Isabel, The Beauty Next Door Pt. 08

"What do you need to ask Mac about and not Olivia?"

"Don't worry, Olivia will be in on the conversation. I'm not sure who I can talk to about this. You will have to trust me on this, and if I can, I will tell you what's happening."

Amelia sits there silent trying to think what I was talking about, but she wasn't with me when I walked around the offices looking for missing walls.

We finish for the weekend, and Isabel and I spend our time exploring the city. Saturday night, I find myself escorting two ladies to a restaurant and then to Olivia's recommended nightclub. Olivia went home to spend the weekend with her husband. The night is fun, and we got home without too many issues. Isabel dresses her usual way in a new place, but Amelia dresses to impress and revels in the attention. She only dances with us and doesn't accept any drinks or offers to dance. We were home by midnight, all happy with our night out.

Monday, I ask Olivia for a private meeting when she arrives. "Good morning, Olivia. Good morning, Mac," I say as I sit next to Olivia on the sofa in what I believe will be Mac's office. Olivia has her laptop set up and Mac is in his office at the ranch.

"Hey, James. I'm guessing you might have found something," Mac. "I asked Jay to be a little careful around Uncle Calvin's office but to let me know if anything unusual exists. So what do you have, Jay?" He says making sure Olivia understands what's happening.

Isabel walks over and sits close to listen to the conversation. "I did the initial walk-through of your uncle's offices as I did the rest of the building. A lot of the offices mirror each other. When I walked into your Uncle Calvin's office and the office next door, I noticed the dimensions were wrong. There's a hidden room between the two offices."

"Can it be just for storage or some simple reason?" Olivia ask.

"Yes, I don't know what's in there, but you asked me to report if I found something."

"What makes you think that it's not just another room?" Mac asks.

"Because it has no visible entrance, the walls are brick to look like the supporting wall, and there's a separate electricity feed big enough to run half the building that runs in from above. I used my cable detector to find the feed from above. At least four thirty amp cables run through the ceiling space. This is way higher than any other part of the building besides the kitchens."

"Crap, I didn't think he would be that stupid........James and Isabel, I need your word that you will not utter a word of this outside this room." Isabel and I both nod. Mac takes a deep breath. "Uncle Calvin has been stealing money from the company and has it stashed in some overseas accounts. The FBI have been tracking a group, and Uncle Calvin could be their way in. We uncovered him stealing from us a while ago, and then the FBI got involved. I will contact Agent Nicholas and see what they want us to do. In the meantime, leave that area until last."

"I don't think I need to go in there again until after planning is granted," I say. "But there will be only a short window of opportunity because once planning is approved, we will want all the different areas cleared."

Mac smiles through the computer. "I like your confidence. I will arrive in Charlestown on Friday morning. You can show me Friday afternoon when everyone has gone. I will bring someone from the FBI so they can make the decision."

We all nod, and I return to my office before I am missed. Once again, Emelia is with me and proves indispensable as we start the laborious task of checking everything on our list. We drill holes, put cameras inside, and remove segments of suspended ceilings to see what they hide. By Thursday, I am confident there won't be any big surprises for the main structure. There are several issues with how things can be laid out and channeled. I will have to replan the aircon on the third floor and change where the main conduits for the electricity go for the whole building. That sounds like a lot, but we had planned to rewire everything already. Emelia had to return to her family home on Thursday, but we had most things done by then.

Olivia is picking Mac up from the Heliport early this morning and is bringing him to the house.

"Morning, Jay, Isabel," Emma says as she walks in, looking tired.

"Hey, Emma," Isabel says. Had a good couple of weeks?"

"Yeah, it was great to have everyone around. Your man definitely made an impression."

"What's that?" I say as I hear something about me.

"Nothing," Isabel says.

"Where's Mac?" I ask.

"He's sat talking to Olivia about what's happening today. She's heading back home straight away. It's her anniversary tomorrow." Emma says, poring herself a coffee.

The door opens and closes. "Hey Jay, how ya doen'?" Mac asks.

