How I Met Your Mother Ch. 06

Friday

5:35 pm

Where previously there had been a swirling maelstrom of frenetic activity, the kitchen was now a tiny bubble of calm; a small safe haven from the chaos reigning in the back garden. Drying up the last of the bowls that had been used to dish up trifle to the children who were now enrapt in watching the clown show, Leah allowed a sigh to escape from her lips.

"I don't know how you do it." Hilary laughed as she placed two mugs on the counter.

"I'm a single mom; it's a question of having to." She replied. Leah placed the bowl on top of the pile in the cupboard before she switched the kettle on. "But as my Mom constantly reminds me, it could be worse." Her philosophical reply made Leah laugh in turn. "And thank god for the kids going back to school as well."

"Yeah, that's true."

"So, how's the new job working out?" Hilary asked as she retrieved the milk from the fridge. "Has your boss made any inappropriate comments to you yet?"

"Mmm, can you be sexually harassed by your husband when you work from home for him in nothing but your underwear at times?" Leah mused with a wide grin on her face. "There are moments when I'm not sure if I'm working for him or he's working for me – I swear, if I wasn't prodding him to get on with things he'd just sit there watching cartoons all day." She looked out of the window at the performance in the garden. "He's worse than the kids when it comes to being easily distracted. Then he suddenly has this burst of creativity from somewhere inside that brain of his and he's down in the cellar night and day writing." The kettle finished boiling and Hilary poured the hot water into the two mugs before stirring. "I also caught him playing his guitar today for the first time in three years. I know it sounds like I'm complaining, but Andy really is a great boss to work for; it's just his complete and utter lack of organisation and relaxed attitude to deadlines that scares me – I swear, I don't know how he managed to write one book let alone twelve the way he works."

"I hear you; I would imagine it's like organised chaos right?" Hilary laughed as Leah shared a look that confirmed her statement. "The beauty of an artistic mind – it's all over the place at times. You still take milk in your coffee don't you?" Leah nodded. "How's your friend doing after her car accident?" Hilary changed the subject.

"Well, she's getting better," Leah recalled her last visit to see Alison at the Edwards Clinic. "They are moving to the third stage skin grafts now, but they've got to be careful, what with the baby and all that." She looked out of the window; Cassie was being handed a balloon animal by the clown. "If everything goes well she should be out by Christmas."

"You know, it's a miracle the baby seems to be okay." Hilary said. "When you told me about it I just had the wordsmiscarriagerolling around the back of my head."

"Tell me about it." Leah responded as Hilary handed her the mug. "I had this nightmare the other night about it – that it was me who'd had the accident when I was pregnant with the kids." Leah felt a shudder run down her spine as she recalled the event. "Andy found me curled up in the bathroom, crying my eyes out." She shook her head. "I don't know what's wrong with me recently – my hormones are all over the place."

"Wait, you're not...are you?"

"What? Oh no, no." Leah replied. "I just think it's a matter of adjusting from my old job to this one, plus it'sthattime of the month again." She took a drink from her mug.

"Didn't you used to work at the Foreign Office?" Leah nodded again, confirming the story she'd told everyone except a select few who knew the truth about her previous career.

"Yes, yes." She mused, watching the clown as he continued to make balloon animals for the children. "It's just a big change really, but I know I've made the right decision. It's just...different." Both women were silent for a moment. "How is the marathon training going?"

"Slowly." Hilary said between drinks. "Between teaching at the school and looking after Hayden I barely seem to have the time or the motivation to train. Six months to go and I'm already worried I won't be ready."

"Do you need some help?"

"How do you mean?" Hilary replied, genuinely interested. Leah put her mug down.

"Well, since Alison's accident I've been looking for a new gym buddy."

"I thought Andy was going to the gym with you?"

"Andy just ogles my butt as I'm on the treadmill." Leah smirked. "Which is nice, but it gets...distracting. So, what do you say?" The sound of the children cheering outside heralded the end of the clown's performance.

"You've got a deal." Hilary replied as she scooped up the tray of soft drinks from the kitchen table. "And that's our cue to go and save the kiddies entertainer from the screaming hordes."

