"I'm not arguing with you all," Beth said, as she fixed her coffee, "but Andrew and I have been over and over things, and the fact is we can't come up with anything -- not one clue -- as to who is behind this. Or why."
"Well, maybe with fresh eyes..." Ruth said.
"It couldn't hurt anything," Beth agreed. "Now, what -- if anything -- did Sir Anthony and Father have to say for themselves?"
"Beth, don't be like that. Your father didn't know anything about the PM's idea until after you'd been told and left. The information leak's slowed down to a trickle, but it never actually dried up. And you've been gone for what? Three weeks, at least?"
"Yes, at least that," she acknowledged with a scowl.
"We really didn't get any information from them. But, my guys have heard rumors of a MI-6 NOC list, and about how some splinter group is planning on using it as a hit list."
"But, Jack," Andrew piped in, "why haven't my people heard about this?"
"Andy, you aren't going to like my answer," Jack told him, taking on a placating tone. "We've already discussed the fact that you all have some major screening issues. And now there's information being leaked.
"Either they don't realize it's missing. Or, they believe that they not only know who has it, but where they are, and why they wanted it. In other words, they think they've contained the problem, without letting the culprits know they're on to them."
"But, I thought that's what I was working on," Beth added. "I thought I was making sure that there were no incomplete records, no disparaging information, or missing files. And I haven't found anything missing. In fact, I've found nothing -- absolutely nothing -- with the exception of a few typos."
"Perhaps, Sir Anthony thought that he could find out what is missing, without letting the general employees know. I mean, he said you could tell me. And Bridget must have known, which means," Andrew added, "Fitz probably knew, as well."
Elizabeth shot Drew a look, and said firmly, "I suppose she did -- because she's our assistant, Andrew."
Andrew gave Fitz and Jack sheepish glances, and acquiesced, "Yes. That's true."
"Elizabeth," Ruth said, "is it possible that you took a file home? Picked it up by mistake -- something like that?"
"No, for the simple reason I never carried anything but my purse, and it's always full. There's barely any room for a nail file -- let alone a document file."
"I can vouch for that," Drew said. "I had the misfortune of picking up everything that spilled out of her bag once. And I had a hard time fitting it all back in."
Beth beamed at him and said, "It wasn't that bad."
"Oh, but it was that bad. I was very tempted to keep your pen. That would have made a little more room. And, if I wasn't so unscrupulously honest, I would have nicked it. It's a real beauty."
"Seriously, Andrew," Beth told him, shaking her head "There's absolutely no reason to filch pens from my purse. There's an entire box of them in the desk drawer."
"I know about those, silly. I'm talking about your fountain pen. It's something."
"Yes," she responded, giving him a strange, quizzical look. "Father gave it to me as a graduation gift. But, I didn't want Tom to see it, so I've never taken it from Richard's." She giggled, and added in a mock Red Riding Hood voice, "What sharp eyes you have, to have spotted it."
"What are you going on about? I saw it that day in the cemetery. You really should thank me, because I very nearly missed it."
"Missed it... What are you talking about?"
"Yes -- missed it. Or very nearly. It had rolled under the bench, and I only caught sight of it at the very last second."
"Bench... There isn't a bench in my room."
"Room? What are you talking about?"
"My room at Richard's. That fountain pen has been in the pen tray on my desk, in that room, since Father gave it to me. I told you. It was for my college graduation. Tom and I married the weekend after graduation, so I never took it from Richard's."
"No, Bethy. This was a fountain pen. A real beauty. Big. Heavy. Engraved gold."
Beth shook her head in protest. "No, my fountain pen is engraved, but it's sterling silver. And, it's never left my room at Richard's in over thirty years."
"Guys!" Jack called out. "Guys...stop arguing."
"Yes," Fitz seconded. "It's certainly not worth arguing over."
"No, Honey," Jack said looking at Ruth. "That's not what I meant at all. We may just be on to something here."
Both Beth and Drew sat back in their chairs, and turned and looked at Jack. Simultaneously, they asked, "What do you mean?"
