LITMIR.BIZ

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how outrageous, how over the top it is, tell me what you think. It’s been eighteen months since you were all freed. Think about how it happened, think about all of your lives and how everything has changed from what it was to what it is now. Think about all the e-mails and calls from our little club, the girls and the guys. Think about the tone of everything, the sparseness. We used to be such a tight group. Surely you’ve noticed a change.”

      Hearing the desperateness in Maggie’s voice, Annie and Myra looked at each other in alarm.

      “Everything did change when the pardons came through. But that was to be expected. We missed the girls’ weddings, if there were weddings. We didn’t go to Lizzie’s White House shower or the christening because we didn’t want to make a circus out of it for her. I think things might have turned out differently if Henry Jellicoe hadn’t stepped into the game,” Myra said, her voice cold and tight.

      “It was like he stole everyone away from us in the blink of an eye,” Annie said, her eyes narrowing in thought.

      “Keep going, ladies,” Maggie said.

      “It did happen fast. He dazzled the boys with all that money,” Myra said.

      “Just like that, he decided to retire. I thought it strange at the time,” Annie said.

      “Did you know that Henry Jellicoe dropped off the face of the earth for a whole year and a half?” At Myra’s and Annie’s blank looks, Maggie nodded. “He did. I understand he’s back at his farm, or whatever it is, in Pennsylvania. It could also be a rumor.”

      “Did he disappear…go away…right after he hired all his new help?” Myra asked. The glint in her eyes was like cold ice.

      “As far as I can tell, that’s what happened. There was a thing going on with Jellicoe and the president. In fact, you’ll remember, he asked her to marry him and gave her a ring the night of the pardons. No one knows exactly what happened afterward, but there has been a lot of speculation.

      “However, the press, the Post included, cut her a lot of slack. Engagements and marriage are too personal not to. The president has never made any comments about the engagement or the marriage. In the press photos I’ve seen of her, she wasn’t wearing an engagement ring. That might not mean anything since as a rule she doesn’t wear jewelry for photo ops,” Maggie said.

      “If anyone would know more about it, it would be Lizzie,” Myra said.

      “Lizzie is wrapped up in her own little world, and rightly so. When we talk, it’s about the baby and how wonderful motherhood is. I did try to ask some off-the-cuff questions, but she acted like she didn’t know what I was talking about. I really don’t think she knows anything to share,” Maggie said as she picked up a chicken leg and looked at it as though she couldn’t decide if she should eat it or not.

      Annie threw her hands in the air. “And all that means what? I think you need to spell out what exactly your concern is, so we can talk it to death.”

      Maggie laid the chicken leg on a colorful plastic plate. “Am I the only one who is getting this? Ooops, Ted and I are the only ones. Okay, listen up.” Maggie crossed her legs Indian style and leaned forward. “First things first. We are having this discussion here in the park, so no one can hear us. Now, do you not find it weird, strange, inexplicable, as to why Henry Jellicoe would turn Global Securities over to our people? And they are our people. It’s a given that he knew the pardons were going to go through. The man then practically offers up his company on a platinum platter to Bert and Jack, who in the blink of an eye resign respectively as director of the FBI and as deputy district attorney for the District of Columbia, jobs they loved. I know the money offer was a little too enticing to turn down. Ditto for Harry and the others. Global Securities is the eyes and ears of the security world. They do not come any better than that company. The whole world knows that.

      “It has sixty thousand employees around the world. Revenues are off the charts.”

      Myra toyed with the food she’d heaped on her plate. “No one is disputing that the firm is solvent. What are you trying to say?”

      Maggie picked at the crisp batter on her chicken leg with one of her pointy nails. “What was the urgency in going after our people? And as you know, Jellicoe immediately scattered our guys all over the world. Lizzie and I are just about the only ones left here in the States. Well, Annie was in Vegas. And someone made sure you stayed down on the farm, Myra, now, didn’t they? No one has seen hide nor hair of you in the past year and a half. No one showed up at the farm for Christmas. I’m sure you asked yourself why a thousand times. From what I can gather, every place one of our people is stationed, there was some kind of crisis that prevented any of them from taking a trip. Never lose sight of the fact that Global is the eyes and ears of the world. They can do what the CIA, the FBI, and all those other organizations can’t. They take the law into their own hands and get the job done. Kind of like the vigilantes, don’t you think? Are you starting to see what I’m seeing?

      “When you’re done asking yourself that, ask yourself why Jellicoe hired Ted and Espinosa. JGS had a newsletter that went out to all employees four times a year. Clients got a slightly different version. There’s nothing wrong with that. He had smart people in a suite of offices in New York taking care of the text of both versions. He shut that down and opened offices in Rome, where he sent Ted and Espinosa. All they do is travel the globe, get info from all the group leaders or whatever they’re called. Ted puts it all together in a glossy twelve-page magazine that goes out once a month. Espinosa does the pictures. Ted said it’s all bullshit. Espinosa agrees. But…they’re not here. Meaning here in the States. Particularly here in Washington. No one is here but the three of us, four if you count Lizzie. And until now, Annie, you were nowhere near the capital.”

      Annie and Myra both threw their hands up in the air at the same time. Their words were identical when they spoke simultaneously. “What does it mean?”

      “I’ll be damned if I know,” Maggie said as she finally bit into the chicken leg she was holding. “But the reporter in me and Ted says it means something. You can take that to the bank!”

      Chapter 4

      Myra and Annie looked at each other, their eyes wide. It was Annie who spoke first. “So what you are saying is, Hank Jellicoe did not consider either Myra or me a threat. I’m not sure about you, Myra, but I feel insulted. It’s like he thinks you and I don’t count. Off the top of my head, I’d say you, Maggie, are a huge threat. He takes away Ted and Joseph Espinosa and leaves you behind. You’re the EIC of the Post. The position alone should be a threat to him if he’s up to some kind of shenanigans.”

      “Ah, but without my star reporter and star photographer, I just have regulation reporters, greenhorns, guys and gals who don’t have that fire in their bellies like the three of us do…did. They don’t think outside the box. Ted and I were born outside the box. We always took it to the next level with no coaching or pleading from anyone.

      “Think about it. In the blink of an eye, everyone is gone. G-O-N-E! Didn’t even one little red flag go up?” At Myra’s and Annie’s blank looks, Maggie shook her head in disgust.

      “How about this? Hank Jellicoe disappears. For well over a year and a half. I can understand you maybe not knowing that, but now you do. That’s a red flag all by itself. Then he gets very publicly engaged, and that gets a lid clamped on it. To the president of these here United States!” Maggie drawled. “That’s another great big red flag. At least to me it is, and to the reporter in me, too. Jellicoe has gone to ground, and he certainly knows how to do that considering the business he’s in. To be honest, I’m not even sure he’s at his farm in Pennsylvania. That place is like Fort Knox. Impossible to penetrate. I know because I tried.”

      “You did!” Myra cried in surprise.

      “Well, yes, Myra, I did. When I started getting these weird e-mails and texts from Ted, I knew that’s what he wanted me to do. Look, Ted is the best of the best. So is Espinosa. Jellicoe dazzled Ted and Joe with all that money. Ted saw it as a way to get a house for

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