Jack looked at Farbeaux as he walked past the three heading toward the covered awning of the front portico. “That your expert opinion, Colonel?”
Farbeaux smiled as he caught the reference to Sarah McIntire.
“On the Israeli attitude of the equation, yes, on the love side, believe me, I’m only guessing.” He smiled with more enthusiasm when Jack paused and looked at him. “As we all are.”
Collins, like Henri seconds before, caught the innuendo. He decided to let it go. He walked to the steps and went up to the glass and wood front doors.
Jenks stopped by Farbeaux’s side.
“Someday I think you’re going to press the wrong buttons on Patton there and something bad may ensue.” Jenks eyed the Frenchman.
“Ah, you mean he has a breaking point for someone he loves? Like you and your”—he smiled even wider than before—“boat?”
“You son of a bitch, I am gonna—”
The doors opened, silencing Jenks as he watched Henri and then a curious Mendenhall take the steps. He angrily followed.
The man standing at the open door wore a black suit jacket and black turtleneck shirt underneath. His beard was closely kept and his brown eyes took in the men at the door. Jack saw his eyes wander to their waistlines and then examine them for any bulges that would mark them as armed. The man stood there, not saying a word of greeting.
“We have come to see Ms. Moira Mendelsohn,” Jack said as he sized up the large man in the doorway. He was stout and would be a hard candidate to get through.
“Madam receives absolutely no visitors, I am sorry. Leave a name and note and if she wishes to get back to you, she will. Good day.”
The door started to close but it was Henri who acted first and placed a hand on the old leaded glass of the door.
“She’ll wish to see us,” Farbeaux said as he eyed the man blocking their way.
“And this is so because?” the man asked, amused at the blond man who thought his hand could stop him from closing the door. He huffed as he took in Henri.
Collins lowered Farbeaux’s hand from the door and looked at the well-dressed man who had a weapon’s bulge near his shoulder.
“Inform Ms. Mendelsohn we wish to speak to her about her ‘doorway.’”
The man held his blank expression well. He looked unaffected at Jack’s comment but there was a noticeable difference. Three more men stepped out from behind the first. The large man turned and looked at the men who had joined him and then nodded that they could return to their duties. He stepped aside and allowed the four men to enter the foyer of the large first floor.
They saw that the entire floor, with the exception of a large desk in the middle, was completely empty. In a city like New York where living space was hard to come by, this place was a gold mine if renovated. Collins had the distinct feeling this Mendelsohn woman didn’t care much about that.
“Madam has been expecting you, or someone like you.”
The silence from the four men was stark as they waited for the man to finish.
“And why is that?” Mendenhall asked, anxious to discover why they were expected. He was also worried that the colonel might have made a mistake in not allowing them to be armed.
The man ignored Will’s question. “Suffice it to say, gentlemen, if you are here for any ill purpose, rest assured you will not leave this residence breathing.”
Henri looked at Jack, and Will had to place a hand on Master Chief Jenks’s arm as he reacted to the threat. The man did not smile, he did not frown. Jack could see that his threat was just a fact of life.
“We have no ill will toward your employer,” Collins said as he looked at the emptiness of the 150-year-old building.
“Follow me please, gentlemen.” The large man turned and went toward the old-fashioned gated lift.
“No announcement?” Henri asked as he looked around the closed space of the elevator.
For the first time the man chuckled as he lifted an ancient handle on an even older annunciator and switched the handle to 16.
“Madam knows you are here, she was just curious as to what purpose.” The lift started up with a small jolt.
“You know, elevator upgrades are a good thing in our modern world,” Will said as he subconsciously grabbed the wooden railing as the lift shook and rattled.
“Madam likes things the way they are. She is quite content.” He looked back at Mendenhall. “And our lift system is inspected every six months, so if something happens during your visit it will not be the ancient elevator that kills you.”
Jenks had had a bellyful of the two threats made thus far. He stepped toward the front of the elevator car but Jack forced him back by placing a hand on the master chief’s barrel chest.
“Virginia specifically told you to behave.” He faced Jenks. “I’ll tell her if you don’t knock it off.”
Jenks frowned and then backed away as the elevator came to a stop. The man smiled at Jenks and then stepped off the elevator. He mumbled, “I’m not afraid of her,” but not too loudly.
The long hallway was of polished wood. The floors, the walls, and the ceiling were buffed and shined as if polished only this morning. The lone desk just outside the elevator was manned by a younger gentleman in a blue suit. He was writing on a clipboard as he saw the men step from the elevator. He had his jacket unbuttoned and they could all see the Smith & Wesson nine millimeter in a shoulder holster.
“Madam is expecting you,” the guard said as he laid the clipboard down and then eyed Collins. “Gentlemen, are you armed?”
“Look, Peaches—” Jenks started to say but stopped when the double wooden doors at the end of the fifty-five-foot hallway opened, and that was when they saw the Traveler for the first time.
“If they wanted to kill me all they would have had to do is spike my weekly order of gin.” She motored the wheelchair backward and then opened the doors wider for her guests. “Come in, gentlemen, you are cutting into my motion picture time.”
Jack took a breath and followed the trail of birchwood flooring to the main penthouse apartment. The man followed the four to the door and stopped them from entering.
“Madam may take this lightly, but rest assured, gentlemen, we take her security very seriously. Also keep in mind Madam tires easily.”
“We understand,” Jack said as he turned from the serious-faced young man. “You need to get out more, Master Chief, people usually don’t travel long distances to kill an old lady for the sheer fun of it. This isn’t Los Angeles.”
Jenks walked past with a hard brush, which made the security guard smile and shake his head as he stepped inside and closed the door.
The large entranceway was dark. There was small lines of light that danced with dust particles streaming through the closed curtains. Other than that the only source of light was from the ornate wall sconces that were made sometime in the late 1800s.
“I think this whole building ought to be in one of the director’s artifact vaults,” Will said as he examined the forty-foot-high ceiling. The absence of the things that made a home was the first thing he noticed. The walls were bare of family photos and art. The rich wood paneling had nothing at all upon their shiny surface. Jack followed the hallway toward the large study. He looked inside and saw the shiny silhouette of the old woman as she placed her wheelchair behind a large desk. The others joined Jack just inside the sliding double doorway.
Henri saw that this room was different from the outer areas. Here there were pictures, old black-and-white photos ensconced in old-fashioned bubble frames. Some were of family but most were of children, two of them in particular. Jack and the others recognized a young Moira Mendelsohn as she was standing next to a small boy with the same color hair and the same soft features of Moira. There were no less than six of these pictures with only the boy and the young woman in them. The rest were old-world European pictures of family that had long since departed this life, one way or the other, in Eastern European standards of the time — especially if you were Jewish or Gypsy or any other malcontent as seen in the eyes of Nazi Germany.