Mr. And Miss Anonymous

by Fern Michaels

  Security followed what became known as the “Kelly party” out of the airport. At least that’s how it was reported on the evening news. If Peter Aaron Kelly went to the drugstore, it was news. If he went on a plane trip, the stock market went wild wondering what he was up to. Suddenly, Lily was in awe of the man at her side.

  Outside the airport, a caravan of four Hummers was waiting. Three contained PAK Industries security. Zolly had his own Hummer, which was the third car in line. Pete, Lily, and Winston climbed into the second Hummer, and they were off.

  Winston barked his pleasure as he tugged at his seat belt.

  “I taught him to do that,” Pete said proudly. “And he’s only two years old. I had his parents, but they…they got old and went peacefully in their sleep. I have a whole menagerie back in Georgia.”

  Lily laughed as Winston kept slapping her hand with his paw. “What other kind of animals do you have?” She wondered why she’d never gotten a pet.

  “I have a big old cat named Agatha. She just wandered by one day, decided she liked me, and stayed. She’s pretty much the boss. Winston treats her like a lady because she hisses at him. I have two Golden Retrievers named Jam and Jelly. They’re sisters from the same litter. They’re only a year old and they’ve already chewed through a couch, a chair, an air conditioner vent, and two door frames. They were working on the floor when I left. My house is definitely lived in, and not very pretty. A month ago someone dumped a basket of newborn pups in my driveway. I have that sort of thing going on all the time. But I have a nine-to-five vet seven days a week who keeps it all under control. I’m just a sucker for animals. I could never turn one away.” He looked over at Lily, and said, “I guess they’re the kids I never had.”

  Lily’s eyes filled. She dabbed at them. “Understood. At least you had the good sense to go for it. I never even had goldfish.”

  “I have those, too. I’ve even got a koi pond. You name it, and I have it. You have to come see for yourself.” Pete’s eyes bored into hers as he waited for her response.

  “If that’s an invitation, I accept. South Carolina is right next to Georgia.”

  Pete felt like pounding his chest. “I’ll send my plane for you when you’re ready.”

  Lily adjusted her hat and smiled. “I have my own plane, thank you very much. But with the cost of fuel these days, I’ll be glad to fly in yours. Why aren’t we looking at the stuff in the envelope?”

  “Because I can’t read in a moving vehicle. I get sick to my stomach.”

  “How weird. Me, too.”

  Pete felt like beating at his chest again. Instead, he leaned back and closed his eyes. “I’m thinking,” he said.

  “And I need to know this…why?”

  “When I think I don’t talk. I don’t want you to think I’m being rude.”

  “Oh,” was all Lily could think of to say. She, too, leaned back and closed her eyes, but unlike Pete, Lily fell asleep.

  The caravan of Hummers came to a stop under the portico of a secluded hotel. A doorman in a top hat and tails sprang to attention as bellmen hustled when he snapped his fingers. The man had arrived. At the foot of the long circular driveway, reporters and photographers with their zoom lenses snapped pictures and shouted questions, all of which Pete ignored.

  Within minutes, the Hummers were driven off and the guests shepherded to private villas at the back of the hotel. Pete looked around at the lush landscaping as he tried to gauge the privacy he always demanded when traveling. He made a mental note to send Millie some flowers to show his appreciation.

  Pete looked over at Lily, his eyes apologizing for the clamor below the driveway. “I guess I should have warned you about this, but I didn’t think… I should have known that somehow those guys would get wind of my travels. Tonight, they’ll have me trying to buy Microsoft, or Microsoft trying to buy me, or else I’ll be here to fight off some nonexistent legal battle. We might have to start some rumors if we have any hope of going off on our own. I’m sorry to say I didn’t think this through. Like you, I didn’t expect to see you at the airport, and I sure didn’t expect to see what we saw on the airport television screen. That’s another way of saying I need to fall back and regroup.

  “I hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty of getting you a villa. Well, I didn’t really get you one, I always book the suites on either side of me for privacy. You might want to have your secretary cancel your other accommodations. You aren’t upset, are you?”

