Extracted - Chapter 24 – Come File With Me

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 24 – Come File With Me

 

Agatha’s cellphone rang.  Before answering it, she was a bit surprised to see who was calling, although she realized that she probably shouldn't have been surprised at all.  “Hello?”

“Hi Agatha, it’s Wanda.”

“Hi Wanda,” Agatha replied.  “I’m wondering if I should be surprised to hear from you today or not.”

“Probably not,” Wanda admitted.  “I take it that Mr. Curmett paid your family a little visit last night?”

“He did, but we don’t really know why.  He didn’t say anything except to tell us not to talk about our little problem.”

“No,” Wanda agreed.  “That’s pretty much the way it went here too.”

“Why bother?” Agatha said, frustrated with it all.

“Listen, Agatha, before you go getting all worked up over it, Mike asked me to call you.  The two of us discussed it and thought that maybe it would be a good idea for us to all get together this weekend and…talk.  I know I’d really like to have more time with my Nancy, and I’m sure you feel the same about your Stephen.”

“You have no idea how much I’d like that,” Agatha agreed.  “That trip to the Catskills was nice, but not nearly long enough.  And most of the time they were mostly concerned with us meeting each other and never gave us that much time to really talk.”

“No,” Wanda agreed.  “They didn’t.  So I was wondering, would you and your family like to come here for dinner next Saturday.  Just your family and my family, that’s it.  No FBI agents running around trying unsuccessfully to look inconspicuous.  And since it’s a bit of a drive, we’ve got plenty of guest rooms in our house for you to stay the night.  Besides, that way you won’t have to rush your visit.”

It didn’t take long for Agatha to consider the offer.  “I need to check with Henry first.  I don’t know what he’s got planned for this weekend, but I know I’d love to come.  More than that, I can’t help myself.  I’d like to see where my Stephen is living now.”

“Just like I’m wondering the same thing for my Nancy,” Wanda admitted.

“Then the next get together will be at our house,” Agatha told her.

“I think I’d like that,” Wanda replied.

“Um…Wanda,” Agatha said.  “Since we just got that useless visit last night from Mr. Curmett, is this dinner offer related to anything he had to say?”

“Um…” Wanda hedged.  “It’s not exactly the way my husband put it when we decided to do this, but I think it’s in that general direction.”

“Anything we need to worry about?” Agatha asked.

“No.  Just come and enjoy yourselves.  It will give me a good excuse to host another fancy dinner.”

“Like I said, I’ll have to check with my husband and then let you know.”

“Great,” Wanda agreed.  “Um…is Nancy there by any chance that I can talk with her?”

“Not today,” Agatha told her.  “Believe it or not, Stephen went into work today with his father.”

“With his father.  Mike?  What’s he doing there?”

“Since Stephen has been sitting around all day, every day, moping about his situation and bored with his entire life, Mike asked if he would go into the office with him to do a few days of filing for them.  We think getting him out of the house will do him some good, and also give him something else to think about for a while.”

“Yeah,” Wanda agreed, considering that, and not happy to hear how badly her daughter was doing.

“How about my Stephen?” Agatha asked.  “Can I say hi?”

“Um…Agatha.  Believe it or not, your Stephen is downstairs right now waiting for her ballet teacher to arrive, which should be any minute.”

“Ballet!  When did that happen?”

“Recently,” Wanda told her.  “Agatha, look, she needed help…with too much.  Not only has she been depressed, but she doesn’t move the way I would expect her to, so I thought…ballet.  Why not?”

Agatha’s head was spinning a bit.  “I think the two of us have more to catch up on than either of us realized.”

“I think you’re right,” Wanda replied.  “Let me know about Saturday.”

“Just as soon as I can get an answer,” Agatha told her.  She ended the call.  Ballet!  She tried her best to imagine her big strong son, trying to dance ballet.  It was a bit difficult to picture.  She had another thought too.  If they did go up there for the weekend, was there any chance her Steven, Wanda’s Nancy, would consent to giving a little dance recital?  As much as Agatha would love to see that, something told her it would never happen.  Too bad.  She could use a good laugh about now.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

The President of the United States looked up from his desk in the Oval Office as Curmett came in.  “Did you take care of talking with the families?”

“Personally,” Curmett told him.

“Good!  Any problems I need to know about?”

“None that I could find.  We may have gotten lucky there because of the concerns that both families have about letting information like that get out.”

“Mm,” the President agreed.  “Politics!  Not just for Stiller, but as a D.A., I’m sure for the other one too.”

“Marsh,” Curmett reminded him of the name.

The President tossed the name off with a wave of his hand, not really caring.  “How’s the black ops plan going?”

“I’ve got it right here,” Curmett told the President as he moved to give him the paperwork.

“No,” the President said.  “You hold onto it.  I don’t want to know.  In fact, it’s better if I don’t know the exact details.  I just need to know if you think it’s any good.”

“It should be perfect, sir.  In Stiller’s case, it will look like nothing more than an assassination attempt that also took out his entire family.  Since Stiller has been becoming more of a central figure in the house, it’s totally believable.”

“And for the D.A.?”

“A simple car accident sir when the entire family is together.  Of course, the accident will be helped along a bit with a bit of explosives, but all of that will be covered up in the usual way.”

“Good.  Like I said, I don’t want to know the details.  I guess I will be expected to make some kind of fuss after Mike Stiller is taken care of, but the D.A. will be another matter.  I shouldn’t have to even mention him, and I don’t expect anyone to tell me about his accident either.  An accident is an accident.  Period.”

