Eyes Only

by Fern Michaels

  Chapter 2

  “I don’t know about you, Annie, but today I am a happy camper,” Myra said as she pointed at the boisterous group on her terrace. “All our chicks are here in the nest. They look happy and are enjoying each other. It’s been too long since we were all together. Sometimes I feel like our little family is slipping away from us.” Her voice was so fretful sounding that Annie patted her shoulder and clucked her tongue like a mother hen.

  “Time doesn’t stand still. You know that, Myra. We have to take each day as it comes and work from there. And as much as I hate to have to say this, we’re all getting older. I’m not saying we still don’t have some spit and vinegar left in us—we do—but we might need to add a couple of shots of that fine old Kentucky bourbon you keep locked up in the cellar. Tell me again why you’re saving it.”

  Myra laughed. “I’d tell you if I could remember. It was Charles who came by it somehow and said we needed to save it for a special occasion. I seem to recall his saying we’d know when it was time to break out a bottle. Do you remember his saying that, Annie?”

  “You see, that’s the thing. Why save it? What if there are no special moments, or if there are, and we miss them? What then? I say we either break it out after we eat, or we save it till everyone is gone. And then you and I get tanked. I think we’re overdue for a two-person party. Agree?”

  Myra fingered her pearls. She really hated waking up with a hangover, but the bourbon was smooth. She nodded vigorously.

  “Attagirl, Myra. Okay, let’s get this food out there to the tables. The boys are beginning to look mighty hungry.”

  Myra walked over to the sink to wash her hands. She looked out the garden window, as she always did when she washed her hands. Soap and all, her hands flew to her mouth when she saw a vision in white on the little knoll at the end of the garden. Her spirit daughter. A second vision appeared. Then two visions. The second figure was Annie’s spirit daughter. Her voice strangled, she gasped for Annie to join her and pointed at the knoll. Annie dropped the cheese platter in her hands, and the cheese balls rolled across the floor, but not so fast that the dogs couldn’t catch them.

  “Look, Annie. The girls are dancing. It’s almost as if there were a flagpole out there. Remember the year we put up a maypole and decorated it with ribbons and flowers? Oh, Annie, look how beautiful our daughters are! Look at their lovely smiles. Oh, dear God, they’re blowing us kisses. They know we’re here! Oh, Annie!”

  Annie reached out to Myra with a death grip and held her tight. Somehow, she managed to blow a kiss to the dancing girls. Myra did the same.

  “Remember the time we were standing here, and they appeared, wearing those cherry-red coats with the white fur collars? They were little then. They were on the knoll then, too, and it was snowing. Oh, God, Annie, I don’t understand this. They were little girls then. Now they’re seventeen. I know they’re seventeen, because I remember those dresses.”

  “I wish they’d come closer,” Annie whispered in a hoarse voice.

  “The knoll was their favorite spot. They had tea parties there, they played games, and there was that maypole. Then there was the time they wanted to sleep in a tent on the knoll. We put up the tent, and we were worried sick they’d be afraid during the night, so you and I hid in the woods to watch over them.”

  “We spied on them, Myra. And we fell asleep before they did. We did hear some of their girlish secrets, which we never divulged.”

  “They knew. They were always one step ahead of us, Annie.”

  The spirit daughters stood still, blew kisses, then waved. Myra’s hand flew to her cheek. As did Annie’s hand.

  “I felt it! Did you feel it, Myra? Mother of God, what does it mean? Is it an omen of some kind?”

  “I don’t know, Annie. I don’t know!” Her hand still on her cheek, Myra looked around in a daze at the dogs, who were staring up at her and wondering if more cheese balls would fall their way.

  “Hey, need any help in here?” Alexis called from the doorway. “Dennis said the steaks are ready to come off the grill.”

  “We’re good, Alexis. I dropped the cheese platter. It just slipped out of my hands. We’ll be out in a minute. You can take that bowl of potato salad if you want while Myra and I clean up the mess on the floor,” Annie mumbled.

  Alexis gave both women a sharp look but didn’t say anything. She took the bowl of potato salad and went outside.

