20. Home Free

by Fern Michaels

  “Well, that certainly doesn’t sound encouraging,” Annie sniffed as she jabbed at the bright red buzzer on a keypad intercom. The sound emanating outward was like the sound of a swarm of bees circling overhead.

  Annie kept her finger on the buzzer until she heard a soft, cultured voice say, “I can’t release the lock until you take your thumb off the buzzer.”

  Annie looked like she’d been stung by one of the bees in the swarm. She jerked her hand away and stepped back. The sound of the lock releasing was so loud, it was almost deafening. Isabelle stepped forward and opened the door.

  The inside first floor served as a garage and storage. Two high-end cars, along with a Range Rover, were parked side by side. Inside a steel wire cage secured with a series of monster locks were wooden crates, which were stacked to the top of the cage. To the left was an elevator with a steel door so heavy that it took both Nikki and Kathryn to open it. They all stepped in, and Nikki pressed the button for the second floor. The elevator moved sluggishly until it slid gracefully into its perch. This time, Isabelle and Alexis moved the heavy iron grille.

  Abner Tookus, dressed in creased khakis and a Polo sweater the color of moonbeams, stood waiting for them. He motioned toward his pristine living room, where he again motioned for the women to take a seat. He himself perched on one of the stools in the bar area. He waited.

  Annie licked at her dry lips as she looked around. What she was seeing was not what she had expected. The truth was, she didn’t know what she had expected. Certainly not this clean-cut, preppy young man. Well, maybe he wasn’t that young and just looked boyish. The loft was decorated simply, all clean, sharp lines; comfortable furniture; pricey, colorful artwork on the walls; tongue-and-groove wood floor. But it was the fieldstone fireplace with a blazing fire that drew everyone’s eye. On the raised hearth, a Yorkshire terrier watched them without making a sound. Next to the small dog was a huge cat, whose fur was whiter than the snow outside. It had eyes greener than emeralds.

  Annie, for some reason, felt incredibly nervous and wasn’t sure why. She made the introductions. When she was finished with the introductions, she wound down by saying, “We need your help.”

  “Did Maggie send you here?”

  “Lord, no!” Annie blurted. “She did her best to talk us out of coming, but she did give up your address.” At Abner Tookus’s disbelieving expression, Annie’s own features turned sour. “It’s the truth. She did do her best to talk us out of coming here.”

  “What do you want?” Abner asked coldly.

  “To hire you. Why else do you think we would be here, and why else would we be at odds with Maggie over this visit?” Myra demanded.

  “I am no longer in that line of work. I retired. I work for IBM, and I was just about to leave for work.” He rose and headed toward the elevator. When he didn’t hear footsteps following him on the polished floor, he turned around and motioned to the elevator. He shrugged. “You can sit there all day if you want, but I’m going to work, and as I said, I can’t help you.”

  “Why not?” Nikki demanded. “Annie made you rich, and just because you and Maggie have a hate on for each other is no reason to turn your backs on the very people who made you rich enough that you could really retire at your age. We need your help, and we’re not budging.”

  The Sisters watched as Abner Tookus buttoned up a stylish navy cashmere jacket. He reached for a white scarf, which he wrapped around his neck. The last thing he did before pressing the button on the elevator was to whistle, two sharp sounds. The terrier looked up but didn’t move. The cat arched its back, then settled down as two huge Dobermans pranced into the room.

  “Guard!” Abner Tookus said.

  “Now, wait just a minute, Mr. Tookus. We came here in good faith. I guess Maggie was right. You are so blind with love for her, you can’t see straight. She said you would do this. Well, not the part about the dogs, but she said you were jealous enough that you would do something. I guess this means something,” Myra said, her eyes on the two dogs, who were eyeing them like they hadn’t eaten for a week.

  “Maggie actually said that?”

  Myra knew she’d stuck her foot in it, but it was too late to pull it out. “Ah, yes, she did, but we . . . we didn’t believe it. Did we, girls?”

  The Sisters nodded.

