Perfect Scoundrels (18 page)

B
y two o’clock the following afternoon, the cast members were in their places and the stage was finally set. Kat found herself on an overturned crate in a tiny upstairs room, sitting beside Simon and staring at the myriad of screens that covered the wall—the backstage of the con.

When the trio of dark SUVs pulled down the winding lane, Kat saw them from the window. Uniformed drivers stepped out and reached for the rear passenger doors, and Kat said, “Okay, Simon. The Big Store is open for business.”

No sooner had she said the words than the front doors swung open and an old man yelled, “Come in!”

“Reginald!” Bobby yelled, chasing after Uncle Eddie. “Reginald, we talked about how the cold is bad for your leg.” Bobby reached for Eddie’s arm, but Eddie jerked away.

“Can’t you see my family is here, doc?” Eddie glanced at Garrett, who stood wordless amid the throng. “All except that one. I don’t have a clue about that one.”

“I see that, Reg,” Bobby said. “And I’m very much looking forward to meeting everyone…inside.”

“I don’t know why,” Eddie said. “Bunch of worthless freeloaders. Never showed up before…” He spoke under his breath, the ramblings of a crazy man.

“Come on, Reg.” Bobby gestured for the door. “Let’s
go in.”

Slowly, the group made their way onto the rickety porch and through the big front doors. The stairs creaked. The floor moaned. And Kat’s father just kept smiling, clipboard in
hand.

“Now, Reginald, won’t you introduce me to your friends?” Bobby asked.

“They’re not my friends. They’re my family.”

Bobby gave a hearty laugh. “Oh, Reg, you are the life of the party.”

A nurse walked by, and Eddie winked at her. The expression on his face was exactly like the one Reginald had worn in the family movies, and Kat must not have been the only one to see the similarities.

“Hello, Reginald,” Hale’s aunt said very, very slowly. “I’m
Elizabeth
. I am Hazel’s
daughter
. That makes me your
niece
.”

“I’m crazy, Liz,” Reginald said. “Doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”

“No. No.” Bobby gave a hearty laugh. “As you’ll see, your uncle is in very good health for a man with his history.”

“And who are you, exactly?” Hale’s father puffed out his chest and looked skeptically at Bobby, who never wavered.

He just held out his hand and said, “Sorry about that. I’m Dr. Nathaniel Jones. I’m your uncle’s primary physician.”

In the dim, quiet room upstairs, Kat whispered to Simon, “And the
real
Dr. Jones…”

“Has a Ph.D. from Harvard and an M.D. from Johns Hopkins, but recently decided to retire on a blissfully quiet beach in Belize.”

“Perfect,” Kat said, and kept her eyes glued to the screens.

Senior was walking through the foyer, staring at hastily patched walls and out-of-date fixtures. “What is this place?” he asked.

“This is your uncle’s home.” Bobby looked at W. W. Hale the Fourth as if he didn’t know how a man could be so insensitive. “In fact, we’re home for dozens of people like Reginald. People who have special needs. People for whom life in mainstream society might be stressful or even dangerous. For our residents, this isn’t just a house—it’s a haven.”

“So it’s an institution?” Senior said.

“Well…” Bobby hesitated, but then finally admitted, “that term is appropriate, but we do not prefer it.”

“I would have preferred not to think my uncle was dead for five decades, but no one asked me.”

“Would you like a tour?” Bobby asked, sweeping the clipboard out wide.

“I want some questions answered.” Hale’s uncle stepped forward. Kat watched the way his eyes cut around the room, taking everything in. “Such as, why hasn’t our family physician ever heard of you or your facility?”

“Oh, well”—Bobby gave a throaty laugh—“we cater to patients who, shall we say, place a premium on discretion.”

“What does that—” Senior started, but Hale cut him off.

“He means rich people.” Hale looked at Bobby. “Isn’t that what you’re saying? This is where the über-rich send their
über-embarrassing, über-crazy branches of the family tree?”

Bobby lowered his gaze. “We’ve been entrusted with the care of some very special patients through the years. And we guard their privacy as ardently as we’ve guarded your
uncle’s.”

