Maggie read her response. “ ‘Colonel Paul Montrose was Andy’s best friend. They were in the same unit. Andy said if they had the time to have a formal wedding, he would ask Paul to be his best man. I don’t know anything else about him other than he is not married and was due to get out of the army soon. Then he was going to go to work for some big firm in Silicon Valley, and they were going to pay him scads of money. Andy pretended to be jealous, but he wasn’t.’ So where does that leave us?” Maggie asked when she had finished reading Bella’s text.
“We need to find Colonel Montrose,” Myra said.
Annie leaned forward. “I don’t see that as being all that hard to do. We know now that he left the military and went to Silicon Valley to work. Maggie, use all your resources to find him. Isabelle, hack into whatever it is you hack into for the military and see what you can find out about him.”
“And when we find him . . . ?” Kathryn demanded.
“Then we call him or have Bella call him. We either go to where he is or ask him to come to us. That’s a no-brainer,” Maggie said. “Bella doesn’t know him; she never met him and only knows what Andy told her, which is not all that much. I think it would be good for Bella to meet and talk to one of Andy’s best friends. I really want to help that young woman because I feel so bad for her.”
“We all want to help her, but you heard Alexis, we can’t just bulldog our way into the sister’s life and take her out when she didn’t break any laws. It’s okay to not like someone—”
Yoko literally jumped off her chair and into the air to land on the kitchen table, a perfect ninja move as she put it. “People! Listen to me! What do you mean the sister did not break any laws, that it was all legal? All of you, look at me! Tell me!”
The Sisters and even Avery Snowden all started to babble at once. Annie did a double take and let loose with a sharp whistle. Translation: Quiet down!
“Thank you,” Yoko said. “The sister impersonated Bella and stole her eggs! Doesn’t that constitute breaking the law? She had them transported somewhere else. That guy Peabody is a witness to the transfer. So we do have a case against her. Nikki, Alexis, you’re lawyers, do we or don’t we have a case to go after her? It’s a simple yes or no question.”
Nikki and Alexis responded in unison. “Yes!”
Yoko hopped off the table. Annie patted her on the shoulder, and whispered, “Well done, darling girl. I was getting a little worried there for a minute.” Yoko laughed out loud. She loved it when Annie praised her.
Snowden shuffled his papers, then stuffed them in his backpack. He looked around at the Sisters to see if he was still needed. Myra threw her hands in the air. “I guess you can leave, Avery. Things seem to be at a standstill until we hear back from Mr. Montrose. We need to remember California is three hours behind us. We will, of course, apprise you if we hear anything or need your expertise.”
“Then I am outta here, ladies. I’ll check back in later. I’m going to swing by the house in Kalorama just to see it with my own eyes. I do not trust that woman. Duke and Matt are seasoned operatives and both were Navy Seals, but this woman . . . she’s something else. I could see her outwitting them. And as much as I hate to admit it, I think she could maybe bamboozle me in some way.” The old spy shook his head in disgust at his own words.
The Sisters laughed. Nikki narrowed her eyes to slits and stared at the old spy. “Not to worry, Avery. Now that we have the skinny on her, she’s toast.”
Snowden shivered as he waved goodbye and left the kitchen, wondering what kind of devious punishment the Sisters were going to dish out to Sara with a million aliases. He gave himself a mental shake and decided he really didn’t want to know. He shivered again in the damp October night as he recalled the look on Nikki’s face. For one brief second he almost felt sorry for