  “That’s why we’re here. If we’d believed her, we would never have come to enlist your help. And also to tell you, money is no object. Maybe there’s another warehouse you want to buy somewhere or, as I understand it, you are big on acquiring oceanfront property. We can make that happen for you.”

  Abner Tookus removed his scarf and jammed it into his pocket. He unbuttoned his jacket, but he didn’t take it off as he walked back to the living room and the stool he’d been sitting on earlier. He snapped his fingers twice, and the Dobermans headed down a well-lit hallway. “For the record, I am not, nor have I ever been, in love with Maggie Spritzer. What I have been is annoyed, frustrated, and angry at the way she does things with no regard for a person’s feelings. She’s a bully, she’s arrogant, she’s selfish, and I do not care to work for anyone who works with her.

  “I did not charge you for the last job I did that put my ass on the line for all of you. I could have gotten arrested and sent to jail for the rest of my life for that little caper. The only reason I did the job was because Maggie intimidated me by threatening to turn me over to the authorities. And she threatened the wrath of the vigilantes on me if I didn’t do what she said.” Abner laughed ruefully. “And here you are.”

  “Yes, Mr. Tookus, here we are. Sometimes, Maggie can be a bit overzealous. The information you garnered for us . . . Well, I’m sure you read the papers at the time and saw the result of your . . . ah . . . expertise. We . . . I . . . appreciate that you did it all gratis, which was not our intention. I respect that you were making a statement by tearing up that check, which could have bought at least a dozen more warehouses.

  “But that is not helping us now. We came here as . . . as a group, so to speak, to plead our cause and to ask you to please reconsider your stance. By the way, I happen to know you do not work for IBM on a nine-to-five basis. You do work for them on a consulting basis, and your time is your own. Right off the bat here you lied to us, when, as I said, we came here in good faith to hire you,” Annie said.

  Abner Tookus snorted. “You came here to hire me to do something illegal.”

  “Well, there is that,” Annie agreed.

  Chapter 16

  Isabelle wondered if she was the only one who could see the sadness and unhappiness in Abner Tookus’s eyes. She looked around and decided, yes, she was the only one seeing it. Maybe she was seeing it because she was the closest to the stool on which Abner was sitting. Something in her made her get up and walk over to the man. She looked straight at him and said, “I’m Isabelle. I’m an architect, and I want to tell you I have never seen anything as beautiful as this loft and what you did to it. Do you mind telling me who your architect was? I’d like to shake his hand.”

  Abner blinked as he focused on the woman standing in front of him. “I did it myself.” His voice was shy, soft, and gentle. “I worked on it for two years at night or when I wasn’t . . . doing other things. I did some of the electrical work, but I had to have a licensed electrician to get me up to code. I’m not a plumber, so I farmed that out. But otherwise, I did it all.”

  Isabelle smiled; she didn’t know why. She wanted to reach out and hug this shy, unhappy man and tell him everything was going to be all right. Instead, she said, “Well, anytime you need a job, call me. I’m in the book. I’d like a tour sometime, if it isn’t too much trouble.”

  Abner smiled, and the room seemed to suddenly fill with light. When he smiled, he looked just like Brad Pitt, Isabelle decided. Suddenly she felt flustered and didn’t know what to do.

  Annie saved the day when she asked, “So, will you help us?”

  “And if I don’t agree to help you, are you going to peel the s
kin off my body or hang me from a tree over a pond of alligators?”

  “No. We’ll just leave,” Myra said.

  Abner looked straight at Isabelle, who was still smiling self-consciously. “Tell me what you want first. Then I’ll decide if I want to help you or not.”

  “That’s fair,” Nikki said.

  His eyes still on Isabelle, Abner said, “I’m always fair. It’s always the other side that doesn’t live up to the agreement.”

  Myra cleared her throat. She fished around inside her bag and held out a piece of paper. “There are four names on this list. Adam Daniels, who is CIA, Barney Gray, who is FBI, Henry Maris from Homeland Security, and Matthew Logan from the Department of Justice. There is no one on this list from the National Security Agency. We don’t know if that’s important or not. We are not even sure what their job descriptions are in the agencies these men work for. We want a complete background check on them. From the day they were born until the present. All four men spent the Thanksgiving weekend at Camp David, as did Maggie Spritzer. Just so you know, Mr. Tookus.

