Chapter 24
Agent Michaels was uneasy as she left the penthouse and returned to the apartment next door. It was not like Roberts to forget to set the alarm. She had seem him arm the system for a ten-minute outing before, so why didn’t he do it this time? She was going to ask Davis about it when she entered the room, but he was waiting for her with a question about reports they had to finish compiling. It was almost two hours later that she remembered to mention the disabled alarm to Davis.
“Hey, did Roberts set the alarm in the penthouse when the girls left for the store tonight?”
Davis looked up, puzzled. “I wasn’t with him, but I’m sure he did. That man is obsessive about things like that. Why, wasn’t it on when you took the girls inside?”
Michaels dropped the pile of papers she was holding and shook her head. She suddenly felt ill, and rushed for the bathroom.
Davis followed her in, demanding an answer. “Was the alarm turned off when you took the girls into the apartment?”
Michaels was retching in the toilet. “Yes, it was turned off,” she managed. She had let two hours go by leaving the girls in danger and was sick with grief. Michaels forced her stomach into compliance, rinsed and wiped her mouth, and went back into the office area where Davis was already calling for help.
“Yes, she said it was off when she took the girls inside,” Davis was talking into the phone, presumably to Roberts. “I didn’t check; hold on I will pull it up.” Davis turned and asked Michaels to pull the security footage from the time when they left for the store until they returned after dinner.
Michaels steeled her nerves and accessed the surveillance files. She guessed at the time and watched the screen come to life. Davis watched the screen with her, and she fast-forwarded the time. Soon she saw Roberts enter the girls’ apartment and leave with them. The agents watched them go down the elevator, and out to the parking garage where they would have gotten in a limo.
They continued watching the screen, Davis telling Roberts on the phone, “nothing yet,” every few minutes.
At eight twenty-two according to the timestamp in the corner, a well-dressed woman approached the private elevator in the lobby. Michaels caught her breath and slowed the video to real time. The woman produced an elevator key.
“I thought we had all three of those keys,” Michaels commented to Davis.
“There is a fourth, apparently,” he commented to her, then spoke into the phone to the waiting Roberts. “We have an intruder. A woman entered the elevator at eight twenty-two using an elevator key. She has a key to the penthouse as well, and entered that door at eight twenty-five.” Davis reported as they watched the security video. He waited for instructions, replied with “Yes, sir,” and hung up.
“Call 911, Roberts is on his way,” Davis instructed Michaels as he pulled a gun from his holster and headed for the door. He was feeling almost sick himself. The girls had been with the woman for over two hours already. There was no telling what he would find when he got in there.
Agent Michaels called the police, giving them all the information she had. They were sending a team to assist, and asked to make sure someone stayed at the elevators to let them in. Michaels knew that would fall to her. Roberts would most likely fire her for this, but she didn’t care. All that concerned her were the conditions of Miss Becker and her friend.
Michaels quietly left the security suite and headed down the elevator to wait at the bottom with the elevator key. She wanted to check identification of the police officers, just to be sure. She knew it would take an extra thirty seconds, but Roberts had trained them for just this situation, and this is what he had ordered her to do.
Two police cars stopped quickly at the front door and four officers rushed in, followed closely by Roberts. “Quickly, let me see your badges,” she requested. The four officers complied, knowing it was part of her job. Roberts took the elevator key from her, and held the doors for the officers. He handed the key back to her before the five men disappeared to the top, telling her that there would most likely be more officers soon.
As much as she wanted to assist the girls upstairs, Michaels knew this was her place right now. She hated herself for her blunder, and prayed it hadn’t cost the life of the sweet, unspoiled Miss Becker.
Meanwhile, Davis had silently unlocked the penthouse doors and pulled them wide open. It was dark in the room, and he couldn’t see any movement at all. He propped open the doors with chairs from the dining room, so that Roberts and the officers could make silent entry when they arrived.
He quietly went down the hallway past the dining room to the study. He searched both bathrooms at that end, and the study as well. He found a woman’s designer handbag in the corner of the study. He silently unzipped it and extracted a wallet. Using the flashlight he carried on his hip, he quickly glanced at the photo ID and determined that the handbag belonged to the intruder. She was still here.
Davis left the study, gun drawn, and headed back toward the bedrooms. As he neared the first one, he heard voices. He inched his way closer to the door, listening intently. A woman’s voice heavily accented. The woman spoke English well, even using American slang. He heard a quiet noise behind him and turned quickly to find Roberts and the four officers closing in fast. He walked back into the living area toward them to update them.
