Beauty and the Beast (17 page)

William smiled. “We are going to be having meatloaf and homemade bread for supper tonight. Ill make those sandwiches with the leftovers!”

Vincent chuckled. “If we get Joe Maxwell down here and take him to your kitchen to be fed, William, hell never want to leave!” Everyone laughed.

Chapter V Tea Party in Wonderland

Dianna once again found herself picking her way through the main office of the Manhattan District Attorney headed for Joe’s office. Her mind wandered back to a couple of days ago when she had arrived in Chuck’s cab back at her loft from her night in the tunnels. She was really grateful that Chuck had set up that little “getaway” of hers. One of her neighbors, who usually had absolutely nothing to say to her, had suddenly shown an interest in where she had been. She had pulled out the Ocean View Bed and Breakfast brochure with her receipt and had shown them to her “nosy” neighbor. He showed no further interest, and she strongly suspected that he had been slipped some money to get information concerning her previous whereabouts.

Finally, in the quiet refuge of Joe’s office, she found him just sitting and thinking. She sat down in the chair in front of his desk and waited for him to say something. He looked at her and she smiled at him.

He spoke to her. “You have the report on Gabriel’s mansion for me?”

She answered him. “I do. I also have the codes and keys you gave me.” She took the large envelope out of her bag and gave it to him. “The report is in there too.” She thought to herself, “The bogus report!”

Just then, Bennie came into Joe’s office with a bag in his hand. Bennie spread cheer wherever he went with his bright smile and happy attitude. He was in his early twenties and of average height with a slender build and brown hair and eyes.

“Hello, gorgeous!” Bennie exclaimed to Diana with his infectious smile. “Here is your custom sandwich order.” He handed her the bag. “Yours is the one on top.” He winked at her.

Diana smiled back at him. “Thank you so much, Bennie. Give my compliments to the chef.”

“Ill be sure to pass them along. Good-bye, Diana.” Bennie headed for the door.

“Good-bye, Bennie,” she called after him.

Diana looked at Joe. “I sprang for lunch for us. You need a better meal than I’ve seen you eat in here.” She opened the bag and pulled the two sandwiches out. The top one had her name on it, and the bottom one had Joe’s

name on it. She handed it to him, and then got up, went to his water cooler, and poured cups of water for both of them. When she came back to the desk, Joe was just staring at his now opened sandwich.

He said in awe, “Is this really a meatloaf sandwich on homemade bread? Where on earth did you find this?”

She had to stifle a giggle and thought to herself, “You mean where under the earth did I find it?” However, aloud she said, “It’s a quaint little joint. Ill have to take you there one day and introduce you to the chef.”

Joe already had his mouth full but talked around it. “I’d like that!”

Diana opened the wrapper on her sandwich and put the note inside down on her lap before reading it. The note was from Father telling her to bring Joe to the Central Park tunnel secret door on Saturday morning at 10:00.

As she ate her sandwich, she watched Joe devouring his. He looked up and asked, “What?”

Diana smiled as she replied, “I was just thinking about how much the chef would enjoy watching your attack on the sandwich he made for you.” After she had taken her last bite and finished her cup of water, she asked Joe,

“You don’t have any plans for this weekend, do you?” Before he even had time to empty his mouth and answer her, she went on. “Of course you don’t! Dress in comfortable clothes tomorrow morning, and be ready to be picked up by a cab I’m sending for you. Hell be outside

your building waiting for you at 8:30 sharp.”

Joe looked at her with amazing calmness. “What is this all about, Diana?”

Diana got up to leave and said, “It’s about answering every question you ever had about the Cathy Chandler case, Joe.”

“You’ve been avoiding talking to me about the Cathy Chandler case as if it were the plague! Now, you’re telling me that you want to answer all of my questions? That’s a mighty strange about-face, Diana! OK, 111 be ready, but this had better be good!” Joe warned.

“I guarantee you won’t be disappointed,” Diana promised.

As Diana began walking toward the door, Joe called after her, “I could have had plans!”

Diana tossed over her shoulder, “Uh-huh, later Joe!” Then she walked out the door.

