Meeting the Rodby’s

…

I picked a safe place to meet Rodby.

I called him directly, which is what none of his agents did, ever.  That was because no one knew his private number.  No one except perhaps Mrs Rodby and, now, myself.

It didn’t elicit kind words.

When he answered with a tentative yes, I started with, “One day you are going to tell me just a little more than you think I need to know.”

“Evan?”

“Who else would have the audacity to talk to you in such a manner?”

“Someone with either suicidal tendencies or one with a death wish.  I don’t see you as having the former, so I’ll run with the second.  You are aware I could have you arrested and worse?”

The thought had occurred to me.  There were certain people in the organisation that were untouchable, and he was one of them.

“You can do that if you like, but there will be consequences.  It might be an idea to wait until after we’ve met.”

“Come into the office.  I’ll be here all morning.”

“Not this morning.  Somewhere else, today.  Trafalgar Square, fifteen minutes.  I won’t bother asking you to come alone but be aware I’m not pleased with you.”

I hung up before he could ask why.

I did several circuits of the perimeter, then observed the tourists from the stairs of the gallery behind, then waited until I saw Rodby, with Mrs Rodby as I hoped, coming towards the square from Haymarket.

The fact it concerned the countess almost ensured that Mrs Rodby would be along to find out what happened to her friend.  But, to me, she could do that just as easily by being on the end of the telephone.  Rodby himself had laid down the law about bringing civilians into organisational matters, and Mrs Rodby was a civilian.

There was not one law for the boss and one law for everyone else.  Rodby was not like that, so there had to be a compelling reason why she was being included.

I watched them walking slowly and thought what an unconventional sight they made.  All the time I knew Rodby, he never walked anywhere. And he definitely would never be seen with Martha.  His enemies if they were out and about would have leverage being dangled in front of them, which is why we seemed to live such monastic lives or quit so we could have a normal one.

Once again, I thought this very unconventional.

Though at this very minute, I could snatch her off the street.

It was incentive enough to maintain vigilance and note where every unsavoury character was.  And there were a lot of them judging by appearances.

As I followed from behind, I sent a text message to Cecelia to tell the countess she would be able to talk to Mrs Rodby in about fifteen minutes.  I had managed to clone Mrs Rodby’s phone and get the number.

I timed my arrival to close to them as they crossed the road in front of the gallery coming up behind them, and as they stepped onto the footpath on the other side I said, “Nice to see you both out and about together.  Is this a prelude to retirement?”

Both stopped and turned around.

OK, there was a mental note about to be stored.  Mrs Rodby was the same height and wearing heels.  What relevance was that she didn’t wear heels for one very specific reason, it made her taller than her husband and that was one part of his ego you didn’t mess with.

Mrs Rodby had got shorter.  Of course, I hadn’t seen her for a while and there didn’t seem to be a height difference the night of the opera, so perhaps it was just my view from where I was standing.

“Are you trying to give us heart attacks, Evan?”  Martha spoke, while Rodby was looking around.  Fifteen minutes was too short a time to get a team of agents on the ground, but there would be one.  He would have people observing via the CCTV camera.

“It was not my intention.”

Standing on the path was blocking the foot traffic and we moved towards one of the fountains.  I kept an eye on the direction from where they came, but they were not being followed.  We were not far from the fountain when we stopped.

Rodby looked annoyed.  “Enough with the theatrics.  Where is the countess?  From what Alf told me, she should be with you, the reason why you summoned us here.”

“Toy told me to find her, not bring her to you.”

“You’re not one to interpret orders, Evan, although I should have factored in your unorthodox method of doing the job.”

“I was thinking that was why you asked me, and not one of the other dozen or so people you could have.”

That was another thought that just popped into my head.  Why me?  I was not his first choice for this type of mission, and I had long discounted the original contrived reason for meeting the countess, that Martha might be matchmaking, a suggestion dropped by the countess herself.

