Wednesday, September 24
As promised, McShae pulled up in the moving van as I was touring the condo for the first time. It was more than adequate for the purpose it was to serve: two bedrooms, one bath, fireplace, and a wet bar for entertaining. I did feel that it was pricey, $1300 a month for what I was getting, but I wasn’t the one footing the bill.
After spending the next two hours lugging furniture up the interior stairs and setting up the rooms, we were left with boxes of ‘personal’ items. By that I, of course, mean the family pictures and other memorabilia that the boys in design had worked up the previous evening. I hadn’t seen them yet, but I knew I was sure to find several pictures of my beloved ‘sister’, Sherry.
I finally let myself wander around to get a feel for the layout, which was difficult. As Melissa would say, it had no sense of flow or feng something or the other. I realized as I scrutinized the less than adequate kitchen that having bad Chi was going to be the least of my problems with this place.
I had to admit that the furniture looked pretty damn good. It was the exact stuff that I would have chosen, had I been given a choice in matter. The living room was filled with two hunter green leather sofas and a matching recliner, a 32” T.V. in the entertainment center and tasteful pale green ceramic lamps on top of the walnut tables. There were a few well-placed family photos mixed around with the Monet artwork.
The master bedroom was black lacquer and brass. It was almost as though they read my mind and discovered my ex-wife forbid that sort of furniture, no matter how much I liked it. I thought the mirrored headboard was a little too bachelors pad for my taste, but I was the only one who would be seeing it so I let it go.
The second bedroom would be my office. It was a standard set-up: L-shaped computer desk with a hutch, file cabinets with special locks, and a torchierre lamp fitted with a hidden camera in the knob. My case files, as well as any evidence collected, would be kept in the filing cabinets and I had enough fake files to line the front in case I needed to explain what I did or look busy at a moment’s notice.
We broke for lunch around noon. Collin knew the area like the back of his hand. It turned out I lived minutes away from whatever food I wanted, which was good. I was an above average chef, but I hadn’t done much cooking since Melissa left. It wasn’t as much fun to spend all of the time in the kitchen to cook for one. Besides, something about the leftovers was depressing.
“So Caldwell, how long have you been with the Bureau anyways?”
“Six years.” I didn’t bother to look up from my sub sandwich. Food was the top priority for me, not making a new best friend. “How ‘bout you?”
“Six months,” he answered with pride in his voice.
Dammit! I knew he was still green. No wonder I had to fly all the way out here. If I hadn’t this operation would be doomed from the start with him at the helm. I just hoped the support team on this one was more experienced.
Out loud I said, “Six months, huh? What area did you come from?”
“Law Enforcement, of course. I was a Lieutenant with the Dallas PD. Where else would I have come from?”
“There are other specializations that people can come from, you know.”
I watched a smirk come across his face. “Oh, is that a fact? Where did you come from?”
“I have my Masters in Accounting. I was an auditor for a top D.C. bank when the Bureau recruited me.”
“How the hell does gawking at perky tellers all day lead to a career in intelligence?”
It figured that he would look at it that way. Only half my day was spent that way. The rest of it was spent trying to get them into the safe deposit box viewing rooms with me during their breaks – the one place in a bank that didn’t have surveillance. Good times. “Who do you think handles the financing for all of the operations that are underway?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought that all of the departments in the Bureau were interesting and… Oh, sorry.”
“It’s okay. I hate what I do. I keep waiting for an opening in Financial Crimes to come up.”
“Financial Crimes? You mean Bank Robbery, right? Why would you want to get into that?” McShae asked.
“My background is in banking, so it’s a natural progression for me.”
“Okay.”
I could tell what he was thinking by the glint in his eyes. I cut him off before he could say it.
“Look, McShae, I don’t think that I’m going to learn how to surf to catch the bad guys. I know that it wouldn’t be anything like that movie.”
“Good. You’re no Keanu Reeves,” he quipped.
“Well, let’s hope that I’m enough like him to get to the girl and catch the bad guy.”
McShae shook his head. “You’re one lucky bastard. The girl was the main reason I wanted to be undercover on this one.”
“Really?” I couldn’t figure out why he’d want her. “I don’t get it. She seems bland to me.”
His eyes sparkled. “Yeah, but the quiet ones are the freakiest in bed.”
He had a point. “That may be the case. I just really don’t want to pretend to care about kids’ books to get to her.”
“She might have something else to say. Anyway, we’d better go over your cover one more time,” his voice grew serious. “It’s unlikely you’ll be in the condo for long before you meet Trista or Jenna. You can’t slip or we’re finished. Jenna Monroe is a smart woman, even though she traded in her law books for picture books. If she senses something isn’t right about you, any chance of getting into her life will be gone.”
“McShae, I’ve got this down cold. I’m a management consultant for Innovative Management Consulting. I’ve been brought in because LifeTek, Inc. has hostilely taken over McConnell Systems. My job is to go over the books, look at current processes and make my recommendations about staffing to LifeTek.”
“Where are you from?”
“Virginia. I lived there with my parents until I went to the University of Maryland. Right before graduation, I was recruited by Innovative.”
“Have you ever been married?”
“Yes, shit, I mean no.” I shot him a quizzical look. “Does that even matter?”
“Only if you forget which version you’ve been selling. I think we need to spend more time on this.”
I hated that he was right.
© 2009, Sydney Katt. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use of content will result in dragon attacks.
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