"All good, Mate. So what's the plan?"

"You go in as usual as if nothing is different. Around five, Matt Costa will meet me around the back and let me and agents Tyler and Nicholas into the back stairwell. We'll meet you in my office and go from there. I would like you to sweep the entire floor to check everyone has left."

"Sounds like fun. I can do a door check."

"Whatever, as long as it doesn't look suspicious."

We don't have a car, so Isabel and I walk into town and spend the day double-checking everything. We have our usual breakfast and lunch and also find the time to Skype Dad before he finishes for the week. The front of both houses has been stripped and filled. The undercoat have been applied to the new render. When it's completed the house should look spectacular, especially the iron work on the first floor balconies. Dad has started on the interiors and has ripped the kitchen and bathrooms out. He's taken the door frames out that join the two houses and bricked up most of them, leaving one to make access easier between them.

Unexpectedly we have been granted permission to build a balcony leading from both master bedrooms. We will make this the only way between the two houses without going out the front door. I have designed a door that bypasses the bedrooms to give privacy.

The day passes slowly, but Isabel and I entertain each other, and I also sign off my final design that will go off to the planning office. I didn't have to change any structural design, with utilities only being affected by my survey.

There's a knock on the door. "James, Isabel, Michael has just arrived," Jaden says. She has her jacket on and her bag with her. "I'll be off. It's been a pleasure to meet you both, and I will see you once the planning has been approved."

"Thanks Jaden," Isabel says. "You have been very helpful." I smile and nod in agreement.

Jaden smiles, "Mac just asked if I am interested in being onsite for the build," she says sounding happy that Mac thinks that much of her. "I will most probably see you then." She breaths out like she's happy with her lot and turns heading toward the elevators. We walk to the main office and knock.

"Come in, James," Mac says. We walk in, and Mac is sitting behind his desk with a blueprint of his uncle's floor. A man and a woman stand on either side, looking at the plan. "James, these fine people are Agents Tyler and Nicholas." I nod.

"James, can you sketch in the dimensions you believe the hidden room has and where?" Agent Nicholas asks. I move over and look at the plan. I pick up a pencil, draw a box straddling the central wall, and put the pencil down. "That big?...Wow."

"How do we get a look inside?" Mac asks.

The room goes quiet. "Do you need to go in or just look?" I ask. All eyes are suddenly on me. "I can get a camera down from above," I say.

We are in the office directly above the secret room. When I was checking, the wall was still supported. I noticed a small gap between the RSJ and the hung ceiling. "How did this get made without people knowing?" Mac asks.

"It was most probably done during a big renovation. Especially if the was a shoot used," I say.

I lift the carpet I had up before and put my camera down the hole I had drilled. I get my magic eye out and feed it down. All eyes are on the tablet screen as I move to the gap I saw before. I was tempted to look myself but didn't want to mess up any investigation.

As the camera snakes through the tight gap, the room below appears. No lighting is on, but we can see rows of LED lights. "What is that?" Isabel asks.

"It's a computer server," I say. "Quite a sizable as well. It's not your company server, is it?"

"No, that's not on this site. There shouldn't be anything like that there without our knowledge."

"Do you want me to turn the light on the camera so we can see what else is there?"

Both Agents nod at the same time. I flick a switch, and the room gets illuminated. There are three rows of six servers and a computer terminal. I point to Agent Tyler where the door is and then point to it on the blueprint. He nods his understanding, and we carefully pull the camera out and stick the carpet back down.

"What do you think?" I say to the two agents.

"Not sure; when will you ask for the place to be vacated?"

"After the end of the year AGM," Mac says. "Once we get permission to go ahead from the meeting, we hope to break ground just after the new year."

I pull the memory stick out and hand it to Agent Nicholas. Isabel and I make our way out of the front door, and I presume they went out the way they came in. We met Mac back at the house after Isabel, and I decided to walk home hand in hand. I've always found with Isabel that the simple things make me feel so loved. Being together doing something as simple as walking hand in hand gives me as much personal satisfaction as laying cuddled up in bed.