Bobby gave a glance toward a series of photographs lining the walls. Bobby with a retired, reclusive senator. A member of the royal family playing dominoes with Uncle Eddie in the game room.

“Uncle Charlie forged those?” Kat asked.

“Uh-huh.” Simon nodded, but Kat didn’t feel any better.

“They’re not buying it.” She watched Garrett, who was still silent, almost bored, going through the paces of someone else’s con. “He’s going to squeal on us,” Kat said.

“If he were going to squeal, he would have done it by now,” Simon said. “He doesn’t care about this. He just wants to sell his prototype and disappear. Now be quiet.”

The tiny room that Simon had transformed into the communications base felt crowded, and Kat finally knew what was harder than running the long con: sitting on the sidelines and watching your long con go on without you.

“I’m hot. It’s hot in here.” She was all nerves and sweat, and spoke rapid-fire, fanning herself with an old magazine. “Is the computer room always so hot?”

“Sometimes the computer room is in an outhouse. In Mexico. In July. So, stop squirming.”

Kat did as she was told. She didn’t say a word when Simon picked up a microphone and said, “Uncle Felix, it’s time.”

Somewhere in the depths of the building, there was a cry, and then a very old, very naked man ran down the hall.

“Was it just me, or did we agree on underwear?” Kat asked.

“You know Felix,” Simon said with a shrug. “He likes to improvise.”

Downstairs, Felix was running circles around the Hale family, and Bobby was yelling, “Orderly!”

“On it!” Angus said, chasing after Felix with a robe.

“Sorry about that, folks,” Bobby told his guests. “Never a dull moment around here, I can assure you. Now, where
were we?”

“My brother and sister were trying to explain to you that this is quite a shock,” Senior told Bobby.

“Oh, Felix? Don’t worry about him. He’s harmless. He just thinks the Nazis are tracking him through his clothes, or so he says. Really, he just likes being naked.”

“Not…that.” Hale’s father gestured at the wrinkly blur that flashed across the end of the hall. “My uncle was dead, doctor. He was dead and gone, and now we are supposed to believe that he…isn’t.”

“I see how that could be quite a shock.” Bobby nodded gravely. “Reginald has been with us for a long time, and—”

“How long?” Elizabeth wanted to know.

“Well, I’m afraid Reginald’s medical records are private.”

“I’m the man’s next of kin—if he is who he says he is,” Senior spat. “I demand to know.”

“Reginald,” Bobby asked, “what do you say to that?”

“Tell them what they want to know.” Eddie eased closer to Hale’s mother. “Your eyes look like K2 at sunrise.”

“Oh, thank you,” she said.

“Doctor,” Senior said, trying to regain control.

“He’s been here longer than I have. As you know, your uncle was quite the explorer. When he was thirty-five, he was in a terrible plane crash. It shattered his leg and left him near death for many months.”

“That’s why he has that limp?” Senior asked.

Bobby nodded. “It is. The crash was in a very rural area. Local doctors did their best, but the leg never properly healed, and…” Bobby trailed off, looked at the floor. His voice softened. “And, in many ways, your uncle never truly
recovered.”

“The ladies love a limp,” Eddie said with a wink.

“Yes they do, Reg. Yes they do.” Bobby patted Eddie on the back. “We’re very fond of your uncle, Mr. Hale. He’s been here for a very long time, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that he has been among strangers. Sometimes, people make their own family.”

Kat didn’t want to read too much into things, but she couldn’t help thinking that her father was speaking about
her
Hale. Her family.

“Do you know, doctor…” Hale’s father paused and then began again. “Do you know who this man is? Who he
claims
he is? And what those claims would mean?”

“Oh.” Bobby laughed. “Reg has claimed to be a lot of people through the years. Haven’t you, Reg? Let’s see…sometimes he says he’s descended from a duke. Then he’ll tell anyone who will listen that he was the first American to scale K2. Why, just last week he told me he discovered a tribe in the Amazon—”

“That’s true,” Hale said, whispering. “All those things are true.”

