The Entity Pt. 06

He made a mental note to start the process of unraveling Waverly Hills and its holding companies. Also pursuing Theodora Elizabeth Miller. He was sure, just as Michael had been, that she was dead, but following her might take him to someone else's door.

Toilet sounds told him Mary was up and in spite of repeated threats to make him sleep with Biscuit, the family hound, Tom launched into his best Barry White imitation.

The response was almost immediate. "Don't forget to take your house key with you tonight. I still want you to bring up my coffee in the morning."

"Aw, come on honey. You know you love it when I sing dirty for you."

Tom's wife, an Irish American redhead, worked as a senior VP for one of the bigger banks in the country and enjoyed their morning banter.

Pecks were exchanged as they traded places and Mary stepped into the shower.

"Honey," Mary yelled above the running water, "Don't forget, we have Sarah's play tonight at school."

"I'll try. You know we have this thing at the office."

She knew. Being part of the banking community, she knew more about the current crisis than most mere mortals. She was also one of the few non-ICB employees that knew the true identity of the Entity.

"I'll forgive you if you must, for Michael, but please try."

Tom responded with a grunt as he stretched the skin on his chin through the exclusive male ritual of face contortions, and pulled the razor down leaving a shining patch of ebony skin between the snowfall of shaving cream that surrounded it.

"Just like mowing grass," his father used to say, "Ya gotta set up a pattern and follow it. Keep that lawn manicured son."

A muffled thud and a blur out of the corner of his eye announced the arrival of the twins as they landed in the middle of mommy and daddies bed. A pair of seven year old whirling dervishes who's latest main interest was daddy mowing his grass.

"Does that hurt, Daddy?"

"No, Sarah, it doesn't"

"If you cut it all off today, why do you have to cut it off again tomorrow?"

"Because it grows back, Patricia."

"What happens if you don't cut it, Daddy?"

"It gets really long, Sarah."

"And what happens if it gets really long, Daddy?"

"I get really hairy, Patricia."

"And what happens if you get really hairy, Daddy?"

"Mommy might not like me anymore, Sarah."

Tom wiped his face down with a hot washcloth and steeled himself for the next inevitablewhat if.

"And what happens if mommy doesn't like you anymore, Daddy?"

Spinning on the balls of his feet, Tom charged the two girls standing in the doorway of the bathroom growling. Sweeping one into each arm, he hustled them onto the bed where his fingers connected with as many ribs as possible, bringing the squeal factor to 10.

"If mommy doesn't like me anymore, then she won't let me kiss her. If she won't let me kiss her anymore then I'll only kiss you two," he announced in as menacing a voice as possible, raising his voice a little and bugging his eyes as much as a forty three year old man could stand, he continued, "and if I kiss you two with a hairy face," Tom paused for effect before yelling in his best monster voice, "You'll both get hairy faces TOO!"

By the time Mary arrived warm and pink from the shower, wrapped in a towel, Tom had the kids wound up nice and tight. Leaning in to kiss his wife on the cheek he whispered, "I'm so glad it's your morning to drop them at school."

Mary slapped him on the butt and threatened Leprecon revenge. "I'll hide your pot of gold!"

Finding his favorite morning talk show, Tom started his day stuck in traffic.Where are you, Michael?

Checking his cell phone, he was disappointed a second time.

"Damn it to hell," he said as he hit the steering wheel with his fist.

*****

The three sat around a dark wood meeting room table. The Doctor and Rudolph in plush leather high back swivel chairs. Theodora sat in a padded, quietly vibrating therapeutic chair.

While her muscles were weak, Theodora seemed energized. The Doctor had explained that her strength was probably much lower than Michael's, but given the fact she had been rescued from her aging and deteriorating previous self, she was overwhelmed with the wonderful state of her twenty year old body. Still urging caution, he did recognize their need to start making decisions.

Occasionally glancing in Theodora's direction, the Doctor was amazed at the pale skinned beauty with flaming red hair that managed to dominate the proceedings.

"Columbia is coming up next year," she said, "How's our recruiting program going?

"We're down to two candidates. Interestingly, one is a woman," the Doctor answered. "Both are being indoctrinated and a final decision will be made in January. The winner will get a new body," pausing to allow question or comment, he continued, "The one not selected, will, of course, be eliminated as the other candidates have been."