****

The Odyssey Apartment Complex

Friday

10:32 pm

The suitcase was loaded with the essentials. As she placed a variety of passports and IDs in the top, Verity closed the lid and locked it. Taking one last look around the near-empty bedroom, she silently cursed herself for falling into this predicament. Making her way back into her living room she sat down at the dining table and fired up her laptop.

The bare walls of her soon-to-be-former home were almost alien to her. The collection of artwork she had acquired over the years had been hastily placed into storage as she began to plan her immediate departure from the city in the first instance. As the laptop completed its action to log onto her secure connection, Verity made a short list of things she needed to do as soon as she left the building.

The first thing would be to find a buyer for the flat; she knew of several good estate agents in the area that she could deal with once she was safely out of the country. As she entered her password to access her e-mail account the screen returned an error message to her. Thinking about the keys she'd just pressed, Verity tried it again only slower this time.

By her failure on the third attempt to access the e-mail account Verity was starting to get a gnawing sense of foreboding in her stomach. This was only confirmed and changed into a palpable rage when she was unable to access the electronic details of her bank account. She picked up her cell phone and made a call. The other end of the line rang out, remaining unanswered. Counting each ring tone in her head it wasn't until the fifteenth tone that the call was finally picked up.

"What the fuck is going on Jacob?" The venom in Verity's voice was clear to hear. "I can't get into either my e-mail account or access my bank records."

"You're off my list Keira," the reply wasn't entirely unexpected, but it still stung. "Too many people interested in you now and your face is all over the watchboards of the local Five-Ohs. I imagine they've frozen your bank account by now..."

"What?" Verity almost fell out of her chair.

"Someone has given you up baby and the Powers That Be have snared you in their net." Jacob replied. "Shame, because you were a nice little earner. I heard that Interpol have someone on their way to talk to you about your recent work." There was a rapping sound at the door to the apartment.

"Shit!" Verity abruptly ended the call and reached for the .22 pistol she kept in her purse. Stalking up to the door she cautiously looked through the spy hole. On the other side of the door was a woman with mousy blonde hair and glasses waiting patiently. Verity counted to three before sharply yanking the door open and grabbing the jacket of the woman, dragging her inside. Kicking the door shut, the barrel of the pistol was jammed up into the woman's chin as Verity pushed her against the wall.

"Who the fuck are you?" she hissed, revelling in the fear she saw in the stranger's eyes.

"Gos...Gosling..." The woman stammered. "I work for Blevins..." Verity released her gip on the woman slightly once she mentioned Blevins' name. "He sent me to give you this." Gosling held out a small file that Verity eagerly took from her. She then began to pat down her pockets, pausing to remove Gosling's cell phone.

"Get out." Verity spat as she opened the door. Slamming behind Gosling, she opened the file and began to read through the contents.

****

Saturday morning

"Inno sent us an e-mail last night from Florida," Andrew said as he rested on his knees in front of the fridge freezer. His fingers glided over a small dent in the side of the casing that surrounded it and he shook his head. "He's going to be over here next month for a couple of weeks and wants to take us out to dinner."

"Really? Well, I'm up for that if you are." Leah replied. "We'll need a babysitter..."

"I think I know where we can find one of those."

"Did he say how Sascha and Irina are getting on?" Leah asked.

"He said that the family were adjusting to their new life quite well under the circumstances," The grinding sound of ice against plastic filled the kitchen. The draw was resisting his efforts to close it. "I think it helps that Sascha already speaks English pretty well from her time living over here when Inno was at the Embassy so there isn't much of a language barrier for her and you know how quickly kids adapt to their environment – apparently they're staying at a hotel owned by some Russian oil magnate who owes Inno a few favours from back in the day."

"Have you met her then?" Leah sounded surprised at Andrew's level of knowledge of Inno's daughter's lingual capabilities.

"Err, twice, probably about a year before I met you actually. When was the last time we defrosted the freezer?" Andrew asked as he struggled to close the third draw, rapidly changing subject.

"About a month ago." Leah replied.

"Seriously?" Andrew shut the door. "Maybe the compressor is playing up..." He shook his head. "What time did Suri say she was going to be here?" Leah looked down at her wristwatch.

"Soon – remind me to get your Mom a bottle of wine for having the kids today. I'd have never gotten the place cleaned up with them here."

