Color Me Grey: Book One of the Alexis Stanton Chronicles (7 page)

I walked into his office. He was sitting at
his computer in his overstuffed chair. I sat down on the couch at
one end of the room and took it all in. It was a dark room but not
uncomfortable. The floor was a dark wood that matched the walls.
The two large windows that looked out onto the back yard had heavy,
maroon curtains that were drawn shut. The walls were lined with
bookshelves that were full with books of all shapes and sizes.

“
What’s on your mind?” my dad asked
looking up from his screen. He looked at me through his glasses,
but over his reading glasses. Instead of going in to get a new pair
of glasses that he could read with and see day-to-day with, he wore
reading glasses over his regular glasses. It made him look
comical.

My dad had been slowly adding to his middle
area for the past few years. His hair was becoming salt and
peppered and he had begun to get that papery old-people skin. But
to me, my dad would never be old. He was the smartest person I knew
and I had a lot of respect for the man.

“
I want to know exactly what you do,” I
said nodding toward the computer on his desk.

“
You know what I do,” he said and
looked back to his work.

“
Dad,” I said in that singsong
little-kid way.

“
Well, honey, I do so many different
things I couldn’t begin to explain. Is this really important? I
have things to do.”

“
I know you are an Admiral, but are you
still in the service?” I asked.

“
Yes and no. I work for the government,
but I’m not quite in the military,” he said. I could tell he was
trying to find the right words to satiate my curiosity, but not
really tell me the full truth. “Let me put it this way, if there
were a war tomorrow, I would be working for the military and the
government, but I wouldn’t go to fight. At my age I couldn’t
anyway, but even if I were a young man they wouldn’t send me. I’m
too important.” This last sentence was said with a hint of humor
and an eye roll. I was sure it was true, but he found it funny
somehow.

“
When you leave, where do you go?” I
asked.

“
Why all these questions?” he asked
back.

“
I want to know. I was asked yesterday
what it was you did and I couldn’t explain it and it bothers me,” I
replied.

“
Who was asking?”

I told him about the newspaper ad and how I
had gone downtown to be interviewed. I didn’t go into complete
detail about Mr. White and the interview itself.

“
What’s the name of the company?” he
asked.

“
White and Associates.”

“
Do you know what they do?”

“
I’m not exactly sure. I was told
they’re kind of like a private investigation outfit,” I
explained.

“
Well, kind of,” my father
replied.

This made me sit up straighter. “You know who
they are?” I asked.

“
Yes, I hire them from time to time.
I’m not so sure I want you working for them,” he said.

“
Why, what do they do?”

“
A little of this and a little of
that.” Back to the same old explanations but not for himself this
time. “It’s a dangerous job, honey. I like you doing data
processing.”

“
Well, I quit,” I said with a bit of
defiance in my voice. “I’m tired of sitting in front of the
computer all day and not having any excitement.” My dad brought out
the child in me.

“
Alright. If that’s the way you want
it,” he said turning his head to the side and lifting his hands in
an “I give up” type of gesture. “Just make sure you are prepared to
do the job.”

“
I’m trying to. Mr. White had me
followed yesterday,” I said, thinking I would get a rise out of
him.

“
I suppose he did. I imagine you are
under surveillance right now.” He sat back in his chair and put his
hands behind his head so it looked as if his ears had somehow
sprouted elbows. “Don’t get undressed anywhere but the bathroom. I
imagine they have installed video and audio into the guesthouse. I
know Mr. White, as you call him, and I’m sure he’d be a gentleman
and leave the bathroom private. Probably the bedroom too, but you
never can tell.” He said all this like it was normal
conversation.

“
What!!!” I was on my feet and my face
was hot.

“
Honey, sit down. If you want this kind
of job you’ve got to live with some sacrifices at first,” Daddy
said.

“
It doesn’t upset you that someone came
onto your property and messed around with your stuff?” I said,
still standing.

“
It’s not the first time. You said you
wanted to know what I do for a living and you are about to find
out.” I sat down to listen to the rest of my father’s words of
wisdom. “When you were younger I had hopes for you to follow in my
footsteps, but as I get older I find that all I really want is
grandchildren. I had hoped you had gotten over wanting adventure
and were ready to settle down. Now I can see you were trying to
become domesticated but are unhappy with it. I had always hoped you
would be more like me but you are just like your mother. She was
impossible until I got her pregnant.”

This was all news to me but it still didn’t
give me a full picture of anything.

“
Who is Mr. White? Colin told me he
knew his name isn’t White.”

“
Mr. White. He is a Navy man. Right now
he’s out on his own, but he still has ties. His real name is
classified.”

I gave him my exasperated look and said, “How
can you joke around right now? I’m involved in something and I
don’t have a clue and I’m asking for your help.”

“
You take things too seriously. If they
know you are my daughter you’ll be safe,” he said.

“
Fine, so what’s his real name?” I
asked.

“
Rick Malone. He’s from this area; in
fact I think you two have probably met before. I had him and his
father over when you were about twelve. That would have made him…
let me see…” He typed for a second on his computer. “He’s
twenty-nine right now so he would have been seventeen
then.”

I remembered that day! I had a few guys that
I fantasized about late at night when I was all alone. Mel Gibson,
Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, the guy from “A Knights Tale” and the
guy who was in my backyard for one afternoon. I remembered him. I
couldn’t believe this. I KNEW him. Well, not really, but in my
dreams. Now the feelings made more sense. He had affected me in a
similar way back then. I spent the whole day sitting in the garden
watching him. His father, my dad, Colin’s father and the two boys
were all there talking shop. That was just a year or two before
Colin joined up and I think that’s what they were talking about
that day. Until that very day I had always thought I would marry
Colin, but after seeing this guy, Colin was no longer in the
running for forever.