“You don’t say?” Bobby asked, then looked at Eddie like he was seeing the man for the very first time.

“A name!” Senior spat. “Did you know his name?”

“Of course. He said his name was Reginald Hale.”

“And you didn’t think it was odd that Reginald Hale is supposed to be dead?” Hale’s aunt asked.

Bobby tilted his head. “To tell you the truth, I was under the impression that the family knew Reginald was here.”

“Why would you say that?” Senior asked.

“Why…” Bobby’s eyes went wide in disbelief. In the dark, quiet room, Kat felt herself hold her breath. “Because of the checks, of course.”

They’d reached a set of double doors, and Bobby pointed to the gold plaque beside them, stating that they were about to enter the Hazel Hale Recreation Room.

The Hale family stood speechless.

“I was very sorry to hear of her passing,” Bobby told the family.

“Why…” Senior stumbled over the thought. “Why are you contacting us now? My uncle has been gone for half a century. Why didn’t he stay gone?”

Bobby removed his glasses, and when he spoke, he couldn’t hide the guilt in his voice. “I guess that’s because the checks…stopped.”

“If he is who he says he is, he’ll have to prove it,” Senior told them.

Bobby looked at Eddie. “I’m sure Reginald wouldn’t mind. Would you, Reg?”

“I climbed K2,” Eddie said in response.

“So he has no family?” Hale’s uncle asked.

Bobby looked confused. “I thought you were his family.”

“He means heirs,” Hale said. “What about it, Reg? When you die, who’s going to get your half?”

“Scooter!” Elizabeth said, feigning offense. “But I wonder, Uncle Reg,
do
you have any children?”

Eddie took her in. “Maybe I’ll adopt you.”

“If you’d like us to perform a DNA test, I can recommend a very good facility not too far—” Bobby said, but Hale’s father’s laugh cut him off.

“A billion-dollar corporation is on the line,” Senior said. “We’ll find our own lab, thank you very much.” Then he spoke to the lawyer. “You’ll take care of that, won’t you, Garrett?”

Until then, the trustee had stayed at the back of the group, glancing at his watch, staring at the walls. Mentally, the man was already far away, on an island with his stolen fortune. Reginald didn’t matter to his plan. This was nothing more than a delay. An annoyance. And whatever became of the Hales, both long-lost and not, would be none of his concern in a matter of days.

If Kat hadn’t hated him so much, she might have warned him he was making a classic newbie mistake.

“What’s that?” Garrett asked.

“The DNA test,” Senior said again. “You
will
handle that, won’t you?”

“Oh,” Garrett said. “Of course. Right away.”

Then he walked purposefully down the hall, past a very naked Felix running from a very frustrated Hamish, and into the cold.

The rest of the Hale family delegation wasn’t far behind, but at the doors, Hale stopped briefly. Simon had placed cameras at each entrance, standard for any facility of the kind. And Hale looked squarely into one, mouthed the words
Bye,
Kat
to the girl he knew was watching.

And then he was out the door. And then he was gone.

“What do you think, Kat?” Simon asked, turning to her.

“I think we’re ready for phase two.”

“It would have been easier just to let the Bagshaws kidnap Garrett,” Simon said.

Kat sat there silently, not wanting to admit he was right.

W
hen Kat walked into the lab, it was decidedly different from the first time she’d seen it. Before, there had been dust and grime, a smell of disuse and old chemicals, and it had felt a little like walking into a tomb. But now, everything was alive. Music boomed from the back room (classic jazz); spotlights cut through the dark. There were at least a dozen whiteboards lining the walls, each covered with the same kinds of formulas and checklists she’d seen in Silas’s original lab.

Kat felt fascinated and out of her depth, but that was nothing compared to the magnetic pull of the small device that sat on a tray in the center of the room, bright lights shining down upon it.

“Hello, Miss Bishop.”

Kat pulled away from the prototype as if Silas’s voice were a warning, and she’d been caught.

“You can touch it,” he told her. “It won’t bite.”

