"Signora, what is wrong?" Jon asked the moment Signora Lina di LiCossa and
her daughter walked into the lobby. Her eyes were red, and she wasn't
coming in the resort's entrance berating the bellhops and demanding her
darling Jonathan right away.
"Oh, Jonathan," she sniffed in heavily accented English. "It is awful, simply terrible."
He immediately took her by the arm and led her into a small sitting room, signaling for one of the desk people to come over. He asked her to bring them some tea, and she did so quickly while the lady began to cry. Jon knew his regular clientele quite well, and knew exactly how to handle them based on their individual vagrancies.
"There, there," he soothed, handing her a handkerchief. She mopped her face with it as the desk clerk brought in a tea set quickly. "It cannot be so bad. Do not cry, my lady. Tell me all about it and I shall make it all better." The dowager Contessa was the type of woman that liked her men to be take-charge and promise to take care of things. He patted her arm gently, waiting for her to calm down and tell him what the matter was.
"We were robbed!" she cried. "The Jewels of Isabella are lost to us forever!"
Jon blinked. Someone actually managed to take off with that necklace? He had seen it a few times and it was gorgeous, a tempting target for any thief. But he didn't know who could have broke into that kind of security and not get caught.
"What happened?" he asked, giving her a cup of tea.
She took a sip, calming down a bit. "The other night. Oh, it was awful. There were two of them, and one attacked Luisa in the hall. Poor dear was terrified, and when Marco tried to stop that creature from escaping, he nearly hospitalized him."
"She," a feminine voice corrected, her English much easier on the ear. Jon looked up to see Signora di LiCossa's daughter standing at the door. She raked her fingers through her long dark hair and then glided to the chair near her mother. "I am positive that the person that ran into me was a she." She noted Jon's raised eyebrows. "I know that they are all saying that only a man could have inflicted such a beating on Marco, and they think it was a small man, but I believe it was a woman."
"Luisa," her mother replied, "you know that Marco is a very strong man. He can lift you with one hand. Besides, there is no human on earth, male or female that can jump out of that window and run away." She looked back at Jon. "The police are baffled. They think it must be some kind of robot, but they don't know of anyone who can make such a device. And then there were the sound tapes that were captured. They sounded like people talking, but it is impossible for people to do as they did." She sighed, taking another drink, and then letting out a small sob. "Right now my children's ancestress' necklace is probably gracing the neck of some harlot!"
"What is so odd about whoever it was jumping through a window?" Jonathan asked. It would seem reasonable that they would try to escape like that. And there were women that could take out men. Not necessarily the genetically enhanced type either. Janice could open a can of whoop-ass when she was in the mood.
"It was from three stories up," Luisa explained. She was pouring herself a cup of tea and didn't notice Jon flinch. No way. There was no way. They had to be mistaken, or there was a rope or something that they didn't see.
"You're sure about that?" he asked. "That sounds rather amazing."
"We have it on tape," came the cool reply. Luisa smiled at him. "They had the security video under their control. It was quite brilliant really, but Antonio has gotten into astronomy lately. He had a camera mounted on one of the security lights. When it changed position to focus on the house, we got a very good image of what happened. There is no doubt. If it was a robot, it was designed to do exactly as it did."
Or you have a couple of people with hyped-up genetics, Jon thought. "Do the police have any leads?" he asked, hoping there was the right mix of concern and casual in there.
Signora di LiCossa let out a rather unladylike snort. "Police! What do they know? They look for clues where there are none. They think people like this will leave fingerprints? Ha! I say that we hire our own detectives, but my son, he is more stubborn than a mule. He says that he will take care of things himself." There was an unusual fire in her eyes as she showed rare anger at her son.
"Antonio is very distressed as well," Luisa explained. "You see, he was in the woods that night, and came across the person that must have been in charge of…who or whatever stole the Jewels of Isabella. Whoever it was hit him in the head and knocked him out for a bit. I think it is now quite personal to him since he feels that he could have stopped them, but didn't."
"We should hire our own people," her mother protested angrily. "Antonio tells us that we must go on our trip as planned. We were delayed a day since the plane had trouble, but he says that we need to get away and practically orders me to leave my own home. I tell him that Helena told me that if we want anything found, we hire the American firm, Carl Pilchard, and get his Special Investigator. He says he will do it himself and packs us off."
"Mother," Luisa said calmly, "Antonio will calm down and hire professionals soon. He needs a day or two to think it over. We will get the Jewels back, I know that." She stood. "I shall go see to our suite now, and I think perhaps Antonio's advice is sound. We will do as we do every year, and not let these beastly people defeat us." She slipped out the door and headed to the grand spiral staircase.
