And this one guy who had gone out of his way to know Carl better.
“Carl?”
“Yeah?”
“Danny spotted me running for my life away from a big bruiser of a man whose pocket I’d recently picked. He hotwired a Vespa, caught up to me, and asked if I needed a ride.”
Carl blinked, enchanted. “And you did?”
“Most assuredly. I mean, I was trying to outrun the angry tourist, but I also thought Danny was the most amazing person I’d ever seen in my life. And I know that at one point so did you. Don’t question when someone looks at you the way that young man is looking at you. Take it from someone with ten years of regret under his belt. Do everything you can to be the best person you can be, and try not to ever let that look slip away. Do you understand?”
Carl nodded, comforted as he’d never been as a child. “God, I hope so.”
Felix chuckled and patted his shoulder. “When are you going to DC to pick up your clothes?”
“I was going to try to get a ticket tomorrow and be back in three days. I should have the information you need by the time we have dinner the day after that.”
Felix tilted his head. “Is there something you’re not telling me?” he hazarded.
Carl blew out a breath. “I have a contact who can get me to the Department of the Interior,” he said quietly. This was what had made him decide to get his clothes now as opposed to after this caper was finished. “We’re dealing with an endangered species here, and there’s a whole subculture of crime that I’m not familiar with. I think sending out some feelers in that direction could really help. I don’t want to make it a phone call—”
“Phone calls from across the country are far too official,” Felix agreed. “You want to run into them, and say, ‘Oh yes, I heard the strangest thing….’”
Carl touched his finger to his nose. Funny how being a con man and being someone who investigated thieves and fraudsters had so much of the same skill set.
“Very well. What are you and Michael doing for the rest of the day?” he inquired politely.
“Michael probably has work to do,” Carl said with a shrug. “I was going to go to his little—” He frowned, remembering something he’d been planning to mention. “Did you know he’s set up a sort of apartment in the hangar where you keep the plane and the cars?”
Felix blinked, surprised. “An apartment?”
“He used cubicle prefabs and got an old couch and a chair, a mini fridge, even a small dresser where he sets his drinks and probably keeps a change of clothes. I think sometimes, after shuttling vehicles all day, he doesn’t want to drive back to the apartment.”
“Fair,” Felix acknowledged, “but that will get awfully cold in the winter, don’t you think? They need space heaters there just to keep the oil from freezing in the cars.”
Carl nodded meaningfully. “Yeah, uhm, I wasn’t sure what we could do about that. But if you think of something….”
Felix’s eyes widened appreciatively. “Ah. Yes. You’re absolutely right.” He glanced behind him to where Josh sat, making quiet jokes to Grace, Stirling, and Molly. “Maybe I’ll put Josh and Stirling on it. If nothing else, they might know a friend who can figure out how to make a little apartment inside a hangar work.”
Carl nodded, and then decided to spill the whole enchilada. “He also has a mews in the back where he’s rehabbing an injured falcon. I think he stays there sometimes to feed the poor thing its weight in raw chicken or roadkill. Oh! And there’s endangered birds in the field behind your airstrip. You don’t need to report them to anybody. Right now they seem to be thriving. He’s set out a bunch of plywood shelters on the ground so they can hide from the hawks—’cause there’s a lot of them—and he’s run some netting between the driveway and the grassy area.”
Felix frowned. “Are the birds a hazard to aircraft?”
Carl had actually looked that up. “I don’t think so,” he said. “The landing strip is on the far side of the field from the lek—or the mating grounds. Airline regulations try to keep birds a certain distance away from the airstrip, and because the planes are taking off near the big gravel parking lot that used to be a fairground, I’m pretty sure there’s enough yardage between the planes and the hangar to make it work without relocating the covey of grouse.”
Felix shuddered. “Yes, but you hit the wrong bird at the wrong time and you might have to relocate your soul into another body. You do hear what I’m saying?”
“Yessir. I’ll do more research and ask some people about sage grouse. If you can send me the stats on the airstrip, I can check with more accuracy.”
“Of course.” Felix let out a long breath. “I appreciate you telling me this. But I’m not going to worry about it until you get back to me with more information. How’s that?”
“Thanks,” Carl said, relieved. “I don’t want to bother Michael with it, you know. He’s working really hard to be indispensable. I just thought you should know.”
“He is,” Felix agreed. “So are you. By all means, get your things and move in. Let us know if you need anything else.”
Carl nodded. “Thank you.”
“Including a swift kick in the ass in the romance department,” Felix finished dryly and then turned to speak to Josh.
For some reason, that final admonition, as snarky as it was, made Carl feel as if he’d been welcomed into the family.
A Game and a Dog
“YOU SURE you don’t mind coming with me?” Michael asked as he drove himself and Carl to the hangar, this time in Josh’s natty little sportster, which hadn’t been getting driven much anyway. They had the top down because the days were getting crisp and this would probably be the last time the car had a good run since it was going to live in the hangar until spring.
Michael had visions of a stronger, healthier Josh coming out of the mansion on a bright spring morning and hopping into this car like he belonged in the Italian leather seat.
He figured that vision would work as his prayer for the young man’s recovery.
“Not at all,” Carl said with a shrug. “I brought my laptop. You do what you need to, and I’ll be using the tower Wi-Fi to…well, I actually have paperwork to fill out that should have been in my boss’s inbox about a month ago.”
Michael frowned. “Aren’t you worried about losing your job?” he asked.
Carl hmmed. “I did my job. I tracked down the buyer and seller of the lost piece of art, determined that the owner had nothing to do with the theft, told Interpol where the artifact could be found, and spent the rest of my allotted time doing the paperwork for Leon di Rossi’s bone marrow donation and showing Lucius all the good tax shelters he could use to launder the money he’s giving to his battered women’s shelters. It’s all totally legit, but this way it will be harder for another hacker to come along and figure out what he’s hiding. It’s a really important secret to keep.”
Michael nodded. He’d gathered that defending the women’s shelters was when Chuck and Lucius Broadstone had hooked up. He didn’t begrudge either of them their happiness—Chuck had shaken his hand, gotten him a job with the Salingers, and treated him as a friend. He couldn’t ask for more than that from a guy who’d saved his life and then given him the keys to change it.