When Chuck dropped Diana off at her loft, he waited for her while she went up. They had already decided that she should pack a bag and stay overnight at the Ocean View Bed and Breakfast. Chuck was going to show her tonight where she could access the tunnels under the spacious home the next morning, and also provide her with a map to the manhole, where he would pick her up after he picked up Joe. The bottom of his cab trunk had been equipped by Mouse with the same type of trap door as the coroner’s van for covert tunnel access. Chuck had

shown her the two-way catch in the trunk, so she could climb up from the tunnel into the trunk and then through the fold-down section of the back seat. They wanted to make sure no one was aware that she was meeting with Joe, in case he was also being watched, which was very likely.

The next morning, Joe left his building a few minutes before 8:30, and the cab was already waiting for him.

When Joe climbed into the back seat and saw who the driver was, he said. “I might have known Diana would send you, her personal cab driver and bodyguard. At least this time you aren’t kidnapping me! I don’t suppose you would be kind enough to enlighten me about what is going on here?”

Chuck responded, “I’m sorry, Mr. Maxwell. My job is to drive the cab. Any enlightening will have to be done by Diana.”

Joe sounded resigned, “This should be interesting at least.”

Chuck smiled into the rearview mirror at Joe. “I guarantee it will be, Mr. Maxwell!”

About twenty minutes later, Chuck turned into a fairly busy street in the business-office section of town and paused halfway between intersections. He turned on his left blinker for about two seconds and then the right one. Almost immediately, about a dozen teen and pre-teen kids magically appeared and congregated around the cab and started washing the windows. Chuck opened his window to speak to them. He also pulled three times on a lever on his floorboard. Within seconds Joe felt the cab rock a little, and then Diana’s head popped out of the seat next to him.

Joe nearly jumped out of his skin, and Diana giggled at him. “Good morning, Joe!”

Joe’s quick wit returned along with his composure. “What, are you just now getting up? I’ve been awake for hours!”

Chuck spoke up quickly before Diana was all the way out of the trunk. “Diana, stay down! Mr. Maxwell, don’t turn around. We’ve picked up a tail.”

Diana wiggled out of the trunk onto the seat and then sat in the floor-well with her back against the door. “Can you lose them, Chuck?”

Chuck smiled and replied. “We were prepared for this possibility. I’m setting the contingency plan in motion now.” Then he spoke to Zach outside of his window.

“How is it that you aren’t in the pipe-chamber with Pascal, Zach?”

Zach answered. “We decided that it would be best if I led the kids on this little expedition. Which car is it?” Chuck told him. “It’s the dark blue sedan three cars back.”

Zach glanced behind the cab and said, “I see it. Don’t worry; well take care of them!”

Chuck handed him a twenty dollar bill for show, and Zach started waving it around triumphantly. He and his little band of kids worked their way behind the cab, leaving a kid to wash the windows of each car between the cab and the offending tail. When Zach got to the dark blue sedan that had been following Chuck’s cab, he took the bucket of dirty soapy water he had been holding and threw it on the windshield of the car. The rest of his troop of kids surrounded the vehicle and began furiously washing windows.

Chuck had been watching in his rearview mirror, and he then flew around the other cars in front of him and made it around the corner before the tailing car’s windshield could be cleared. He ducked into a parking garage and quickly snatched the parking ticket from the automated gate. He drove in and backed into a space where they could watch the entrance. It was Saturday in the business-office section of town, so the garage had very few cars in it. After several minutes they watched the blue sedan drive past the entrance. Chuck waited a few more minutes and then drove out, paid the attendant, and went back the way they had come. He then headed for Central Park.

At that point Joe couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “Diana, what on earth is going on here? Why are we being tailed?”

Diana stayed on the floor as she answered him. “Joe, that report I gave you was false. Gabriel’s organization is

alive and well, because he has an older brother who is even worse than he was. You also still have dirty cops who are now working for the brother.”

Joe looked sternly at Diana. “I don’t suppose you want to explain to me how you know all of this?”

Diana replied. “I will, I promise, but this case has become a lot more complicated, and there are good people in peril who need our protection. Before I explain everything, I need to ask you something. Joe, can I trust you with a secret, one which you must never reveal to anyone else?”