In my fantasies I had run into him on the
street and he immediately fell in love with me. Now I had run into
him and didn’t even know who he had been. I wondered if
he
remembered that day? I hoped not. I had changed considerably since
then. I didn’t get boobies and a figure until I was sixteen. I’m
sure he had seen me as nothing but a little girl back then and I
hoped he didn’t see me that way now.

“
So what exactly do you hire him to
do?” I asked.

“
Lots of things. Sometimes I need
someone to be relocated and I enlist White and Associates to get
the job done. I am not going to get into the details with you. That
would be a breach of ethics.”

“
Fine. If you were Malone would you
hire me?” I asked.

“
That’s not fair. I know you better and
differently than he does. I can’t answer that question.” Sometimes
talking to my dad irritated me. He was so technical with his
answers; you had better word it just right to get a decent answer
out of him. He was the master of avoiding questions.

“
Dad, try to put yourself in his shoes
and if you can’t, would YOU hire me to do the jobs that Malone
hires out for?” I asked.

He thought for a second. “I can’t imagine you
not being my daughter, but as my daughter I would hire you. But I
would have to make sure you got proper training. Does that satisfy
your question?”

“
I guess so. I’ll let you get back to
your work. Thanks, Dad,” I said and turned to walk out of the
room.

“
Don’t forget about the surveillance
devices I told you about. If you find them, don’t take them down
either. They will just come back and re-install and you won’t know
where they are.”

I walked out of the room to go back to the
guesthouse. These past two days had been more hectic than I had
ever experienced before. I thought I was pretty cool and knew a lot
before yesterday. Now I was beginning to question everything.

One thing that bothered me was the way my dad
took this in stride. He had always been my protector and now he
didn’t even care that I was being spied on. He seemed to think it
was funny. Maybe he was getting senile. I didn’t really think that.
My dad could lose the use of every part of his body but his brain
would still continue to work, and work well.

I got to my place and hesitated before I went
in. I knew quite a lot about computer technology and had done some
research into spy technology so I figured, if they had money the
devices were probably pretty small, otherwise they would be easy to
find. The things would have to have some way to get power and the
easiest way was to use battery-operated devices. The only problem
is the batteries die and you have to replace them. It’s not a big
deal if you plan to do surveillance for a short period, but I
didn’t have any idea how long they planned to spy on me.

I walked around the outside of the building
searching for unexplained wires. I found some wires coming out of
the house and went in to find they were kosher. I looked around and
found a little black device attached to the lamp on the end table
in the living room. I put it back where I found it and continued my
search. I spent the rest of the day ferreting out six audio bugs
and five cameras strewn throughout the kitchen and living room.

The guesthouse was not tiny, but it was only
big enough for one person or maybe a couple. There weren’t that
many places to hide things. The floor plan was open like the main
house except for the one bedroom and bathroom.

Dad had been right about not finding any in
the bathroom or the bedroom. For that, I was thankful. I would have
had to move out. There are certain things I don’t want people to
know about me unless I choose to share them. What my body looks
like under my clothes is one of those things.

Most of the devices I found were wired into
the main electrical lines in the house, so that was not at all
reassuring. A person could do surveillance indefinitely that way.
From what I could tell by the angles of the cameras there wasn’t a
spot in the whole house they couldn’t see, including the bedroom
and bathroom if I happened to leave the doors open.

I cleaned up the mess I had made while
conducting my search and flopped down on the couch. I sat there for
a while pretending to read, but I couldn’t shake the feeling of
being watched. I got up off the couch with my book, put some shoes
on and left for Sal’s to get supper.

After I had eaten my sandwich I went to the
coffee shop to have some privacy. I stayed there long after I
finished my book. I finally made myself head for home. I
immediately scanned the area for vehicles that seemed out of place.
I saw several that I wasn’t sure about, but nothing popped out at
me. I was continuously looking over my shoulder all the way home.
When I got there I couldn’t bring myself to go inside. I sat
outside in my car for a long time. I woke up with a terrible pain
in my shoulder and neck and decided to go inside.

I went straight to my room and shut the door
and set the alarm clock for 5:00 AM. I slept in my clothes for the
second night in a row.

*****

The alarm was going off but I couldn’t seem
to pull myself out of bed. I laid there for a long time listening
to the constant beeping. Finally I got mad enough at the sound to
roll over and turn it off. I looked at the time. It was 5:09
AM.

I suppose I should get up, I thought. I went
to the bedroom door to make sure it was shut tight. I took off my
clothes and inspected my shoulder. I had put off looking at it
because I was afraid of what I might see. The bone could be showing
and then I’d have to go get it taken care of. It was swollen and
the bruise looked like the fist that hit me. I was satisfied I
wasn’t going to die so I started to get dressed.

My shoulder ached. My neck ached. My mind
ached. Getting dressed was a chore but I managed to get on jeans
and a t-shirt. Putting on my socks and shoes was a bit harder.

I had lain in bed awake for a long time last
night thinking. I couldn’t seem to get things straightened out.

I wanted to be excited for today. I wanted my
normal cockiness to return. I just wanted to be able to walk around
holding the world in my fist again. Invading the privacy of my home
really put a crimp in my style. The events of the past couple days
had me whirling. The world was not at all what it had been. I had
been queen of the roost before, but now I was just a person being
spied on, followed and left in the dark about everything.