  “No, not at all. I think we need to be close together. What I mean is…”

  “I know what you mean.” Pete laughed. “Okay, let’s settle in and see what kind of information my people sent me. Then we’ll make a plan. Does that work for you?”

  Lily looked up at the tall man standing in front of her. She smiled. He smiled. I think I like this guy, Lily thought. A lot. “Definitely.”

  Pete smacked his hands together. He reached out his hands to squeeze her upper arms. “Good. I think we’re going to make a good team. In business it’s all about teamwork. I really like that hat.”

  Neither one moved. It was Zolly who poked his boss in the back. “I don’t like it when you stand out in the open so much, boss. Let’s move it inside. Sorry, miss.”

  “No problem.” Lily took a moment to wonder why she didn’t have security like Zolly. That was right up there with never even having goldfish. She moved off to enter the villa assigned to her.

  The high-priced villas—and it was easy to see that they were high-priced because while each was distinctive in its own way, all looked like a cozy cluster of Swiss chalets—were perfectly landscaped to afford the utmost in privacy. Inside, Lily looked around at a plush living room whose main focal point was a fieldstone fireplace that rose from the floor to the ceiling. The kitchen was state of the art, the dining room elegant yet homey. The two bedrooms sported king-size beds. The décor was citrus in nature with vibrant greens, oranges, and yellows. The two interconnecting bathrooms were marble, and mirrored from top to bottom. Five grand a night, Lily thought. Maybe more.

  Lily unpacked, hanging her clothes in a spacious closet before she laid out her cosmetics and toiletries on one of the marble vanities. With her chores completed, she opened the refrigerator and popped a cola. The huge basket of fruit sitting on the dining room table looked tempting, but she wasn’t all that fond of fruit, preferring candy, cookies, and anything else made with sugar. Instead, she opened the sliding door, to discover a garden so beautiful she gasped in delight. Colored lounge chairs circled a small table with a rainbow-striped umbrella. In the corner of the small sanctuary was a hot tub for two nestled among a kaleidoscope of colored flowers. Lily couldn’t ever remember seeing anything as pretty or as peaceful as this small private garden. She wondered if Pete’s patio was as nice. Probably nicer, she thought.

  Lily settled herself on one of the colored chairs as she sipped at the cola in her hands. How surreal this all was. In a million years she could never have hoped for this particular outcome, and yet here she was, and Pete Kelly was right next door. She pinched herself to prove she was awake and not dreaming. The thought occurred to her that she could duplicate this little slice of paradise at her residence in South Carolina. More likely than not, she’d never do it, and she’d never use it even if she did do it. Real life in South Carolina was a lot different from this.

  Pete Kelly wasn’t married. She wasn’t married. Pete Kelly had baggage just the way she had baggage. God, where was this all going to end? Would it end?

  Lily heard the delightful chime when the front door to the chalet opened, but she didn’t look up. She turned only when she saw Pete’s long shadow on the patio. “This is so nice, Pete. Thanks for including me.” She noticed that he, too, was holding a cola in his hand. She motioned for him to sit down on one of the colored chairs. “I love bright colors. The more vibrant the better.” Such brilliant conversation. What she really wanted to do was ask him if he was involved with anyone.

  “You don’t
mind if Winston joins us, do you?”

  “Not at all. I love dogs. I had a little furball when I was a kid. Unfortunately, she didn’t live all that long. I was so crushed when she died. I guess that’s why I never got another pet, the pain of losing her was too much to bear. With no parents around, my grandmother did her best to console me but it didn’t work. She bought me a stuffed dog. It wasn’t the same.”

  Pete sat down and stretched out his long legs. Lily smiled at the battered sneakers, lack of socks, and jeans so well worn they were threadbare at the knees. And this guy was a billionaire at least thirty times over. She was impressed.

  “So, what’s in the envelope? What’s our next move? You look…I don’t know…scared? Are you?” Lily asked in a jittery-sounding voice.

