Doris was waiting when their plane arrived and jumped up to kiss Rummy when he came through the gate. He caught her effortlessly and held her by the hips as they embraced. Finally, she slipped down and went to hug Helen.
Helen led the way to her car and they headed down the Autoroute through the stands of vines and fields of vegetables. At Heliopolis, they each took their cases and climbed to Helen´s apartment.
Doris asked, “Are we upstairs?”
Helen grimaced. “No, I forgot to reserve it, and anyway, it´s been rented. The season´s heating up, and space is getting tight. But, I think you can have Sandy´s…”
Sandy was letting himself in the door as she spoke. “Yes, they can have Sandy´s place if they want it,” he said, picking Doris up and kissing her as Rummy had done.
As soon as she could, Doris shed her clothes and joined the others on the still-sunny balcony.
“How about I make dinner?” Doris asked. “Have you got anything in the fridge?” She and Helen went to rummage in the kitchen for dinner fixings. Rummy and Sandy sat back in chairs with glasses of Guinness, chatting about progress of the whole affair.
Well before it was dark, they had each put on enough clothes to resist the evening coolness, and sat after dinner, talking until Rummy and Doris left for their quarters above the store.
.oOo.
On Friday morning, they ate breakfast at Chez August and Helen accepted Sandy´s invitation to visit his ‘store´, as he always called it. He wanted to show Rummy the layout and, Helen assumed, brag a little. Astrid was there, in her office uniform of bikini and bra, and welcomed them with her usual élan. The men, including Jean, went out to tour the compound and discuss technical details.
“Astrid,” Helen said, “you know those videos you told me about?”
“Yes, Helen?” Astrid´s eyebrows went up in question.
“I got Sandy to show them to me, and we discovered there were videos of Sandy and me as well.”
Astrid performed her full-body blush. Doris muttered, “Wow.”
“Oh, dear,” Astrid said, “I´m sorry; I thought I´d hidden them.”
“You had, but we found them anyway.”
Astrid reached out her hand to Helen, “It wasn´t revenge, you know, they were taken automatically. And, hiding them was only turnabout. But there are only two or three of them.”
“Of course. And I´m not angry, Astrid,” Helen said. “I only wanted to ask if you´d made DVDs of them too?”
“Oh, yes.” Astrid smiled broadly. “Jean finds them quite inspiring. So do I.”
“Then you have to make copies for me.”
“For both of us,” Doris put in.
“I´ll be glad to. It´s too bad there are so few videos of you, Helen. You and Sandy seem to always be at your apartment.”
Doris grabbed Helen´s shoulder, turning her. “That makes me think, Helen. Why hasn´t Sandy moved in with you?”
“I haven´t asked him to,” she replied as Astrid tried very hard to become a fly on the wall.
“For god´s sake, why not? You´re as close as Rummy and me. I know you love him; anyway, Rummy´s told me you said so, and I can see it.”
Helen thought about it briefly. “I just haven´t gotten there, yet, Doris.” She looked at her friend. “Sometimes I think it would be a good idea; then I pull back.”
“Scared?”
“Aren´t we all? I mean when you do that, when you let a man into your home, it can be hard to change your mind.”
“You sound like Henry Higgins: ‘Let a woman in my life?´. But, you know, there´s another side to it.”
“What´s that?”
Astrid spoke up, “I know what that is. Living with your family, or living alone.”
Helen looked at both the women. “Yes, I suppose that is it. Or something very like it.” She went to the big window that overlooked the yard where the men appeared to be vigorously discussing something of earthshaking importance – probably football. “I´ve almost gotten used to being lonely. Almost. I might need to give that up.”
“It´s up to you. Just don´t miss your chance. Anyway, half his clothes are there already,” Doris said. She went on, “Now that we´ve got the important things – the videos – settled, tell me about your meeting with the foundation in Orange.”
Helen told them about her meeting, and about a conversation she had had since then. “I heard from a contact in Montpellier that there´s a possibility of a subsidy for such a facility on a location here in Herault. I know they´re hot for Orange or Provençe, but I pointed out that Montpellier and Beziers are on the TGV and there´s even an airport at Vias that´s bigger than anything near Orange, I think. Anyway, the airport at Montpellier is pretty big, too. I´m hoping they´ll find that helpful, though really, all I want to do right now is win the competition. I don´t really care where they build it.”
Jean, Sandy and Rummy came clattering back into the room, having solved whatever problem had occupied them. Jean went around behind the counter and leaned against the wall next to Astrid, their arms touching. She looked fondly at him.
Helen watched the two of them for a long moment; then, raised her voice. “All right, we need to get back and collect Johannes. He´ll be here any minute.”
The four of them walked quickly back to the gatehouse just in time to find Johannes´s car pulling into the outside parking lot. They ran over and climbed in, passing him through the gate and to a space near Helen´s apartment.
As they got out of the car, Helen handed her key to Doris. “Please, all of you. Go upstairs and get comfortable. I need to talk with Sandy a moment; we´ll be along in a few minutes.”
As the others went off, Sandy turned to Helen with a question in his eyes. She turned, took his hand, and led him to a bench at the side of the marina.
“Sandy…” She hesitated; then plowed ahead. “Sandy, do you want to live with me? Move in with me?”
“Yes, of course. But, are you ready for that? What brought this on?”
“I don´t really know if I´m ready. But, something Doris – and Astrid – said just now made me think. I don´t want to take the chance of losing you for not trying. But, I don´t really know if I´m ready.”
“Do you want to try it for a while? One day at a time sort of thing?”
Helen sort of smiled. “I guess I am a recovering loner, Sandy. Can we do that? No questions asked?”
“Fine.” He reached over and gently touched her cheek.
