The Organization (37 page)

“Well, I do,” Harriet said under her breath, pouring a healthy amount into her glass.  “It was a hell of a day.”

“That’s what worries me,” she said.  “Do you actually need a drink?”

“Excuse me?” Harriet turned to her.

“Harriet, it just seems like you’re drinking a lot more these days than you ever used to,” Charlotte said.

“Well, my dear, alcohol used to be an illicit substance.  Now that our government has decided it’s not verboten –”

“You
are
the government,” she interjected.

Harriet smiled a small, secretive smile, and replied, “I’m one of many people who form our government.  As you well know.  But as I was saying, now that we are free to consume alcohol again, I am taking full advantage of that freedom.  Where is the harm?”

“It just seems, Harriet, that sometimes you see it – alcohol – as some kind of panacea.  Long day, have a drink.  Stressful day, difficult conversation, something you don’t want to think about for a spell, have a drink.  Or even if you want to celebrate, you have a drink.”

“My dear, I seem to remember that you joined me for a scotch the other night, after the Sisters and Brothers meeting,” Harriet replied, looking at her through narrowed eyes.

Charlotte shrugged and said self-consciously, “Maybe I’m just not used to it.  Twelve years with not a drop… I guess it’s made me more aware of it.”

“Perhaps hyper-aware,” Harriet suggested.

“Maybe,” she replied.

“I have it under control,” Harriet replied.  “But if you’d rather I not have a drink…” Harriet said, looking at her glass of scotch on the rocks and then looking back to Charlotte, “Then I’ll pour it down the sink.  It just seems a waste.”

“It’s fine,” Charlotte said.

“Is it?” Harriet asked.

Charlotte nodded in response although her eyes told Harriet she wasn’t convinced.

Harriet set the drink on the countertop and closed the distance between them.  “Are you sure?  Because I know another way of working off the stress of the day…” Harriet said suggestively.

Charlotte smiled but then broke eye contact briefly before asking, “So what made it a long day?”

Harriet refrained from letting out a sigh as she moved away, picking up her glass again and taking a sip.  “Well, I realized that I hadn’t been keeping my intern busy enough, and he complained today.  He’s bright and capable and I’m sure he’s been frustrated with the kind of work I’ve been having him do so far.”

“Mm-hmm,” Charlotte replied.

“And… I saw Erin today,” Harriet said in a carefully measured tone.

“My Erin?” Charlotte asked, her eyebrows raised.

Harriet smiled and replied, “I didn’t realize you owned her.”

“You know what I mean,” Charlotte said.

“I invited her over sometime.  She cares about you, Charlie, and besides… I like her.” From their first meeting in her office in Portcullis House, Harriet had sensed that Erin was someone she would like – even if they disagreed about certain matters.

“You invited her here?”

“Yes.  For dinner.  We didn’t decide on a particular date and time, though.”

Charlotte took a glass down from the cabinets, filled the glass with water from the tap, and walked over to the fern, slowly pouring water in the pot.

“Is that all right with you?” Harriet asked her.

“Why wouldn’t it be all right?” she asked in return.

“Well, she told me how you haven’t seen her lately.  She thinks you don't want to see her.”

Charlotte shrugged and said, “It’s just… You might like her, but I’m not sure she likes you in return.  And that bothers me.”

“She respects me enough not to interfere in your and my relationship, and that’s enough for me.”

“She respects you,” Charlotte repeated in a skeptical tone.

“She’s not going to stand between you and me.  Not unless you allow her to do so,” Harriet said.  She sighed inwardly, wondering why Charlotte had to be so difficult sometimes.

“I don’t want anyone, or anything, to stand between us,” Charlotte said.  Her gaze rested briefly on the glass of scotch before she looked back at Harriet.

“Good,” Harriet said stubbornly.  “Neither do I.”  She pointedly took another sip.

Chapter Sixty-Three

Thomas sat with Rhys and Harriet as they once again listened in and watched as Zoe and Charlotte approached the East End building where the meeting would take place.

“I can’t believe you green-lighted this,” Thomas said to Harriet in a disapproving tone.  More than disapproving, he seemed almost appalled.

“It was the right decision,” Harriet told him curtly.

They watched as Zoe and Charlotte entered the building, went through the usual process of being frisked, and approached the desk to check in again.