“I found the woman’s handbag in the study. Tatiana Petrova. She is in the first room with at least one of the girls; I heard her talking. Heavy accent,” Davis whispered quietly. Roberts nodded, and motioned for Davis to go to the other side of the door. The two men softly moved into place, and Roberts gently placed his hand on the knob. He carefully turned it, hoping the release was silent. It was. Once the latch was cleared, he pushed the door open several inches. He could see the two girls bound and gagged on the bed, and a woman holding a gun pointed at Miss Becker. He turned to the police to make sure they were aware that both girls were inside but found two of the officers peering over his shoulder into the room.
Roberts didn’t have but a fraction of a second to think. From the comments the woman was making in the room, he knew time was short, and they had to act quickly. He motioned to Davis and the officers that he was going to push the door open wide, and he and Davis would go in first.
The door swung wide and the agents heard the report of the gun as they ascended on the suspect, the officers at their heels. The woman was startled and was quickly subdued by the officers. Roberts went over to Jo, who was face down on the floor. He panicked at first, seeing blood on her face, but she opened her eyes and saw him, and began crying in relief.
Davis was with Alex, releasing her bonds while Roberts was pulling the gag out of Jo’s mouth and pulling the ropes off her wrists and ankles. Once free, Jo gave Roberts a huge hug, still sobbing loudly. Alex hugged Davis once she was free too, and went over to Jo. The two girls held each other and cried for a few minutes. Their escape was narrow.
When Jo could contain her emotions, she took the tissue handed to her by Roberts and blew her nose. She pulled another tissue from the box at the bedside table and dabbed at her bleeding temple.
“Alex, you saved my life,” Jo said, tears welling up in her eyes again.
“I thought that was part of the Personal Assistant’s job,” Alex joked as she too, wiped her tears.
“Can either of you two tell me what happened?” Roberts asked. The officers had hauled the woman out of the room immediately upon capture, so the girls were alone with just the two security agents for the moment.
“That mad woman tried to kill us,” Jo told him bluntly.
Roberts smiled compassionately. “I had figured that part out, Miss Becker. Who is she and what did she want?”
“She was the girlfriend you had heard a rumor about. She told us this was her apartment and we were intruding. And since she couldn’t have it, I wasn’t going to either, and then she shot me!” Jo felt the tears welling up again.
Alex put her arm supportively around Jo, and picked up the story. “The woman was aiming at Jo the whole time. I actually felt ignored. So while she was talking to Jo, I scooted over to Jo as close as I could. When I saw her pull the trigger, I shoved Jo as hard as I could. I didn’t know if it worked or not, I just know I pushed her off the bed.”
“I felt myself falling over, and then felt the heat at my temple,” Jo told her. “It was like someone held a hot curling iron to the side of my face. It burned, and then I hit the floor. I had no idea why I was falling at the time. It wasn’t until Roberts got to me that I could actually process what had happened and realized you had shoved me,” Jo told her. “You are the best, Alex. I’m so glad you agreed to stay here. If you hadn’t I would be dead.” Jo stated bluntly.
Alex squeezed Jo’s shoulders. It had been close. “How did the woman get in, Agent Roberts?” Alex asked him. “I remember Michaels being concerned that the alarm was turned off.”
“Oh, that was another thing she said, Roberts,” Jo remembered, “She said that the alarm code is her birth date. She was supposed to move in the morning Mr. Hartford died. She had keys to the elevator and the apartment, and Mr. Hartford had selected the code to be something she could remember easily.”
Roberts frowned. “I apologize, Miss Becker, for not looking into the rumor of the girlfriend more diligently. I did check with the people who worked on the apartment, though, including the concierge. I was told there were only three sets of keys, and since everyone involved assured me that no one had moved in, I mistakenly assumed the three sets were all there was.”
“The woman mentioned that Mr. Hartford had made a set special for her. Maybe he did it because all the workers and staff had the other three?” Alex suggested.
“It doesn’t matter, Alex. It’s over,” Jo smiled and dabbed at her temple again. “Oh, she was the one who hired the black sedan guy, too. She called him an incompetent fool,” Jo recalled.
Roberts seemed stunned by that. “I was sure he was hired by…” he stopped himself and smiled. “It is good to know that the immediate danger is over, Miss Becker.” He turned towards Alex. “Thank you, Miss Turner, for protecting Miss Becker when I wasn’t here to do it. She is fortunate to have you for a friend,” he took Alex’s hand and shook it. She smiled as if that was the best compliment anyone had ever given her. “Now let’s get that bullet burn fixed up, shall we?”
Two paramedics were waiting to have access to Jo, and he let them in. They cleaned the wound and covered it, telling her to change the bandage in the morning and not to get it wet for two days. “You don’t even need stitches. You are a very lucky girl, Miss Becker. This could have been bad.”