  “We believe these men are involved in or control . . . ‘slush funds,’ for want of a better term, that these agencies use for . . . I guess covert operations. We want to know where those monies come from, where they are now, who controls them, and how much money is in those funds. Millions with an M or billions with a B. We want to know if there is just one huge fund or four small ones. I can’t define huge or small. There might even be others, for all we know. Is this something you think you can find out for us?”

  Abner’s expression was unreadable as he looked down at the paper in his hand, then at the Sisters, his gaze coming to rest on Isabelle. “I’ll let you know in forty-eight hours. How shall I get in touch with you?”

  Faster than lightning, Isabelle had her business card in her hand and held it out. “My cell phone number is on the back.”

  “And your fee will be what if you take the job?” Annie asked pointedly.

  Abner didn’t answer right away. He stared at the women for so long, they started to squirm in their seats. “My fee always depends on the amount of risk I’m taking and the hours I work. If you have a limit, tell me now, and I’ll tell you if I will consider it. Like I said, I’m always fair.”

  “There is no limit, Mr. Tookus,” Annie said. She stood and motioned for the others that this meeting was over. No one shook hands; no one said a word as they filed toward the elevator. Except for Isabelle, who hung back.

  No one was surprised to hear her say, “When would be a good time for a tour? My time is free pretty much from now till the first of the year.”

  “How about now?” Abner said, taking off his jacket.

  “I thought you had to go to work,” Isabelle said.

  Abner grinned. “I do, but I make my own hours. It isn’t often I get to show off my handyman expertise.”

  “I rode with the others. I didn’t come in my own car.”

  “I’ll drop you off wherever you want to go,” Abner said.

  Isabelle turned around, wiggled her eyebrows for the Sisters’ benefit, and said, “Go without me. Mr. Tookus is going to give me a tour and drop me off. See ya later.”

  “Whoa,” Kathryn said as they all piled into the elevator.

  “I think it’s a slam dunk,” Myra said happily. “Don’t you, Annie?”

  “Absolutely,” Annie said as the sluggish elevator descended to the first floor.

  “I wonder if what just happened falls into the category of a ‘Let me show you my etchings’ kind of thing. If I’m not mistaken, something just happened between Isabelle and our hacker. Did you guys notice it?” Nikki grinned.

  “Oh, yeah,” Alexis drawled.

  Upstairs, Isabelle followed Abner through the ten-thousand-square-foot loft that he had made habitable. All she could say over and over was, “This is magnificent.”

  The bedroom looked to Isabelle like something out of a movie. The walls were buff-colored; the floor was polished oak, the furniture simple but comfortable. A California king bed didn’t dwarf the room at all. The massive headboard was hand-carved teak, a true work of art. What really surprised her was the fireplace, almost a duplicate of the one in the living room. Sitting in a stand in the corner was a giant twelve-foot Christmas tree that had yet to be decorated.

  Abner noticed her surprise. “When I was a kid growing up in an orphanage, I always said I was going to have a Christmas tree in my bedroom so it would be the last thing I saw at night and the first thing I saw in the morning. Christmases in orphanages are not the things of good memories. And, I love the smell.”

  “You were an orphan?” Isabelle asked in surprise.

  Abner nodded.

  “I was, too,” Isabelle said. “Anna de Silva adopted me last year. Actually, she adopted all of us except Nikki, because Myra adopted her years and years ago. I hated Christmas!” she blurted.

  Abner laughed.

  Isabelle thought it one of the most endearing sounds she’d ever heard. She said so.

  Abner laughed again. “When you can laugh, that means life is good. But then I’ve laughed when life wasn’t so good, too. Out of frustration, I guess. Does that mean you yourself don’t laugh much?”

  “Yes and no. So how did you fall into your particular line of work when you can do stuff like this?” Isabelle said, waving her arm about.