A crafty gleam entered Signora di LiCossa's eye as she watched her daughter depart. "I have a copy of the tape," she said quietly to Jonathan. Over the years, he had developed a reputation that he repeated nothing to anyone. Now all of his clients told him all sorts of details he would actually prefer to not know. Oh well. This time it might prove to be interesting. "If my son does not come to his senses quickly, I shall take action on my own," she declared defiantly.
"Would you mind if I saw it?" Jon asked conspiratorially.
"Of course not," she replied. "Perhaps you can make some sense out of it. You have more intelligence than the whole of the police put together."
They went into Jon's office, and she produced the tape from the giant purse she was carrying on her arm. He put it into a player, his eyes widening as he watched the black and white images. It was rather fuzzy, but the situation was obvious. There wasn't any sound, but all of a sudden, someone went flying headfirst through the window. The intruder fell all three stories, and landed easily. She glanced up at the window for a second, and then someone else came running out, and they took off together into the woods. For a second, Jon was too stunned to speak. He was willing to bet that by the time they were at the edge of the camera's range, they were running almost too fast to be seen by the naked eye. But who? None of them were hard up for money. He knew what he needed to do.
"My lady," he said finally. "I may know someone that can help." She raised a dark eyebrow in question. "You mustn't say anything though. She's not Carl Pilchard's Special Investigator, but she is his daughter, and trust me, there are certain traits that run in the family."
She gasped in surprise. "You really know him? Nobody knows him!"
Jon grinned. "His daughter and I were very close when we were in school, before we went to college. Would you mind if I copied this and showed it to her? She may have some ideas or know if such a pair were operating in America as well."
The Signora stood. "You may do anything you wish if it might help catch these criminals." She smiled. "I feel so much better now. I think I shall join my daughter. Good evening, Jonathan."
"Good evening, Signora," Jon replied, standing as well.
She left, and he rewound the tape. He needed to get this onto his computer so that he could send it to Heather. Who could it be? Taylor and maybe Tyler? They were close. No, Taylor was in New York, getting ready to open as Clara in "The Nutcracker". Janna wouldn't be able to do that jump. Who could? Liz? Nah. She could, but why would she take such a risk. One of Zane's halflings seemed more likely. His kid, Breeanne, had shown with the ability to move like her Daddy.
There was a knock on the door, and it swung open before he could even say to come in. Jon grinned as Katie swept into the office in her usual grand manner. "Jonathan!" she squealed, throwing herself in his arms. He responded with an enthusiastic welcome back kiss. It would be welcome home, but she had been there maybe a total of four months out of the year and a half that they had been together. It was more of a visit before she had to take off for another shoot again.
"I wasn't expecting you for another couple of days," Jon said. Katie smiled in that sweet way that was what had made her such a star in the modeling world. There was hardly a fashion magazine now that didn't have at least one picture of Katie Raye in it somewhere. She had that look that was sexy, yet innocent with her flowing blonde hair and blue eyes. She was a pageant winner, and would have gone to the Miss America contest, but got a contract for a modeling job, and had ended up in the forefront of the most cutthroat business ever created.
"We got done a little early, and I just couldn't stand the thought of staying away from you another day," she replied, giving him another kiss. She had been doing a shoot for a swimsuit magazine.
"I think I might get the cover!" she said excitedly when their kiss broke. "My agent says that if I do, then he's got a calendar deal in the bag. And if I get a calendar then there's this makeup company that will want me to be their spokeswoman and make some commercials for them."
"You're not going all Hollywood on me?" Jon teased. She was fun to have around. Not to mention the fact that every guy dreams of dating a supermodel. How many of them got the chance to actually do it? Katie wasn't exactly marriage and family material, but she was great to have around. Who knew? It might go further one day.
"I'll still be all yours," she replied, luxuriating in his arms. She could imagine them together when her commercials finally turned into her big movie break. Not a movie of the week, but something for the big screen. He'd look so dapper in a tux as they went to the premier, no, the Academy Awards ceremony where she was nominated for best actress. With his dark blonde good looks, they were such a matched pair. And he was so sweet and wonderful.
"Well, I have to get things ready for dinner tonight," he said. He liked having dinner in the grand dining hall with his guests. It added that personal touch that meant so much. "Would you like to join me?"
"I think maybe I'll just nap in our suite for a bit, and wait for you," she replied, with a sexy little smile. Jon gave her another kiss and let her go. There was another large perk to being with Katie. She might be slightly annoying at times, and not the greatest conversationalist, but she had some extraordinarily redeeming qualities when they were alone together.