I knew Mrs Rodby, and she was not a matchmaker or the sort who would interfere in anyone’s life.  Granted she knew about Violetta, but that was only after she was diagnosed, and Rodby let us into a small part of his life, and that was only because I had retired and there was no conflict of interest.  Which flicked my attention back to Martha.

She had aged a lot since I saw her last when it seemed she could not be perturbed by anything.  Violetta, in fact, had said she was as close to an angel as she would ever get to see.

Now that angel was not looking happy.  “You met and talked to her?”  Mrs Rodby asked.

“Yes, and she insists that she left the hotel as a precautionary measure, unsure of Alesandro’s intentions.  She seemed to believe he was being manipulated by his mother, who I think might be a problem.  I spoke to Alessandro, and he assured me he had nothing to do with her departure.”

Rodby had maintained continuous surveillance of the square and then brought his eyes back to me.  It wasn’t exactly a look of daggers, but close.  “Do you think she might harm the countess?”

“I have no idea where she fits into the equation though on the surface it seems she wants to be in control of the family business, if indeed she hasn’t been all along.”

“It could just be a family feud, fuelled by the fact that it’s possible the running of the business might fall to the countess, who is for all intents and purposes, an outsider.  Everything was fine while he was alive, it’s only since he died, that she has been having difficulties.”

Could that be a subtle hint that she might have killed the count herself to get control of everything?  Would the countess do that?  Not the woman that I met at the opera, and then later on, whether she was brandishing a gun at me or not.

“So, it’s possible the family might be trying to stop her from inheriting.  That’s a bit hard under Italian law isn’t it?”

“Not if she’s dead.”

“And if there’s a daughter?”

“Same problem arises, needing a similar solution.”

With mafia connections that wouldn’t be too much of a difficulty to arrange.  Not surprising then that Mrs Rodby was worried about her friend.

“Then given Anthony told us that we were, yes, to find her, but also to make the problems go away, though not exactly in those words, what exactly was I supposed to do.  I didn’t interpret that as going in and taking out the family.  He didn’t mention any extraction team, nor did he say I had to tell you where she was, only to provide an update.  I am, here.”

“What about that daughter you mentioned, Juliet Ambrose.  Don’t you find it coincidental she pops up as a key player, the daughter of a maid, Vittoria Romano, who by all accounts is trying to eliminate the countess?”

“It’s a small world.  What can I say?  It was a surprise to learn of her involvement, and no doubt Alfie told you I met up with her and also told that I saved her from being killed?”

“By whom?”

“It could be anybody.  She had dealt with one too many bad people of the years, but it’s possible it might be the Burkehardt’s.  The count did tell the countess that she existed, as he did to Alessandro, but he would not have disclosed her actual identity.”

“Then the countess doesn’t know who she is?” Martha seemed surprised.

“She does now.  that’s where I found the countess, in Juliet’s flat.”

“And they’re together still?”

“Last I heard.”

“Would that be a very bad idea, especially if the mother found them?  You can be sure this Juliet and her mother are not plotting…”

“…to kill the countess and step in as another legitimate heir?  I don’t think so.”

I found it surprising that Martha was so well-read into the case, perhaps better than I was.

“Have you met her mother?”

“Cecelia has.  And that’s another question.  Why did you reassign me to her, that’s not usual practice.”

“She’s used to your maverick ways, and last assignment you two worked well together.”

“It might also mean she’s become a maverick too?”

“I told her to learn only the good aspects of being an agent from you, though I’m beginning to question that decision.  Where is she?”

“In Italy watch over the countess, and keep an eye on the mother.”

Mrs Rodby had been watching us.  “Are you two like this all the time?  How did anything get done?”

“Slowly,” I said.  “It’s a bit hard to do anything when you don’t get the whole story.  But, for now, the countess is safe.  Cecelia is investigating Vittoria and I know where Juliet is, and what her involvement is.  None.  For now.  But that might change when her mother appears.”

A few seconds of silence, and then Mrs Rodby’s phone rang.

