A/N:Hi, back with a new chapter. Sorry it took me longer than I thought. I tried to arrange for someone to beta this, but assumedly it did not work out for I have not heard back in a while. Since so many of you have added this thing to story alert, I do not want to keep you waiting any longer with this, so here comes the third chapter in all its non -betaed glory :) As always you are welcome to throw each and every spelling error, grammar mishap and illogicality into my face. Please, review your heart out, I'd love to hear from you if you like this. And if you don't, I'd still like to know.
Annie was sitting at one side of the long office table, facing Eliot and his colleagues.
"I really don't know what to say", she began. "I am so sorry about what happened. How can I make it up to you?"
Nate raised an eyebrow and looked at Eliot. The hitter rounded the table and squatted down beside Annie's chair.
"You have nothing to apologize for. That's not why I wanted you to come here. I think we can help you."
Annie let her eyes wander from one face to the next. Eliot had introduced her, when he had brought her in. There was Nathan Ford, who seemed to be the one in charge. He held her gaze for a moment, his face motionless but not unkind. Sophie, the beautiful brunette, smiled at her encouragingly. The blond girl, Parker, suspiciously inspected the tray with honey bread that was still sitting on the table.
"Is it really poisoned?", she wanted to know. She didn't sound scared, just curious. When she brought her face closer to the honey bread and sniffed, Hardison pulled her back.
"Don't!"
He sounded worried. Annie couldn't help noticing that he cared for Parker.
"I don't actually know", she said in answer to the blond woman's question.
"Why don't you start at the beginning?", Nate suggested. Annie draw a deep breath. Eliot pulled a chair up and sat down beside her.
"I am not sure what the beginning is, actually. I guess it was when that Farnham guy came by. He said he worked for FarmFriends and that they were looking to expand their business. He offered me 90,000 $ for Annie's Foodbasket."
"That a good offer?", Nate asked. Annie shrugged her shoulders.
"Not you-can't-turn-it-down excellent, but as a basis for negotiations it wouldn't be too bad. If one wanted to sell. Which I don't, so I told him so."
"Let me guess. He didn't take that too well", Eliot remarked.
"Yeah, you could say that. I mean, he stayed pleasant enough, smile never leaving his face and all ... just, when he left he mentioned something on how difficult it is to run an independent little business these days. He left his business card and said I should call him when I changed my mind. That's what he said: 'when' not 'if'. And shortly after that the trouble started." Annie paused.
"What kind of trouble are we talking here?" Hardison asked.
"You know, it started with little things. I didn't even make the connection at first. Someone placed a dead rat under the shelf with the fresh produce. A drunk guy showed up in the shop, knocking things over, bothering the other customers. He left when I threatened to call the police. Then that kid which bashed my window in with the baseball. I am pretty sure that was on purpose. But it's nothing you can call the cops on."
"Sounds like the stuff used in a protection racket", Eliot quipped in. "Typical mob methods."
For a moment Annie looked at him as if she wanted to ask him how he knew about stuff like that, but then she just shrugged her shoulders.
"Maybe, yes. Only in this case it is not about protection money, more of a hostile takeover."
"Still a pretty nasty way of blackmailing someone", Hardison said.
"What about your bike accident?" Eliot carefully touched Annie's bandaged arm. "Do you think that had something to do with it, too?"
"Could be. I am really not sure. Riding a bicycle in city traffic always involves a certain risk. A car cut me off at a crossroad, nothing unusual. I fell and by the time I had sorted myself out enough to look around, it was gone already", she explained.
"Hit and run", Nate commented. Annie nodded.
"But it happened on your way home from the store?", Eliot wanted to know.
"Yes"
"Then let's assume it is part of this as well. Which means they have no scruples to hurt someone. Which pisses me off." Eliot's voice had turned into a growl.
"So where does the poison honey thing come in?" Hardison asked. "Why did you call Eliot when you did?"
"Remember when you got the honey I told you it was the last one?" The hacker and the hitter both nodded. "Well, when I looked into the shelf with the honey to see what other varieties I had to restock, I found this." She drew a little piece of paper out of the backpocket of her jeans and placed it on the table.
"This vessel of honey has been poisoned. Eat it and you will die." Parker read aloud, pulling a face. "Not very subtle."
"Interesting choice of words. Vessel. Who says something like that nowadays?" Nate wondered. "Where do the letters come from?"
The note was pasted together, the individual words cut out and plastered into the right order. The script was small.
"Does not look like a newspaper to me", Sophie said. Hardison whistled softly.
"No, it isn't. It's from a book. Probably the bible."
"The bible? Why would someone cut a ransom note from a bible?" Parker wondered. "He religious or something?"
"Or something", Nate answered. "Think about it. You find a Gideon bible in every hotel room and who knows where else. You take it, cut out the words you need, you dump or you burn the rest. Those bibles are printed in the millions, much harder to place or date than a newspaper."
"Makes sense", Eliot admitted. "But we still don't know if the threat is for real or not. Would it be possible to mess with the honey without anyone noticing? When it is already in the shelf?" He looked at Annie questioningly.