“Charlie is breathing heavily,” Rhys observed.  “You can hear it on the mike.  Do you think she’s nervous?”

“She’ll be fine,” Harriet said.

Sarah was at the desk again and she smiled when she saw Charlotte.  “I'm glad you decided to come to another meeting,” she told Charlotte.

“I’m glad to be back,” Charlotte responded.  If she was indeed nervous, it didn’t come through in the way that she spoke.

They mingled with the crowd – larger this time than last – for twenty, perhaps thirty, minutes.

“Something is different this time,” Rhys observed.

“I know,” Harriet said.  “I feel it too.”

After some time, Charlotte looked at Zoe, who nodded, and they began walking toward the door.  Then Charlotte stopped, the camera capturing a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to face a tall, well-muscled man.  “You’re wanted in the back,” the man told her.

“All right,” Zoe said to the man.

“Not you,” the man said.  “Just her,” he clarified, referring to Charlotte.

Harriet exchanged a look with Thomas, and it was obvious they were both alarmed by the turn of events.

“No problem,” Charlotte said.  To anyone besides Harriet, it might appear that she was relaxed.

Charlotte followed the man to the back of the room, down a hallway, and to a closed door.  The man disappeared behind the door for the briefest of moments, and then reappeared, saying to Charlotte, “You can go in now.”

Harriet swallowed hard, watching the scene unfold before her eyes.  She said to Thomas and Rhys, “We need to get her out of there.”

“How, Harriet?  It would take Ethan at least fifteen minutes to get there.  And if we go in heavy, this isn’t going to end well.  We have to trust that Charlie can handle this,” Thomas replied.

Charlotte opened the door and entered a room that looked remarkably, eerily, like Harriet’s office at 85 Westchester Place.  The only obvious different was that at the large desk sat Joanna; her hair was shorter and her face had aged, but it was unmistakably Joanna.

“Thomas…” Harriet said, squeezing the arm of the chair so hard that the wooden edges felt like they were cutting into her hand.

“I know, Harriet,” Thomas said.

Charlotte took a few slow steps into the office, and the sounds indicated that someone closed the door behind her.  From the camera view, they could see that she wasn’t taking her eyes off Joanna.

“So it’s you,” Charlotte said in a low, calm voice that reminded Harriet of how she spoke at her parole hearing.  “When I learned about these meetings, I had been wondering – hoping – that maybe it was you behind them.”

Joanna came out from behind the desk and walked over to Charlotte.  She stood nose-to-nose with Charlotte, studying her, before pulling her into a hug.  “It’s wonderful to see you, Charlie.”

Watching the interaction, Harriet felt a wave of nausea rising, and as she tasted something distinctively metallic, she realized she was biting her cheek.

“I would have come sooner, had I been able,” Charlotte said once Joanna released her from the embrace.

Thomas said under his breath, “She’s good.  Believable.”

“Yes, I understand.  I hope your time… away… wasn’t too painful,” Joanna said, walking back to her desk and taking her seat again.  She motioned for Charlotte to sit on the leather sofa, and Charlotte complied.

“Frustrating, yes, but not painful,” Charlotte replied.

“Frustrating?” Joanna repeated.

Charlotte cleared her throat and said, “Just knowing that Harriet got away with it all.  Did you know I was arrested at her house?”  Charlotte’s voice had become louder, angrier, but she added in a quieter voice, “I think… you were right all along, Joanna.  Harriet didn’t love me.  And I think that I got too close for her own comfort, so she needed a way to get rid of me.”  She added, “It’s the best I could figure, and I’ve had a long time to think about it.”

Harriet felt a chill, hearing Charlotte speak.

Joanna nodded and said, “Well, you’re out now.”  She paused, a peculiar hint of a smile on her face, and then asked, “Tell me, Charlie, how did you manage to secure a release from prison so soon?”

Rhys gave her a concerned, knowing look.  They both knew that they hadn’t prepared Charlotte well enough for these kinds of questions.

The camera shifted as Charlotte glanced at the floor.  Her voice was heavy with hesitation as she said, “I don’t want you to think less of me.”

Joanna replied, “I’m not going to judge you, Charlie.  I’m merely curious.”  Her voice was even but she was clearly lying.

Charlotte nodded and, after an extended moment, said quietly, “I slept with the prison governor.  She was… young, and I suppose she was interested in the thrill of it all….”  Her voice trailed off before she added, “I’m not proud of what I did.”