Jon patted her on the rear and sent her on her way. He sat back down at his desk and finished transferring the di LiCossa tape to his computer. Heather had just sent him her new phone number. She had just moved into her place a day or two ago actually. Timing was good it would seem. Of course, with them, timing was always slightly off. He sighed. No, that was long, long ago. It was better that they had decided to remain friends rather than hurt each other with an impossible relationship.
It had been hard at first. He could still remember the week before they were going to leave for college. She was going to Harvard, and he was heading to Berkley. They both knew this conversation was coming, and had tried holding off as long as possible, but it was time. A four-year long distance romance wasn't going to work, and then there was the fact that she wanted to go into the FBI and he wanted to stick with skiing. He had been injured in an accident the year before, and professional skiing was now out of the question, but he was toying with the idea of running a place of his own.
They had talked for hours, and in the end, realized that this had to be the end. Heather had started to cry and said that she didn't want to lose her best friend. Neither did he. They swore that they would stay friends, and then they had made love one last time, and then that was it. He saw her for a minute at the airport when she left for Boston, and it nearly killed him to let her go. It was still tough at Christmas, but not as bad. By the next summer, he had actually started casually dating again, and he and Heather weren't as tense when they spoke anymore. Time passed, and they actually kept the friendship that they had. Now, they didn't talk as much before since they were both rather busy people, but they had kept as close as they could under the circumstances.
He dialed her number quickly, grumbling with frustration when her machine picked up. "If you know who this is, you know what to do and when to do it," her voice piped up. Dammit. She better not be off doing FBI stuff. They had talked a few days before when she gave him her new number, and she said that she was about to graduate from HRT training and was going to have a couple of weeks off. Actually, she had decided to add a week to that and take her first real vacation since she had joined the FBI and spend the holidays with her family. Jon looked at the video images again. Yeah, she had some serious family issues to be taking care of now.
"Heather, it's Jon," he said quickly. It was odd calling himself Jon out loud. She was still the only person that he ever allowed to call him that. "Listen, I need to talk to you, ASAP. The minute you get home, call me, and don't worry about the time. This is really important, and I need you to call me right away."
He hung up. She better get home soon. Whoever was on that fuzzy video, they had to be a relative somewhere down the line. He had a feeling it would be much better for her to get a hold of them rather than some pissed Italian nobility. He thought about Heather's parents. Then again, maybe not.
"Oh, Jonathan," she sniffed in heavily accented English. "It is awful, simply terrible."
He immediately took her by the arm and led her into a small sitting room, signaling for one of the desk people to come over. He asked her to bring them some tea, and she did so quickly while the lady began to cry. Jon knew his regular clientele quite well, and knew exactly how to handle them based on their individual vagrancies.
"There, there," he soothed, handing her a handkerchief. She mopped her face with it as the desk clerk brought in a tea set quickly. "It cannot be so bad. Do not cry, my lady. Tell me all about it and I shall make it all better." The dowager Contessa was the type of woman that liked her men to be take-charge and promise to take care of things. He patted her arm gently, waiting for her to calm down and tell him what the matter was.
"We were robbed!" she cried. "The Jewels of Isabella are lost to us forever!"
Jon blinked. Someone actually managed to take off with that necklace? He had seen it a few times and it was gorgeous, a tempting target for any thief. But he didn't know who could have broke into that kind of security and not get caught.
"What happened?" he asked, giving her a cup of tea.
She took a sip, calming down a bit. "The other night. Oh, it was awful. There were two of them, and one attacked Luisa in the hall. Poor dear was terrified, and when Marco tried to stop that creature from escaping, he nearly hospitalized him."
"She," a feminine voice corrected, her English much easier on the ear. Jon looked up to see Signora di LiCossa's daughter standing at the door. She raked her fingers through her long dark hair and then glided to the chair near her mother. "I am positive that the person that ran into me was a she." She noted Jon's raised eyebrows. "I know that they are all saying that only a man could have inflicted such a beating on Marco, and they think it was a small man, but I believe it was a woman."
"Luisa," her mother replied, "you know that Marco is a very strong man. He can lift you with one hand. Besides, there is no human on earth, male or female that can jump out of that window and run away." She looked back at Jon. "The police are baffled. They think it must be some kind of robot, but they don't know of anyone who can make such a device. And then there were the sound tapes that were captured. They sounded like people talking, but it is impossible for people to do as they did." She sighed, taking another drink, and then letting out a small sob. "Right now my children's ancestress' necklace is probably gracing the neck of some harlot!"