  Pete bit down on his lip and grimaced. He watched Winston check out the hot tub and the flowers before lying down, his huge head on his paws. “It’s not really a group home per se. It’s called the California Academy of Higher Learning. The names of the youngsters who…didn’t make it hadn’t been released when Marty sent off the packet of information because the media weren’t sure if there were parents that had to be notified. I just called him again, and their names have still not been released. The media is all over it. The two boys who escaped are almost eighteen years old. There’s an APB out on them. The boy, the one who looked like me, is named Josh Baer. The second boy is Jesse Rabe, and the shooter has not been identified. It seems this all happened at a midmorning break when the two teachers and all the students were in the same room.

  “And before you ask, no cell phones are allowed during school hours. It’s not a big school, just ninth through twelfth grades. Grades nine through eleven left early on a field trip that was scheduled months ago. The intercom system was deactivated, so someone had to have planned this and acted accordingly. In other words, the shooter had a plan and is detail-oriented. No motive has surfaced so far.”

  “Are there parents or aren’t there parents?”

  “I don’t know. Marty—who, by the way, is Marty Bronson, and is my right hand—said he would feed me information as he gets it. In case you haven’t noticed, this delightful hotel does not have televisions in the villas. My people know how much I hate television and never watch it, so they took that into consideration when they booked these villas. Right now, I would kill for a TV.”

  “Then why don’t we go someplace that has television? Aren’t you a computer guru? Can’t you bring it up on your laptop?”

  “I didn’t bring it with me, Lily. Come on, let’s go. I’ll find us a place even if it’s some sports bar. I could use a drink anyway.”

  Winston was already inside by the time Lily got to her feet. “I don’t have a good feeling about this, Pete.”

  “I don’t either, Lily.”

  Chapter 5

  Her nerve endings twanging all over her body, Lily was about to exit her villa when she heard Pete and Zolly. It sounded like they were right outside. Unashamedly, she pressed her ear to the door and listened to the muted conversation she could barely hear.

  Zolly scratched at his bald head, his brow furrowed. “Boss, is something going on here I don’t know about? You know the rules, so let’s hear it. I also want you to tell me, do you and the lady inside this villa have some kind of history together? It reads like you do.”

  A history. Well, that was one way of putting it. Lily pressed her ear harder against the door to hear Pete’s reply.

  “In a manner of speaking. A very short-lived history. It’s personal, Zolly, so don’t go reading something into this that isn’t there. Lily and I met by accident at the airport, and since we were going to the same fund-raiser at our old alma mater, it made sense to invite her here so we could catch up on… This is none of your business, Zolly.”

  “Everything you do is my business, boss. Don’t fight me on this, or we’re going to have sharp words. Like I said, you know the rules. I’ll stay out of your way. Just to keep you in the loop, I ran a background check on your friend.” The security guard jerked his head in the direction of Lily’s villa to indicate she was the one he ran the check on.

  On the other side of the door, Lily heard Pete groan.

  “Boss, the good news is, I think it’s safe to say she isn’t after your money, chance meeting or not. She’s got quite a pile of her own. A really, really big pile. She’s not in your league, but she’s damn close. Her kids’ clothes, they call them her ‘dee-zines,’ win prizes in the garment business. Her creds are five-star.”

  “I don’t care about that, and you had no business doing that check without my authorization. She’s a friend. I hate when you pull this shit, Zolly. Dammit, what if she finds out?”

  “I was discreet, boss. The rules say I check everyone you come in contact with.”

  Grinning from ear to ear, Lily jumped away from the door when she heard a rat-a-tat-tat knock. She moved farther into the room and shouted so her voice would carry through the door. “Be right there!”

  Lily stepped out into warm, golden sunshine. Winston sidled up next to her, hoping for a pat on the head. She did better than that. She dropped to her haunches so that she was eye level with the huge dog. She rubbed his belly, his rump—the only place he couldn’t scratch himself—and tickled his ears. Then she nuzzled him, nose to nose. When she was upright again, she knew she’d made a friend for life. A four-legged friend.

  Winston was in love.

  Pete smiled and smiled as he ushered her forward to a black Chevy Suburban that was waiting under the portico. “We have to do this, switch up vehicles, from time to time when the press gets obnoxious.”

  Lily didn’t know what to say, so she just nodded as she climbed into the huge vehicle.