  “This is a hobby. By the way, I own some property in Tennessee, and I’m building a cabin there. That’s where I plan to retire. When that will be, I don’t know. But to answer your question, I went to MIT and have master’s degrees in computer science, engineering, and business. I’ll officially have my doctorate in computer science next month, and you can then call me Dr. Tookus. I’m smart.” It was all said modestly, almost apologetically. “My parents must have been geniuses.”

  Isabelle was so impressed, she was temporarily at a loss for words. When she finally found her tongue, she said, “Did you ever try to find your parents?”

  “No. If they gave me up, why would they want me now to clutter up their lives? How about you?”

  “I did try but came up dry. Back then, it seemed to matter. Now it doesn’t. Aren’t you even a little bit curious, since you’re so smart and all? Wouldn’t you at least like to see them, even if it was from a distance?”

  “Maybe someday, but not now. Next on the tour, my prize. Drumroll . . . my bathroom. Ta da!” Abner said, waving his arms with a wide flourish.

  Isabelle gaped. In her life, she’d never seen such a glorious bathroom. It was a grotto, stone walls with water trickling over green moss down into a giant tub of water that resembled a minilake.

  Lighting was set deep in the ceiling and recessed in the far walls. The shower stall, with its thirty-seven jets, made her gasp, as did the carved vanity of exquisite marble. The Jacuzzi that could seat eight was flush with the floor. Blue water swirled.

  “It’s self-cleaning,” he said proudly. He opened the linen closet, and Isabelle stared. Shelves of fluffy towels, shelves of toiletries, shelves of soaps and shampoos. More than Walgreens stocked. “Skimpy, threadbare towels at the orphanage. We used soap to wash our hair, strong soap that could take the skin off your hands if you rubbed too hard.”

  Isabelle sighed. “I remember,” she said softly. “This is just a wild guess on my part, but I bet you have two freezers stocked to the brim and a refrigerator that is never empty and cabinets full of cookies and everything else under the sun.”

  Abner laughed again. “Yep.”

  “Tell me about this,” Isabelle said, pointing to the grass she was standing on.

  Abner laughed again. “My own bit of outdoors. It has four minidrains that go down to the first floor and the main drain. There’s a built-in minisprinkler. My lawn is boxed in, as you can see. There was no grass at the orphanage, just concrete.”

  Isabelle nodded. “Say no more. It’s all so beautiful. I just never saw a bathroom with a real grass floor. But I have to ask, are you happy here?�
��

  Abner’s eyes clouded over. “For the most part. It would be nice to share all this with someone someday. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, then I guess it isn’t meant to be. I’m so glad you like it. You’re the first person I’ve ever shown this to. I have a guest bathroom for company. I’m not sure why I showed it to you.”

  “Maybe because I’m an architect, and you knew I would appreciate it, which I do.”

  “I guess that’s it. Would you like to see my computer room?” When Isabelle nodded, Abner led her down a short hallway to what he referred to as his lair. He opened the door with another flourish, and Isabelle almost fainted. “It does have that effect on people.” Abner laughed.

  “It looks like something from a space station,” Isabelle said in awe. “And you use all of this in your line of work?”

  “Every last piece of equipment. The room is climate-controlled, just like my wine cellar, which I have yet to show you.”

  As Isabelle looked around, she felt annoyed with herself. “I’m not sure I could have designed this.”

  “I’m sure you could if your client told you exactly what he wanted. Everything you see was done to satisfy my particular wants and needs. I made it work for me. I hold classes here twice a week.”

  Isabelle gasped. “You mean you actually teach people how to hack?”

  Abner grinned. “You said it. I didn’t. I said I teach classes here twice a week. I didn’t say what kind of classes.” He looked down at his watch. “I really have to go, Isabelle. Tell me where I can drop you off.”

  “If it’s not out of your way, you can drop me off at the Galleria. I have some shopping I need to do.”

  “On my way.”

  Back in the family area, Abner shrugged into his jacket and threw his scarf around his neck. Abner held Isabelle’s coat for her. He was so close, she could smell his aftershave. A scent she liked, earthy and pungent.

  “So are you going to help us or not?” she asked.