"Sure. I mean, I normally don't have too many customers at once, so I see most of what they are doing, but I cannot be everywhere at once. And honey is relatively easy to mess with. It preserves well, so it is not vacuum sealed. You have no chance of knowing if the jar has been opened before or not when you buy it. For that reason some larger producers seal their glasses anyway, at least with a paper seal, but many smaller local beekeepers don't."
"Well, we will get the honey analyzed and see, what's in there", Nate decided. "Hardison, find a lab that will do that."
"Already on it", Hardison said, typing away at the laptop.
"But anyway, this is something you can call the police on", Eliot suggested. "Whether it is really poisoned or not, it definitely is a threat and you have the note to proof it."
Annie sighed.
"You're right. It's just ... I rather wouldn't. Call the police, I mean."
Eliot did not ask why; he just looked at her and waited for her to continue.
"You know, running a grocery store, you have all kinds of health and safety regulations. Those rules, they are not bad or anything, they are just ... you know ... cut out for the supermarkets and food chains and stuff. It is almost impossible to do all that with a small store. That's why I try to stay under the radar as much as possible with the Foodbasket. An official health inspection would pretty certainly close me down."
"I understand", Nate said. "That means, we have to fix it another way."
"What do you mean 'we'? It's not your problem. It's mine", Annie said.
"I told you. We can help", Eliot said.
"But how? Why? I mean, I thought you are a consulting company?"
"We are", Nate confirmed. "We are specialized in helping individuals and small businesses who run into exactly this kind of trouble."
"But I cannot afford a consulting agency. I am lucky when I can pay my rent at the end of the month", Annie protested.
"Don't worry about that", Sophie smiled. "We work on ..."
"... an alternative revenue stream", the whole team chorused. Annie looked confused.
"Sounds like bullshit bingo to me."
"What's bullshit bingo?" Eliot asked.
"You never worked a 9to5, hm?" Nate smiled. The hitter shook his head.
"Guess not"
"Bullshit bingo is what you play in business meetings of any kind ... you write down three industry buzzwords that you think the speaker will definitely use. The player who first strikes all his guesses wins", Hardison explained. Parker clapped her hands.
"That sounds fun. We should do that for Hardison's briefings."
"Hey, my briefings are completely non-bullshit material", Hardison protested. "They are the fruits of my honest work brought to your attention."
"I'd choose telephone trace, security camera and police record ...", Eliot pretended to play along.
"Nate! Do you hear how they are not honoring my effort here? Do you hear that? I spent hours on my computer and what do I get? Ri-Di-Culed!" Hardison stabbed with his finger at the air which each syllable for more emphasis.
"You spent all your time on your computer anyway", Parker said.
"Yeah, but I could watch the new episode of Supernatural or play my WoW instead of finding out all about FarmFriends Foods and our friend Mr. Farnham here, and that would be much more exciting", Hardison retorted.
"Let's see what you got", Nate said and Hardison switched his laptop desktop over to the four monitors which occupied most of the office wall.
"FarmFriends Foods is a chain of supermarkets specializing in organic products. They spread out like a tumor, aggressively pushing smaller competitors out of the market. Think WalMart, only with biodynamic tomatoes. They don't have any stores here in Boston yet, not even an administrative office. Which lead me to the question why Annie's Mr. Farnham uses a local phone number on his business card. I retraced the number and found a small ...", he paused and looked around apologetically, "... consutling agency in his name. I pulled his police record. He has done some shady stuff, has been on trial several times for blackmail, coercion and fraud, but has never been convicted. There is a second company in his name, a credit enforcement agency, which means he has probably a whole bunch of nasty lowlifes working for him who are good at threatening people. I found a recording from a security camera showing ..."
Eliot hit the table with his hand and smiled broadly.
"Bullshit Bingo!" he mouthed silently to Parker. The blonde laughed.
"Do you want to hear this or what?", Hardison asked slightly offended.
"You two, cut it out", Nate admonished the thief and the hitter, even though he had difficulties to keep the smile off his face himself. "Go on!" he urged Hardison.
"I found a recording showing Farnham meeting with Korlakov ... that's Igor Korlakov, Russian mob credit shark, right there, so we get a general idea on what kind of guy we are dealing with here."
Eliot stopped smiling and glanced worriedly at Annie.
"Maybe you should close your store for a while? Go on a vacation or something?"
"I can't do that", she protested. "I have a business to run. If I close the store, people will look for other places to buy their food, I will lose customers. I can't afford that. It's difficult enough as it is."
"Still, Eliot's right", Nate said. "This guy is dangerous. You should not be alone in this. Eliot will have your back while you're in the store. He will pass as your new shop assistant. The rest of us will take a closer look at Farnham Consulting tomorrow. See if we find an angle on how we can work this."
"Be careful though ... you won't have me guarding your back." Eliot cautioned him. Nate nodded.
"I always thought consultants were a bit shady", Sophie admitted.
"Well, actually we are kind of shady ourselves, come to think of it", Hardison reminded her. Annie smiled.
"Yes, you are. But I think you are the right kind of shady."