I pulled back a little to hide my reaction and said, “Can I bring Marianne here? Just to meet Vance and Matt… er, and maybe Bobby?” Lee stared at me and I continued., “Also, Tod wouldn’t mind popping by.”
“No,” Lee answered but he was grinning his “Isn’t-Indy-cute?” grin.
“I didn’t think so,” I muttered to myself. “Can we go find Rosie now?”
* * * * *
After I tamed the wild, broody Lee Beast in the locker room, Lee finished his tour.
There were three more doors to discover.
Room one was a blandly decorated room with a double bed, a reclining chair, a TV, DVD player and bookshelf full of books and DVDs. It had a private bath and was called the safe room. To get into it, you needed a fob for one pad and you had to put your thumb to another pad and you had to use an old-fashioned key.
Room two was a room with four work cubicles in it, all complete with chairs, desks, computers and filing cabinets underneath the desks. Brody, Ally and my computer nerd friend, popped up from one of the cubicles.
“Indy!” he shouted.
“Holy shit, Brody, what’re you doing here?” I asked, walking toward him and smiling.When I got to him, I gave him a hug. He was a total slob, black shirt, black jeans, black Doc Martens, wild dark hair and Buddy Holly glasses. His body had no shape, defined, as it was, by sitting in a chair in front of a computer all the time.
“Ally told me I needed to get out of my house so she got me a part-time job with Lee. What are you doing here?” He looked between me and Lee. “Oh yeah, I forgot, Ally told me you and Lee hooked up. Finally. Cool. Bet you’re happy.”
I glanced at Lee, the Lee Beast had disappeared and Cocky Lee had taken his place.
I ignored it and turned back to Brody. “You do programming?”
“Nope, hacking, usually tracing embezzlement stuff but sometimes…”
“Brody,” Lee cut in and Brody stopped talking, his eyes got wide and he stared at Lee.
“Yeah, sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah,” Brody said and looked at me. “Confidentiality,” he whispered. “I keep forgetting.”
I looked around the room, fascinated by what Lee had built in a short period of time. It was a huge-ass operation.
“The other cubbies are for searches and stuff.” Brody started pointing. “That’s Kim’s cubbie, she’s hilarious, you’d like her. Her husband is a paramedic so she likes to work when he’s on shift, sometimes seven to three, sometimes three to eleven. Then there’s Pablo but he’s part-time, like me. I do morning, he does afternoons. The other one is for the boys when they need to do computer work we can’t see.”
“Ah,” I said.
Brody looked to Lee. “See, I told her the whole thing without talking about the job we’re doing.”
Lee stared at Brody, obviously re-evaluating doing a favor for his sister.
“That’s good, Brody,” I said to him like he was a lovable dog, which, in a way, he was.
Lee put his hand at my back again, indication it was time to go.
“When we leave, lock the door and don’t open it for fifteen minutes unless you get a knock, three, two, two. Got that?” Lee said to Brody.
“Three, two, two. Got it.” He turned to me. “Lots of codes around here. Three quicks then a long. Three short, three long, three short. Shit, what’s this new code again?” he asked Lee.
Lee sighed. “Three, two, two.”
“Yeah, okay. Three, two, two. Later, Indy. By the way, really dug the El Salvador e-mail, that was hilarious. Where do you come up with that shit?” Brody asked but didn’t expect an answer and then walked back to his desk chanting, “Three two two, three two two…”
Lee guided me out of the room and back to the reception area. Dawn was behind her desk and she schooled her features into a benign smile at our approach. Her immaculate desk top was marred by a gunbelt which Lee picked up with the barest hint of a nod of thanks to Dawn.
He pulled out a flat black thing with two prongs at the top.
“Stun gun,” he said, “you have to be close to use this, take down is half a second so it’s quick. Don’t touch the prongs or you’ll get cranked with 625,000 volts.”