She pulled the phone out of her bag, looked at the screen, and then answered it with a tentative ‘Yes?”

She then turned to Rodby, “It’s the countess.”  She put it on speakerphone, and I moved away so I couldn’t hear her, but within reach of them if anything happened.

Nothing did.

Five minutes later, Rodby stepped away and came over to me.  “Get over to Italy and find the lawyer handling her side of the inheritance.  You need to get her to him before they meet with the family lawyers.  Whatever you do, ensure you keep her safe.”

“What about the matriarch?”

“Ignore her.  Your priority is the countess.”

I watched them walk away thinking I’d got out of that way too easily.  And wondering if I should have remained within earshot of the conversation.  Something about this whole affair suddenly wasn’t adding up.

© Charles Heath 2023

Who’s telling the truth?

…

After the three women left, I stretched out in one of the chairs and closed my eyes.

Cecelia had disappeared into one of the bedrooms, I suspect the one with the biggest bed and its own private bathroom, and I tried not to think about her.  I tried not to think about Juliet either.

I heard Cecelia flop into the other chair opposite me a few minutes later.  “They’re all lying in one way or another.”

I opened my eyes, hoping she hadn’t changed into something more ‘comfortable’, like in the movies.

“Welcome to the real world.  I’m glad you played along.  It was a bit of a limb we’re out on at the moment, and I’m sure Alfie, after bursting into the flat will be having kittens.”

“Can we trust any of those three?”

“You’d think the countess being a countess would be trustworthy.”

“But…”

“She does come from a class of people who are a law unto themselves.  I don’t see her as a master criminal though, but she’s not telling the whole truth, just the parts she thinks we need to hear.  It’s the same with everyone in this business.  They try to anticipate our requirements.”

“I like the idea of being a bit player.”

“Never tell anyone who you really are.  I find it helps to allay their fears and stops them from thinking you can save them from anything.  First lesson I learned; I couldn’t save everyone.”

“Noted.”

“So, what do you think after hearing everything.”

“Anthony got some of it right, but his suppositions didn’t meet the facts on the ground.”

“Which is always the case.  Sometimes a lot worse for us when we get there.  We’re lucky this time we have a familiar face, Juliet.  It buys us some credibility.”

“You think it’s the old woman or Alessandro trying to kill them, or someone else, or was that attack staged…”

It was a thought I had in passing too, as real as it appeared.  If I thought too much about it, the fact was, just before the shooting started, we were both sitting ducks and he could have shot both of us dead.

A point to be noted and filed for later reference.

“Assuming it wasn’t, we have to get them over to Italy.”

“How?”

“How Larry got there.  A small plane flying under the radar.  If Rodby put you to work with me for a reason, it was probably to teach you all my tricks of the trade.  You accumulate a lot of them as you progress, and don’t get killed.  Moving secretly from place to place is a useful tool and you gather assets over time.  I know a guy who knows a guy, and tomorrow, with the three women, you will go find him and take yourselves off to Italy.  You will have two envelopes, the first the name of the pilot.  The second, is an address of a safe house near Sorrento.  Once they are safe, you will take up surveillance on the Sorrento Chateau, and the movements of the matriarch.  After I’ve dealt with Rodby, I’ll be over to talk to her.”

“Don’t you think that’s dangerous, I mean, Rodby will be very angry.”

“Do you want to go see him?”

“No.”

“Then let me worry about him.”

“You sure he won’t lock you up and throw away the key?

“Not if he wants the countess.”

© Charles Heath 2023

Safe in an anonymous hotel

…

There was no time for an explanation, picking up on the urgency in my tone.  They gathered up a few belongings because I added they couldn’t come back, and, after Cecelia and I tossed the work phones on the kitchen bench, we headed down the stairs to the basement.

By the time the call with Alfie ended, I realized that we were just supposed to find her, Rodby had a whole other team on standby ready to ‘extract’ her.  And, if I was not mistaken, it would be against her will if she didn’t want to go with them.  It was why she greeted us with a gun, she knew what might happen.