“I know I am,” Jo responded, squeezing Alex’s hand.
Charlie’s dad arrived just as the paramedics left, and had to be told the whole story. Michaels had called him as soon as she was free. He hugged both Jo and Alex, and told them he was glad they were okay. Jo held back her tears and watched as one of the police officers retrieved the bullet from the wall behind the headboard. After striking Jo’s temple, the bullet traveled through the solid mahogany wood and lodged into the wall.
“That was a close call, Miss Becker,” the officer told her as he placed the bullet into a small envelope for evidence processing. “I’m glad it turned out okay for you.”
“Thank you.” She was getting tired of being reminded by so many people of how near to death she had been tonight. In fact, she realized she was just exhausted.
Looking up at the headboard with a hole in it, Jo realized she wasn’t going to sleep there anymore. “Alex, do you think Charlie would mind terribly if I take the other bedroom?”
“If she does that’s just too bad, Jo. I wouldn’t want this room either after what you’ve been through,” Brad told her.
“Tonight, I want you to bunk with me. It’s a king-sized bed, there’s room for both of us,” Alex informed her.
Jo nodded, relieved.
“Then I will take Charlie’s room if you don’t mind,” Brad said.
Jo smiled at him and told him to make himself at home.
“I’m going to stay in the living room for the rest of the evening, Miss Becker,” Roberts informed her.
Having settled everyone else, Alex and Jo went into Alex’s room and climbed into bed. They were both exhausted, but sleep was elusive.
“Alex? What would have happened to the company if I had died? I remember Roberts telling me something about it that first day. Do you remember what he said?”
Alex tried to think. “I believe he said it would be divided amongst the stockholders. Some of them would become super rich, too, and he thought those were the ones who were trying to kill you.”
“I need to make out a will. I don’t want the company money to be a bull’s eye on my back any longer. I will make out a will with Brad in the morning, and then if I die, the stockholders won’t get anything. Maybe I won’t feel as vulnerable.”
“It’s probably a good idea, Jo, and if it gives you a little peace of mind, then you should do it. However, right now you need to try to get some rest. Big first day tomorrow, remember.”
“Yeah. Big first day,” Jo grimaced. She was silent for a few moments before she finally remarked, “I guess if I can stare a gun down for twenty minutes and live to tell about it, then I can face mere people who just want my money, not my life. Right?”
Alex laughed. “That’s the spirit, girl. You go with that.”
Alex and Jo drifted off to sleep after a while. They were emotionally spent. Brad, in Charlie’s room, had already begun snoring. Roberts, however, was sitting at the dining room table in Jo’s apartment having a briefing with his team.
After filling in Thomas, Diaz and O’Brian on the evening’s events, he asked Davis to report on the video surveillance. “Why was there no one watching the video while the girls were downstairs eating?” He asked.
“Michaels and I were with the girls, and Thomas and O’Brian weren’t scheduled to arrive until midnight,” Davis responded.
“So when Diaz and I left, it left you two alone,” he understood their dilemma. “We need to have four people on shift at all times, not just two people rotating three shifts a day. This was my fault, tonight. Director Johnson will have my head when she hears about it.”
“It was my bust, Agent Roberts,” Michaels spoke up for the first time. “I noticed the alarm was off, I didn’t notify anyone else, and I didn’t check the rooms. I will submit my resignation immediately so you can find a suitable replacement to better watch over the girls.”
“Nonsense,” Roberts waved her apology away. “You assumed as I did that the apartment was impregnable. Since no one could get into the apartment without two keys that were impossible to replicate, you assumed that I left the alarm off.” Roberts surmised. “Besides that, Agent Michaels, this is one mistake you will never make again in your career. That makes you more reliable than a replacement would be.”
Michaels was surprised at both the lack of reprimand and the encouragement. She acknowledged his claim and steeled herself. She would make sure that was the last mistake she ever made on the job.
“It comes down to the fact that Miss Becker’s life was saved by her friend. It should have been us, and it was to an extent. Once the suspect realized she had missed, she would have finished the job had we not arrived when we did, but this will not happen again. I will bring in six more agents to rotate sitting on the monitors. That means that the primary teams will only be with Miss Becker when she’s out of her apartment, and the surveillance teams will be watching the monitors all day, regardless of where Miss Becker is at the time.”
Roberts went on with the new strategy and finally the late night meeting concluded. He sent everyone away except Diaz. Roberts stretched out on the sofa and Diaz took a recliner. Before retiring, they blocked the entry. They weren’t going to chance another encounter that night. Roberts knew he would get very little sleep, and must be with Miss Becker all the next day, but that didn’t matter to him. All that concerned him was the girl sleeping in the room down the hall.