A.N. Thank you Gemma, Colleen, Liysyl, Gabyhyatt, Happy Lizzy, Joan. Big hugs to you all! We are still in the future. Happy Reading!
Chapter 22
"Please excuse us for a second," Lucy came by Darcy's side and guided Elizabeth and him away from Miss Collins and the Deputy Police Chief. Hannah remained with them.
When the travellers were far away enough, Elizabeth said in a low voice. "I could not believe my eyes. How could the Colonel's descendent be in love with such a woman? Mary and Richard would be furious when they heard about it. What the world are we in for that…woman to be attired in that fashion and dared to appear in such a company? It is entirely disrespectful and shameful. And she is a Miss Collins, do you think she is descendent of that evil Mr. Collins?"
Darcy did not like to see Elizabeth this upset. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and gently rubbed his hand along her arm to calm her down.
"Collins is quite a common surname. There is no reason to believe she is related to Aunt's pastor. Pray keep calm, Elizabeth. We do not want Lucy to miss this historical moment. I can see that the new President and his wife have come out."
"Oh, yes, I am sorry, Lucy," Elizabeth said.
"You have no need to apologize. I understand your sentiment. I am quite scandalized by Carlina Collins's dress as well. But let us enjoy the moment from here. We do not need to socialize with her. I think Hannah is smart enough to know we have issues with that woman and will keep her away from us until it is time to depart."
Elizabeth nodded her head and they did just that. They clapped and cheered loudly as most of the people attending the event did. When President Obama and his wife danced and when the music continued after they left, Lucy swaged to the music. She took Darcy and Elizabeth's hands and twirled them around from time to time. Darcy smiled at the enthusiasm of the two ladies. He looked around the huge assembly room and marveled at the advancement people achieved in the future. The lights, the music, the warmth generated not by fireplaces and the images on the so-called television made people's life so much easier than his time in England. And yet, he was not sure he would like to live in this world if there were a lot of Miss Collinses inhibiting it.
His musing was interrupted by the Deputy Police Chief. "You don't like my girlfriend?" Mr. Fitzwilliam came to join the travelers alone. Hannah was keeping company with Miss Collins from afar.
"We do not know each other well, Deputy Chief. Does my opinion matter?"
"Did you not find Carlina a sex bomb?"
"If Miss Collins were forced to wear the plain clothes of a servant, her body covered up entirely, her face free of the rouges, what can you find underneath her surface?"
"She has a smart mouth, money and many good connections. Isn't that enough?"
Darcy was exasperated with Joe's lack of foresight. A smart mouth could only mean a sharp tongue. If Mr. Fitzwilliam could only admire Miss Collins on that alone, it implied the woman did not have other worthy character traits. "What kind of connections does Miss Collins's possess?"
"Rich and famous politicians and celebrities. She may aid my career when the Police Commissioner's position comes up."
"What does Miss Collins want in return for connecting these people with you?"
The Deputy Chief seemed annoyed by Darcy's question. "Why would she want something in return? She loves me."
Darcy stared at him for a moment until Joe's eyes lowered. "Miss Collins did ask you for something." Darcy thought so as well. He had seen enough of mercenary ladies in London to understand Miss Collins. "What does she want?"
"She wants me to nominate her into the board of directors for D&H Foundation before we marry."
Over my dead body, Darcy thought with anger. "That is her ultimatum to you? A position in our board for her hand in marriage? In your heart, you must know that it is not the right decision to make."
"Don't be smart ass with me, Darcy. As you said, we don't know each other. I am considering it. Carlina graduated from an Ivy League school. She could handle the duties of our board very effectively."
"How long have you been considering Miss Collins's demand?"
"Her request, not demand. For a year."
"If it takes you this long, there must be something bothering you. You cannot have risen up the rank of Deputy Police Chief purely based on connections alone. Your police instinct must be telling you something is not right about Miss Collins."
"I don't know. She seems too keen on our disadvantaged youth programs. I told her I cannot invite her in, even if I want to, because I need your approval. I guess that was why her eyes lit up when she met you just now."