Perhaps she knew the Rodby’s better than I did.

Like certain parts of London various groups of building basements were used by the defence forces and government offices, and the one Juliet was staying in might have been one because the basement was connected to another and another, and it felt like it had once been offices, given the green walls, arrows and exit signs, and overhead lighting.

At the end, we came out into a narrow alley between buildings and not far from that, Russell Square underground.  Just before descending, Cecilia gave me a new phone.  She had brought another two burner phones, acting on instinct, or perhaps knowing how much of a maverick I was.  Or she had simply changed roles, and become a maverick of her own.

We took the train to the one place I thought, for the moment, to be the safest.  Heathrow airport, and on the way, Cecelia booked two rooms at the hotel nearest to the underground station.  Five more people, some with bags would not look out of place.  But just Cecelia and I checked in with other IDs, and took a room each, and the others wandered up after us.

Almost an hour and a half later we were sitting in the room Cecelia booked for her and me, both with a second bedroom, but this one had a dining area.  She smiled at me when I realised there were two rooms.

“Now, I’m going to assume that you will trust me to a certain degree, and when I say I have no idea what is going on, except that it has to do with the Burkhardt family, there’s an inheritance that needs to be claimed in a few days, and there’s someone trying to assassinate Juliet, who appears to be a direct descendant of the count and an eligible heir.”

I looked at Vittoria, who was still very confused with the turn of events, and probably evaluating whether I could be trusted or not.  “I now believe you are Juliet’s mother.”  Now that mother and daughter were sitting side by side, the similarities between them.

Vittoria and the countess were sharing another pizza that Celecia had ordered up through room service, along with several bottles of red wine.  Juliet went over to the kitchenette, opened one, and poured five glasses.

It was not a bad wine, perhaps an Italian Sangiovese.

Juliet remained standing and looked at her mother.  “Even I’m confused at the moment.  When do you and the countess become friends?”

“We have been for quite some time, particularly after I realised she had nothing to do with my banishment.  That was the count, at the behest of his mother, who has been the true villain in both our lives.”  

Vittoria looked at her daughter, “I’ve come to realize the threats against all of us are the work of that vile woman.  This is the third or fourth attempt on your life, I’ve been attacked twice, and now the countess just escaped from what I perceive to be a threat, instigated by her.”

“Are you saying my old friend is working with her?  I hardly think she knows who the old woman is.  And assuming that she doesn’t, what other reason would she have to do with what just happened.”  She looked at me, “You came to the opera with us, so you must know her.”

“Not because I was a friend of the family, I’m not.  I think now I was asked along for a very specific reason, one she might not have been privy to, but that her husband, my old employer, was.  And my experience over the years is that nothing to do with him is ever straightforward.”

“Are you one of his people now?”  The way she said it, it sounded like she considered me a hatchet man.

“No, not exactly, nor is Cecelia.  We just do this and that from time to time.  I thought I was in retirement, Cecelia is in between acting roles, and he simply asked us to find you.”

“Then if you were seeking the countess, how did you know about me, and turn up at the conference hall, coincidentally when an assassin tried to kill me?”  Juliet made a good argument.

“I may have done a little research.  The countesses feud with Vittoria, and the uncovering of photographs, one of which had the teen version of you with your mother, Vittoria, at the Chateau in Sorrento, the same Chateau where the countess resides.  Sometimes we get lucky.  I was surprised though Juliet, given your history.  I didn’t bring them, and, by the way, I was the one who nearly got shot and killed.”

I could see Vittoria shaking her head.  “If you can make the distinction, then others can too.  Neither of us are now safe.  At least I can discount orange ribbon girl.  I knew she was tailing me, and I thought I lost her.”

Cecelia smiled.  “You wish.  Top of my class for surveillance.

I thought I would add a little spice to the conversation, “Why did you give the impression you’ve been trying to kill the countess?”