  “Later, when we hit that bottle of bourbon, we can talk about this. Okay, Annie?”

  “Absolutely. I saw them. You saw them. That makes it as real as the last time.”

  Myra swept the bits of pottery into the dustpan Annie was holding. “Oh, that was real, all right. I just want to know why our girls appeared to us today, when we’re having this little party and the meeting afterward. I think it means something. My daughter told me when I needed her the most, she would be here for me. Maybe she thinks I need her today. You, too, Annie. We can dwell on this later. Now we need to attend to our family and enjoy the party. Smile, Annie. We just had a miracle. It was, you know.”

  Annie stared out the window. “I could stand here all day, Myra, and wait for them to come back. I really want to do that. I want to feast my eyes on those lovely young girls until my eyes fall out of their sockets. It’s what I want. But I know it won’t happen, so grab that basket of rolls, and I’ll take this special apple-cabbage coleslaw, and we can get this party under way.”

  “I hear you, Annie.” Myra took one last look out the kitchen window before she joined Annie at the kitchen door. There was a smile on her face, which made Annie laugh out loud. “If that’s all we get, so be it. I’ll take it.”

  “Amen!”

  The party, as Myra called it, went on for three hours. They were family bringing each other up to date; they were friends sharing events and happenings some had been privy to while others had been unable to attend. There was laughter, backslapping, and, of course, beaucoup congratulations to Jack Sparrow for his new job as director of the FBI. Compliments flowed freely on Dennis’s barbecuing expertise, to which he said, “You can’t go wrong with Kobe beef.” The dogs all agreed and chowed down on the many leftovers.

  Much was made of Kathryn’s horrendous highway accident and the titanium bar in her leg. While Kathryn tried to play it down, Bert wouldn’t allow it, and he went through all the details of her operation and recovery.

  Kathryn’s voice was fierce when she warned everyone not to feel sorry for her, saying she would drive an eighteen-wheeler again, though not for a while.

  From there, the conversation drifted to Nikki and Jack’s four-month island vacation and Espinosa and Alexis’s vacation in Argentina.

  When the conversation turned to Yoko and Harry, the mood became somber, until Harry whipped out his camcorder and played the last video Lily had sent.

  “She’s happy. That’s the important thing,” Yoko said. “In four months’ time, she’s speaking Chinese and Japanese like they are her first languages. She adores her masters. She’s ahead in her martial arts class. ‘A natural,’ her master said. We do miss her.”

  “Doesn’t she miss you? She’s so . . . little . . . so young,” Nikki said.

  Harry grinned. “Funny you should ask. I asked her during our last Skype viewing if she missed her mom and me, and without missing a beat, she said no! Yoko and I cried, but then she said, ‘Oh, Daddy, I can’t miss you. All I have to do is close my eyes, and I can see you and Mummy. You are always with me.’ ”

  “That is so sweet,” Maggie said, tears in her eyes.

  “Did you tell Lily we are all going to go see her in November, when it’s visiting day?” Annie asked.

  “Lily knows that Harry and I are going, but, no, we didn’t tell her about the rest of you. We wanted it to be a surprise. You know how Lily loves all of you.”

  “We’re all going to China in November?” Dennis said. “Wow! I’ve never been out of the country and never farther than New York and Maryland. Wow!�
�

  Annie looked around to see how much of a detail they needed to clear off the terrace. “Let’s get to it. Everyone who ate has to help clean up.” The group fell to it, and within twenty minutes, there was no sign a party had ever taken place.

  “I think it’s time for business,” Myra said. She held up her hand. “We have what Annie and I think is one of our most important missions to date just waiting for our brand of justice. It more or less fell into our laps. So, without further ado, let’s go down to the war room and run it all up the flagpole.”

  The newbies, Sparrow and Dennis, watched in fascination as Myra pressed the carved rose on the massive bookshelf that would swing open and lead the way to the catacombs under the ancient farmhouse. “Careful, everyone. There’s moss on these old stone steps,” Myra called over her shoulder. “Don’t worry. The door will close by itself once the last person is on the landing.”