"I don't think you need to bribe her to look after them. Since the day we were married she's been locked into Grandmother mode..." Andrew replied as he pushed his hand down the back of the freezer. "I knew it – the compressor feels like it's burning out..." He shook his head as he brushed bits of fluff off his hand. "I'm gonna wander down the road to the shop for some milk – do we need anything else?"

"I don't think so..." Leah mused as she filled up the kettle. The sound of the doorbell spluttering after completing thedingpart of its cycle drew the attention of both Leah and Andrew; thedongaspect of the tone failing miserably to reach its crescendo. Grabbing his jacket as he headed towards the door, Andrew paused to scoop up his wallet and mobile phone before addressing the visitor. Unlocking the Yale lock and opening the door, he recognised the woman standing on the doorstep immediately. Her dusky complexion and near-jet black hair were offset by her blue eyes and warm smile.

"Surinder, nice to see you again." He looked at the doorbell mechanism, muttering to himself. "I really need to fix that this weekend..."

"You too Andrew." Suri said as Andrew gestured for her to enter the house. "I trust you are keeping well?"

"As well as can be expected, under the circumstances." Andrew replied. "Leah's in the kitchen..." Once Suri was inside, Andrew made his way out of the door.

"Oh, you aren't leaving on my account are you?"

"No, no," Andrew replied as he grasped the door handle. "I need a walk to clear my head so I figured I'd head down to the shop. I'll see you later if you're still here." The door closed, leaving Suri standing in the hall way.

"Tea or coffee?" The question came from the kitchen at the far end of the hallway. Suri headed straight towards it.

"Tea – definitely tea. I'm sick to death of coffee right now. As much as they try, you cannot get a decent cup of tea in New York." She said as she entered the kitchen, seeing Leah handling two mugs and a bottle of milk.

"Milk no sugar, right?" Leah asked. Suri nodded.

"I'm impressed you remembered." She replied, clutching a briefcase in her hands.

"It's a curse, trust me." Leah answered.

"How are the kids?"

"Oh, they're fine – they're spending the day with their grandparents – it gets them out from under my feet when I'm trying to clean the house." Leah said, stirring each drink in turn as she poured hot water into them. "They've been abit of a handful this half-term." The chinking sound of the spoon striking the edge of the second mug punctuated her comment. "So, how are things at Interpol?"

"Crazy." Suri replied. "I've been assigned to the New York office and I'm stuck with some screwball from the Justice Department who had me chasing shadows to begin with; shadows that have become something of a startling reality as of late."

"Okay, colour me intrigued." Leah said. "Set up whatever you've got in the living room; I'll bring the biscuits in as well, provided Andy hasn't eaten them all."

****

Watching through a telescopic lens from the park at the far end of Burrow Street, Verity recognised the Indian woman who had approached the property as the Interpol agent Blevins had provided information on via his courier Gosling the previous evening. The depth of information that Interpol held on her was frightening as she absorbed it along with the details of her second target – some renegade operative lurking in the middle of nowhere.

As she sat in her car Verity couldn't help but feel that the provision of the information from her mysterious benefactor was more than a little circumstantial in nature. Just as she was about to put the camera down though she noticed the male figure leaving the property, then a thought popped into her mind.

It wouldn't hurt to have a little insurance right about now.

****

"So, what you're telling me is that you have some evidence of an international contract killer stalking the globe and that she's active here in the UK right now?" Leah said as she looked through the collection of paperwork and photographs.

"Yeah," Suri said. "Here's the strange part." She continued, finishing her cup of tea. "The office in New York received a tip off that she was planning something here this weekend. Initially I was sceptical, then we realised that the tip also contained details of two deaths that the Agency has been looking at as part of a wider corporate fraud investigation – those of Simon Aston in Monte Carlo three weeks ago and Henry Rice in Dublin on Wednesday night. I hopped on the first flight back here and upon arrival at Heathrow I was told that there had been a drive by shooting in the city that had now been officially attributed to her by the local office."

