that night, though. Clara looked at me in sympathy; she knew it, too.
I asked Clara 'Do we say anything to the girls? If so, how much?'
She got a thoughtful look on her face, and answered 'Our experience has been that if they know a little bit, it's better for everybody involved. You don't have to tell them*everything*, but it helps if they know to watch out. How much to tell them depends on how mature they are, and how well they can handle themselves.'
Lucy and I shared a smile at that.
Clara suddenly brightened up, and said 'Come on with me, I've got an idea. How about if you two meet the man I was talking to?'
Lucy perked up a little at that, and I nodded. Clara stood up, and guided us through a few twists and turns in the corridors until we got to a rather bland looking room. Behind a desk sat a man that looked as though he was carrying the world on his shoulders. He stood up, and Clara made the introductions: 'Bill, this is Lucy, and Dan. Dan and Lucy, this is Bill, the man I was talking to on the phone.'
Bill shook hands with me before focusing on Lucy. He looked at her a moment, then said 'It's okay. Both girls are at the hotel pool, and I've got three people watching out for them this very instant. Another hour, we'll have five more. Every one of them is armed, and wearing body armor. Their ONLY job right now is to make sure those girls, and you, don't get hurt. Every one of them is ready to get between either of those girls, and any trouble. Nothing's going to happen to them – they're OUR girls, too, now. I'm a father. I've got three daughters these girls' ages. I'd trust our people to protect them. In fact, I have.'
Lucy looked at him questioningly, and he told her 'It's a long story. Short version, a couple of drug dealers got mad because we kept them from killing a couple of witnesses. They thought they could take it out on me, through my family. One's dead, the other is in jail now, doing some seriously hard time.
My daughters are fine – well, except for being teenagers!', he teased.
Lucy managed a small laugh, and nodded her understanding.
That taken care of, Bill turned to look at me. He asked me 'You ready for this?' I just looked him in the eye, and after a moment, he answered his own question 'Yeah, you're ready.' He turned to Clara, and said, 'I read his file; thanks for the heads up. My people know to leave him alone; after seeing these two, I can tell them why, too.
Suddenly, Bill made as though to jump at Lucy.
As he was picking himself up off the floor on the other side of the room, he groaned, and said, 'I think you broke a rib.'
'Good.'
Lucy and Clara were just standing there, trying to figure out what happened.
He tried to laugh, then grimaced, before saying 'Sorry about that, but I just *had* to be sure you could still do it. I don't like to lose witnesses.'
'Fair enough. Glad I didn't hurt you too bad.'
'Me, too.'
Clara finally spoke up, asking him 'Bill, what the hell did you think you were doing?'
He smiled and told her 'I had to know if he was good enough – at least, as good as his file said.'
'And?'
'He's better', with another grimace.
She frowned at him, and told him 'Okay, Mr. Macho, now go see the doc and get yourself taken care of.'
He nodded, and excused himself before heading down the hall.
Clara turned to us and asked 'Do you have any more questions right now?'
Lucy and I both shook our heads, and Clara told us 'Then I'd like to meet with you again tomorrow morning, say, ten o'clock, if that's okay. Until then, I think I'd better get you out of here before anyone actually gets hurt!', smiling.
She guided us back to the front, where the receptionist had a small package for me. Out of Lucy's hearing, Clara told me 'Please, get something as soon as possible. We'll have some people follow you tonight, just in case. If anything happens, we'll be there.' I nodded my understanding before Lucy and I headed for her car.
Back at the hotel, Lucy and I headed first for the rooms; when we didn't find the girls, both of us changed into casual clothing – I put on the vest they'd given me – and headed for the pool where we found Robyn and Sandra splashing around. We sat down at a table near where they'd left their robes, and Lucy whispered to me 'I don't see anybody.'
I told her, softly, 'You don't need to whisper, okay? There's nobody close enough to hear us, and the noise in here would beat any listening devices.
Actually, I can see all four of them.'
'Four?' she asked.
'Yeah. The exec over there with the laptop? Too noisy in here to get anything done, and he's looking around too much. The college girl on the lounge?' – 'You mean the built one?', Lucy asked, archly – 'Yeah, her. No tan, but she's too fit not to have gotten at least SOME sun. That, and her bag is a little too big – meaning she'd got plenty of room to reach in and grab the gun that's in there. The guy by the door, reading the paper? He's not holding it the way most people would, and not changing pages often enough, even if he was reading every word. He's looking around too much, too. Last, the lady with the baby carriage over there. She keeps leaning over toward it, but there's no noise coming out of it, and she'd not actually doing anything with it.'
Lucy looked at me, and asked 'How do you know all that? How did you see it?
What if ONE of them isn't FBI?'
'I know all it because of what I did before, remember? I saw it for the same reasons. If one of them wasn't FBI, at least of the FBI people would be watching him or her. But none of them is paying any attention to any of the others. The guys should at LEAST be looking over at the babe in the swimsuit', and earning myself a short jab from her elbow before she realized I was teasing her.
About that time, the girls saw us, and popped out of the pool to come over and sit with us. As they were walking toward us, I whispered to Lucy to see if any of the FBI guys eyeballed the girls. She discretely looked, and whispered back 'Not a one. What are they, eunuchs?'
I whispered back 'Nope. That's just how dedicated they are to making sure nobody gets hurt.' – making her realize just how serious these folks were about protecting her and the girls.
The four of us chatted for a few minutes before I suggested that we head up to the rooms and figure out what to do for the evening. The girls quickly agreed, and collected their stuff so the four of us could head to the rooms. On the way out, I stopped by the guy reading the paper by the door, and knelt down to tie my shoes. From there, I softly told him 'We'll be up in the rooms for at least a half hour before going out – probably to the mall.' The guy played his part, and pretended to ignore me – but gave me a look when I added 'Bill will tell you the rest.'
After that, I stood up again, and quickly caught up with the rest of them. Lucy fell back to whisper to me 'What were you DOING?'
I answered her by telling her that I'd let the protection people know how long they had before we'd be back out. When she asked why, I simply asked her 'How long can you hold YOUR bladder?' – and got a grin in return.
Back in the rooms, the girls quickly skinned out of their suits, and came over to give me a hug – and noticed the vest I was wearing. They looked up at me in curiosity, and Lucy and I told them to have a seat, we needed to have a talk.
Both quickly planted their cute fannies on chairs, looking at us with some trepidation.
Lucy and looked at each other, and I spoke first, telling them 'You know that your mom and I have been trying to catch some people that have been stealing from her client's company, right?'
They nodded, and I went on 'Well, I've got evidence that proves what they did – I mean, not just that there was money stolen, but WHO stole it, and how, and when. Because they put some of the money in banks in other states, that means that what they did is a federal offense – which means that it involves the FBI.'
They nodded again before I went on 'Lucy and I were at the FBI office today, where I showed them the evidence that I have. They were very happy to see us because the people that have been doing the stealing have been doing other stuff, too – and the FBI has been trying to find something to charge them with for a while. So
