Chapter 24 --- Leprechauns, Oak Trees And Todd Eule
The doorbell was being rung so rapidly that it almost sounded like one long note. Then the knocking began, hard and loud.
Sarah flipped the TV over to the door monitor input screen. "I don't know him do you?" The handgun that had appeared in Karen's hand was answer enough for Sarah.
"He looks like a leprechaun on speed."
Moving to the intercom box, Sarah frowns and pushes the 'talk' button, "Hello?"
Jerking around and looking back and forth, back and forth, the stranger finally spies the intercom box. "Diane, it's me Seymour. I need to talk to Jake!"
"I'm not Diane. Can I give Jake a message?"
"It's vital that I talk to Jake now. It is important, so important – It's about work, it's about what he had me looking for!"
"Can't you call him?"
"His cell phone is turned off. You have no idea how important this is!"
"Can you come back tomorrow?"
"No! This is really important. I have to talk to Jake, face to face, right now!"
"Hang on a minute."
Turning to Karen, Sarah asks, "What now?"
"Call Diane. We can't have 'Lucky Charms' out there drawing attention."
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Dinner had been nice and light; a pasta salad and a glass of wine. Two turns around the dance floor before Diane's sharing of her 'thoughts' made it nearly impossible for him to walk straight. Now he was having a hard time swiping the key to their hotel room, his beautiful wife was actively using his neck to remove her lipstick. The studs from his shirt never made it out of the elevator. Now he was hoping to get in the room before he had to erase the security tapes. Leaning against the door was how they stood when the special tone on Diane's cell phone, reserved for their home phone went off. Worriedly they separate, Diane answers her phone and Jake gulps air.
Diane listens for a minute and hands the phone to Jake, "There may be a problem."
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"Jake, he claims to be a Seymour LaFortunada… He can't find his ID card… Karen says he looks like an overgrown Leprechaun on speed… Ask him what?... Ok." Sarah activates the intercom, "Mr. LaFortunada, Jake wants to know who the 'Spider' is?"
"Richard Wentworth… No! No! No! I am the 'Spider'," he raises his hands and mimics the plucking at the lines of a spider's web, "nothing goes on that I don't sense,"
Sarah relates the answers to Jake and listens while Karen's eyes dart between her and the monitor screen.
Placing the phone in it's cradle, she turns to Karen. "Jake thinks it's his friend, but we're to err on the side of caution. We're to invite him to go around the house to the back yard, and hold him until he and Diane arrive. He wants us to be clear about LaFortunada; he will talk nonstop and is unusual. Take no direct action unless provoked. Use your handcuffs and keep your gun on him until Jake arrives."
"Understood."
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The ride home was tense. Jake was worried and Diane was furious.
"Sweetheart, would you call Kyle and let him know what's going on?"
"What is going on, besides Seymour's life…"
Jake cut her off, "Just tell Kyle, Seymour's at our house. And be nice to Seymour, what he does is valuable to me. Plus, there's no way he could have known he was interrupting something so… carnal."
Jake could smell her blush as he steered onto the highway.
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There were three cars in front of their house as they pulled into the driveway parking beside Sarah's Mustang. Before they had reached the front door, Kyle's 1970 Mach I Mustang slid in behind Sarah's car. Fran jumping out of the passenger door, hurrying to Kyle's side as he purposely shut the door.
Recognizing the look on Fran's face, Jake 'thinks' to Diane, "No hurting Seymour, Ok?"
Giving him her best pouty face she 'thinks' back. "Promise."
Opening the door, he takes Diane by the arm and pulls her back "We'll be in, in a moment. I need a word with Diane."
Kyle nods, placing his hand on Fran's lower back, steering her through the door.
Looking Diane in the eyes Jake gently instructs, "Listen, when we go inside you are the Queen, this is your home, please be gracious."
"Yes my Liege." Smiling, she places her hand in his stud less shirt, pulling on his chest hair; she leans her head against his chest. "I knew we would never have a normal life when we married."
"We are far too unique for normal. You ready?"
Pulling him into a kiss she 'thinks' to him. "Always."
Laughing, Jake straightens up, "it's still early sweetheart. Let's get this over with."
Taking his arm, Diane stands her height as they stride into their house. Soft laughter was the first thing that reached their ears – Seymour had just explained a 'link' between Sarah and Karen. Karen's great uncle's cousin is married to Sarah's second cousin's sister-in-law's mother-in-law. The first thing they saw was Lou rocking a very alert Nora Lee.