"Oh yeah – I heard about that on the news yesterday." Leah exclaimed. "I have to admit, from the bits I've read in the newspapers it sounded like a professional job." She looked through the photographic images from the Los Angeles surveillance footage one more time. "It hardly sounded like the work of some small time drug dealers involved in a gang-related turf war as everyone is trying to portray it." She put the still images down. "But I still don't really see how I can help you."

"Something about all this seemsoffto me." Suri said. "I mean, I know there are plenty of guns for hire out there, but this Keira character seems too well organised for it to be some thrill killer who woke up one morning and decided to set themselves up as a hitter."

"You think she's on thedisavowedlist right?" Suri nodded in response to Leah's thoughts. "Okay, I'll see what I can find out – I'll call Emma and Will to see..." the cell phone on the telephone table began to ring. Leah shook her head as she got up, recognising the name on the display. "It's Andy – he's probably forgotten his keys again...What have you left this time?"

"If you wish to see your husband alive again please put the Interpol agent that's in your house on the line." Leah felt her blood freeze as the words sank in. She looked at Suri and gestured for her to take the phone.

"It's for you." She said, handing it to Suri before disappearing into the kitchen. In turn, Suri could hear a cupboard door being opened and closed.

"Who is this?"

"You know full well who this is." The female voice on the other end of the line replied. "Now, if you wish to avoid having this man's death on your conscience I suggest you do exactly as I tell you." There was a pause. "Leave me alone – just let me do what I have to do then I'll disappear; you'll never hear of me again."

"Look, just let the gentleman go and we can talk about..."

"There's no talking here; no negotiation – you leave me alone otherwise you'll find pretty boy here dead in a ditch." The call ended abruptly. Suri felt sick. A moment later Leah had rejoined her in the living room, a small duffel bag in her hand.

"Come on, we're going to find them." Her tone was business-like, masking the emotional turmoil coursing through her body.

"How?" Suri asked as Leah took the cell phone from her hands.

"Silly as it sounds we can track him with this." She waved the phone in the air.

"What?"

"I'll explain in the car." Leah replied. "I just need to get something from upstairs first."

****

"I really wouldn't have done that if I were you." Andrew said from the back seat of the car. Verity ignored him. "My wife does have something of a temper on her at times." Verity snorted. "And I'd hardly call myself Pretty Boy...do I look like I have tank tracks instead of legs?" She either ignored his quip or simply failed to appreciate it.

"Oddly enough, the raging temper of some hopeless suburban housewife is the least of my worries right now."

"Okay, well, don't say I didn't warn you." Andrew muttered as he looked out of the window at the suburban landscape passing them by at nearly seventy miles an hour. "Don't you think you should be abiding by the speed limit around here?"

"Do you want me to shoot you in the face right now?" Verity snapped back.

"I'm just saying that I would imagine the last thing you need is to get pulled over for speeding." Andrew replied.

"Trust me; if anyone tries that then they're going to have a very fucking bad day." She replied, and then a few moments later Andrew felt the car shifting down gears. He gazed out of the window again and took a deep breath. As he had been holding the bottle of cloudy lemonade up to the light, shaking it slightly as he tried to dislodge the particles within in order to read the expiration date clearly at the generic convenience store at the far end of Burrow Street, Andrew had found himself being confronted by an attractive red head. Taking her to be a fan – which wasn't as uncommon as it had been in the past – he had asked her how he could help her.

The sudden appearance of a 9mm pistol had convinced him that she was at best a crazed stalker and quite possibly something much worse. He had done exactly as she had asked; reasoning that compliance at that point in time was preferable to open defiance. Upon being directed to her vehicle – some silver coloured Japanese monstrosity – she had taken his cell phone and dialled home.

As the car broke free of the countryside and hit the motorway, Andrew noticed that his phone was sitting in the foot well beside the gear stick, the display blinking away as a soft blue light on the side of the device began to flash rapidly.

"So what happens if I need a piss?" Andrew threw the question out there as he saw Verity glancing down at his phone.

"What?"

"Well I might need to go to the toilet – how's that going to work?" He explained, trying to keep her attention away from the electronic device in the foot well. "Are you going to pull over so I can go at the side of the road or do you want to pull over at a service station and accompany me to the bog?" He could see from the glare in her eyes in the rear view mirror that he was needling her. A moment later an empty water bottle was thrown onto the back seat.