The Tea Series

by Sheila Horgan

  “Yes, Old Town does present a few challenges. When I first moved to the area I didn’t quite get it. From a security standpoint, I still don’t. They have those big festivals. Next thing you know, some young girl is flashing the crowd because she is drunk and underage and just doesn’t know what can happen. More than once one of my guys has had to wade into the middle of things like that and save a kid from themselves.”

  “I know people who have done the same. I don’t know why people do that.”

  “Me either.” Roland unlocked the door, and we walked in. In virtually no time there was a beeping. Obviously they’d put in an alarm, and now every time I come in the apartment I’m going to have to remember to run over to the box on the wall and enter some passcode. Of course, with all that beeping it isn’t like I’m going to forget. I just hate having one more passcode to remember.

  “No passcodes.”

  He really has to stop reading my mind. It’s beginning to unnerve me.

  “Eyeball scan? Breath reader? Fingerprint?”

  “Tongue print.”

  “Ewww.”

  “I’m kidding, Cara. Fingerprint. Yours is already entered. We had it on file in the office from your hiring process. Remember you gave us your fingerprints for a background check? So all you have to do is put your finger on the little window.”

  “Index or thumb?”

  “Ring finger.”

  “So you have to come back to program A.J.’s finger? Why ring finger?”

  “Less likely to be injured. I can get a better read. Also, if someone is trying to trick the system, they’re more likely to try with a thumb or index finger.”

  “Where are they going to get my fingerprint? Scratch that, I don’t want to know.”

  “No one is going to cut off your finger, Cara. Some people watch too much television and think they can lift a print and stick it on a glove and whatever. This is just one more little step in keeping you safe.”

  “I don’t feel safe anymore. Guess having your house trashed will do that to you, right?”

  “Right, but you will become more comfortable as you use these tools and see how helpful they are. I would have suggested that moving might be a comfort, but I know that your sister-in-law will be moving across the hall.”

  “She isn’t really my sister-in-law.”

  “She is your sister of the heart. My wife has a couple women like that. I learned a long time ago not to question it. It is what it is. Women are just better at that kind of thing than men are.”

  “Thanks.”

  Roland explained the alarm system to me.

  Basically it monitors everything and everybody. There are motion detectors in all the rooms. I can turn them on and off depending where I’ll be in the apartment. Seems kind of extravagant for such a little space. All the windows and doors have been hooked up.

  When I walk in the house, the system gives me a chance to tell it how things are going. If I do nothing, Roland and the cops are on their way. Instantly.

  If I go over and enter a passcode, any four numbers, doesn’t matter which I input, that tells the responders that someone has me under their control. It will turn off the beeping, so the person that has a gun to my head thinks I turned off the system, but in reality I’ve alerted authorities.

  If I use my ring finger it turns the system off and waits for me to tell it what to do next.

  It does everything but read the newspaper and change the kitty litter, and I don’t have a kitty.

  “So, Cara, do you feel more secure?”

  “You aren’t going to like my answer.”

  “What?”

  “If you can do all this in one night, and you aren’t even working for me, and Adeline’s warehouse, with all her personal stuff, was broken into, then whoever is doing this stuff knows something about how to do all this stuff.”

  “Yes, we talked about that at the office last night. For the record, this is a wholly different system than we used at the warehouse. The system at the warehouse, while very good, is similar to the one we used at the house.”

  “Adeline’s house?”

  “Yes, we’ve done a complete upgrade while doing the rehab, but when we secured the warehouse, upon her request we kept it pretty much like the one at the house.”

  I started to laugh. Couldn’t help it. “I guess at the time Adeline thought she’d be running back and forth to get her own stuff at the warehouse. Weird, since she rarely drives and she has all of us to do that.”

  “I think she was more concerned about her staff. Her runners are very familiar with how the alarm systems work. If she chose to have them retrieve something from the warehouse, it would be easier to do so with a known system.”

  “No runner would ever be able to find anything in there. Between the cubes all being pretty much the exact same thing and the list being kept offsite. Wait, maybe you’re right. Maybe that was what they were after. Maybe someone broke in here looking for an inventory list so that they could figure out what was in each box at the warehouse.”

  “Maybe.”

  “You don’t sound convinced.”

  “I would think that if they were doing that they would simply come into your apartment, put the file on a flash drive, and walk back out. You would have never known they were here.”

  “Good point. Why wreck my apartment?”

  “That’s what we are going to find out.”

  “Any more news on how they got into the warehouse?”

  “We’re working on it.”

  “Will you tell me when you figure it out?”

  “Of course.”

  “That didn’t sound very convincing.”

  “Cara, I promise you that once we get to the bottom of all of this we will fully inform you.”

  “Thank you. Anything else I can do?”

  “Not a thing. I’ll be in contact.”

  “Thank you, Roland.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “No, I mean it. You got here quickly, and you just took over. You made everything better, and I appreciate it.”