As Diane retrieved her happy daughter, Jake smarts off, "You know Lou, if this whole 'saving the country' thing doesn't work out you'd make a terrific nanny,"
"Nora's easy compared to the babies I'm usually saddled with." She retorts, giving Jake a meaningful look.
"Hey!"
"Nora," Lou say's showing a rare sense of humor, "please take your mother, Fran, Sarah and Karen to your parent's bedroom.
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Diane was purring, actually purring. Every ounce of frustration, anger, tenseness, annoyance and rage, that had obsessed her three hours earlier, had been drained. Looking at her sleeping husband she frowned, squeezed her eyes shut and listened to her house.
Lou's doubled the security watching the house, Karen is asleep in Diane's office and Sarah's watching 'The Replacements' in the den; she has really gotten fixated on Keanu Reeves lately. There is nothing in the backyard, nor the front yard. Most importantly, Nora Lee's sleeping well and doesn't need a diaper change.
Opening her eyes, she smiles at Jake. She couldn't deny that while their courtship had not been easy, her emotions for him had come as naturally as breathing. He is a loving man, a good man and a growing man; sometimes she felt she struggled to grow with him.
After their elopement, her mother had taken her on a mother-daughter hike, just outside of Bar Harbor. Twenty minutes into the hike they left the trail to follow a path only her mother could see. They came upon a small clearing a few minutes later.
Her mother pointed to the north where a pair of ancient Oak trees stood tall. "Your Grandmother Hughes brought me here when I married your father, to give me a bit of wisdom passed down through the women of our family. These two Oaks are a perfect metaphor. They've grown side by side together. They've grown tall and strong together: their limbs intertwining, bracing each other, lending strength to each other, growing old - together. My daughter, look at them, two individuals growing as one.
Diane smiled, remembering one of the rare times her mother had actually sounded poetical. But, she had understood her mother's point. She looked at Jake and smiled. She was just in a smiling mood.
Getting out of bed she stretched; Diane felt powerful strong and sexy. She almost regretted giving Jake that sleeping pill; it sure cut down on their coupling tonight.
Sighing she retrieved, on Jake's laptop, the record of the meeting that had occurred after Lou had banished the ladies into the master bedroom and scrolled down to the interesting part:
Lou: …what have you found?
Sy: Well, umm…
Jake:She knows what we were looking into Sy, you can speak freely.
Sy:Director Warner left a sizeable account to a man named Todd Eule. The only thing I can find on him is that he was desperately trying to contact the director the day after she died.
Jake:That confirms my suspicion.
Kyle:Of what exactly?
Jake:Tod eule is German for death owl. I looked it up when I went to Berlin the first time we encountered Dumont. I thought it might be useful to know.
Lou:Good out of the box thinking Jake. Mr. LaFortunada, can you prove anything you've told us?
Sy:There is a security video of Todd Eule entering the attorney's offices. Outside of that he's a blank slate.
Lou:Ok. Kyle, Jake, Sat Ops first thing tomorrow.
Sy:Before you go, I've got something on the Sarah Carter case…
Lou:Go on.
Sy:Senator Thompson's wife's secretary has a cousin that does mani-pedi's at a salon Sarah and Diane frequent. Senator Thompson had Diane investigated two years ago, only the investigator confused her with a Diane Elizabeth Hughes who is a librarian at Georgetown. When he changed detective firms, Diane Foley was investigated and flags were raised. When it was discovered that Jake is NSA also, Senator Thompson's paranoia meter went off the charts. That's when he decided to bug Sarah.
Jake:What did you do, talk to the investigator?
Sy:Of course, it's my cousin Murry. Sweet guy, sloppy investigator, talks way too much – if you know what I mean.
Diane smiled to herself, wondering just how angry Lou would be if
she knew that Jake had transcribed the meeting.
Moving over to the wing back chair that she and Jake use as a
clothes horse, she picks up Jake's Georgetown sweatshirt and holds
it to her face. Intellectually she knew it had been years since Jake
had worn it and it had been washed many times. Still, it seemed to
carry his scent.
Catching another familiar scent, she moves over to her daughter and
Quickly changes her diaper, sealing the offending mess in the diaper
Genie.
Listening to the house again, she hears Karen snoring and Sarah is
still watching 'The Replacements''. Slipping into Jake's sweatshirt,
she follows the sounds and arrives in time to see Keanu kiss the
cheerleader. She sits quietly, rocking, as Keanu saves the day.
"You know you're getting obsessed."
"You're one to talk, Diane." Sarah retorts, then her curiosity
pushes her farther. "Why did you wear that sweatshirt instead of
one from Harvard?"
