Chapter 33
Abner knew that he was the center of attention as he separated the papers he’d carried into the conference room into individual packets and handed them across the table. “I can give you the highlights, and then we can go through the pages one by one so you can see everything I found and all be on the same page. Please hold your questions until I have finished. Everyone okay with that?” They all said they were okay with his proposals.
“So, Andover Pharmaceuticals is way more than solvent. As a matter of fact, it is bigger and in better financial shape than virtually any privately owned company in America, other than Koch Enterprises. To be sure, their valuation did take a hit in the aftermath of the Anmir drug lawsuits, but they have recovered quite nicely, even if going public is no longer feasible. And that is in part because they were able to keep a lid on things by settling with the parents of the children who passed away. They also dealt very aggressively with anyone who didn’t want to settle. While what you are now holding in your hot little hands was printing out, I skimmed through the faxes that came through from Dennis’s source, Mr. Jamie Farrell, former employee in the office of Andover Pharmaceuticals’ CFO.
“By no stretch of the imagination are the Andovers nice people. That is the bottom line. Fear and intimidation are what they live and work by. Nothing we could do to them would equal in cruelty what they have done to those who got caught up with that horrendous drug, both in terms of what happened to the kids and what happened to those who tried to expose Andover for what it has become, essentially a big-time criminal enterprise.
“They brought out their big guns, the best and slimiest lawyers in the country, to fight the class-action suit. For every negative that came out, they fought it with an over-the-top positive. When the class-action hit, it didn’t get much play because Andover donated millions of dollars’ worth of drugs to Doctors Without Borders, and it was their generosity that the cable news channels and the papers played up. Andover employs a kick-ass PR team, one that is way ahead of the curve. It’s like they can anticipate bad news before it happens, and they squelch it. I tried calling their number-one guy, but he never returned any of my phone calls. That’s about all I have. Other than the fact that I hacked into the head of the PR team’s e-mail account. It boggles my mind how stupid some people are. Especially this PR guy, whose name is Duke Winslow, by the way, and is the one calling the shots. I made copies of all the pertinent e-mails. The guy is slick, and he commands big bucks.”
“Did he do anything illegal?” Jack asked.
“It’s all a matter of interpretation. Yes and no, more no than yes. But that’s just my opinion. You’re the lawyer, Jack, so that’s your call.”
“What else do you have?” Espinosa asked.
“I,” Abner said dramatically, as though waiting for a drumroll, “have every single bank and brokerage account of the company, plus the personal banking and brokerage information for all three Andover siblings, and if I do say so myself, they are loaded. Between the company and the three of them as individuals, they could fund several third-world countries into the next millennium at least.”
“Well, damn,” Maggie said. “And to think they’re fighting Nikki right here on the home front. I say we take every red cent they’ve got! Since their kids seem like nice people, I hope they’ve set something up for them and funded it already, because after we are finished, there is going to be nothing to leave them.” The others agreed.
Jack looked at Abner. “Can you make that happen, Abner?”
Abner laughed. And laughed some more, as he flexed his fingers. “Oh, yeah,” he drawled. “All I need is someone to sign the checks and we are good to go. So, my question to you, Jack, is can you get me that signature?”
Maggie’s eyes narrowed, and she answered for Jack before he could make his tongue start to work. “You know it!” Jack’s features split into a wide grin as his head bobbed up and down.
A beeping sound came from where Dennis was sitting, then the same sound came from Ted’s position, followed by the identical sound from Espinosa’s area.
“We all have the same alert on our phone for anything pertaining to Andover,” Maggie said as she looked down at her phone. “It’s kind of like TMZ or Radar Online, the gossip sites on the Net. Okay here is what it says: ‘Mr. Otto Andover, CEO of Andover Pharmaceuticals, will be hosting a New Year’s Eve party aboard his yacht, after which he will be leaving for a month in California. He will be taking the yacht and captaining it himself.’” Maggie looked around at the others. “Where are we going to nail these three? If he’s getting set to have a New Year’s party on his yacht and take off for California, I’m thinking that he, and probably the others, just might not be going into the office this week. I’m also thinking time is of the essence here. How are we going to play this? By the way, there was no mention of Philip or Martha attending the party, which is likely to further complicate things.”
