Take Down (The Men of the Sisterhood) by Fern Michaels Page A

answer them.”
    Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dennis hit a number on his speed dial. Jamie Farrell, he thought. The kid was learning fast. He motioned for Jack to move to the side so he could talk to him out of earshot of Evan Bell.
    “You know either Bell or the two downstairs are going to call someone about this the minute we leave the building. Jamie said that the locking mechanism for every floor is in a utility closet at the beginning of the hallway. I think we should get all three of them back into Martha Gellis’s office and lock them in. At least they’ll be warm. That guy out there in my Humvee, Spinelli, must be about frozen. Jamie told me how the system works. What do you think, Jack?”
    “I say that’s good thinking. I’ll take this guy back to the office, you go get Spinelli, and tell Maggie to bring her guy up here. Go!”
    Jack turned around and motioned for Bell to follow him back to Martha Gellis’s office. “Have a seat, Mr. Bell.”
    Bell did as instructed, his eyes wary. “I don’t understand any of this. I’m the head of Security; you should have come to me first.”
    Jack surmised that Bell was ex-military, what with his crew cut, spit-and-polish suit, and, of course, his height and weight, which was around six-four and 220. “How long have you worked here, Mr. Bell? I’m going to need your cell phone.”
    “Fifteen years.”
    “Is there anything about the people who own this company, and by that I mean the Andovers, that you’d care to tell me? By the way, do you get stock options in case Andover ever goes public?”
    “I take care of Security; that’s my job, and I’m very good at what I do. I hire good people. The first thing we were all told when we hired on was to mind our own business and do our jobs. We’ve all done that. The Andovers don’t give second chances. And yes, as head of Security, I get stock options. Not that they are worth anything until there is a market for them. I keep hoping the company will go public. When it does, I will probably retire and go live somewhere in the Caribbean.”
    “Care to tell me your personal feelings in regard to the Andovers? I’m just making conversation now, guy to guy.”
    Bell debated the question for a moment. “Hard to deal with. Look, I just work here. I came here right out of the military and worked my way up to the head of Security. Guy to guy, does this have anything to do with that leukemia drug? My wife wanted me to quit when that all came out. Said between my military pension and her job, and with Social Security only a few years away, we would do just fine, thank you very much. Then, over Christmas, we saw on the Internet that another little girl died. You guys got any openings for someone my age at the Bureau?”
    “Yeah, as a matter of fact, we do,” Jack said. “I think you might be a good fit for the new director. Stop by on January 2. I’ll put in a good word for you.”
    Bell looked at Jack, trying to figure out if he was stringing him along or not. Whatever he saw in Jack’s expression made him grin. “I’ll do that. So, is your game plan to lock the three of us in here until tomorrow morning? If so, can I call my wife to tell her I won’t be home till tomorrow? Then you can have my cell phone. You’d better cut the phone line, too. But please leave the heat on. It’s supposed to go down to five degrees tonight.”
    “Okay,” Jack said agreeably. “Anything else you want to tell me?”
    “Yeah,” Bell drawled, “the only one I would trust out of the three is Philip, and I’m not really sure about him.”
    Just as he finished speaking, Dennis showed up with Lee and Spinelli, along with Maggie. They held a brief conference by the door, with a lot of head shaking and hand waving. Maggie pointed to her watch.
    The trio worked quickly to cut the phone lines and scour the office to make sure there was no way for the occupants who were going to spend the night to communicate with anyone on the