Joe looked surprised by the question. “Unless it is illegal, you can tell me anything, Diana, and 111 keep your secret.”

Diana spoke very seriously. “Joe, I promise you it has nothing to do with anything illegal, in fact, quite the opposite is the case.”

Joe was just as serious. “Then tell me.”

Diana watched for Joe’s reaction as she spoke. “I want to take you to meet someone—to meet Vincent.”

Joe’s mouth dropped open, and then he said, “Is this the same Vincent, the ‘perfect man,’ that you told me Cathy made up to deal with the trauma of her attack when her face was slashed—that Vincent, the one I was convinced had something to do with her murder?”

Diana raised her eyebrows and widened her eyes as she replied, “The same.”

Joe exploded. “I knew you were keeping things from me!”

Diana ignored his outburst. “Yes, well, I’ve already apologized to Cathy’s rosebush for telling you that fib.”

Joe was unexpectedly disarmed, “Cathy’s rosebush? You mean the one with the red and white roses you found on her balcony—that rosebush?”

Diana couldn’t help but smile at Joe’s change in demeanor. “That would be the one!”

Joe snapped back to his previous annoyed tone. “Well, I guess you can apologize to me now!”

Diana complied. “Joe, I’m sorry, but I know you will understand why I told you that story when you meet Vincent. I made a promise to him then, and I got his permission to bring you to him now.”

Joe gave Diana a skeptical look. “Are you sure he’s not into anything illegal?”

Diana was very sober as she replied. “Do you really think I would be protecting him if he was?”

Joe looked thoughtfully at her. “No, I know you wouldn’t.”

Diana went on. “Vincent is anything but a criminal.” Joe gave her a wry smile. “Let me guess. He’s a caped crusader whose true identity must be kept a secret.”

The image of Vincent in his dark hooded cloak, which he wore when he ventured above, passed through Diana’s mind as she said, “Something like that.”

Joe sat back and relaxed. “All right, I’m all yours.

Take me to Vincent. By the way, am I correct in assuming you didn’t spend the night in the trunk?”

Diana laughed. “Ill explain that secret to you as well as soon as we stop.”

When they arrived at Central Park, they were met, shortly after going through the gate, by Bennie on his bike. Chuck stopped and rolled down his window to talk to him. “Hey, Bennie! How’s the weather in the park today?”

Bennie laughed as he answered. “Clear as a mountain Brooke! We have several Helpers who have checked it out thoroughly this morning, and no one is lurking around who shouldn’t be here.”

Joe gave Diana a completely bewildered look. “Didn’t he deliver our lunch to us yesterday? Now, you’re telling me he is scouting out Central Park for bad guys—on his bike, no less? That’s not to even mention the little gang of window-washing kids you have, who are distracting tailing cars that are chasing us around the city! What kind of an extra-curricular operation are you running, Diana?”

Diana was nearly in stitches over Joe’s consternation, as she said to him through tears of laughter, “Just be still for a few minutes longer, Joe, and all of this will make sense.”

Joe shook his head. “Yeah, sure it will! It will probably make about as much sense as Alice going down the rabbit’s hole and having a tea party with the mad hatter!”

Chuck and Diana both exploded with laughter over

that remark, and Diana told Joe, “You can’t imagine just how on target that wise-crack really is!”

Joe looked from Chuck to Diana as they continued to laugh. “I’m glad you two are having such a good time!” When Chuck stopped again near the drainage tunnel, they all got out of the car, and Diana and Chuck went around to the back of the car with Joe following. Chuck opened the trunk, and showed Joe the two-way catch in the trunk, and then he explained. “That’s how Diana got into the cab this morning.”

Joe looked at him and asked, “Got in from where?” Diana answered. “I got in from a manhole cover leading to a maintenance access-way for a water main. I went through tunnels under the city to get to where Chuck picked me up. Come with me and things will become a lot clearer.”

Diana shook Chuck’s hand. “Thank you, Chuck. It is going to take some time to explain everything to Joe, so you don’t need to wait around.”

Chuck smiled. “You’re very welcome, Diana. I’m going to go see about that ‘getaway weekend’ for Mr. Maxwell we discussed right now.” He got back into his cab and drove away.