"That sounds good, Doctor," Rudolph said."What's going on with our two presidential candidates?" Theodora asked.

The Doctor again had the answer, "As discussed in our meeting a week ago, Beth, my assistant, has completed the next version of Kevin's software. I think this is a good time to address earlier concerns. After careful consideration, I believe we must push things to the younger candidate. At 71, I don't believe we can take a chance on Richards, dropping dead from a stroke before we even get established.

"If you agree Theodora, I'd like to bring our past work into play and push the election to the younger candidate."

"As long as we've kept the situation sanitary and nothing can be traced back to us, go ahead."

"Good."

Rudolph searched through his papers and asked, "What about the termination of Kevin and Gerald's contracts?"

"All in order. They've been promised a luxury vacation, their first real vacation in all the years they've been working for us, to enjoy their money. The Bahamas I believe. Traveling together, they'll both perish when their plane goes down. Unfortunately, we have to sacrifice a perfectly good private jet and crew of three, but appearances must be maintained."

"Very good, Doctor," Theodora seemed pleased. "I would say that's it for now. Gentlemen, let's get started."

Everyone laughed and Theodora felt a flush. Just the thought of what waited at the roof garden made her heart beat stronger.

*****

Beth wandered through the tank room, out into the surgery theater and across the hall to the staff suits.

"Hi good looking," Gerald ogled her as he walked by, "How about the Bahamas?"

Gerald and Kevin both thought Beth was nothing more than a trusted technician. They also thought their promised millions made each, bachelor of the year; a catch for any woman.

She and the Doctor had always been discrete, taking care that no one else on staff was aware of their liaisons. She did her best to keep up appearances.

"Oh, how nice. When do you leave?" she even managed to flutter her lashes a little.

"Next Monday. You want to come along? I'm sure we can find something to do for two weeks," Gerald's lascivious smile indicating what that something might be.

Leaning in, she toyed with the lapel of his rumpled lab coat as if it were the Shroud of Turin, "Gee, you know I'd love to. But who's going to watch over the living dead while our stars are gone?" She purred and Gerald blushed.

What an idiot she thought, as she reached her apartment.

Having spent the night with the good Doctor the previous evening, she needed to feed her cat and check on TIM.

Cat fed, petted and watered, she was disappointed to find TIM had finally crashed. She'd suspected it would happen. She just hadn't been able to work out the memory allocation problems for such a huge program. Even the six gigabytes she'd had custom created in their technical shop in the basement wasn't enough.

Oh well, she thought, hitting the power switch and shutting the machine off completely, I'll find time tomorrow, or maybe the next day.

*****

Linda wandered, sleepy eyed, into the kitchen to find cut fruit, croissants and juice. The smell of coffee permeating the apartment. Unlike Linda, Tammy was dressed and going over the newspaper she'd picked up while getting croissants from the corner bakery. Looking up, she waved her over, patting her thigh.

Pulling Linda onto her leg like a Macy's Santa, she ran her hand up Linda's bare back and raked her hair with her fingers.

"Hey, Sleepyhead, how you feeling this morning?"

Linda stifled a yawn and asked, "What time is it, anyway?"

"After seven. I've been trying to see if there's anything in the morning paper that might help us."

Linda moved to the next stool. Eyeing the food she said, "I'm famished."

"If you want to shower and get dressed first, I can make us some eggs."

Linda dug in, mumbling around her fork in response. Downing her glass of juice she said, "Clothes are optional. Food isn't. Make the eggs anyway."

A half hour later they were headed out.

*****

The tires squealed slightly as Linda turned the corner. They'd decided they had time to check on Michael's last message to Linda and see if they could locate Robert Nunn.

Handing the keys to a valet, Linda followed Tammy into the reception area and waited while she started the inquiry.

"I don't show a Robert or Bob Nunn registered," which didn't surprise Tammy. Launching into a description of Scanner Bob, including his hygiene habits, Tammy was told in no uncertain terms that if she didn't even have the correct name of the person in question, she certainly had no right to find him.

Looking on, Linda stepped up and flipped her ICB credentials open on the registration desk. "Well, let's see if we can broaden my friend's rights a little."

"Let me get the manager."