  “Cara, I promise you, we will get to the bottom of this, and you will feel safe again.”

  “Thanks.”

  Roland went over the whole process of adding fingerprints. He showed me how to add A.J.’s and others’ to the unit. He said we could use any finger we wanted, but he strongly suggested ring finger.

  When he was sure I knew how to add other fingerprints he handed me a list of everything they’d taken out of the apartment.

  It was pretty extensive.

  It was really depressing.

  “Thanks, Roland. The place looks great. You guys really didn’t have to clean up my mess. I would have taken care of it.”

  “We had to go through everything anyway, not that much more effort to clean it up as we went. I’m sorry this happened, Cara.”

  “It isn’t your fault.”

  “We’ll see. Anyway, I appreciate your cooperation. You made this easier than it could have been.”

  “Your guys did all the work. I appreciate it. With the inventory list I even have a shopping list for replacing everything that got broken. Wait a minute. I thought that the glass for the coffee tabletop was broken. Looks fine. What did you do?”

  “We did what we could. You have a good day, Cara. I’ll be in touch.”

  “Wait, I need to know what you’ve told Adeline.”

  “Nothing. Security is our concern, not hers. She is not likely to go to the warehouse; therefore, what happens at the warehouse is not her concern. Adeline employs a rather large contingent of professionals so that she does not have to deal with the day-to-day dramas of her minions.”

  “Minions? Really? Contingent? That seems a little dramatic.”

  “Cara, you know what it takes to run some of Adeline’s life. I know what it takes to run the rest of it. Adeline has lawyers, accountants, financial advisers, realty professionals, and building management personnel. She has runners and liaisons and
dozens of other people on her payroll directly or indirectly. It takes three layers of people just to get her groceries to the house. That doesn’t include the persons writing the list or taking inventory in her pantry.”

  “If there are that many people involved, why didn’t anyone notice the problems with her health? She was all alone in that big old house. She almost died. If there are so many people involved with her, then why didn’t anyone do anything to save her?”

  “That is precisely the problem. Each of those professionals dealt with the small area of their expertise. They didn’t deal with Adeline. I’m guilty of that myself. I knew everything about each person who came in contact with Adeline, but I didn’t keep tabs on Adeline herself. We learned that lesson from you, and we are grateful. We will never make that mistake again.”

  “You almost make her sound like a corporation or a product or something. She’s actually a very nice woman.”

  “Again, I take full responsibility. I should tell you that your approach made us review our policies for all of our clients.”

  “Approach?”

  “Your personable approach. The way you create a seamless façade, almost like you are a member of the family.”

  “I have bad news for you, Roland. That isn’t a façade. It’s pretty simple. Jovana said she needed someone to check in with Adeline from time to time. I met her. I liked her. By the second time I met her I would have happily continued to check in with her without anyone paying me anything. It is just a happy accident that I ended up with a job out of it.”

  “It may be a happy accident on your end, but it was an astute business decision on Adeline’s part. You are an asset. She’s lucky to have you. You’ve done an extraordinary job.”

  “Yeah, well, if someone broke into my apartment to get information about Adeline, and they found it, then maybe it wasn’t such a good decision after all. Scratch that. I never said that. Hiring me was a brilliant decision.”

  Roland laughed and headed toward the door. “Remember, Cara, if you need anything at all, if you hear something go bump in the night, if you are the least bit alarmed, what do you do?”

  “I call you.”

  “And how do you do that?”

  “If I’m at home, I push the button. One in the kitchen, one in the hall, one in my bedroom. You and the cops will respond instantly. If I’m not at home, I can call you on my phone. I’ll make you a speed dial person, well, put you number one on my list of people. You know what I mean.”

  “You can carry the panic button, you know.”

  “I might as well tell you right now, I’m not going to do that. I have every reason to believe that you won’t be hearing from me. I’ve allowed myself the delusion that this was just a freak, random kid-stunt and that the drunk kids who did it are now grounded for six months, having been caught by socially responsible parents who are good enough to punish their kids but not dumb enough to confess for fear I’ll sue them.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  We both laughed.

  We both know that isn’t what happened.

  Not even close.

  “If you have any problems inputting A.J. or anyone else, just call.”

  “Will do. And, Roland, again, thank you.”

  “You need to come over here. I need your finger.”

  “I’ll be happy to give you the finger.”

  “Teagan, I know you think you’re funny, but you aren’t. If you aren’t busy, come on over and I’ll feed you, and I’ll show you what they did around here. It is amazing.”

  “Who is they, and what are you talking about?”

  “Roland and his guys. They put in this really sophisticated security system, which is why I need your finger, and they cleaned up this place.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “Teagan, they cleaned it better than I could.”

  “You have got to be kidding me.”

  “No, I’m serious. Everything in the bathroom was poured out. Shampoo and mouthwash and depilatory all over the counters and everything. Not only did they clean it all up, they even replaced everything that was ruined. Brand new bottles of everything. Even my Love’s Baby Soft Lemon. Do you have any idea how hard that stuff is to find? I order it online. How’d they get it so fast?”