That brought a look of consternation from both.  The countess answered, “Only for the sake of appearances, and to keep the rest of the family away from the idea that we had joined forces, which is the only way we’re going to keep them from realizing we know more about them than they think we do.”

“But not enough to stop them from trying to stop both of you and now all three of you, from claiming the inheritance?”

“It is actually all of the business.  The Count held all the shares.  It was his, passed down from his father, and all he had to do with the rest of the family members was give them jobs.  That ownership would be passed to me, or any children of ours if there were any.  We could not, but he told me on his death bed there was one.”

“Juliet.”

“Whose mother was the woman he wanted to marry but was not allowed to, but whom he had got pregnant and promised to look after.  Nobility and their secrets.  But he also told his brother, Alessandro, who in turn told the mother, who really is a nasty piece of work.  She made it perfectly clear to me before I came to London that it would be for the best if I did not attend the signing of the inheritance papers in a few days’ time.  If I chose not to, I would be given a house to live in and a large sum of money for my helpfulness.  It is the reason I got away from the hotel the night of the opera, because I believe Alessandro had arranged for me to be kidnapped, or worse.”

“Who would get the assets, if not you?” I asked.

“As per the provisions of the will, Alessandro who is the next male heir, who had arrived at the hotel and was waiting in my room to see me.  I understand it would not be good business for the company to be run by a woman.  Especially one without any experience and had been sent to make sure it didn’t happen.”

“That story about a bitter rival?”

“It was always Alessandro.  I had first met him, and we had one date before I was swept up by the Count and taken away from him.  He never forgave me for passing him over.  He had always expected his older brother would marry for love and let him take over the business.”

“And you suspected he was there to remove you when he knew that with the girl the count had confessed existed with a stronger claim?  I doubt that was why he was there.  You are not a threat to them.  Not according to the terms of the will.”

The countess glared at me.  “How do you know this?”

“Let’s just say I know.”  I turned back to Vittoria.  “Why were you trying to get close to Alessandro, surely he knew you were his brother’s former lover?”

“To be honest, I have no idea.  Perhaps I have changed since those early days.  I was surprised she didn’t recognise me from the time I spent with the Count.  It was mostly to find out what they were planning, but he wasn’t that interested in me, or would he talk about the family.  Perhaps he knew I had a romantic attachment to his brother all those years ago, though at times he seemed too stupid to know what day it was.  He couldn’t run the business; if you want an opinion, it is the old woman who wants it and nothing ever stands in her way.  She is ruthless.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she killed the count.  And now she is after my beautiful daughter.”

“Well, we can’t let that happen.”

The whole story was a tangled web of deceit and lies, just the sort of stuff that really old families like the Burkehardt’s were.  And typically the old women were the matriarchs that kept everything going.

But I wasn’t so sure Alessandro was as stupid as Vittoria made out.

“How do you two know each other?”  Vittoria’s gaze went from me back to Juliet.

Juliet answered.  “He was injured and spent time in hospital.  I was there working on rehabilitation programmes, and I drew the short straw.  We spent a lot of time together, it went on for a little after he was discharged, and then my world exploded.  We ran into each other recently when I got into some trouble with an old acquaintance who used my stepbrother as leverage.  Evan got him freed and sorted the problem.  We didn’t get back together.”

“And yet you speak so fondly of him?”

I hoped Vittoria was not one of those match-making mothers.

“He saved my brother, and me.  That’s it.”

And to prevent any more discussion, I said, “We need to formulate a plan that gets you to Italy as soon as possible but not by conventional means.  Rodby is already all over the trains, planes, and ferries.”

“What other way is there?”

“Where there’s a will there’s a way.  I’ll let you know tomorrow.”

© Charles Heath 2023

That was a surprise

…

Cecelia leaned against the door to close it.  I was about three steps in front of her.  Juliet had moved to stand behind the two women, each standing to the side and back far enough that if they were not deadly accurate, if they pulled the trigger, the bullets could go anywhere.

I put my hands out.  No point looking threatening.

