Page 10 of Old Secrets

“With a bonus of getting you out and about to see if Greenwich is spying on the Chinese and Japanese.”

“They promised we’d be armed, Jake.” I pointed at the appropriate line on the itinerary. “And there is a time listed when we will receive gifts?”

“I don’t understand that part of things,” he admitted. “But I like presents, so I am sure it’ll be fine.”

Our flight attendant, who went through our suite to check over everything, giggled, came over, and leaned down so she could gesture at the papers. “Japan is offering thanks, as they have been plagued with similar cases. This allows them to use you to try to make their home, their packs, and their children safer. They understand they are asking much of you, as your trip to London was traumatizing.”

My nose informed me the attendant was a Fenerec, and I relaxed at the reassurance her species offered. “Is there a way we can better show appreciation?” I asked.

“You do already, through your willingness to take risks and sacrifice. We will be preparing to take off soon, and as soon as we reach altitude, I will return to escort you to where we will serve dinner.”

“Thank you.” I grinned at her before turning to face Jake, widening my eyes. “You can buy me clothes. There’s time for us to see one of their shopping districts.”

“I am confident in my ability to handle any clothing shopping required for this trip. I doubt they’ll have any stores meant for giants, but I will browse regardless.”

I chuckled, as buying clothes for Jake often involved specialty stores or custom tailoring. If I trimmed off three inches, he would be easier to shop for. Alas, as I couldn’t trim off any of his inches, we suffered through more clothing difficulties than preferred. “Maybe they’ll have shoes in your size. It’s been a while since we’ve gone shoe shopping.”

By a while, I meant before we’d fallen apart. After we’d gotten tossed back together again with an equal mix of emotional super glue and therapy, we’d either been helping the black market close cases, helping the FBI close cases, or researching the Greenwich case with little progress. I’d even put my private investigator license to use, competing with Jake to see which one of us could do a better job.

The competition had been good for us, going a long way towards repairing what the emotional super glue had held together long enough for us to get the therapy we both needed.

I still worried about Jake and his family.

“I’m going to dress you up, wear my best suit, put you on my lap, and send taunting pictures to my mother,” he informed me.

“You can’t just flirt like that when we do not have cuddling next on the itinerary,” I complained, shooting him a glare. “That’s on par with taking an electric knife sharpener to her best knives.”

“Oh. That reminds me.”

My eyes widened. “What did you do?”

“I sent her a gift of the cheapest knives made for television on the market with a pair of electric knife sharpeners, also the cheapest ones I could find made for television.” He graced me with a rather wolfish grin. “I also sent her one of those really nice knives she’s been lusting for from Japan. The really expensive ones that are hand crafted with love and thousands of years of technique backing them. I wrapped the nice wooden box it came in with a rather thick layer of plastic wrap, which I then wrapped in aluminum foil. I then wrapped that in cloth. I completely covered the cloth in hot glue. After that had dried, I filled a big plastic tub with insulation foam. Once that cured, I carved it into the shape of a heart, painted it red, and gave her another knife from the same manufacturer. I wrote ‘have fun’ on a card. As I’m a complete monster, I put the heart in a huge box filled with glitter.”

We were going to die at his mother’s hands. I remembered when he’d gone sneaking off on a project, one he promised would make me unreasonably happy or become the reason I murdered him. I leaned over, caught the attendant’s attention when she swept through the suite on her pre-flight checks, and pointed at the fancy little phone in each armrest. “Can I use this?”

“Absolutely, ma’am.” With a smile, she showed me how to access the phone, what buttons to press to dial out, and left me to make the one call that might save my husband’s life—or help end it.

I hadn’t spoken to Pauline Thomas since we’d left Baltimore. As I would be waking her, I checked my phone’s contacts, dug out her personal phone number, and connected the call, smiling at the thought of the mayhem I would create.

“Hello?” a sleepy Pauline answered.

“Do you like your nice knife?” I asked in my sweetest tone.

A myriad of curses answered me, and I howled my laughter over her reaction. Jake bowed his head and groaned.

“Once I freed it, yes. But do let my son know his days are numbered.”

“They are not numbered because I need him around, but you may retaliate as long as I’m not in the line of fire and there is no glitter. I draw the line at glitter. You glitter us, and your days are numbered.” Unable to help myself, I giggled. “Jake just told me about the various presents he has been sending you.”

“It seems I receive a new ‘present’ every time I mention your name.”

“He’s an idiot,” I informed his mother. “As I’m sure he’s not being forthcoming with you about any important information, we are about to depart to go to Japan, where we have a few days of glorious vacation ahead of us before we leave to visit an acquaintance in China. We have some free time, and we decided we needed to roam.”

“You’re going to Japan?” she blurted.

If someone was a mole in the FBI near the top, I had some hope I could become the perfect little piece of bait. I eyed the itinerary, picking the best location for a nice ambush without a high risk of involving innocent tourists. “We’re going to visit some shrine off the beaten path.” I gave her the date, told her we weren’t really sure which time we’d be there but mentioned how excited I was to finally get to go see somewhere nice without work being involved.

Jake nudged me with his elbow, and when I glanced at him, he shot me a questioning look. I pointed at the armed clause on our itinerary, then I pointed at the date I’d chosen to see if we had a rat near his family.