"Me? Do you really need my approval?" Darcy raised his eyes.
"I used you just to stall her. I didn't know you really exist or that you will come to D.C. one day."
"Why did you doubt my existence?"
"Grandpa and Father talked about our English cousins, the Darcys, enough for me to know there is a William Darcy and that you are supposedly living in the wild of Ghana. But there is not one photograph or even Wikipedia's entry about where or when you were born or educated. How can I not be curious or doubtful about you?"
"Your ancestors talked about me?"
"Your language, Darcy, it is so ancient! Anyway, Carlina persuaded me to visit Ghana last summer. I couldn't find any trace of you at the D&H Foundation office there or in the national park where you were rumoured to be living. Carlina was royally pissed during and after the trip. She doesn't like to stay in savage places in Africa, not to mention, my lack of communication with you. She accused me of misleading her regarding the approval I need to nominate her into the board. You put me in a pickle for a few weeks. I only got back into her good grace recently. I'm extremely tempted to get into the Interpol's database to search for information about you. You know, my specialty is cybersecurity and I've done my worth of hacking in my youth."
Darcy did not quite know some of the terms the Deputy Chief had used, such as Wikipedia and Interpol. But he understood enough to be alarmed by Miss Collins's obsession of him, or this William Darcy from Ghana. "Now that Miss Collins has met me, you believe she will be interested in presenting her case for board membership to me directly?"
The Deputy Chief shrugged his shoulders. "How would I know? I understand criminal minds more than that of a woman."
"Did you mean Miss Fisher's mind?" Elizabeth came by Darcy's side again, after Lucy had struck up a conversation with another guest.
"What did you mean?" Joe Fitzwilliam's voice pitched higher with alarm.
"Was Miss Fisher your…girlfriend…before Miss Collins?" Elizabeth said. Darcy was surprised by her speculation.
"My relationship with Hannah is history and none of your business!"
"Mr. Fitzwilliam…," Darcy was going to warn the Deputy Chief about his language but Elizabeth put her hand on Darcy's arm to calm him.
"I can see the hurt in Hannah's eyes when you slighted her beauty earlier," Elizabeth said. "Although I did not know you and her for long, I can see that Hannah is a much more worthy lady than Miss Collins."
"You can't judge Carlina just by the clothes she wore tonight. She doesn't normally dress like this."
"Then you admit she sometimes dresses like this." Elizabeth stared at Joe Fitzwilliam sternly. "Do you want Miss Collins to be the mother of your children? Do you want her to dress like this and take your children to stroll around town?"
"What if I don't want children?"
"It is not just her dress. The way Miss Collins ignored Lucy, Hannah and I and flirted with Mr. Darcy shamelessly spoke meanly of her character. Do you want her to flirt with every handsome friend of yours, or men on the road, with your children looking on?"
"You are only jealous of Carlina because she eyeballed Darcy. I better go back to her and take our leave. There are no pleasing people I don't know." The Deputy Chief turned and left for his girlfriend, pulling a reluctant Carlina away from Hannah and to the opposite side of the room.
"Eyeball? The language of the future! I hope Mr. Fitzwilliam will not rebel against our words and decide to marry Miss Collins instead." Darcy murmured.
"He is considering proposing to her?" Elizabeth said incredibly. Darcy explained Miss Collins's ultimatum.
"Let us talk to Hannah when we return. I worry about Miss Collins's interest in our Foundation."
Darcy smiled at Elizabeth adoringly. "I am happy that you called it 'our' Foundation. You will be a Darcy soon."
Hannah and the three travellers returned to Newton Street not long afterwards. She asked them if they would like a drink before they retired for the night. As the party of four was about to move from the main room for the kitchen, two dark figures emerged from nowhere.
"Don't move!" One of them cried out.
All four of them froze on the spot. "Tie up the women. We only need the man." The taller man told the shorter one. Both men had hoods over their heads and pistols in their hands. Darcy could only see their sinister eyes.