Harriet’s lips parted as she watched and listened to Charlotte’s words.  Not only was she surprised by how readily Charlotte came up with an explanation, but her explanation hit a little too close to home.

Joanna cocked her head to one side and with that same small, creepy smile, said, “I thought you didn’t go for sex without love.”

“I guess Harriet changed that for me,” Charlotte replied.

“You’re still angry with her,” Joanna said.  “I can understand that.  She and I parted ways years ago when it became obvious she wasn’t willing to take decisive action. The most committed of our members – those with the real drive and dedication – came with me.”

“So that was the birth of the, uh, Sisters and Brothers?” Charlotte asked.

Joanna smiled in response.  She then said, “I noticed that you’ve been here with Zoe.  How did that work out exactly?”

On the periphery of the image, Harriet and the others could see that Charlotte shrugged.  She said, “Like I said, sex without love.”

Joanna replied, “You’ve changed, Charlie.”

“Prison does that to a person,” Charlotte said.

“Well, I’m glad you got out before it changed you
too
much.”  Joanna gave another smile, letting it fade before asking, “So why are you here, anyway?  Feeling committed to the cause?”

“Honestly, Joanna…?  I guess I was just looking to reconnect with you.  I guess I needed a friend.”

“I’ve always been your friend, Charlie,” Joanna said.  “And you’re always welcome here.  I hope you’ll come back and we can get reacquainted sometime.”

“Thanks, I’d like that.”  Charlotte stood and walked to the side of Joanna’s desk.  Joanna stood and gave her another hug.

“I’ll see you soon, I hope,” Joanna said.

Charlotte walked at a steady pace out of Joanna’s office and back into the main room, where Zoe was waiting.  Barely audible, Charlotte said to Zoe, “Let’s go.”

Harriet told Rhys, “Keep the transmitters on.  We need to see where they go.”

“Harriet, what if Joanna has them followed?” Thomas asked.

“Of course she’ll have them followed.”  Harriet felt the anger inside her boiling over and she hurled her glass of scotch at the wall, cursing under her breath.  She stood with her hands resting on her hips and made herself take several deep breaths.  “They know better than to come back here.  They’ll kill some time and go to a café, or perhaps to Zoe’s place.  We just have to wait and watch.”

Thomas and Rhys were silent as they watched Zoe and Charlotte walking down the sidewalk.  Finally, Rhys said, “But this is good news.  I mean, isn’t this what we’ve been waiting for?  We found her.”

“Yes, we’ve found her.  And now… you know what you have to do,” Thomas said to Harriet.

“Whatever it takes,” Harriet replied without taking her eyes off the image.

#

They waited and watched as Charlotte and Zoe took a long stroll through St. James’s Park, sat on a bench for a while in the relatively cooler air of the night, and then went for a curry.  They listened as Charlotte and Zoe made chitchat about entirely neutral topics.  They continued watching as Charlotte walked Zoe home, sat on Zoe’s sofa for a nightcap, and then exited out the rear alley an hour later.  Charlotte scanned the alley but no one was in sight.

They watched for another ten minutes as Charlotte continued to be alone as she wound her way through tiny residential streets before finally hopping on the Tube.

“You can go,” Harriet told Rhys and Thomas.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Rhys asked.

“It’s fine.  I think she lost them at Zoe’s flat.  But if anyone follows her here, Ethan is downstairs.”  In truth, Harriet just wanted to be left along to her thoughts.

“You don’t want to debrief?” Thomas asked.

“Tomorrow,” Harriet said, resisting the urge to rub her eyes, knowing that that would smudge her makeup.  “It can wait.”

They agreed on a time to regroup the next day and Rhys left for the night.  Thomas lingered in the doorway to the stairs, and said, “I don’t mind staying.”

“I know.  And thank you.  But really, I don’t think it’s necessary,” Harriet replied.

Thomas nodded, a frown darkening his features, and then left.

Harriet continued to watch the world through Charlotte’s eyes until she saw and heard Ethan closing the door behind her downstairs, at which point she cut the transmission.

She heard her footsteps on the stairs and found the sound unusually startling.  Charlotte walked into the main room of the fourth floor and asked quietly, “We’re alone?”  She pinched the contact lenses from her eyes, holding them cupped inside one of her hands.