We spend the weekend with Mac and Emma. We go out to his company's restaurant that his ranch produces meat for. Mac even shows us the not-so-touristy parts of Charlestown. He gets recognized wherever he goes and politely signs autographs or lets someone take a selfie with him and Emma. On the way out Mac collides with a guy who seems shocked he almost knocked Mac over. Mac just takes it in his stride and makes sure the guy is okay.

Monday soon comes around, and the hardest part of the time away from the UK. I am flying down south, leaving Isabel. I will be meeting Ron at the factory developing the solar glass. They've created the glass with the film, but initial tests seem disappointing. We aren't getting enough electricity out of the glass to make it cost-effective to fit.

My plane takes off on time, and it seems that no sooner are we up than we seem to be descending into San Jose International Airport. I must have fallen asleep. I'm blaming Isabel for keeping awake half the night.

Ron is waiting there with a board saying 'Genius' on it. I laugh and walk over and shake his hand.

"Don't give up the day job, Ron. You'll never make it as a comedian," I say.

"You know how to kill a man's dreams," he retorts. "Come on, let's get you to the hotel where we are staying."

Arriving at the hotel, we go straight to my room. Ron has already checked me in, but I only get time to lug my bag onto my bed before he drags me out for a meal. We discussed the project and why Ron was having trouble seeing why it wouldn't work. "Ron, sometimes it takes fresh eyes to see the obvious," I tell him.

We go back to our rooms early. I Skype Isabel, and we talk for an hour. Christ, I miss not being with her. She is almost in tears when we call it a night. With the three-hour time difference my body is ready to hit the sack, and the fact that Ron wants an early start, we are in bed by nine.

The next morning with about three hours of sleep, I drag myself out of bed and wake myself with a cold shower. I might have been tiered, but I didn't think sleeping away from Isabel would affect me so badly.

We get breakfast and head into the factory for the first time. Ron spends the morning showing me around and going through what he has done and what he's tried to solve the problem.

After lunch, I look at the test panes of glass. We had a problem that we couldn't cover a large pane of glass with one membrane and had to use up to eight separate sheets, depending on the size of glass. This was an early setback that I already knew about, but we believed it will work and you can't even see the joins.

I returned to the hotel on the first day, no further forward. Halfway through the night, it comes to me. We had got the sequencing wrong. We should wire them in series, not parallel. I groan at the obvious mistake and go back to sleep.

When I talk to Ron in the morning, he stares at me in disbelief. "James, how could I have been so stupid? They're batteries, not bulbs," he says, slapping his head. "Shit, I should have seen that."

"I told you, you're too close to the job. Sometimes it takes fresh eyes to see the forest instead of the trees."

He laughs and bites into his sausage. We spend the next two days rewiring the set of windows. On Friday, just before I leave, we pull the windows out of the back of the factory to catch the early sun. Wham, they are working even better than my prediction. Ron gives me an impromptu hug as we celebrate. I'm on the ten-thirty-five back to Charlestown and desperate to see Isabel. I didn't realize it, but the flight is almost six hours, and It's nearly eight o'clock before I hold my fiancée in my arms for the first time in five days.

Saturday morning, I wake to an empty bed. Isabel and I had made up for a lost time, making love like we'd been apart for a year.

I walk into the kitchen, and everyone is sitting out on the back deck. "Morning," I say.

"Hey baby," Isabel says. "You looked so peaceful that I just left you," she says.

I walk out and see she is still in her nightwear. She must feel relaxed around Mac to not cover herself with more than two layers. I walk over and kiss her. "What we got on for today?" I ask.

"Seems ya all done a stellar job getting that solar window to work; I thought we could relax for a few days. We will review the planning before it gets sent off on Monday, but Olivia feels this will be accepted, especially with the added data you sent from the functioning prototype."

I smile as a bit of a Southern accent shows through. "Jay, if you want to fry some eggs, the rest of your breakfast is in the oven," Emma says.