  “Where are we going?”

  Pete threw his hands in the air. “To that place you and I spent hundreds of hours in a lifetime ago. The Berkeley Library. We’ll use their computers.”

  “Great idea. Any updates?”

  “No. We’re going to have to make our own updates. All I need is a computer, and if there’s something out there, I’ll find it. You aren’t having second thoughts, are you?”

  She rather thought she was having second thoughts, but her answer didn’t betray that indecision. “No, not at all. Maybe we should get a newspaper. Do you have the power to authorize a stop at some convenience store to get one?” Lily let loose with a giggle to show she was teasing. She tried to remember the last time she’d giggled over anything. In the end she gave up, then laughed outright when the Suburban pulled to the curb.

  Zolly hopped out and was back within minutes, his arms full of newspapers. Winston took that moment to unbuckle his seat belt to barrel to the back, where he sat at Lily’s feet to gaze up at her adoringly.

  Lily stroked the big dog’s head as Pete divvied up the papers. “We can read them in the library. I think my dog likes you. He hasn’t been around women much except for my housekeeper. Up till now I would have said the only people he likes are me and Zolly.”

  The GPS on the dashboard came to life as it told Zolly where to turn and where to park. Pete leaned toward the window. “It looks the same,” he said quietly.

  “Nothing is the same,” Lily said flatly. “Nothing,” she said adamantly.

  There was nothing for Pete to say, so he remained quiet. The moment the Suburban came to a stop, he hopped out to hold the door for Lily. He offered his hand. She took it and jumped to the ground.

  Suddenly she was surrounded by a group of men that Pete seemed to know. Security.

  “See you, big guy,” Pete said, tussling with the shepherd for a minute.

  Winston growled to show his displeasure until Lily turned to hug him. He settled down immediately, to Pete’s chagrin.

  They moved off, one of the security detail staying with Winston, Zolly in the lead. Once inside the library, he would discreetly move away, the other security scattering to keep their eyes on the boss and his companion.

  Lily looked around. Pete
was right, she’d spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in the library. It looked the same, and yet it looked different. Possibly it was the shrubs and the trees on the outside. Maybe it was the ivy growing up the brick walls. She shivered when she entered the quiet building. How young the students looked, bent over tables, books open in front of them. A long time ago she had looked just like them. Once she had loved this place. So long ago. She sniffed the familiar smell of books, waxed floors, and dust on the windowsills. A lifetime ago, just for fun, she’d traced her name in the dust on one of the windowsills. For one wild moment she felt like doing it again. That, she told herself, would be regressing, and she really needed to move forward.

  To Lily’s surprise, no one so much as looked at either her or Pete. All this macho security, and none of the students cared about Pete Kelly. Shrugging, she followed Pete to the computer area. He logged them both on, then nodded to the newspapers, indicating Lily should go through them. She moved off to the side of the long table to spread out the papers. Nothing on page one. That was strange. Normally the media ran with anything involving children. She quickly scanned the rest of the papers to find the story relegated to page two in most of them. Beyond strange. Two young boys gone missing, eleven others dead, and it was on page two! She stared down at a small picture of the two missing boys. No mention of parents.

  Lily leaned over and whispered her findings to Pete. “Page two?” he hissed. Pete frowned. “I bet the FBI put a lid on it. That’s the only thing that makes sense to me.”

  “Yes, page two. No mention of parents. Two boys missing, and it’s four lines. Two very, very small pictures of the missing boys. I don’t get it. Have you had any luck?”

  “About the same as you. It was a massacre, and they’re playing it down for some reason. I suppose it could have something to do with the missing boys, but I don’t understand what it could be. No, it’s got to be the FBI in charge. They like to be in control and keep things close to the vest. They aren’t saying if the shooter was one of the kids or a stranger. Maybe a disgruntled staff member. If it’s not the FBI, then there must be some big money involved in the academy to keep it this buttoned-up. Let’s see if we can find out who owns the California Academy of Higher Learning. I’m not hopeful we’re going to find out anything since we don’t have the proper software. I’m going outside to call my office. See what you can find out about the working staff.”