“Exactly, sir,” Curmett agreed.  “Shall I give the go ahead?”

The President considered it, then decided, “Not yet.  As much as I know it would be better to squash this thing now instead of later, let’s give them a bit of a chance first and see how it goes.  Actually, I’m wondering it keeping them alive for now might be the better choice in case we ever get that ransom demand we’re expecting.  Killing both families right now might send the wrong message to whoever has that damn process, and they could get angry enough to launch whatever kind of attack they have in mind.”

“As much as I hate to say it,” Curmett said, “that’s possible.  Keeping them alive for now may be the wisest thing to do.  The people who did this in the first place would be expecting us to learn about it and investigate it, which we’ve done.  Terminating their examples may not be the best way to go.  Yet.”

“Yet,” the President agreed.  “But the plan of action has been created and can be implemented at a moment’s notice.”

“Just give the word,” Curmett agreed.

 

 --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Henry Marsh turned his son over to one of the aides that constantly seemed to be running around their offices.  “Here he is,” Henry told her.  “Put him to work.”

“Got him sir.  And thanks.”

“Steve,” Henry told his son.  “Good luck.  If you need me, my office is right down there,” he said, pointing further down the hallway.

“Thanks Dad,” Stephen replied.

The woman led Stephen to one of the rooms.  A good-sized room.  Stephen looked in the door and stopped.  Oh no.  Not again?  Why was it that he was always having to pick up everyone else’s mess?  First it was the real Stephen’s room, now this…mess!  Didn’t anyone in Philadelphia know how to put things away?

The woman gave Steve a general idea of where things were supposed to be and what he should be doing, then he was turned loose to try and make sense of it all.  He spent the first five minutes just looking through a few things, then with a sigh, he picked up a file, looked around, and tried to remember where to put it.  Finding the right place for it took him almost ten minutes.  The next file though went easier, and it took him almost five minutes to put away.  He looked around at the mess in the room.  This was going to be more difficult and take longer than he thought.

By lunchtime, he had managed to clear off two whole feet on one corner of one of the four tables that lined the center of the room.  He was just going to grab another file to put away when a man and a woman hurried into the room.  They completely ignored him while one went to the shelves and the other to the file cabinets.  Steve heard them discussing something urgently as he searched for where his latest file needed to go.

“Found the file!” the one at the file cabinets exclaimed.

“And I’ve got the box,” the other one told him.

The two people carried their things directly to Stephen’s only cleared spot on any of the tables and set their things right there, then they began desperately going through whatever they had found, making more of a mess than had been there before.

As Steve watched them, the woman looked up at him.  “Whatever you’re doing,” she said, “we can use your help.”

“Good idea,” the man agreed.

“Me?” Steve said.

“Yes,” the woman told him.  She pushed one of the files they were looking at further down the table.  “Start going through there.  We’re looking for any mention at all of either Cofounders Fund, or Larry Burtelli.”

“Anything!” the man emphasized.

Steve wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do.  “But I’m only supposed to be…”

“Whatever it is,” the man said, “it’s not as important as this.  Now give us a hand.  Cofounders Fund or Burtelli.”

Unsure about things, Steve opened the file folder they had given him and began reading through the paperwork inside, looking for the two things they had mentioned.  Three papers in, he had to ask, “What should I do if I find anything?”

“You got something?” the man asked quickly.

Steve pointed toward the bottom of the page he had been looking at.  Both the man and the woman looked over his shoulder.  Great!” the woman said as she read it further.  “Just what we need.  Burtelli is listed as one of the fund managers.  That’s a direct connection.”

“But is there more?” the man asked.

“Keep looking!” the woman told Steve as she took the one paper from the file he had and set it aside.

Steve went back to work.

“Steve!  What are you doing?”

Steve looked up to see his father in the doorway.  “Um…they wanted me to help them find something.”

“We’ve got one connection on the Burtelli case already,” the man told Steve’s father.  “But there could be more.”

Henry nodded.

“I can go back to filing this stuff,” Steve told him.  “Gladly!”

“He found the connection,” the woman pointed out.

Henry shook his head.  “Steve, if you think you can help, then help them.  What they’re doing is a lot more important than just putting away files.”

“Thanks,” the man told the D.A.

“I was going to take you to lunch,” Henry pointed out.

“Can we keep him a bit longer?” the woman asked.

Henry nodded.  “If he’s agreeable.  Steve, come get me when you’re done.  We’ll go to lunch then.”

While Stephen read through files, the man and woman searched for other files and piled them on the table.  Both the man and woman found a few examples of what they needed, then Stephen said, “Got another one.”  Once again, the paper he had found was plucked and he was put back to work.

An hour later, the man and woman walked out with everything they had found, leaving another huge mess in their wake.  They never said even one word of thanks to Stephen.  Stephen took the opportunity to find his father’s office.  The two of them had lunch together, which Steve really enjoyed.  It was a strange experience to be out doing something with his father.  As Nancy, something like that had never happened.

After lunch, Steve did his best to tackle the mess that the man and woman had made earlier.  He didn’t get far before a different man came in.  He began pulling file after file from the cabinets and putting them on the just cleared table space.  Then he looked to Steve.  “Are you the one who helped with the Burtelli case earlier?”

“Yeah,” Steve replied hesitantly.

“Good.  Give me a hand.  I’m looking for Catherine Faux.  That’s F-A-U-X.”  Without another word, he threw a couple of the files in Steve’s direction.

Once again, Steve was doing something he didn’t think he should.

But it was kind of interesting.  More so than just picking up someone else’s mess.