“Of course. This is Ty Hardy and Chava Levy. Ty is a highly decorated Army helicopter pilot who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and Chava is former Mossad. They’re two of my top operatives.” The big boss stuck out his hand, disregarding the new social norm of simple elbow bumping. Poppy nevertheless accepted it and they shook hands. The top dog in the room, the big stud with the buzz cut, was Dan LeVoie, American businessman and former Navy SEAL who had founded Cobra and felt this meeting important enough to run it himself.
Wyatt’s Web site must have worked like a charm. The best way to make an impression on the Cobra principals, Wyatt determined, was to quickly build a Web site touting St. Clair’s billion-dollar share of the cosmetics company. He even built in links to fake stock prices and news articles, even doctoring Poppy’s photo on various magazine covers. He was so detailed and thorough, incorporating glowing fake testimonials from world-famous figures such as Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Lawrence, even Meghan Markle, he could fool even the smartest CEOs that St. Clair Cosmetics was a real thing and a big deal.
Poppy had remained skeptical. Fooling a world-renowned security firm seemed, well, foolish, but remarkably it had worked. An underling had probably been assigned to check out the company to see if it was legit, and been fooled by Wyatt’s impressive handiwork. And so here they were, Poppy, Matt, and Violet inside the lion’s den, ready to mix it up.
“May I introduce my executive assistant, Violet Hogan, and my head of security, Matt Cameron,” Poppy said.
She had decided to use Matt’s real name since Flowers might set off alarm bells in Dan LeVoie’s mind about the Desert Flowers Detective Agency, which they obviously had under surveillance. Since these three were high up in the firm, it quickly became clear they were not out on the street following the marks around, bugging offices and homes themselves, and so the likelihood of Dan, Ty, and Chava recognizing any of them was remote.
“Nice to meet you all, please, have a seat,” Dan said, gesturing for them to sit down, which they did. Dan and his team followed. Coffee and cookies had been set out, but no one in the room decided at the moment to partake.
Dan eyed Matt curiously. “Head of security? I didn’t think you would need a bodyguard in your line of work.”
“You’d be surprised. The cosmetics industry is a very cutthroat business,” Poppy said.
“Good to know,” Dan said, nodding with a smile. “How can we help you today, Mrs. . . . I mean, Claire?”
“Well, I’m not going to assume you know what’s going on in the world of makeup and perfumes, so I’ll try to bring you up to speed as quickly as I can,” Poppy said, reaching into her Valentino leather satchel bag in raspberry pink, extracting a pink perfume bottle in the shape of a woman’s high heel, and setting it down on the conference table.
“My company is about to release our newest fragrance, Cinderella, a floral bouquet of rose and jasmine with a touch of vanilla, simply divine, here let me show you. . . .”
Dan, Ty, and Chava sat across the table, dumbfounded at what she wanted them to do. Ty glanced at Chava since she was the lone woman in their group, expecting her to take the bottle and spray some on her neck, but Chava was definitely not the type that wore perfume of any kind so she sat back in her chair and folded her arms defiantly. Finally, Dan glared at Ty and he reluctantly reached his arm out, wrist up, so Poppy could spray some on him. He took a whiff and nodded approvingly, then raised his arm in front of Dan so he could awkwardly smell the fragrance, too.
“Nice,” Dan said.
“Thank you. I worked very hard to find the right balance,” Poppy cooed. “As you are probably aware, there is rampant corporate espionage in the cosmetics industry.”
Dan cocked an eyebrow. “No, I actually wasn’t aware. . . .”
“I can assure you there is, and I have heard through my own contacts that Maybelline is about to unveil this exact scent with this same bottle design, same shape but in crystal, in two weeks, beating our own release by a matter of days! It’s virtually impossible for two competing companies to come up with the exact same idea. There has to be a spy in my organization.”
Dan leaned forward, elbows on the table. “And you want us to ferret him or her out?”
“Not only that, I want you to conduct a wide-range surveillance of Maybelline because I want a full counting of everyone involved in this theft for when I sue,” Poppy said forcefully. “I assume you can do that?”
Dan cracked a smile. “Oh, yes, we can do that. For the right price.”
“I hate discussing money, that’s what I have Violet for, she handles all that, which leaves me unencumbered so I can freely nurture my creativity.”
“Of course,” Dan said, widening his smile as he began seeing dollar signs.
Suddenly the door to the conference room burst open, and a man breezed in.
“Sorry, I was on the phone with another client,” the man said before turning to the group assembled.
“This is Phil McKellan, another associate. He heads up our surveillance unit, so I’m sure you’re going to want to talk to him.”
Phil took one look at Violet and blanched. He opened his mouth to say something but no words came out.
“Phil, you okay?” Dan asked, slightly concerned.
Violet stood up to confront him, her whole body shaking.
Phil started backing out of the conference room. “Excuse me, I need to go. . . .” He
