s she doing?”
“Normally I’d say Mom is languishing in prison, but she found the Lord a couple of months ago, and she’s in a small Bible study with some missionaries who visit the prison.”
“Wow. I didn’t know she got saved.” That was truly great news for Mama Hu. Jake hoped that she had turned a corner both mentally and emotionally. Must be awful to get convicted of a crime and sentenced to jail in a foreign country. She would be in her seventies by the time they let her out on parole.
Helen wiped her eyes. “I know, right. God is good.”
“Amen. So she’s studying the Bible now. That’s positive.”
