Old Growth & Ivy (The Spook Hills Trilogy Book 1) (32 page)

Inside the basement the six of them
waited, listening to the team inventory the computer equipment, checking out
the telecom links and reviewing the surveillance control panel.  The
Special Agent from the Albuquerque FBI unit, in conjunction with the new team
leader from the D.C. office, directed the activities.  Every few minutes,
one or the other of them would confer with Mathew.  Ivy stayed with
Steve.  Once she sensed his frustration at being sidelined on the chair,
she had him pushed up next to Mathew.

The agent examining the vault door
turned and nodded that it was safe to enter.  Mathew stood back and told
the medics to roll Steve in, wanting him to lead them into the vault. 
Right behind him filed Ivy, Mathew, Brian, Moll and Lenny.  They all
stared at the rows of metal racking that lined the perimeter of the vaulted
room which Mathew estimated to be about fifteen feet square.  Around three
quarters of the shelves housed long flat metal boxes stacked five high on each
shelf.

Taking Moll and Brian with him, Mathew
walked over to check out the metal boxes.  Each one they opened was packed
with currency.  The total in the box and the type of currency was written
on the outside.  They quickly saw three foreign currencies, but most were
U.S. twenties and hundreds.  On a far rack were thicker metal boxes. 
Brian went over to check those out.  Each one contained stacks of gold
bars.   Several cartons, labeled "Dell" were sitting on a
handcart. 

After conferring with the team leader
from Washington, they decided to keep the far door to the tunnel closed and
locked.  Photos were taken of the vault and its contents.  The new
D.C. FBI team leader initiated the inventory, starting with one of the Dell
boxes.  It contained gold bars packed in
styrofoam
.
  Each bar weighed 27.5 pounds.  Doing a quick calculation,
Brian guessed that each box held 20 bars valued currently at $1,300 per
bar.  There were ten boxes, likely what Cristo drove in with that day --
something over a quarter of a million dollars.  Emptying the vault would
take a number of armored cars to transport all of the cash and gold secured
there. 

Ivy gazed around the room in awe, then
knelt down next to Steve and kissed him on the cheek.  "You have done
well, Nielsen."

"We, all of us," he said
hoarsely pointing around the room at the SWAT team and at the other
agents.  "Did the right thing and did it well."

Mathew conferred again with the head
of the Albuquerque office and the new team leader from the FBI.  He took
some quick photos with his iPhone, emailed them to the Chief, and called him
again.  After his update, he handed the phone to Steve who spent a couple
of minutes talking with the Chief. 

As a group, the six of them made their
way back upstairs and out to the assault vehicle and the waiting
ambulance.  They watched as Steve was loaded up and Ivy jumped in beside
him, along with one of the medics and to their surprise, Lenny leaped in with
his semi-automatic weapon in hand, squashing himself against the wall.  As
the ambulance pulled out, Moll climbed behind the wheel of the assault vehicle
and made sure Mathew and Brian were settled in before starting the motor. 

"Man, I thought the big guy was a
goner," said Moll, as the reality of what had happened washed over
him.  "I always viewed him as like immortal."

Mathew nodded, his heart still aching
from the horrifying sight of Steve totally gone, sprawled on the floor. 
He closed his eyes and said a quick prayer of thanks.  He was so relieved
that their business with the Fuentes was over.  They would switch back
into the van and then proceed to the hospital in Santa Fe.  Mathew leaned
his head back against the jump seat feeling hope and joy seep into him. 
It might be all wrong to be part of killing two perps and then drink champagne
afterward, but that was exactly what he intended to do once Steve was settled
in the hospital.

***

Two days later, Mathew was again
sitting in a hospital room waiting for Steve to wake up.  This time it was
okay, since Steve would be released around noon after having a myriad of tests
run on him the day before.  Ivy sat by Steve's bed holding his hand. 
Lenny sat in the corner, gun out.  The two of them had spent two nights
there, refusing to leave Steve even though he was probably out of danger. 
Lenny blamed himself that Steve pushed past him and had been shot.  In
atonement, he planned to stay at the farm for a couple of months in case some
belated goon squad showed up.

Steve would have a painful chest for
some time but his heart was beating steady and strong, although he did seem
tired.  Mathew had seen to it that they were packed and ready to fly out
for home.  The Bubird was scheduled for 2:00 p.m. to take them back to
Portland, with the lead medic from the Fuentes operation riding with
them. 

Life became a blur of activity after
the trip to Santa Fe.  Even so, Ivy could still see Steve lying inert on
the floor with the Fuentes brothers sprawled dead behind him.  She had
only glimpsed the Fuentes faces -- two nice looking men who chose a life of
underworld power, profit and ultimate ruin.  Eduardo, who Ivy thought was
the brains of the operation, or El Astuto as he called himself, was almost
ghostlike with his pale skin that never saw the sun.  The way the whole
house had been tightly shuttered and draped made Ivy wonder if he ever opened
windows or went outside -- perhaps he did at night when he would feel less risk
of detection. 