“Well,” I said, “This is about as good as it gets.”

The countess looked at me.  “How so?”

“My brief.”  I nodded towards Cecelia.  “Our brief was to find you.  We’ve found you.  That’s it.  We can go back to our lives now.  You have no idea how much that pleases me.”

“And me,” Cecelia added.  “I much preferred working in Venice.  Why couldn’t you have gone to Venice, or Paris, or Athens?  It’s time to go.”  She put her hand on the door handle and started to open the door.

Vittoria was watching us the whole time, and her expression was getting more incredulous.  “Not so fast.  What are you talking about?”

“Vittoria, I presume,” I said to her.  “You might want to put the guns down.  We’re not here to hurt you, or take you away, or do anything, other than find you so I can tell my boss everything’s fine.  Well, not you exactly, but the countess.”

“How do you know I want to be found,” the countess said, a look of surprise on her face also.

“That makes things a bit difficult now that we have.  I must tell Mrs Rodby because she’s adamant something’s happened to you.”

I could hear the door close again and Cecelia took her hand off the handle.  She might be a little confused but knew well enough to run with me.  I wasn’t expecting the countess or guns.  Nor had there been any pushback from Juliet against us coming to her flat, and she had to know her mother was waiting.  Perhaps she didn’t know about the countess.

“She can be a busybody.”  The countess sighed.

I felt a vibration in my pocket, the organisation’s standard-issued cell phone, supposedly untraceable.  Supposedly.  “Just give me a second.”

I pulled it out and swiped the screen.  Alfie.  ‘Is she there?’

So much for being untraceable.  That being the case, I had the impression he could not hear anything, so we had a slight advantage, though he would be nearby, and he would know we had met up with Juliet.  I typed in, ‘Hold your horses, outside the door!!!’.  I hoped he got the inference, that barging through doors could be dangerous.

And it alerted me to a new problem.  Rodby didn’t trust me to tell him, and that meant he had been hiding something from us.

“Alfie?” Cecelia asked.

“He knows we’re here.”

“How?”

“How, exactly.”

“Damn.  You sure know how to give a girl a good time.”  She pulled out her cell phone and was about the dismantle it when she saw me shake my head.

“What is…” the countess started to say.

I put my finger up to my lips as a sign for her not to talk.

I called him.  “Something else Rodby forgot to tell me about, you becoming our shadow.”

“What can I say, Rodby knows you sometimes go off book, and this is Juliet.”

“Does he think I still have a thing for her?  After Venice?  The man has rocks in his head.  You might want to remind him the next time you speak to him that I didn’t want to go on this rabbit hunt in the first place.  My life was fine without a countess in it.”

The expressions on all three of the women’s faces were past incredulous, wondering what was going on.

“Is she there?”

“I’ll ask Cecelia, she just got back.  She thought she saw both Juliet and the countess, but it’s dark and the lighting in the building isn’t that great.  I’m in the flat now, and I’m sure the countess was here.  I remember her perfume”.

Cecelia chimed in.  “They got away.  It was the countess.  She’s fine though I don’t know why they would run from us.  What are you not telling us.”

When I didn’t hear a response, I saw that he had hung up.

The countess lowered her weapon and turned to Vittoria.  “Lower the gun.  He’s not here to cause problems.”

“You know who he is?”  She lowered the weapon but not so far that she couldn’t use it if I became a threat.  She’d been around guns which made it a curious skill for a once servant girl.

“Yes.  He escorted me to the opera.  I suspected you might be one of Rodby’s agents.”

“Ex.  He seems to think I want to do this search and rescue instead of retiring.  He’s wrong.  Retirement suits me.  Right now, I’m, missing out on salmon fishing in Scotland.  Oh, and going on a whiskey trail.   But for the moment that’s the least of our concerns.”  I looked at Juliet.  “Do you have another way out of this place?”

“What do you think. You’re not the only one who thrives on paranoia.”

“Then we needed to be gone five minutes ago.”

© Charles Heath 2023