The shorter culprit grabbed Miss Fisher and pushed her to sit on a chair. He then thrust his pistol back into his pocket, took something like a tiny white rope out and tied Hannah's hands behind her back and legs to the chair. Darcy eyed the taller man who was standing near Lucy. He looked for something to use and laid eyes on a sword on display with the statue of an English soldier. He could grab it to disarm the taller man's pistol. But he needed Lucy, Elizabeth and Hannah to be alert to the danger of possible misfire from the guns of the two thugs. They needed to duck at the right time. Could he risk that?
Before Darcy could further think through the situation, Elizabeth groaned and dropped to her knees. Lucy immediately swung her modern reticule and hit the taller man squarely on the jaw when he was distracted.
The shorter man turned, ready to fish his gun out from his pocket and aimed at Lucy. But Elizabeth jumped from her kneeling position, raised her reticule and hit the shorter man. Darcy grabbed the sword from the museum display and thrust it through the taller man's hand, disarming his pistol. The thug cried out in pain. Lucy lunged toward the fly-away weapon, grabbed it, turned and aimed it at the taller man. "Do not move or I will shoot!"
Darcy turned his attention to the shorter man who was raising his hand to hit Elizabeth. He ran the sword through the man's shoulder, stopping the man's assault on Elizabeth. The man swore and shrieked in pain. His pistol slipped onto the floor. Darcy stepped on it and pushed it across to Elizabeth's feet. She picked it up, targeted it at the shorter man and echoed Lucy's voice. "Do not move or I will shoot!"
"Now, kneel on the floor with both your hands up!" Darcy instructed, with his sword guarding both men. Once the thugs were on the floor, he searched the men for the ropes. He found something short, nothing like a rope. Hannah called out to tell him how to use the 'cable ties'. He also pocketed two knives and cell phones before tying the men to the chairs. Lucy and Elizabeth lowered the pistols and help untie Hannah when Darcy had the two men secured. He then pulled away the men's hoods. They both looked fearsome and foreign.
"Who sent you here to kidnap me?" Darcy had his sword against the taller man's throat. The man clamped his mouth shut, not uttering a word.
"Let me, Sir," Hannah said as she grabbed the men's phones to check them. "Hmm, this password is very long." She pointed to the phone belonging to the taller criminal.
"Ah ha, this one is only four digit. Hmm, I bet it is 1234." The shorter man turned away his head to avoid Hannah's stare. "I'm in!" She smiled. "Let me see. There are several encrypted audio recordings. Perhaps they will give us a clue. Let me call the police and they will deal with them."
"Wait, Miss Fisher," Darcy said after a moment of hesitation. "Pray contact the Deputy Police Chief. Please ask him to come here, alone. Remind him not to tell anyone about his destination. I believe Mr. Fitzwilliam's specialist skill is needed here."
Hannah nodded her head immediately and placed the call from the museum's telephone.
"Are you hurt?" Darcy asked Lucy and Elizabeth and both women replied the negative.
"That was a courageous move, Lucy, but dangerous," Darcy commented. "The man had a pistol in his hand."
"Don't worry about me. I had been a slave and fended for myself for many years before I became a gentle citizen of Washington D.C. I would not take an unnecessary chance, especially with Hannah and Lizzy's here."
"What about you, Miss Elizabeth?"
"Lucy taught me self-defense skills when I was with her. She said it is a vital skill."
Darcy shook his head. He did not know if his sword was entirely necessary. He left the women to talk, walked to the display of the English soldier and read the description there. It was the sword of General Richard Fitzwilliam! Richard would have his last laugh when Darcy returned to his time to tell the Colonel about this. If only he could tell Richard about the fascination of time travel.
They waited for nearly three-quarters of an hour. Finally, someone pressed the bell. Hannah wanted to answer the door but Darcy asked her to let him do it. He walked to the front hall with his sword in his hand. On seeing the Deputy Chief there on his own. He let him in.
"Isn't the sword a museum piece? Why are you holding it? What is the matter? Hannah wouldn't tell me why I am needed here. Carlina is royally pissed that I couldn't see her home and that I wouldn't tell her where I'm going."