  “When you aren’t afraid to spend copious amounts of money, you can get things that we mere mortals cannot. Well, we could, but we’d have to sell plasma on a regular basis.”

  “There is part of me that’s really grateful and part of me that’s freaked out. They must have spent a whole lot of money here in the last twenty-four hours. That money isn’t mine.”

  “I don’t think they are going to ask you to pay it back, Cara.”

  “Yeah, but you’re the one who has always told me that the secret to keeping your job is to always be a huge asset, never to be a liability. If they are spending all that money here, and they think that the information that got the bad guys into the warehouse was taken from here, then I am a liability instead of an asset.”

  “Well, you have always been an a — ”

  “Don’t even say it.”

  “I’m on my way over. Have you looked around yet? Did they get much stuff? Do you know what they’ve stolen?”

  “Roland gave me a list of everything they took out of the apartment.”

  “How would Roland know what the bad guys took?”

  “Sorry, Roland gave me a list of all the stuff that Roland’s guys took out of the apartment.”

  “I should have known that. Lack of sleep.”

  “Jessie got home?”

  “No, he’ll be here in a few days. That’s a whole other thing we need to talk about.”

  “You want food?”

  “Maybe. We’ll see. Have you heard from Mom?”

  “Actually, she did send me an email. I’m sure everybody got it.”

  “Sinead said that she is sending different information to each of us, that way we will want to get together and compare.”

  “Tricky.”

  “She is basically doing a diary entry and sending each of us a little bit of it. When she gets home, she can just copy all of the different emails, and she has a diary of their trip, and she has been in constant contact with all of us.”

  “Teagan, this is why the woman scares me.”

  “Exactly. She’s always thinking. So, what did she say?”

  “How about we discuss that over food.”

  “Works for me. See you in a little bit.”

  I sat at the table and started my lists again. For some reason, being able to scratch the Rosenbloom murder off my list reenergized me.

  I know it’s kind of weird, another word I’ve been using way too much, but it is what it is.

  The Rosenbloom thing and the eulogy-writing thing and all that other stuff was just something to goof around with, something to joke with Teagan about.

  For some reason, getting it scratched off the list helped me.

  I won’t lie, if I’d been able to make money for a few months writing eulogies for people, I would have done that, but I never expected it to be a booming business.

  It’s just like winning the lottery. I put it out in the universe that I’m willing to accept winning the lottery, but I still have a savings account. Somebody has to win; why not me?

  I get so aggravated when people tell me that thinking about winning the lottery is pointless. Or they act like I’m a little dull because I think things like that can really happen. Or some try to make it sound more gentle by saying I’m being silly.

  When did silly become a sin?

  That’s part of my problem lately.

  I lost silly.

  I’m gonna find it again.

  You watch!

  By the time Teagan arrived, in jeggings and a really cute, very sheer floating top with a cami under it, I couldn’t take it anymore.

  “Help me get the glass off Bernie’s trunk. They bought better glass than I had before. It’s heavy. I think
maybe it is the glass top for an outdoor table or something. Look at the edge. Isn’t that pretty?”

  “Harry must have good taste.”

  “What?”

  “You can bet that Roland didn’t order it.”

  “Sounds like you and Harry got along better than I thought.”

  “Actually, we did. Don’t you think he would be perfect for Troya?”

  “What?” I almost got whiplash with that one. Here I was all ready to run down the path of Teagan being done with Jessie and replacing him with Harry, and she throws Troya in the middle of it.

  But, as is the case in a frustratingly regular pattern, Teagan was right.

  “Oh, you’re right. We should have a dinner or something.”

  “Yeah, because inviting a guy over to break bread with a glut of O’Flynns isn’t going to scare him away.”

  “Glut? Really? I didn’t mean all the O’Flynns.”

  “We’ll figure something out. Troya deserves a good guy, and Harry is a good guy. You can just tell. He is single, right?”

  “I have no idea, but you can bet I’ll find out. That was near brilliance, Teagan. Why didn’t I think of that?”

  “No comment.”

  “So, help me with the table. I want to see if there is anything left in the trunk. Reality is, I was so busy saving it for a special occasion that now I’ll never know what I missed.”

  “I told you to open all that stuff.”

  “Or I could look at it from the other side. Since I don’t know what is missing, I can’t really miss it.”

  “Only you would look at it that way, Cara. I’ll never understand how you could just leave everything all wrapped up in a trunk. If it were me, I’d have dumped it all out the very first day.”

  “Yeah, didn’t Bernie mention that in her letter?”

  “Shut up. Ready?”

  “Sure.”

  We took the glass top off the trunk and lifted the lid. The citrusy good smell wafted up into the room and instantly made me feel better.

  At least the bad guys hadn’t stolen my smell.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. It doesn’t look like they took anything. It’s still full. It doesn’t even look like it was touched.”