Jack reached across the table for the coffee pot, refilled his cup, and then held it up for anyone else. Only after he put it back down did he answer them. "We have a discrepancy here. Liz says she has only one fountain pen, and it's silver and has never left her room at Richard's. And Andy insists he picked up a gold fountain pen along with the rest of her things and put it in Liz's bag."
They pointed to each other and said, "He's wrong."
"Children," Jack said, in a tone of complete calm. "You're completely missing my point."
"Which is?" Drew queried.
"What if you're both right?"
Chapter Forty-Four
"What?"
"What if you're both right? Beth's silver fountain pen has never left the pristine confines of her room at Richard's. Yet, Andrew did find a gold fountain pen while he was retrieving the items from Beth's purse, and thrust it in there with everything else."
They looked at each, skeptically, but then kind of relaxed, and turned to Jack. Andrew said, "Well, don't stop now. What next?"
Jack poured the last of the coffee into his cup. Without a word, Ruth picked up the now empty carafe and went to start more coffee, leaving the three of them to continue their brainstorming.
"Hey, I got us this far," he answered, but he was smiling. "Okay, now we have a mystery pen in Beth's purse. Where did it come from?"
"I told you, I picked it up from beneath the bench where she was sitting at the cemetery."
"But, it wasn't my pen, Andrew."
"I thought it was. It wasn't the kind of thing that would lie around unnoticed. It was a big, heavy, over-sized, engraved gold fountain pen. It wouldn't take a genius to see it was valuable. And," Drew continued, "it wasn't tarnished or dirty. It hadn't been under that bench for very long at all."
"I'll have to agree with Drew about that. Even without ever seeing the pen. I'd been going to the cemetery and sitting on that bench since I first went back to work. If it had been lying there I think I would have noticed it."
"Then where," Jack asked, dramatically, "did it come from? And before you two go all crazy," Jack cautioned, "Let's answer some basic questions. Is this bench somewhere a lot of people would pass every day? Is it near a major street, so someone might just go there to sit down while they're shopping, or going to and from work? Is it a place someone might use as a shortcut?"
"No. No. No," Beth answered. "In fact, aside from the day that Bridget first took me, I've only seen one other person there..."
Andrew looked over at her and said, "That guy. What did you call him? Your friend?"
"That's true, but that doesn't mean he dropped it, does it?"
"Why not?" Drew protested. "Why are you so anxious to protect that man?"
"Andrew," she said, "I sincerely hope you aren't implying what I'm inferring you are."
"I am not. Although," he said, frowning, "I don't understand why the mere mention of this man puts you in defensive mode."
"Everybody just calm down," Jack said, genially. "I think you two both need to take a nap." He leered at Andrew, and added, "Is that what you're angling for, buddy? You two be sent in for a nap?"
Beth and Drew both glowered at him. Or, at least they tried to. But first Beth let out a little giggle, and then Drew laughed, and then Jack started really laughing. It broke the tension, and helped them refocus.
"Ah, at the risk of having my head bitten
off, will one of you tell me just who Liz's friend is?"
"I have no idea," Beth exclaimed. "He's a man that came to the cemetery every day about noon, just like I did. He'd ask if he could share my bench, sit at the far end, and just sit there. And, after we told each other who we were visiting, we didn't even talk. Not really."
"The day I was there, you two seemed pretty friendly."
"Oh, Andrew," Beth scowled. "I told you. It was a freezing cold day, and I didn't have a coat on. He took off his muffler and draped it over my hands, because they were turning blue. And I had it on them for what, two minutes, if that? Because you showed up and intimidated him."
"I did not intimidate him. But," Drew said, sharply, "if I'd wanted to intimidate him -- I could have."
Jack looked from one to the other, and back, and then said, "Was I wrong in thinking you two had kissed and made up?"
"Yes, we've talked everything out," Beth insisted. "At least I thought we had."
"No, we have," Drew said. "I don't know what it is about that man that just...I don't know..."