When the manager appeared he wrinkled his nose as if some foul odor had suddenly blown in and said, "If I'm correct, that would be the Internet Crime Bureau. Also," he stopped to flip a piece of lint from his lapel, "The ICB, just like our fine police department, has no right to invade the privacy of our guests without an arrest or search warrant."

Leaning slightly to emphasize his need to look down at Linda, the manager waited.

"But I do have a right to do a spot check of every computer in this hotel," Linda paused for effect, "Including your guests. Now, the way that works is, you, as the manager, will accompany us as we go from door to door. You will bring a pass key and observe our work as we rifle every laptop we find in every room. Who knows what we might come across. I have a little program in my car that just loves to snoop out the porn habits of people."

The manager straightened and started to pale as Linda continued, "We don't really care if the owner of the machine is present or not. If we find a computer, we check it. Then again, we will have to search every room just to determine if there's a computer there or not.

"How many rooms do you have here? I bet this could take ALL day."

Back peddling, the stuffy manager thawed slightly and invited Linda and Tammy back to his office.

Sitting at his desk, back straight, no expression, he said, "We do have one guest that might fit the description you gave. Not with the hygiene habits you described, but he did pay for a week in advance in cash. Not unheard of but certainly different."

"What name is he registered under," Linda asked.

"You must understand that complete discretion must be exercised."

"Did you know that if this is our man, the FBI is looking for him?" Linda asked.

With that the manager placed a quick call to the front desk requesting copies of all the information they had on Mr. Fred Johnston.

Sliding the copies across the desk to Linda, the manager stood and cleared his throat signaling the meeting was over.

Scanning the papers Linda found a Suit number, as well as a black Mercedes with a dealer plate number from the state of New York.

Tammy felt a shiver run up her spine when Linda pointed out the vehicle information.

They decided Waverly Hills was next on the list. Linda checked in with the Captain and then she called Tom as they cruised south enjoying the sun.

"Right. We couldn't find him either."

Handing the open phone to Tammy, Linda downshifted for a curve and said, "You talk to him. I seem to be busy."

"Hi, Tom, this is Tammy."

Tom explained his plan for the day and said they should check in before six.

Tammy curled in the corner of the cockpit finding perch on her leather seat and watched Linda as she cleared San Francisco's commuter traffic and pushed the Jaguar south. She could see how the five and a half hour trip could be shortened to four as the speedometer floated between 85 and 90.

Looking over at Linda, one hand at the top of the oversize, wooden, steering wheel, the other resting gently on the gear shift, Tammy tried to put the square peg in the round hole.

Yes, she thought, she had enjoyed falling asleep in Linda's arms last night. And yes, she had her share of girlfriends. But that was different, wasn't it. They spent time shopping and talking about boys.

Then there had been that time in college. A drinking game that turned into a dare as she and another sophomore, down to just their panties, had stood in the middle of the Frat meeting room and necked for five minutes. She really couldn't recall what happened after but it certainly wasn't this. She couldn't even recall the girl's name.

And this time, there were no boys around to entertain. No one was watching. No one was daring. No one was pushing.

She hadn't been able to get Linda out of her mind while following Mildred around the archives in Chicago. She found herself thinking what a real kiss might be like. What other things, things that made her blush even now, might feel like.

But she couldn't say it was about sex. In fact, she wasn't even sure she could, well, go all the way with Linda. It was about liking her. A lot. More than she wanted to admit.

She saw Linda glance over and smile, her hair buffeting, framing her face. Kicking her shoes off, Tammy curled her feet up under her on the leather seat, reached over, took Linda's hand and put it on her knee where she was rewarded with a squeeze and another smile.

Enjoying the way Linda's nails raked the inside of her thigh, Tammy fell asleep wondering how such a thing could happen.

*****

Ten miles north of LA they saw the smog. The inversion layer was heavier than usual.

Tammy navigated with a Map Quest printout and they found themselves on a palm lined boulevard rolling through a quiet residential area that may not have been homes of the rich and famous, but were none the less impressive sitting a good distance back from the boulevard.

"Maybe we should stop here and decide what we're going to do," Tammy said.

Linda parked and Tammy pointed at the red brick building peeking out between palms and oaks about half a mile ahead, perched up on a hill.