"What is so odd about whoever it was jumping through a window?" Jonathan asked. It would seem reasonable that they would try to escape like that. And there were women that could take out men. Not necessarily the genetically enhanced type either. Janice could open a can of whoop-ass when she was in the mood.
"It was from three stories up," Luisa explained. She was pouring herself a cup of tea and didn't notice Jon flinch. No way. There was no way. They had to be mistaken, or there was a rope or something that they didn't see.
"You're sure about that?" he asked. "That sounds rather amazing."
"We have it on tape," came the cool reply. Luisa smiled at him. "They had the security video under their control. It was quite brilliant really, but Antonio has gotten into astronomy lately. He had a camera mounted on one of the security lights. When it changed position to focus on the house, we got a very good image of what happened. There is no doubt. If it was a robot, it was designed to do exactly as it did."
Or you have a couple of people with hyped-up genetics, Jon thought. "Do the police have any leads?" he asked, hoping there was the right mix of concern and casual in there.
Signora di LiCossa let out a rather unladylike snort. "Police! What do they know? They look for clues where there are none. They think people like this will leave fingerprints? Ha! I say that we hire our own detectives, but my son, he is more stubborn than a mule. He says that he will take care of things himself." There was an unusual fire in her eyes as she showed rare anger at her son.
"Antonio is very distressed as well," Luisa explained. "You see, he was in the woods that night, and came across the person that must have been in charge of…who or whatever stole the Jewels of Isabella. Whoever it was hit him in the head and knocked him out for a bit. I think it is now quite personal to him since he feels that he could have stopped them, but didn't."
"We should hire our own people," her mother protested angrily. "Antonio tells us that we must go on our trip as planned. We were delayed a day since the plane had trouble, but he says that we need to get away and practically orders me to leave my own home. I tell him that Helena told me that if we want anything found, we hire the American firm, Carl Pilchard, and get his Special Investigator. He says he will do it himself and packs us off."
"Mother," Luisa said calmly, "Antonio will calm down and hire professionals soon. He needs a day or two to think it over. We will get the Jewels back, I know that." She stood. "I shall go see to our suite now, and I think perhaps Antonio's advice is sound. We will do as we do every year, and not let these beastly people defeat us." She slipped out the door and headed to the grand spiral staircase.
A crafty gleam entered Signora di LiCossa's eye as she watched her daughter depart. "I have a copy of the tape," she said quietly to Jonathan. Over the years, he had developed a reputation that he repeated nothing to anyone. Now all of his clients told him all sorts of details he would actually prefer to not know. Oh well. This time it might prove to be interesting. "If my son does not come to his senses quickly, I shall take action on my own," she declared defiantly.
"Would you mind if I saw it?" Jon asked conspiratorially.
"Of course not," she replied. "Perhaps you can make some sense out of it. You have more intelligence than the whole of the police put together."
They went into Jon's office, and she produced the tape from the giant purse she was carrying on her arm. He put it into a player, his eyes widening as he watched the black and white images. It was rather fuzzy, but the situation was obvious. There wasn't any sound, but all of a sudden, someone went flying headfirst through the window. The intruder fell all three stories, and landed easily. She glanced up at the window for a second, and then someone else came running out, and they took off together into the woods. For a second, Jon was too stunned to speak. He was willing to bet that by the time they were at the edge of the camera's range, they were running almost too fast to be seen by the naked eye. But who? None of them were hard up for money. He knew what he needed to do.
"My lady," he said finally. "I may know someone that can help." She raised a dark eyebrow in question. "You mustn't say anything though. She's not Carl Pilchard's Special Investigator, but she is his daughter, and trust me, there are certain traits that run in the family."
She gasped in surprise. "You really know him? Nobody knows him!"
Jon grinned. "His daughter and I were very close when we were in school, before we went to college. Would you mind if I copied this and showed it to her? She may have some ideas or know if such a pair were operating in America as well."
The Signora stood. "You may do anything you wish if it might help catch these criminals." She smiled. "I feel so much better now. I think I shall join my daughter. Good evening, Jonathan."
"Good evening, Signora," Jon replied, standing as well.
She left, and he rewound the tape. He needed to get this onto his computer so that he could send it to Heather. Who could it be? Taylor and maybe Tyler? They were close. No, Taylor was in New York, getting ready to open as Clara in "The Nutcracker". Janna wouldn't be able to do that jump. Who could? Liz? Nah. She could, but why would she take such a risk. One of Zane's halflings seemed more likely. His kid, Breeanne, had shown with the ability to move like her Daddy.