“We need to find out if the three of them are at work this week. I can call to ask,” Dennis said.
“Do that, kid,” Ted said, but Dennis was already clicking away on his phone. They all listened in awe as Dennis rattled off a spiel about the Chamber of Commerce’s wanting to do something special for Otto, Philip, and Martha to show their appreciation for all Andover did for the community. Three minutes later, Dennis was sporting an ear-to-ear grin as he shut down his phone. “I am happy to report that all three Andovers are spending the week at their respective homes, and Otto’s secretary said she could schedule something the first week of February. You heard me say I would get back to her.”
“That means we hit them at home, then,” Jack said. “Here’s the thing, though: I wanted a paper check for Nikki. What are the chances of Martha or Otto or Philip having a checkbook at home? Zip, I would think. With the other stuff, Abner can just do the wire transfers.”
“Well, as long as we’re pretending to be the FBI, why don’t we just march into the Andover Building, which is probably being manned by a skeleton crew this week, go to Martha’s office, and help ourselves. Isn’t that what the FBI would do?” Dennis said.
“In a perfect world, yeah, that’s what they would do. With warrants. And then everyone will get a good look at us. Remember, we are still going to be here after the three of them are gone. We need a plan. I’m thinking you need to call that guy Jamie Farrell to see if he can help us. In the meantime, I’m going to call Bert and Sparrow and walk Cyrus, who I think ate too many of our leftovers. You guys kick this around and see what you come up with,” Jack said.
Jack hunkered down into his heavy jacket as the snow swirled about him. He shivered as he pressed the speed-dial button that would connect him with Bert, who would arrange to have Sparrow listen in with another click of a button. He rattled off the reason for the call as he watched Cyrus travel the length of the alleyway to find his favorite spot to do what he had to do. Today, for some reason, it was taking the big shepherd longer than usual, probably thanks to all the table food everyone sneaked to him. Minutes later, he said, “Do you think we can pull this off, Sparrow?”
Sparrow laughed. “When you say the magic words, it’s like open sesame.”
“And those words would be?” Jack said, his teeth chattering. Damn, it was cold.
“The magic words are, ‘We can arrest you and hold you for seventy-two hours without a lawyer, and we’ve been known to lose paperwork on more than one occasion. ’ That’s if anyone gives you any trouble or wants to look at you too closely. Use a light disguise, but nothing obvious. Different people tend to remember different things, which causes doubt on a positive ID. Keep it cool and professional and no one will give you any trouble. People in a situation like you describe have a tendency to look everywhere but at the agents. I’ll take care of things on January second, when I take over my new office, in case there’s any kind of blowback. Like I said, the fibbies are notorious for losing paperwork.”
Bert chimed in and laughingly agreed with everything Sparrow had said.
Jack saw Cyrus bounding toward him at a good clip. He quickly opened the door and repeated the same process he’d gone through earlier, when he’d taken the shepherd outdoors. His teeth still chattering, Jack ended the call just as Sparrow was saying he’d hit town tomorrow evening and give Jack a call.
The connection was terminated. Jack jumped around a few minutes, windmilling his arms to try to get warm as Cyrus rolled over and over on the kitchen carpet, which was still damp from his previous expedition into the wilds of a D.C. blizzard. Jack let loose with one final violent shudder and marched back to the conference room, where the others were waiting, with the exception of Abner, who had retreated to his lair.
“I think we have a plan,” Ted said. “We hit the office tomorrow at around a quarter to five, right before closing, then we hit the homes of the three Andovers the following day. Dennis just heard back from Jamie Farrell, who told him where in the office the corporate checkbook is located. He even had the checking account number that Abner matched up to one of the accounts. It’s a high-dollar brokerage account, and there is enough money in it to cover Nikki’s class-action suit. He also said there is another checkbook with a green binding that Martha uses for everything else. He said she is not a fan of online banking. He also said that in a lot of ways, she is very old-fashioned, whatever that is supposed to mean.
