The Organization, Part 1
Copyright 2012, 2020 Lisa Summers
I've never cared much for other women, they're just too much into drama. On the other hand, I've always loved men, but this one was beginning to annoy me.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked the beefy troglodyte holding my arm and 'assisting' me into the long, black limo. By the way his jacket bowed out under his arm, it was obvious that he was packing a gun. I've taken on beefy turds like him before, but the addition of a gun made me hold back. Besides, I was pretty sure he was just 'fetching' me for someone. Underworld types tend to act like that, and I hadn't pissed off anybody in that area since I left the Bureau.
He didn't bother to respond. I suppose I'd have been disappointed in him if he did. Still, it would have been nice to know where I was being shanghaied to. I had to admire his professionalism in keeping quiet. Most guys his size, like to show off to the petite little thing they're with. And at 5'1", and 110 pounds, I am petite. My long blonde hair and youthful features add to the impression that I'm probably harmless.
My name is Kacey Andrews. I'm a partner in Metropolitan Enquiry Services, a partnership located in the New York City area. I come from a long line of Irish cop types, although I suppose I'm the last, as my brother and sister have ended up primarily in the CEO business, of course at different firms. Their kids are likely to become doctors and lawyers, and I don't have any kids, nor a husband, though I do have a boyfriend, Michael Simmons -- um, a corporate lawyer.
I was formerly with the FBI, and on the fast track to the top, when I finally got fed up with political interference into our investigations. Believe it or not, it still happens. Pursuit of a federal crime can easily be sidetracked by a well-placed word from a politician, to a weak-willed investigative higher up.
So I formed the MES with a friend, Melissa Clouthier, who had been an agent at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. We'd done well investigating corporate crime on behalf of shareholders, investors, bond holders, that sort of thing. As informal as we were, we were not in the habit of being dragged out of our homes by goons of any stripe.
"Feel free to make yourself a drink," the goon-cum-chauffeur said through the limo's intercom, otherwise invisible through the smoky glass dividing driver from passenger. I looked at the bar at the front of the passenger cabin, and decided to indulge in a Schweppes ginger ale. Goon Number 2 handed me a small bottle, and a tumbler full of ice.
"Would you mind telling me who you work for, why I'm being abducted, and where exactly it is we're going? Thanks so much," I finished. Again, I wasn't let down by my captors, as they remained silent. I shrugged. I didn't have any enemies recently that would use goons -- they preferred using lawyers, instead. And the enemies I had from my FBI days would sooner do intimidation work themselves -- and most of them weren't very good at it.
So, I'd just have to see what this was about. I thought back on the conversation I'd just had minutes before with Melissa, before I was so rudely interrupted.
"Mel, you really need to find a good man, like Michael, and settle down, sort of."
"You mean, settle down, but not too much, right?" Melissa retorted, her voice slightly tinny through the cell phone speaker.
"I'd hate to see you leave the business entirely because you got married," I admitted. "But having a regular boyfriend would probably help you get more sleep, if nothing else. Probably make you less bitchy, too."
"You sound like an old married woman...and at thirty-four, too," Melissa teased.
"Oh, you're the voice of experience...at twenty-six," I said.
"Wisdom comes from experience," Melissa said, kind of pompously. "Not from just hanging around. Anyway, I'm down to two guys now. Arthur, the lawyer, and Cliff, the geologist."
"Whoof, Cliff sounds hunky," I said. "I pick him."
"You don't get to pick, and you've never even met him," she said.
"Turn off the phone," a deep voice said from behind me, emerging from nowhere.
"Wha-" I began to say, but he took the phone from my hand and clicked it off, handed it to an accomplice, who removed the battery, then politely returned the phone to me, keeping the battery.
"No GPS tracking." The serious look on his face was almost comical, but I decided to go along and see where this took me.
My thoughts returned to the present.
We drove into a garage of a turn of the century mansion in DUMBO, in Brooklyn. "Nice," I thought. "At least I'm not likely to end up in the trunk of a car in a wrecking yard in Brownsville."
The goon opened my door, and politely ushered me into the house, and then into a nicely appointed library.
"Please, sit here," he said, indicating a mahogany conference table in the center of the room. On the table was a MacBook Pro. He brought me another Schweppes, and a glass of ice.
"My employer will be right with you," he said. Progress.
A few minutes later, a glum, slightly bowed, middle-aged man with fading reddish hair entered.