They moved into their new home as soon
as it had its Certificate of Occupancy.  Mathew returned the rented
trailers except one that Lenny commandeered, which they moved inside the barn
for added shelter.  Even though Steve still had pain and fading bruising,
he insisted he was fit for their wedding, celebratory party and
honeymoon.   Their days were devoted to unpacking and setting up the
new house and then decorating it for the holidays.  Mathew worked with
them daily on the house. Moll and Brian split their time between helping with
the party preparations and getting ready for the startup of their first banking
client at the beginning of 2014.  Their contract was in place and they
received an advance sample of the client’s data to test out.  

Fred moved with his family back to
their home in nearby Dayton, although he worked at Spook Hills most days. 
He chose to live at home at least until his father, who so far remained sober,
found steady employment. Ivy hired his mother to come to Spook Hills weekly to
keep the house sparkling.  With a ready smile like her son’s, quiet
demeanor and attention to detail, she was a welcome weekly addition to Spook
Hills.

Ivy sent out the invitations for their
party the day after they flew in from Santa Fe.  The acceptance rate was
surprisingly high for the holiday season, both among Ivy's old friends and
business associates and among their neighbors here in the wine country. 
Mathew helped her with a list of agents who Steve worked with over the years
and most of them accepted as well.   

They decorated the house with Ivy’s
evergreen trees placing one large one downstairs in the games room, small ones
in the library and Mathew's rooms, a full size one in the upstairs living room,
a tall whimsical one in their bedroom and a small one in the kitchen.  Two
days before the party, they added fresh greens and holly, festooning the
mantels, doors, and tables.  Ivy had the stairway bedecked with holly and
magnolia garlands, making them come alive with fluttering red and gold bows and
flameless ivory candles flickering on each newel post. 

Outside they placed little white
lights on the garden walls, the square boxwood topiaries, the spruce tree, and
at Steve's insistence, another live blue spruce was delivered for front of the
house, which they planted and then decorated with the same white lights and
with a star on top.  He surprised Ivy by placing an angel sculpture on the
roof deck with a halo of soft blue lights and a hidden spotlight to remind them
to look out for each other. 

Finally they reached the eve of their
wedding and party.  Ivy rechecked the plan for the day.  Their civil
ceremony was scheduled for eleven the next morning.  The caterer was due
to arrive around noon to set up for their guests.  Steve wanted certain
specialties as part of the appetizers: three types of savory Ebelskivers made
fresh at station in the upper and lower living rooms and what he called Sm
ø
rb
ø
rd, which consisted of open-faced Norwegian
sandwiches with a base of
Grovbrød
,
a whole wheat Norwegian bread.  He also asked for a tray of Norwegian
caraway-flavored
Akevitt served the
way it was traditionally, at room temperature and in tulip-shaped
glasses. 

Sometime
when the party would be in full swing, Mathew offered to lead a champagne toast
to Steve and Ivy.  He had a surprise planned, but he was not even letting
Ivy in on it.  Ivy knew she was lucky that it was Mathew planning the
surprise.  If it were Moll, anything might happen -- he might set off an
exploding Santa Claus on the rooftop deck. 
Moll surprised
Ivy during this time by following her around to learn the way she did things
and asking innumerable questions about even mundane tasks like setting the
table.  He handled the setup of all the white linen draped mini tables
tucked in corners around the house for their guests to enjoy an informal, yet
filling dinner of lemon chicken, asparagus, and a creamy stacked potato dish
called Dauphinoise.  For dessert, the caterer was making a tower of white,
milk and dark chocolate truffles.

 Ivy’s emerald green dress
shimmered sleekly around her, just as she had envisioned.  In the master
bedroom, she had a long silky nightgown in pale blue to wear on their wedding
night.  Due to Steve's injuries, they had been sleeping chastely together,
but she hoped Steve would feel up to changing that soon.  By this time the
next day, she would be Ivy Littleton Nielsen.  While the road to this
occasion has been more rough than long, she hoped that now she could grow the
relationship she started with Steve, a man of wonder and character.  He
filled her with love and kept her life elevated out of the ordinary.  What
fun they expected to have growing old together here in this house, working with
Mathew on their vineyard and traveling as the mood hit them.

***

The next afternoon, Steve looked
himself in the eye as he neatly worked the knot into his black tie. 
Following the short civil ceremony late that morning, he was now a blissfully
happy, married man.  He found he was smiling without meaning to and
humming along with the Christmas tunes Ivy had on the CD player.  For a
time, he feared their wedding day would have to be postponed.  They did
get it all together, thanks to Ivy's careful planning and a few stars aligning
for them.  Even with his chest feeling like it had been blown open and
stitched back together with a crochet hook, he helped where he could –
arranging things in drawers, unpacking what seemed like thousands of ornaments,
testing lights, setting up timers and doing the easier decorating.  They
worked as a team to have everything ready for what he hoped would be a
stupendous party that afternoon.  The house glowed spectacularly the way
Ivy adorned it both inside and out with all those little white lights. 

He stopped for a moment to
think.  They had a house that was quickly becoming a home!  Every now
and then he would stop in one room or the other and marvel at the house he had
designed and Ivy had decorated.  As much as he was looking forward to
their honeymoon trip, he was eagerly anticipating settling into this home with
Ivy.