Diane pulls her legs up inside the sweatshirt and wraps her arms
around her knees. "It's Jake's." She says with a smile to herself.
"Oh no you don't. That smile tells me there's a story involved."
"It's a good thing you're on our side." Diane shakes her head, not
believing she is about to... well, it is a good story. "It happened the Thanksgiving before our engagement."
"I remember, weren't you mad at Jake about something?"
"He had to work, I don't remember anything else. Anyway..." Diane stares toward her bedroom. "Excuse me, I think our tea party is getting a crasher." And she hurries down the hall.
When Diane returned with Nora Lee, the den was dark but the kitchen was lit. Hearing the microwave, she looks in the kitchen and sees Sarah sitting at the table with two mugs.
"You mentioned a tea party?"
"I guess that means I have brought the guest of honor."
"Ah, the little Princess."
"You talking about you or her?"
Sarah stares at the mirthful Diane for a minute before remembering that her name means 'Princess'. Refusing to accept the bait, she laughs and reaches for the hot water. "I've got chamomile, what's your choice?"
"Wildberry Zinger, I'll get Nora a bottle."
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"Ok Diane, it was Thanksgiving and Jake was working."
Placing the now fed Nora Lee in her carrier seat, Diane smiles to herself and begins again. "Ok. Thanksgiving Day, Mom was grilling me about Jake. They hadn't met him yet; he was supposed to come with me but… Anyway, I took his sweatshirt because it smells like him. That night he called me and told me that he was coming to get his sweatshirt, and he was going to keep anything he found in it forever."
"Different, but nice."
"He still is. Jake traveled all night and was exhausted. So was I, I hadn't slept. Early that morning I went out and bought black slacks and pumps; they went well with the grey sweatshirt. I was scared to death. I was pacing on the front porch; my stride must have kept increasing, because the porch kept getting shorter. All I could think of were 'what if's'…"
"You had doubts?"
"I was afraid that his assignment had been dangerous and he was just reacting to his fears."
"Was he?"
"No, a fact he proved when he slipped the engagement ring on my finger."
"Hold it! Didn't you tell me he proposed at your apartment?"
"He did. At my parents he put the ring on my finger and took it back. I was too stunned to be coherent."
"I'm getting confused."
"Me too, and I was there." Looking at her daughter she sighs, "I'd better get the story together before she's old enough to ask about it."
"You were doing good until you got to the ring."
"Right. When Jake took the ring back he explained that he was there to meet my family. He didn't want Dad's first words to him to be: '…give her to him? I haven't even met him."
"That sounds like Jake. So he didn't propose at you parents house?"
"No, in fact he fell asleep soon after, sitting on an old wicker loveseat with his arm around me,"
"Nice picture."
"Yeah, it is. I just didn't know if I was going to marry him."
Choking on her tea, Sarah gets a laugh from Nora Lee.
"It's true. Looking back, it was the natural next step in our relationship, and I wanted to. Still, we hadn't talked about it. I had things to think about."
"Like what? You two are perfect."
"I wouldn't say…"
"Don't argue with a sincere complement."
Diane looks at her friend, looks her straight in the eye, hears Nora Lee gurgle and smiles. "Thank you."
"You are welcome, now back to your doubts."
"The loss of freedom, spending the rest of my life with one man, my career, being married to an agent, as an agent his life might be cut short and…"
"The nanites?"
"It would be best if you forgot about those."
"Not easily done, but I'll try. What made up your mind about Jake?"
"The number nine."
"What's that?" Sarah says with a laugh. "The number of commas in he trust fund?"
"Yes."
The way Sarah was choking, you would have thought she was trying to swallow a brick instead of a sip of tea. At least Nora Lee got a laugh out of it.
Sputtering she asks, "You're joking, right?"
Biting her lower lip, and then smiling, Diane laughs. "Nine was how many children Jake said he wanted."
Sarah's eyes grew wide and her mouth opened and closed, not knowing for sure how to respond.
"I think he was kidding. We quickly decided on two, but the doors not closed on one or two more."
"So how did the number nine lead you to deciding to marry Jake?"
"We were sitting on the front porch, arms around each other… Jake had fallen asleep and I was thinking about the pros and cons. I suddenly realized that the number nine wasn't so scary."
"So, how many children do you want no?"
Looking at her happy daughter, Diane grins. "Right now, a baker's dozen. But I think we'll stick to the original plan."
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Next: Ties And Break-Ins
A/N: 'The Spider' aka 'Richard Wentworth' was a pulp contemporary of 'The Shadow' in the 1930's. Occasionally The Spider, Master Of Men books are published – recommended reading, if you like your vengeance black and white.
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