  “Cool,” Dennis said as he tried to appear as nonchalant as the others. He hoped he didn’t do something stupid to give himself away. He so wished he was suave and debonair like Jack and Bert. At times even Ted had a way about him that Dennis envied.

  As Myra led the way down the long tunnel, she tapped at the silver bells, tarnished now, but their sound was as pure as the day she’d hung them for her daughter and friends so they wouldn’t get lost when they played in the tunnels.

  Jack Sparrow grinned to himself. “Let me guess. The bells are so you don’t get lost, right?”

  “Yes,” Annie called out. “Our children used to play down here. It’s always been a secret. Isabelle is the one who designed the war room when we first . . . ah . . . went into business. The war room itself is climate-controlled. We even have a dungeon, which we’ve used on occasion. You know, when we have to lock someone up until we decide what to do with them.”

  Sparrow didn’t know, but he could guess. Christ on a raft, if the bureau could only see him now. Part and party to wreaking havoc, and he was going to cover it up. The thought pleased him to no end. Sometimes justice needed a little push, and at other times an outright onslaught, and these people were just the ones to do it. He realized at that moment that he felt as giddy as the young kid behind him.

  The massive door leading into the war room opened slowly on its well-oiled hinges. Lights came on automatically. A soft whirring sound could be heard overhead from the ventilation system. The group trooped into the room.

  “I love this room. It reminds me of the control room at the Kennedy Space Center,” Abner Tookus chortled as he ran up the three steps that took him to Charles’s area. He started to press buttons. The giant plasma screen lit up, and Lady Justice gazed down on the little group. As one, they all saluted her.

  “It looks different in here,” Maggie said, looking around.

  “It is different. We replaced the old oak table with this table, which we had Avery Snowden’s people build for us. They did it down here. They used old lumber from out in the barn. Look,” Myra said as she pressed a button on the side of the table. The center of the table parted, and the leaves that were stacked underneath popped up, then slid into place, creating seating space for eighteen people.

  “That’s amazing,” Jack said as he looked at the mechanism that made it all happen. “Whoever crafted this could make a killing in the furniture business.”

  “The shoe box is still there,” Kathryn said, a smile on her face. “I so clearly remember the day it was my turn to pick our next mission.”

  The others agreed, smiles on their faces as they, too, remembered the early days here in the war room, where they waited with bated breath for Charles to outline the newest mission’s protocol.

  Almost in unison, all eyes rose to the dais, where Abner stood, awaiting instructions.

  The boys waited as the girls pulled out their chairs, and then they all sat down at the long, beautiful table with the grungy, years-old shoe box in the center.

  “We do have a certain protocol for these meetings, but for the most part, we’re fairly informal. Early this morning, Annie and I brought down the folders that she is now passing out to all of you. We spent most of last evening trying to come up with as much information as we could. I’m sorry to say we didn’t come up with nearly enough. What we were able to garner, which wasn’t much, was found on the Net, then printed out. Annie had some contacts she called to see what information she could gather that way, but again, we came up way short. Having said that, I’m going to have Annie give you what we have in a nutshell. This is her mission, because it was her dreams that started it all. Annie, you have the floor.”

  Annie looked around, her gaze settling on Jack Sparrow, then on young Dennis. She took them through her three dreams and what little she knew, then sent off a series of pictures to Abner, who made them appear suddenly on the giant plasma screen.

  “These are the children in question. They are four-year-old twins. Their names are Daniel and Dona. The names of their parents are Marlo and Alicia Domingo. They’re Hispanic.” A grainy, less-than-clear picture of the parents appeared on the screen.

  “As you can see, the parents are true to their heritage. They’re dark-haired and dark-eyed. The children are blond and blue-eyed. Alicia Domingo worked in a private clinic. She’s a nurse. She came to know Betty Smith, aka, Gretchen Spyder, the birth mother, when she came into the clinic for her monthly visits. They struck up a friendship of sorts. Confidences were shared, and Gretchen told Alicia her real identity and swore her to secrecy. Alicia volunteered that she and Marlo could not have children. She says she counseled Gretchen, but in the end, Gretchen wanted no part of motherhood, saying she was going to put the baby up for adoption so her parents wouldn’t find out that she had given birth. Gretchen used an assumed name at the clinic and paid for everything in cash.