Elizabeth reached out and stroked the back of Drew's hand. "I promise you -- he was a stranger I shared a bench with. I told him about James, because he was there, when I needed to talk to someone. And, even then, it was nothing. Nothing..." She was looking over his shoulder, as if she was thinking about something.
Andrew knew that look and asked, "What is it, Beth? What have you thought about?"
"It was him, Drew. That's who I kept thinking I'd seen. That man."
"Okay," Jack said, smiling as Fitz returned with fresh coffee. "So, Beth thinks she saw this guy in New Orleans. We still don't know who he or your corpse are, and how they fit into things."
"And, did he mean for me to get the fountain pen?" Beth asked.
"I don't think so. I believe that's what they were after you for. So, let's try and figure out how it is you got it."
"We know that. Andrew found it on the ground, thought it was mine, and stuffed it into my bag."
"Yes, but if they're so anxious to get it back -- willing to follow you halfway around the world and kill all those women they mistakenly took for you -- I don't think they meant to pass it to you. Your friend screwed up. But, how? I mean, if you really didn't talk or anything."
Andrew poured out more coffee for them both, and then setting hers in front of her, said, "Close your eyes, Beth. Think about that day -- that particular day. Remember, it's cold..."
Beth took a sip of her coffee, and then did as Drew asked. She closed her eyes, and after a few seconds, said, "It was that bitterly cold day. And, I'd come out without a coat. I was surprised, because my friend was already there.
"He saw I was so cold, and offered me his scarf. He was all bundled up, with the scarf wrapped tightly around his neck, under his top coat. He didn't undo the coat. He just pulled the muffler out. It seemed to catch on something for a moment, before it came loose.
"He draped it around my hands, and Andrew walked up. I asked the man to excuse us. I gave him back his scarf, but I didn't say who Drew was. I returned the scarf and he walked away -- in the direction he always came from."
No one spoke for a moment, and then Ruth said, "That's it. The fountain pen must have been in his jacket pocket and got caught up in the scarf. Neither of you noticed it falling. Then Andrew showed up."
"Yes," Beth agreed. "And later, when I knocked my purse off the bench, Andrew picked everything up for me. He thought the pen was mine. So, now we know that something's in the gold fountain pen. Something very valuable -- one way, or another. And, I shouldn't have it."
Andrew groaned, "And so, here we are at the beginning again."
"Why?" Beth asked.
"Because," Jack answered, "there was no pen in your purse, when it was found with our hooker. All of your IDs were there, but no gold fountain pen."
"Of course, it wasn't," Elizabeth said, in a flat voice.
"Why?" Both men asked simultaneously.
"Because I changed purses. I got all the money and IDs I could find, and grabbed a handful of underwear, and stuffed them into the black purse I always use for trips. I didn't want to take anything from my own purse, so I just hung it up on a hook inside the closet in Litchfield."
Chapter Forty-Five
"It's in Litchfield? They've chased you halfway around the world, and from one end of the country to another, and it's in Litchfield?" Jack exclaimed.
"It would appear so," Beth said, flatly. "I don't know how I managed to lose them at the Port Authority, but I must have. Unless," she said, frowning, "they've been to the Litchfield house."
Ruth said, "No one's been to the house. I mean, no one out of the ordinary. And, either Helen or John has been at the house at all times. You lucked out apparently, and hit the house on the one day they were both gone. But, since they realized you'd been there, they've been watchful. They also check in with me twice a day."
Elizabeth stared at her friend. She knew Ruth was amazing -- perhaps the best personal assistant in the history of personal assistants. She hadn't realized how she watched over her -- them.
"Okay then," Jack said. "Everyone get showered, packed up, and ready to bug out. We're going on a road trip."
"How is it I managed to get to the ripe old age of forty-eight without ever taking a road trip? And now I'm going on the second one in three days?" Drew moaned.
"Oh, buck up!" Beth told him. "The bullet's out. We have a good supply of meds for you, and I don't have to drive. Just relax. You might even have a little fun."