Kat smiled, embarrassed. “Sorry. I just…I don’t understand any of this.”

“That’s okay,” Silas told her. “I don’t understand what you do. From where I’m standing, that makes us even.”

“So how’s it going?” She was almost afraid to ask, but she had to know.

“Fine.” Silas took a seat on a stool and eyed his design. “I think. Maybe.”

Kat totally knew the feeling.

“How was your Big Score?” Silas asked.

“Our what?” Kat asked, then had to laugh. “Oh, the Big
Store
? It went as well as could be expected. It bought us a little more time, at least.”

A wide smile spread across the old man’s face. If Kat didn’t know better, she would have sworn he was having the time of his life.

“I’m glad to have my assistant back.” Silas pointed to Simon, who was dragging computers and cables into the back room.

“I thought you had help?” Kat asked.

Just then, Simon’s father came into the lab and yelled, “Hey, Kat!”

“Hi, Uncle Henry. Thanks for coming.”

“No problem,” Henry said, then returned to work.

“The father is good,” Silas said. “But the son is…
special.”

Kat stole a glance at Simon, who was sorting through the cables and the cords, lost in another world. “Yeah. He is. So, Silas, really…” Kat touched his hand. She searched his eyes. “How is it going?”

“We’re close,” he said, then took off his glasses and looked down at the device on the table. “Just not quite close enough.”

“How long do you need?”

He rubbed his eyes. “I wish I could say.”

“That’s okay, Silas. Just do your best. We’re working on Plan B.”

“Kat!” Simon yelled from the back room. “I think you need to hear this.”

“What is it?” Kat asked as soon as she reached the office that Simon called his own.

His eyes were wide and his breath was labored as he told her, “Our guy has company.” He pulled the cord that connected his headphones to his computer, and instantly, voices came through the laptop speakers, filling the room.

“What are you doing in my office?”

Kat watched Garrett through the cameras that she and Hale had installed on their visit to the thirty-seventh floor. The lawyer was up and moving around his desk. For a moment he blocked the camera, but the voice that came through the microphone was one Kat had definitely heard before.

“I thought perhaps it was time I paid you a little visit.”

That voice. That accent.

“Ms.…”

“Montenegro,” the woman supplied her name, assuming, Kat supposed, that Garrett would have forgotten it. “You haven’t called me, Mr. Garrett.” She pouted. “If I were a different sort of woman my feelings would be hurt.”

“Really, Ms. Montenegro, this is not the time or the place.”

She looked around. “It seems the perfect time and a…somewhat acceptable place.” She bent forward in a way that afforded the man a glimpse of cleavage. “Don’t you want to hear my offer?”

“I have a buyer.” Garrett rubbed his hands together nervously and looked toward the door.

“A buyer who can have the money in your account by the end of the day? Where do you want it? Switzerland? Cayman Islands?”

“No. No.” Garrett tried to walk away, but the woman deftly cut him off.

“The only thing I don’t understand is why you haven’t sold it yet. Are you getting soft, Garrett? Or…no. Wait. Don’t tell me the Chinese are holding off until the Hale model proves faulty.”

Kat could tell by the look on Garrett’s face that she was right. The woman must have seen it too, because she talked on.

“My employer can afford to be far more…flexible. We don’t care if the Hales claim copyright infringement. What’s a little piracy between enemies?”

She rose and strolled around the small office, eyed the paperwork piled on the desk.

“But if you want to stay here, keep on keeping up appearances, being the good little worker…” The words struck a nerve, and she saw it. “Oh, you must hate them so.”

“I appreciate your coming, Ms. Montenegro. But I’m afraid I already have a buyer.” He stood up straighter, as if forcing himself to literally be strong. “Now, I think you’d better leave.”

Long after the door was closed and the screen was vacant, Kat could still hear herself breathing.

“Kat…” Simon said her name carefully, cautiously. It sounded like he was afraid she was sleepwalking and didn’t know how to wake her. “What do we do now?”

“What else can we do? We get ready to rob the most secure bank in the world.”