  “As her due date approached, Betty/ Gretchen struck a deal, and Alicia and Marlo agreed to adopt the baby she was carrying. The Domingos had the good sense to engage the services of a lawyer. It was all done legally. We got all this from interviews the Domingos gave when trying to fight the girl’s parents. Then they ran.”

  “Where is the birth mother now?” Ted asked.

  “According to the news reports, she was in a horrific car accident and is paralyzed from the waist down. She lives in a wheelchair at her parents’ home on Spyder Island. She is an only child, and the bloodline stops with her. That’s why the parents are so eager to get their grandchildren.”

  “Where’s the biological father? Does he even know he’s a father? Did he agree to the adoption, or didn’t Betty/Gretchen tell him? Seems to me that whoever gets to him first might have a shot at getting the adoption overturned,” Jack said.

  Myra looked down at her notes, then over at Annie. “I didn’t see where the Domingos ever said anything about the biological father. Did you, Annie?”

  “No. My guess would be Betty/Gretchen did not tell the Domingos. Who knows if she told the father? This all happened during her senior year at the University of South Florida. Graduation has come and gone. It’s five years later, and whoever fathered those children is long gone. The only one who probably knows where he is now is the birth mother, and you can bet your last dollar she’s not telling Mummy and Daddy,” Annie said.

  “What did Avery Snowden say? Is he going to protect the Domingos, or is he going to do a snatch and grab?” Maggie asked.

  “A snatch and grab, after he explains what we’re prepared to do for them. For now, Avery is going to turn the family over to Pearl Barnes, who will put them in her underground railroad. When we go to Spyder Island, we’re taking Avery and his crew with us.”

  Nikki weighed in. “I thought you said you didn’t get much information? This is a whole bucketful. Imagine what we’re going to get when we turn Abner loose. So when is the snatch and grab going down?”

  “As soon as Avery locates the family. He anticipates that will be no later than noon tomorrow. He understands that time is of the essence,” Annie said.

  “When
do we leave for Spyder Island?” Alexis asked.

  “The minute we get all our ducks in a row,” Myra said smartly.

  There was excitement in Maggie’s voice when she asked, “What’s our game plan?”

  “I thought you would never ask!” Annie chortled. “Tell them, Myra.”

  “Our initial thoughts were that Ted, Maggie, Joseph, and Dennis would check out Gretchen Spyder’s college years. That might entail a trip to the university to talk to her professors and advisers. Checking the yearbooks for special friends, locating them, and getting them to talk. Someone out there knows who the biological father is besides Gretchen Spyder. We want to know everything there is to know about her four years of college.

  “Abner will do his financial digging on the family and Gretchen to see if there are trust funds and all that goes with that. He will also do a financial workup on the Domingos.

  “Jack, you and Harry are up for Spyder Island. I’m thinking that Mr. Sparrow will be able to help you. Bert, you are odd man out and are needed back in Vegas, with the understanding that if things get dicey, you can be here in four hours. Does all of this work for everyone?” Myra asked.

  “Who goes to Spyder Island?” Dennis asked.

  “Just us girls at first. The following day, Mr. Snowden and his team will arrive. The minute you all have the information you are assigned to procure, you will also join us. The primary thing right now is securing the Domingos so we don’t have to worry about them. Any questions?” Annie asked.

  No one had any questions.

  “Okay, then read the information in the folders in front of you to make sure I didn’t leave anything out. We’ll have a question-and-answer session, and if we’re good, we’ll terminate this meeting and go forward.”

  “When do you want us to head to Florida?” Maggie asked.

  “ASAP. Try for a flight first thing in the morning. You have my permission to fly first class,” Annie said generously. “Follow and go wherever your leads take you. Just try for results quickly. Colleges and universities usually have five-year reunions. Find out if Gretchen’s class had theirs or if it is up and coming. It might be this spring, next month to be precise.”