I walk back in, cook some eggs, and pull the hot plate out of the oven. I didn't realize how hungry I was and cleared the plate quickly.

Mac has been invited to an art exhibition. We're going for a meal with the featured artist and then onto her opening night. She's also English, and when Mac told me who she was, I surprised everyone by knowing her.

She was one of the guest tutors at Cambridge a couple of years back, and I had gone along to see her because she had started life as an Architect and then moved into art. Sophie Aston is a remarkable artist known for her landscapes, but she showed me some of her guilty pleasures, buildings.

"Jay, I wondered if you would be coming along." She said, opening her arms to hug me. "Mac, thank you for coming, and you lovely ladies must be Isabel and Emma," she says.

"Good memory; I was worried you wouldn't remember me," I say.

"Not when I had Andy, Edward, and Smithy harping on about your work every time we met... ⁸Congratulations on winning the Architects Guild's gold medal, the Cambridge University trophy for Student of the Year," she says, genuinely proud of me.

"And the outstanding achievement award," Isabel adds.

"Is that how Mac got roped into coming tonight?" I Ask knowing the answer and shaking my head. Knowing what my bosses were like with their friends, I'm not surprised Mac got the invite tonight.

Sophie smiles and nods her head. "Shall we eat," she says, taking Isabel's arm as we follow the waiter to the table. I hear her ask Isabel what she does, and I can see the pleasure on her face when Isabel tells her how we met and the story of our romance.

We sit, talk, and eat. Occasionally someone comes over and asks for a selfie with Mac and Emma. Mac is a good people person. He quickly grants the fan's request and continues with his meal.

The restaurant is just a block away from the art gallery, and we choose to walk off some of our dinner.

As we exit, I notice the same guy who bumped into Mac outside his company restaurant the weekend before. I only noticed because he looked surprised at our sudden appearance and ran away down an alley. I look at the others, but no one seems like they saw him. We walk along the well-lit street toward the gallery. The gallery is well lit with a crowd outside waiting to get in. Isabel happily talks to Emma and Sophie while Mac talks to someone on his phone.

I'm window shopping and fall back a little when I notice the same guy on the other side of the street. There's something wrong, and I feel it in my gut as I turn and catch the others up. Without looking over, I move the three ladies behind me and then look to see where the guy has gone.

Isabel catches me up. "Sorry, baby. Are you feeling left out?"

I turn and smile at her. "Isabel, can you keep behind me," I say, a little more assertive than I intended, but she gets the message and drops back with Emma and Sophie without missing a beat.

Now I have lost sight of the guy and use the shop window to scan the people both on the other side of the street and ahead. My heart rate has doubled as I feel a wave of panic wash over me. I'm unsure why, but this guy has got me on edge as I try to find him without looking like I am searching for him.

A car horn takes my attention as the guy moves out from a shop doorway and runs across the street in front of a taxi. He has his hand inside his jacket and his eyes fixed on the girls or Mac. I'm a few meters ahead, and he doesn't see me.

Again, I move to put the girls between me and the advancing threat, still not look in his direction. I notice as he gets closer that his eyes are fixed on Mac. I don't have enough time to readjust my position as I see the guy pull a gun from the inside of his jacket.

Everything seems to happen in slow motion and all at once. Someone shouts "Mac!" I don't even consider the implications as I move and launch myself. Everything seems so surreal. It's like I'm watching from the sidelines as he brings the gun to a firing position. Before he gets a shot off, my right foot meets the underside of his hand, forcing the weapon up and the gun to fire into the air.

I hear a scream, as my leg plants back onto the floor, I spin, and with every ounce of strength, I have, my other leg comes in contact with his face. My only thought is to protect my friends and fiancée as his head snaps back. I hear his neck crack as his whole body loses all strength.

I land facing my friends and quickly check no one has been hit. The shocked look on their faces makes me turn back to the now-still body on the floor. I close my eyes after I look down and see the obviously dead man staring back at me.

to be continued................

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Sorry for the dramatic end. Don't forget that all important score.