“First time in London?” Gladys asked.
“Yep. Can’t cha tell?” Eileen took a seat between the two women, hoping she could steer the conversation back to vitamins. “I couldn’t help notice the beautiful boxes. Are you saying those are vitamins?” She was trying to sound curious, but in a hokey way. “I never seen vitamins in boxes like that! Must be pretty special.” She sat back, pretending it was more of a rhetorical statement.
“They are indeed. So where are you staying?” Gladys quickly changed the subject.
“At a friend’s flat in Covent Garden.” Another lie, but it was part of the job.
“Lovely. How long will you be here?” Lydia asked.
“Only for another three days.” More lies. Well, maybe not. She really didn’t know how long she was going to be there. She looked across the courtyard and noticed a skinny, disheveled twentysomething man enter the doctor’s building. She couldn’t bolt, so she repositioned her fanny pack on the table to take a photo of the very out-of-place mangy-looking guy. He looked as if he hadn’t washed his hair in a week. What would someone who looked like that be doing at a place like the doctor’s?
Lydia had said something, but Eileen had been distracted. “Sorry. I thought I saw someone I knew. Wouldn’t that be a hoot? Imagine running into someone all the way across the ocean. How crazy is that? But it wasn’t him. Sorry. What were you sayin’?”
“I said it’s too bad you won’t be around for the cinema opening,” Lydia repeated.
“Oh yeah. Well, I’m just happy I was able to get away for a couple o’ days. I think I’ve taken up way too much of your time. You have been so, so nice. And, again, I am so, so sorry about falling on my butt in front of you.” Eileen reached into her pocket to pull out a few euros. “Will this cover it? Or are you not doing euros anymore? Hard to keep track.”
Both women chuckled at the all-too-familiar issue of Brexit. “Please. It’s our treat. After all, you fell on your bum in our country. The least we can do is give you tea,” Lydia said.
“You guys are so nice. Thank you again.” Eileen shook their hands and moved quickly toward the doctor’s office, bobbing and weaving among the people on the street in order not to be seen by the two women she had left sitting in the tea shop.
A few minutes later, the scraggly dude left the office. Another quandary—Follow him or stick with the doc? She took a photo of him and then she looked at her watch. It was only ten o’clock. Avery was in Aspen, where it was seven hours earlier. It would be 3:00 A.M. there. He could still be awake, considering he had changed time zones twice, which meant his body clock was still on 1:00 A.M. She took the chance and pressed the button on her fake Apple-watch phone.
“You okay?” Avery was wide awake and surprised to hear from Eileen at that hour.
“Yes. I’m fine. Two things. There is a guy who went into the office who looks extremely out of place. Should I tail him or stay in front of Marcus’s? I took a photo from a distance. The telephoto lens captured a good shot of him. Sending it over to you now.”
“Good. Stay on Marcus for now. Isabelle should have the blueprints for both his apartment and his office shortly. Probably late afternoon your time.”
“Will do. What about the wife?”
“See if there’s a pattern in Marcus’s day-to-day life for the next two days. Then you can tail the wife.”
“The other thing is I literally bumped into two women coming out of the office with very posh-looking shopping bags.”
“You bumped into them?” Avery sounded surprised.
“Well, not exactly bumped into them. I pretended to trip and fell on my ass in front of them. I was trying to get a look inside the bags.”
“And?”
“And not much. The bags contained beautifully packaged boxes. I said I hoped I didn’t break anything, and they told me they were vitamins. Sorry I couldn’t get more info out of them, except one of the women didn’t seem very happy with the results so far. They took me to get a cup of tea. That’s when I spotted the scraggly guy.”
“You are good.” Avery smiled.
“Thanks, boss. I’ll be in touch.”
“Be safe,” Avery said before he ended the call. He forwarded the photo of the mysterious guy to Charles.
* * *
Marcus was trying not to have a hissy fit. That creep Jerry had shown up unannounced with a message from Franny. “Cash upon receipt. Or a few baubles. No more credit.”
“But why?” Marcus whined.
“Dunno. Big guy wants it that way. Says he ain’t no bank.”
“But he gets a twenty-five percent commission!” Marcus knew he might as well be talking to the wall.
“What of it? If you want somethin’, yer gonna have to pay as you go.” Jerry turned on his filthy sneakers and walked out.
Marcus realized that he needed to come up with a plan. One thing he knew for sure: stopping the cocaine wouldn’t be a part of it.
Chapter 18
Pinewood
Charles poached some eggs to finish preparing a breakfast of Canadian bacon, wilted spinach, and the aforementioned eggs, all sitting on an English muffin. “Here you go, dear.” He placed the dish in front of Myra while she continued to jot down some notes. “I can see the wheels turning. What is on your mind, love?”
“I think it’s time we let Charlotte know we’re investigating the situation. It’s going to become more difficult to have our meetings without her noticing. Don’t you agree?” Myra asked.
“Absolutely. She should have full knowledge of what those bastards were doing to her. Dr. Falcon said her lab work should be in by noon, so let’s wait and give her all the information at once,” Charles suggested.
“Do you think it might be a bit much for her to absorb?” Myra stopped her writing and looked up at her husband.
“Not if we are methodical about it. And I can say with absolute certainty, you, my dear, are very methodical.” With that, Charles bent to give Myra a peck on the side of her mouth.
“Indeed, I am.” Myra sat taller in her chair. “I think perhaps we should tell her together with Annie and Fergus. It could be overwhelming to have all the sisters sitting at a table, staring at her. She might be embarrassed.”
“Excellent suggestion. I’ll ring up Fergus and Annie and have them come by for lunch.” Charles pulled out his phone and punched in the speed-dial number he had for their friends.
“Meanwhile, I’ll bring Charlotte a tray and tell her we’re going to take a walk after she has breakfast.” Myra was formulating a plan to ease her friend into learning about the machinations of the Sisterhood.
Isabelle was the first to call Charles that morning. “Spoke to Sebastian, my friend in London who studied architecture. He’s sending over the blueprints for Dr. Marcus’s place. Should have them around one o’clock. I have Steinwood’s already. I’m going to send them over now so you can forward them to Avery.”
“Splendid. Avery sent some intel on him from Eileen. I’ll share it with the group when everyone arrives later. By the way, Myra and I think we should bring Charlotte in on this. It’s going to become increasingly difficult for us to operate without her knowing about what we’re doing. And we most assuredly do not want to send her packing. She is still in a fragile state.”