"That should be it. I looked it up on the internet this morning. It has quite a history by the way, and we should find a gated entrance with a small brick building that's the crematorium. What's the plan?"

Linda contemplated the building in its sunny, forested setting, and tried to see past the incongruence of the peaceful setting to the evil they thought might lurk within.

"I guess walking in the front door and asking to speak with Michael would be out of the question?"

Tammy rifled a sheaf of papers in her lap looking at old photographs of the grounds, buildings and people that had been part of Waverly Hills, decades before.

"Well, we're really going in blind and given what little we know, you probably couldn't get away with that. If this crazy plot is true and they did do something sinister to Michael, they might know you," pausing to inspect an SUV that drove by slowly, she continued, "But they shouldn't know me. Maybe I can get in and take a look around. What do you think?"

"Sounds like a plan to me. Let's cruise the front entrance and I'll drop you once we get past it."

Rolling slowly, they were both distracted by the pristine state of the crematorium and front entrance, completely missing the small, mirror windowed security shack that sat about fifteen feet back from the closed gate.

Linda dropped Tammy fifty feet beyond the gate and sped to the corner to turn around so she could watch.

Her printouts in hand, Tammy stood at the gate and contemplated the long driveway that curved up and away from the entrance, glancing at her papers before studying the crematorium. She wanted to projecttouristto anyone that might be watching through the three cameras she'd detected.

She jumped when a security guard stepped out of the foliage to ask if he could help.

"Oh my. You scared me."

"Sorry, Miss," his smile was broad and his face nicely tanned. California Hollywood hopeful, was her first thought.

"That's okay," Tammy hesitated as she searched his shirt for a name tag. Her eyes didn't miss the shiny black holster where a handgun was sheathed either. "Hi," Tammy stuck her hand through the gate, "Buck. I'm Christine."

Deciding there wasn't much danger in shaking the hand of this beautiful redhead, Buck's calloused hand slid into hers.

"I'm from Iowa, you know, the potato people?" Her smile was disarming. Buck had no idea what he was up against.

"Sure do, Miss," Buck was grinning like a school kid.

"Well, my mom told me about my grandfather. He was here as a patient back in the 40's," Tammy smiled back and twisted one of her sandals causing her knee to dip and her hip to rock. Posturing that didn't go unnoticed by her attentive audience.

"Anyway, my grandfather died here."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Miss," you would have thought it had happened last week given Buck's exaggerated concern.

"So my mom, she's never been to the place, when she heard I was coming to LA she said I just had to stop by and see Grandpa Smith." Tammy stopped and pulled on her hair. It was obvious to her that that explained it all.

Buck felt real sorry, and all, but he didn't think her grandpa was still up on the hill.

Tammy pulled up the corniest laugh she could find and waved her hand for emphasis, "I know that silly. She just thought I should come by and see the place. You know," Buck was nodding yes, like it made perfect sense to him, "walk the halls, maybe find his room."

Her smile broadened as Buck's head bobbed. Yep, she thought, this is going to be a breeze. She stopped, tilted her head a little and flipped her wavy red locks with her empty hand expecting Buck to just open up and let her in.

"Sorry, Miss, but its private property now. I don't have any idea what they do up there now."

Tammy recovered quickly. "Aw shucks," heaping on the corn pone. She was sure no one from Iowa spoke that way, but she was equally sure Buck had no idea how people from Iowa spoke. Reaching back through the fence she thought Buck would jump out of his skin when she teased the button of his uniform shirt, just above his belt.

"That's too bad," twisting and pulling, "I just thought you'd be able to walk with me and show me all the, well, you know, secrets."

Buck's eyes didn't stop rolling once Tammy started pulling on his uniform button. She knew what secrets Buck would like to show her. "Well, I actually worked here before the new people bought it. I watched them fix it up, and all."

Tammy was trying her best and Linda watched from up the street as she leaned into the gate, her face nestling between two black uprights. Once in place she pulled gently on Buck's button sure he'd follow.

Once he was close enough she said, "Well, maybe you could show me some of the secrets of LA instead," accenting LA with a tug on his shirt button.

Five minutes later Linda drove past the now deserted gate and picked up Tammy about fifty yards beyond the gate, still walking.