"Royally…pissed…seems to be Miss Collins's constant demeanour," Darcy commented. "We have two intruders here."
The Deputy Chief immediately turned serious, especially when Lucy handed him two pistols. "Have you called the police?"
"I bid Miss Fisher not to make the call yet. The men intended to kidnap me. She found some secret…recordings on these men's telephones. I would like to know their intention or the identity of their master, before talking to the authority."
"It is not the right procedure." Joe murmured but did not hesitate to accept the unlocked cell phone from Hannah. He asked her to boot up the office laptop. Darcy keenly observed how Miss Fisher 'boot up' the silver metal book called 'laptop'. Mr. Fitzwilliam connected the telephone using a white rope to the silver laptop, which looked like a bigger size telephone. It took the Deputy Police Chief half an hour to unlock the 'recordings'. Darcy watched in fascination with how Joe and Hannah interacted during the process. The last 'file' which was recorded about an hour before the party of four arrived back at D&H Foundation was short and cryptic: "Double the sweetness. Take the man to Hive LC. Take care of the women. Location: D&H Foundation,1630 Newton St, Washington, DC 20010." A photograph of Darcy in his tuxedo accompanied the message.
The message, spoken through a non-human mechanical voice, sent a chill down Darcy's spine. Whoever the master of the two thugs was intended to kill Elizabeth, Lucy and Hannah.
"Look at the angle of the photograph!" Lucy exclaimed. "I bet it was taken by Carlina Collins."
The Deputy Police Chief was startled by this speculation. He did not dispel Lucy's allegation. His lips thinned and he kept working on the laptop.
"I think these are financial transactions," the Deputy Police Chief said to Hannah.
"Definitely look like that," Hannah replied.
"I will need the baby at the station to unlock them. Let me call a squad car to take these two dudes back. Darcy, do you and your friends want to give the statement to our detectives at the station or here?"
Darcy was alarmed that Mr. Fitzwilliam already had a baby before he was married. Hannah, sensing Darcy's hesitation, took up the explanation. "The Deputy Police Chief refers to his huge computer system in the police station as his baby."
"What a relief!" Elizabeth said. "For a moment, I thought you had a child with the murderess, Mr. Fitzwilliam."
"Let us not jump to any conclusion, Miss Bennet. The murderer who hires these two kidnappers could just be any guest who stood right behind Carlina."
Darcy was not sure if he could trust the Deputy Police Chief with this investigation. Still, he had no intention of visiting the office of the policemen. He needed time to read about Ghana and the D&H Foundation if he was to be interrogated by men of authority. "The hour is late and we are quite weary from the encounter. Pray ask your…detectives to come tomorrow to take the statement. Miss Fisher, we bid you goodnight." Then without waiting to hear the Deputy Chief's protest, Darcy hurried Elizabeth and Lucy to go upstairs.
"Why did we not go to the police station with Mr. Fitzwilliam?" Elizabeth whispered to Darcy as they walked up the stairs hurriedly. "I want to learn how to fingerprint a criminal and their murder weapons, to help Mary's case."
Darcy explained the reason as they arrived in their room. Lucy nodded her head. Elizabeth invited Lucy into the sitting room of the bed-chamber to continue the discussion.
"Darcy is right," Lucy said. "It may create questions if the police cannot find any record of the three of us. We do not want them to detain us and miss returning to the cave in two days. I am certain that Hannah knows the modern fingerprinting method. Of course, you can also read up about fingerprinting from the library books Hannah stored in the telephone."
"You are quite right, Lucy," Elizabeth said. "Do you think the Deputy Police Chief will maintain his impartiality in this investigation? He seems not to have retained the use of his reason. His infatuation of Miss Collins is beyond comprehension."
"Oh, my Lord, what if Carlina Collins was sent by Mr. Collins from the past before his death, to kill Lizzy?" Lucy exclaimed.
"You mean Mr. Collins wants to keep me from knocking him unconscious at Oakham Mount, leaving him to be stabbed to death in 1811, by sending a murderess to 2009 to kill me!" Elizabeth cried out.