Helen giggled, leaning against him. “Oh, Sandy, I hope this works.”
“What´s Astrid got to do with it?”
Helen paused, trying to recall what she had said. “Oh!” Her face lit up. “Sandy, I´ll bet Astrid and Jean would like to rent your apartment. You know they´re still living with their parents.” Then, uncertainty swept her. “Maybe you should tell them they´re house-sitting, until…”
Sandy´s lips closed hers.
.oOo.
A few minutes later, they found Johannes seated, in his briefs, on the balcony with a glass of beer in his hand. The orange cat was in his lap. Rummy and Doris were on the lounge.
“I have quite a bit of news,” Johannes announced in a low tone.
Helen walked past his chair and ruffled his hair. “What now?” she asked, settling onto an armchair.
“I thought about your remark that Schellen might have had more to do with this than he wants us to believe. So, I checked and yes, he was in Athens all last week. Left Monday, as he said. And, you´ll be interested to know that I got a call this morning from the Gewerbeamt – the corporate records people – that Schellen has transferred Sauter´s interest in his company.”
“What, to his sister?”
“No. That wouldn´t have meant anything, since Sauter may have influence over her. He took it back himself. I think that puts him in the clear, legally.”
“Legally, yes,” Helen said. She chewed on her lip for a moment. “I´ll just have to keep my eyes and ears open about that. I´ve got our subs watching for any funny business.” She looked at the others. “This is a big project, and I won´t mind getting the other two. But, I´ll chuck them if I get any feeling Schellen is playing fast and loose. Well, perhaps he just had a bad judgment day.”
She looked at Johannes again. “Have you run a background check on Villion?”
Johannes chuckled. “Yes, we have. We have nothing in our records about him, except for one thing.”
Helen´s eyebrows rose, and Johannes went on. “It is clear from his passport records that he attends every major Rugby Union match, no matter where.”
Rummy laughed, and so did the rest. “I knew he was a fan. There aren´t many people who recognize my name anymore.”
“However, I do have another thing that´s more serious,” Johannes went on.
With foreboding, Helen sat up in her chair. Johannes looked at her. “Helen, it has to do with the gun that was used to kill Theo,” he said.
Helen´s shoulders slumped, the chill of memory gripping her. ‘What now?´ she thought. She straightened her spine, lifted her chin.
Johannes leaned forward in his chair, reaching across to take Helen´s hand. “You know we have the gun. We went back through the charge records on the famous credit card.” He covered her hand with his other one. “It´s there, Helen.”
Helen took a deep breath and held it, her eyes closed for a moment. Finally, she breathed out. She caressed Johannes´s hands on hers and, releasing him, stood up and went to Sandy, her hand reaching for his, leaning into him. She turned to Johannes.
“Sauter had Theo killed,” she said.
“Yes, it seems that way,” Johannes said, quietly. “The few fingerprints we have don´t match any of the fools he hired recently, so none of them are on charges for that. I doubt we´ll ever get the ones who really did it. But, the connection with Sauter is pretty clear.
“We haven´t confronted him yet with what we know, but we´ll be doing that on Monday. I wanted you to know. It doesn´t matter much whether he confesses or not, we have him cold –conspiracy to commit, accessory to murder.”
Rummy stood up and burst out, “What I want to know is, why anyone was so stupid as to buy and use a gun with a clear trail to it.” He gave a short, ironic laugh, strode across the balcony, and waved his hands. “What an idiot! Uses a credit card that leads straight to him to hire the cars. Hires thugs who can´t get anything right…”
“Rummy,” Helen said, “I, for one, am very grateful for that. And, we had two really close calls.”
“Sure. Now, the Bagger attack was done by specialists, and we were damn lucky to escape alive. But, what I mean is, those guys Johannes had wired the car wrong and missed the target. They picked the wrong car to run off the road and missed the target – again. The airport guys got pissed and blew the hit. What a bunch of losers!”
“Thank god. I don´t like being a target,” Helen said.
“Nor do I,” Johannes added.
Rummy sobered and looked at her. “That goes for all of us, Helen. But, it does make you wonder.” He reached over and caressed her cheek, then sat back down beside Doris, who cuddled close to him.
Sandy drew Helen´s cheek to him, holding her. They were all quiet for several moments, each in their own private world.
After a time, Johannes said, “If all criminals were as inept as these, I´d be out of a job. But one thing we know from these thugs is that you now have a reputation, Helen.”
Rummy grinned. “Tell us.” Helen lifted her head, her face somewhat drawn, but her eyes alight with curiosity. She put an arm around Sandy´s waist.
“The word is, Helen, you´re trouble. It´s going to take a lot to get a contract on you from now on. Not only have you survived, but you´ve also come up fighting. And, you´ve won. The pros respect that. It will take a lot more than a fool like Sauter to get anyone after you from now on.”
“I guess I should be glad of that. And, I guess that means he was using the Mafia.”
“Yes, we´re sure of that; you should be more than glad. Proud. There´s another thing. The word is that you shoot straight. You don´t allow funny business on your jobs. The pros respect that, too. They don´t always like it, but they respect it.”
Sandy took her by the shoulders, looking into her eyes. “You are ‘a person of respect´, Helen. I´m proud to know you. People outside the Family don´t often get that kind of reputation.”
Helen began to giggle; then sobered. “I hardly know what to say. It´s all so silly – and so awful.”
Johannes set the orange cat on the floor, moved over and put his arm around her waist. “Yes, it is both of those. But, it´s going to help you, in the long run. It may even protect you, some, when you need it again.”
“Thank you, Johannes.” Helen hugged him long and hard, and kissed his cheek, then pulled back to look at him. “What do you mean, when?”