Luckily the weather cooperated for
December with only a light mist that softened the glow of the lights as night
drew on.  In addition to decorating shrubs and trees, Ivy had Fred lay out
nets of lights flat on the patio to give what Mathew called a "mille
fleur" effect as the day darkened into evening.  Steve half expected
to see a wood sprite flittering around out in the gardens, it was so
otherworldly out there.  Ivy clapped her hands in delight when she saw the
angel sculpture he had placed on the roof deck, with its crown of blue
lights.  This transition was bringing out hidden parts of him -- enjoying
decorating for the holidays, for example.  Who would have thought he would
be sneaking out to buy an angel sculpture or a big blue spruce tree to
decorate?  

Mathew had been his best man that
morning in their private civil ceremony at the house, with Moll, Brian and
Lenny serving as witnesses.  After it, they toasted with champagne and ate
a light lunch the caterer had prepared, and then they went off to change for
the party.  Steve was going to surprise Ivy by wearing black tie. 
They say men are their best in formal attire and he wanted to appear as good
new husband material.  He knew he was not a handsome man, but he wanted to
look his best for Ivy. 

A few minutes ago, she had given him a
heavy gold bracelet as a wedding present, which actually fit around his big
wrist.  On the back of the clasp was an engraving of twining ivy. 
Luckily for him, she found the heart bracelet he gave her adorable and put it
on immediately, letting the rubies wink seductively against her silken green
dress.  Steve was glad the revealing dress came with that wrap she slid
on, because it definitely showed more of her assets than he wanted their guests
to see.  Jeez Nielsen, he chided himself.  Let her show off, for
chrissakes.  He grinned at himself in the mirror, delighted by the
loveliness of his new wife.  It had taken over 60 years to get here,
making their relationship all the more amazing.

***

Twenty additional agents, retired and
active, who Steve had worked with over the years, arrived en masse about an
hour before the other guests so Steve would have time to talk with them. 
Fifteen minutes after their arrival, a long, black limo came up the
drive.  Steve looked over at Mathew questioningly, but all he did was
shrug his shoulders and head to open the front door.

Mathew had arranged for the now former
FBI Director, aka the Chief, to fly out for the reception.  When two
black-suited men and a somberly dressed woman showed up at the front door, all
the color left Ivy's face.  She seemed to think they were going to open
fire or carry Steve off or something dreadful.  They filed in with the
Chief in the middle.  He shook a surprised Steve's hand and kissed Ivy on
the cheek, then led their second wedding toast -- the only nod to the wedding
Ivy would allow at the party.  Mathew had a short speech prepared and then
the Director spoke for about ten minutes. 

All the FBI agents, retired, inactive
and active, lined up in a big semi-circle for the toast in the living
room.  The ceremony made Steve so touched that tears welled up in his
eyes.  The Chief used the occasion to present each agent, retired and
active, who participated in the Fuentes case sting with special FBI
recognition, ending with giving a public service award to Fred for his role in
the Spook Hills sting, awing both Fred and his family.

The Chief stayed long enough to sip
his champagne, try a glass of Akevitt, eat some food and speak to each of the
agents.  Overall he was with them for just over an hour, but what an
hour!  He commended Steve on his career and praised him for the recent
success on the Fuentes case.  Now Steve felt that he was truly retired
from the Bureau and free for the future with his amazing new wife.  While
the first hour would remain imprinted on Steve's memory, the celebration continued
until eight that evening, when Ivy closed the door on the final guest, flung
herself down on the couch and flipped her shoes off, gratefully taking a glass
of ice water.

Both of them were too tired to do
justice to their new bedroom that night (and one of them might have had too
much Akevitt), but they made up for it in the days following.  Steve found
it to be a wonder every time he made love with Ivy that she could be happy with
him.  He wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his days ensuring
that her life with him would make her glad to wake up each morning. 
  

The three of them were to leave for
London the following Thursday.  Mathew would spend Christmas with Ivy and
Steve at a fancy country manor in the Cotswolds and then he would travel on to
Burgundy for wine tasting and learning in that great region, visiting large and
small producers.  They planned to meet up again in Florence for the New
Year celebrations and then Ivy and Steve expected to spend a couple of weeks
drifting around Italy, before returning home in mid-January.  Steve was
happily anticipating this time with Ivy, playing tourist and living his life as
fully as he could.  Next summer he wanted to take a long trip to Norway to
learn more about his heritage and meet up with the remaining relatives he had
over there.  He hoped Ivy would enjoy that journey with him as he reached
back to find more of himself.

Finally Steve was confident that he
was progressing down the path of positive answers to those three questions that
had previously made him feel so empty:
 
'
In
the end these things matter most: How
well did you love?  How fully did you live?  How deeply did you let
go?'
  He had found
his heart and he was more in touch with his soul.  Yes, this was a time of
personal growth.  He closed his eyes and made a wish for the future. 

'
Ivy, my Ivy, keep me whole, keep
me sane, and keep me happy.

 You are my
center, my life.'