"Ruth," Jack said, solemnly, "Go call the airport and find out when the next flight leaves to London."
"All right. But," Fitz asked, "why? If we're driving?"
"Because you're going to be leaving--"
"Jack," Fitz said in a distressed voice, "we've already discussed this. I'm not going anywhere -- other than wherever you all go."
"I know, Honey."
"Then why the airport?"
"Because you didn't let me finish. You jumped right in to argue. I only hope you're this quick to jump into a fight." He smiled at her, and began again, "You are going to leave in a cab for the airport -- allegedly to fly home. Check in at your gate and then evaporate back into the terminal. Make your way out, pick up a rental car, and then come back for us." He poured himself another coffee, made a face, and added, "I haven't said anything before, but someone's out there. Watching us."
"Since when?" Drew asked.
"Since I dumped the car you arrived in. I thought I caught sight of someone, when I came back. So, I've been keeping an eye out. And I'm sure we're being watched."
"Then you can't let Ruth leave alone," Beth protested.
"I'm pretty sure we can. Whoever it is wants you. Andrew and I might be taken out as collateral damage, but they don't want Ruth. If it looks like she's leaving for London, I think they'll just let her go."
"Okay, so she leaves for the airport. Goes into the terminal, goes through your charade and even checks in for her flight, before she brings a rental car. As soon as she shows up back here, they'll spot her."
"Yes...well," Jack said, "you'd probably be right -- if she was coming back here. But she's not."
*****
An hour later, a taxi pulled up in the street in front of Jack's house, stopped, and honked its horn. Ruth came out, carrying a jacket, purse and her ever present, rather large tote bag. Jack followed behind, closely, carrying two modest suitcases.
As the cab driver dealt with the luggage, Ruth and Jack said a rather exaggerated and noisy good bye. Then he helped her into the backseat, and kissed her several times through the open car window.
And, as the cab drew away from the curb, Jack called out, in a loud voice, "Be sure to call me when you get back home, Sweetheart. And don't worry about the time difference between here and London. Have a good flight. Be safe. I love you."
He waved until the taxi turned the corner. Then he ran up the steps and slammed the front door closed.
/> *****
"Okay," Jack said, rubbing his hands with glee. "Our little shadow witnessed our touching good byes. I still can't be sure there's more than the one, but I'm sure he thinks we're going to do something, now that Ruth's gone."
"Well, I'm packed. And, I've packed a tote with the bottles of water left over from the other night, and the few snacks I could find. You do realize that Ruth and I are going to want to stop for bathroom breaks, don't you?"
"That's the trouble with playing with girls, huh Andy?" Jack said, playfully. "They always want running water and warm food."
"And jewelry," Beth added. "Don't forget about the jewelry."
"The real trouble is," Drew piped in, "that we really enjoy playing with them; and they use that to their advantage." Then he leered at Beth and said, "Just think, Beth, we get to make out in the back seat for nearly six hours."
"Andrew!"
"Damn! I hadn't thought of that," Jack said. "You get all the fun, while I do all the work. How typical of you MI-6ers. And, it's not even our NOC list."
"You don't have any reason to be jealous, Jack. Andrew will be on his best behavior. Besides, he's still got a clipped wing, and I'll be on that side of him."
"Unfair!" Andrew cried out, dramatically.
"All right, campers," Jack said. "Follow me. Andy, you take your case. Beth, you take your purse and the tote, and I'll take the two other suitcases."
"Wait," Beth said. "I think we should change Drew's bandage before we leave."
The men stopped, looked at each other, and then at her. Finally, Drew conceded, "She's probably right. It will only take a minute." However, then he added, "But, Jack can do it."
Beth followed them as they filed into the bathroom. Drew sat down and unbuttoned his shirt, while Jack pulled out two of the butterfly bandages from the box the doctor had left.
Drew bared his shoulder, allowed Jack to yank off the two used bandages, and then turned slightly -- away from Beth.
Duty With Honor Book Five: An Unexpected Pause Page 26
