Take Down (The Men of the Sisterhood) by Fern Michaels Read Free Book Online Page A

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 1, 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