There was a knock on the door, and it swung open before he could even say to come in. Jon grinned as Katie swept into the office in her usual grand manner. "Jonathan!" she squealed, throwing herself in his arms. He responded with an enthusiastic welcome back kiss. It would be welcome home, but she had been there maybe a total of four months out of the year and a half that they had been together. It was more of a visit before she had to take off for another shoot again.
"I wasn't expecting you for another couple of days," Jon said. Katie smiled in that sweet way that was what had made her such a star in the modeling world. There was hardly a fashion magazine now that didn't have at least one picture of Katie Raye in it somewhere. She had that look that was sexy, yet innocent with her flowing blonde hair and blue eyes. She was a pageant winner, and would have gone to the Miss America contest, but got a contract for a modeling job, and had ended up in the forefront of the most cutthroat business ever created.
"We got done a little early, and I just couldn't stand the thought of staying away from you another day," she replied, giving him another kiss. She had been doing a shoot for a swimsuit magazine.
"I think I might get the cover!" she said excitedly when their kiss broke. "My agent says that if I do, then he's got a calendar deal in the bag. And if I get a calendar then there's this makeup company that will want me to be their spokeswoman and make some commercials for them."
"You're not going all Hollywood on me?" Jon teased. She was fun to have around. Not to mention the fact that every guy dreams of dating a supermodel. How many of them got the chance to actually do it? Katie wasn't exactly marriage and family material, but she was great to have around. Who knew? It might go further one day.
"I'll still be all yours," she replied, luxuriating in his arms. She could imagine them together when her commercials finally turned into her big movie break. Not a movie of the week, but something for the big screen. He'd look so dapper in a tux as they went to the premier, no, the Academy Awards ceremony where she was nominated for best actress. With his dark blonde good looks, they were such a matched pair. And he was so sweet and wonderful.
"Well, I have to get things ready for dinner tonight," he said. He liked having dinner in the grand dining hall with his guests. It added that personal touch that meant so much. "Would you like to join me?"
"I think maybe I'll just nap in our suite for a bit, and wait for you," she replied, with a sexy little smile. Jon gave her another kiss and let her go. There was another large perk to being with Katie. She might be slightly annoying at times, and not the greatest conversationalist, but she had some extraordinarily redeeming qualities when they were alone together.
Jon patted her on the rear and sent her on her way. He sat back down at his desk and finished transferring the di LiCossa tape to his computer. Heather had just sent him her new phone number. She had just moved into her place a day or two ago actually. Timing was good it would seem. Of course, with them, timing was always slightly off. He sighed. No, that was long, long ago. It was better that they had decided to remain friends rather than hurt each other with an impossible relationship.
It had been hard at first. He could still remember the week before they were going to leave for college. She was going to Harvard, and he was heading to Berkley. They both knew this conversation was coming, and had tried holding off as long as possible, but it was time. A four-year long distance romance wasn't going to work, and then there was the fact that she wanted to go into the FBI and he wanted to stick with skiing. He had been injured in an accident the year before, and professional skiing was now out of the question, but he was toying with the idea of running a place of his own.
They had talked for hours, and in the end, realized that this had to be the end. Heather had started to cry and said that she didn't want to lose her best friend. Neither did he. They swore that they would stay friends, and then they had made love one last time, and then that was it. He saw her for a minute at the airport when she left for Boston, and it nearly killed him to let her go. It was still tough at Christmas, but not as bad. By the next summer, he had actually started casually dating again, and he and Heather weren't as tense when they spoke anymore. Time passed, and they actually kept the friendship that they had. Now, they didn't talk as much before since they were both rather busy people, but they had kept as close as they could under the circumstances.
He dialed her number quickly, grumbling with frustration when her machine picked up. "If you know who this is, you know what to do and when to do it," her voice piped up. Dammit. She better not be off doing FBI stuff. They had talked a few days before when she gave him her new number, and she said that she was about to graduate from HRT training and was going to have a couple of weeks off. Actually, she had decided to add a week to that and take her first real vacation since she had joined the FBI and spend the holidays with her family. Jon looked at the video images again. Yeah, she had some serious family issues to be taking care of now.
"Heather, it's Jon," he said quickly. It was odd calling himself Jon out loud. She was still the only person that he ever allowed to call him that. "Listen, I need to talk to you, ASAP. The minute you get home, call me, and don't worry about the time. This is really important, and I need you to call me right away."
He hung up. She better get home soon. Whoever was on that fuzzy video, they had to be a relative somewhere down the line. He had a feeling it would be much better for her to get a hold of them rather than some pissed Italian nobility. He thought about Heather's parents. Then again, maybe not.
