Brain Storm by Cat Gilbert (detective books to read .TXT) 📖

I WOKE TO the smell of fresh coffee brewing. I had to search around to find the nightstand, much less the lamp sitting on it. With the blacked out windows, the darkness was absolute. I had barely noticed when I went to bed earlier, but I definitely had the feeling of being in a cave or buried alive now. Good grief, what a thought. Finally, my fumbling fingers managed to locate the switch and light flooded the room.

Mac had gone to a lot of trouble for someplace we would only be using for a few days. Looking around, I had to admit it had all the comforts of home. The sheets even smelled like mine, and I had a sneaking suspicion that if I looked, I would find my brand of dryer sheets next to the washer. As much as I longed to linger in the safe confines of the bed, coffee and reality called.

Checking my watch, I saw it was just before 7 a.m. Four hours of sleep wasn’t much, but it had helped. The smells making their way through the closed door told me at least one other person was up and moving around if they had gone to bed at all.

I rummaged through the drawers and pulled out a pair of jeans and a shirt and threw them on. I did a quick mirror check to make sure my hair was good enough to make the dash to the bathroom. I must not have moved much during the night because it actually looked halfway decent. One side was flat, but it was nothing a hit with the flat iron that Mac had kindly provided, wouldn’t fix.

Amazingly, the bathroom was empty, and once I had finished my morning routine, I headed out to the kitchen to hunt up some coffee. Turning the corner, I found Mama D standing at the range, churning out omelets and hash browns. Mac and Jonas were already there, each with a coffee in his hand, hovering.

“What are you guys doing? Supervising?” I asked as I pulled out a mug and filled it. Walking over I leaned down to give Mama D a hug. “You doing all right?”

“I’m fine, child. Never happier than when I’m cooking for hungry men.”

I rechecked my watch. “Hungry men? You guys just ate 4 hours ago.” They both just looked at me like I’d grown a second head. Fine.

“Mac,” I asked, watching as Mama D piled sliced ham and cheese onto a waiting omelet “how come there’s so much fresh food here? I can understand canned food and maybe a sack of potatoes, but cheese? Ham? Eggs? I know you were living at the condos, so it’s not for you. It’s almost like you were expecting this. You know something the rest of us don’t?”

It was a question that had been bothering me since we arrived, but there had been so many other pressing matters, that I hadn’t voiced it. I had told Trinity we didn’t have any other choice but to trust Mac, and we didn’t, but this was a new day and the time had come to clear some things up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mama D reach up and grab the handle of the omelet pan, even as Jonas set his coffee down on the counter. Everyone was waiting for his answer, and I hoped for Mac’s sake it was a good one. I would hate to see him get walloped upside the head with that hot pan.

“If you’re asking whether I set you up, the answer is no. This isn’t part of a grand scheme. It’s survival. I laid in supplies a couple of days ago, after I found out about Marcus.”

“You mean after you killed him,” Jonas corrected. I looked at him, surprised. Apparently, he had heard my conversation with Mac the night before. More surprising was the fact that he had decided to let it go.

“Yes. That’s what I mean.” Mac was clearly unhappy at bringing up Marcus in front of Mama D. I had no such qualms, as after the events of last night, I was pretty sure Mama D was made of sterner stuff than anyone suspected.

“There’d been a couple of other incidents, with other Watchers. None of us know much about the others, but you hear things. I heard enough to be concerned.” He walked over and held out a plate for Mama D, and she obliged by flipping an omelet out onto it. He handed me the plate and put a fork on it. “Eat that. You’ll need the energy later.”

Mama D smiled and went back to mixing omelets. Apparently, he had passed muster with her. Of course, Mama D was old school and liked anybody who ordered people to eat. According to her, a good meal was the answer to all ills. I looked down at the fluffy omelet sitting on the plate, swimming in butter and loaded with ham and cheese. A heart attack waiting to happen. If we didn’t get out of here soon, we’d all be big as houses.

I sat my coffee down, leaned back against the counter and picked up the fork, deciding it was worth the risk and waited for Mac to continue.

“This place was already here. In bad shape, but workable. It didn’t take much to bring it up to speed.”

“I’m surprised you found the time, what with your ‘watching’ responsibilities.” Trinity had come in behind me and joined into the discussion.

“We don’t watch 24/7. Things are pretty loose until the Client shows some signs. Then we close up surveillance. This place has been ready for over a year. Just in case.” He held up another plate, and Mama D tossed on the second omelet. Mac added a huge mound of hash browns before handing the plate over to Jonas, who dug right into it.

“It needed furniture, towels, sheets.” He shrugged, indicating the room around him. “Supplies for the road if we had to run. It was just as easy to put in things I thought would make Taylor more comfortable.” He turned to me. “I apologize if it had the opposite effect.”

“No,” I mumbled, my mouth full of omelet. What he said made sense in as much as anything made sense lately. The whole thing was unbelievable, so why doubt the one person who seemed to know what was going on. Because trusting him could get you killed, a little voice called out, but I chased it away. Sometimes you have to go with your gut, no matter how illogical it is. My gut said Mac was on the up and up. My brain kept insisting I was a fool to believe him.

“It’s fine. In fact, you have better taste in clothes than I do.” I pointed to the shirt I was wearing, causing Trinity to give me a disdainful look as she helped Mama D dish up the last of the omelets. “Well, he does,” I told her.

“You can thank Julian for that,” Mac announced, referring to his gay alter ego. “He is really into clothes and has quite the keen fashion sense.”

“What about Julian?” It suddenly dawned on me that I wasn’t the only missing person from the condos.

“Oh, Julian met a wonderful man, and they ran off together,” he explained. “He’s donating all his worldly goods to charity. It’s all in the note he left behind. If it didn’t burn, that is. And before you ask, it’s been sitting on the kitchen table, ready to go, ever since Marcus came onto the scene.”

Well, that pretty much covered the bases, as far as I was concerned. Satisfied, I moved over to the table, along with Mac, so Mama D and Trinity would sit down to eat. Jonas stayed in the kitchen to clean up. That had to earn him some points with Trinity, but she was ignoring him. On purpose, I suspected.

“So what happened with the banks?” I was curious to know what was on the agenda for today besides staying alive.

“We’ll know soon,” Mac said, checking his watch. “We should be able to confirm the transfers in a little while.”

The plan had been to have Mac’s contact set things up to move all our funds into the offshore account as soon as possible. That would have worked fine with Mama D’s account, but it turned out the rest of us were a little too diversified to move the funds easily. Besides my checking and savings, I had a business account and a separate money market with Keith’s life insurance funds squirreled away along with the money I had pulled from the stock market when things started going wonky. Trinity and Jonas were pretty much in the same boat except Trinity had a safe deposit box full of gold coins. Insurance against a total economic meltdown, I guess.

“Mac and I spent most of what was left of the evening, doing a little web banking.” Jonas had finished in the kitchen and took a seat at the table, coffee pot in hand.You had to love the big guy. He shook his head at me in disgust, but filled the cup I held out to him anyway.

“We managed to set up transfers for everyone, basically consolidating everything into one account for each of us,” Mac continued. “Once we confirm the transfers went through, my guy will snatch the funds