“We can use that account to pay Jamie Farrell and anyone else the Andovers screwed over who we want to help. Abner looked up that account and said there are beaucoup bucks in it. By the way, the checkbook you need for Nikki is bright blue. Seems blue and green are Martha’s favorite colors, according to Jamie. He said as soon as he can, he’s going to make a scale drawing of the seventh floor, where Martha’s office is. Then he will fax it to us. An hour or so from now.”
“He’s doing all this and not asking questions?” Jack said in amazement. “Are we sure about this guy?”
“He’s the real deal, Jack, trust me on that,” Dennis said. “A guy with only one kidney who got screwed over by Martha Andover Gellis wants nothing more than for something very, very bad to happen to her. He knows he can’t do anything himself, but if someone else can, he’s eager to help as much as possible. And all that was before I told him we’d take care of him financially. Like I said, we can trust him.”
Jack eyed the young reporter and nodded. “Okay, we’ll go forward on your say-so. While I was outside with Cyrus, I called Bert and Sparrow.” He summed up his conversation, ending with, “Sparrow is leaving tomorrow to return here and said to stay low and he’ll take care of any blowback there might be when he takes office on the second of January. I do think we’re good to go.”
“Do we know where Philip Andover is?” Maggie asked.
“Home,” Espinosa said. “Otto is home, too, as is Martha.”
“When are we going to hit their offices for sure?” Dennis asked.
“Tomorrow at four forty-five. We hit them at home the following day. Any questions?” Jack asked. There were no questions.
“I guess Harry isn’t coming back,” Maggie said. “You should call him, Jack, and bring him up to date.”
“You’re right. I’ll do that right now. Anything else I should know?”
“We’re all good here,” Ted said. “I want to read through this stuff line by line one more time. The devil is always in the details. We don’t need a glitch because we ignored something that fouled things up.” The others followed suit without being told to do so.
Jack moved off to call Harry just as his phone rang. It was Nikki. His heart kicked up a beat.
“Oh, Jack, you are not going to believe this, but the plane we were supposed to be on right now has mechanical problems. We’re going to be stuck here another day.” Jack could hear the tears and the weariness in his wife’s voice. He tried to joke, to say as long as she made it home in time for New Year’s Eve, it was okay. Nikki didn’t buy into it. Instead, she burst into tears. Right then, Jack wanted to kill someone for making his wife cry. He did his best to console her by telling her about the storm that was raging outside. He talked about Cyrus and the guys until he heard a smile in her voice. By the time he clicked off, he was mentally exhausted.
Instead of calling Harry, Jack walked down the hall to the foyer and opened the plantation shutters to stare out at the raging storm outside. The snow, which was more like sleet than snow, was coming down fast and furious. He couldn’t even see across the street to the Bagel Emporium. That wasn’t good. He wondered how and if the FedEx driver would make it in the morning with his overnight package from Jack Sparrow. If not, things would have to get moved back a day. Anytime a glitch like that happened to a plan, chaos took over. “Crap!” he said succinctly. He closed the plantation shutters before he walked back to the kitchen to call Harry. Cyrus had fallen sound asleep on the wet carpet by the sink.
Jack sat down at the table, careful not to make too much noise and wake Cyrus up, pulled out his magic phone, and hit the number that would connect him with Harry, who picked up on the first ring. He quickly brought him up to date and ended with, “What are you doing?”
“I’m having a tea party with Lily. I’m Prince William and Yoko is Princess Kate. Lily is the queen and Cooper is wearing a special crown because he is the royal dog. Anything else you want to know?”
“Yeah. What is the queen serving?”
Harry hung up on him. Jack burst out laughing. It felt good to laugh. Really good. He walked over to the sink and slid down to the floor, where he proceeded to talk to Cyrus while he stroked the big dog’s head. Cyrus wiggled and squirmed until he managed to turn almost completely around so that he could lay his head on Jack’s lap. He listened intently to the tone of his master’s voice and whimpered softly. He raised his head to lick Jack’s chin. Undying love.
Jack smiled.