“Well, you won’t makethatmistake again,” Jane proclaimed as after a quick, “Hi, Sam, nice to see you,” she got down to business, leading them toward the back of the house. Billy slipped his hand into Jules’s, which was a little bit surprising, since Robin was right there and Robin was the super-fun guncle. But Billy was way more savvy than the usual small child. He was anchoring himself to Jules, no doubt to keep him from leaping into the air and magically going wheels-up.
“We’ve given you the conference room to use as an office,” Jane continued. “Help yourself to whatever you need from the supply closet. And to fresh towels in the linen closet upstairs, when you shower. Same rules apply to the kitchen pantry, everything’s self-serve, although please make sure there’s always at least one apple and one banana in the fruit bowl, or someone’s gonna get cut.”
“Ouw new baby likes fwuit,” Billy announced. “I liked pickles and olives, but not anymore.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ll change your mind about that some day,” Jane told him calmly, adding, “Sam, you’re up in the blue bedroom.” She again looked at Jules. “You and Robin have your usual room. Welcome to LA, by the way. I’m sorry it’s under these conditions. The FBI has no idea what they’re giving up.”
“Hmm,” Jules said. “They actually might. But... It is what it is.”
“Yeah, that’s what Cos says, too, about leaving theTeams.” Jane’s smile got tight. “What it is—” she glanced down at Billy and clearly self-censored “—stinks. But I’m glad you’re here, and I’m ready to help however I can.”
“Thank you,” Jules said.
She opened the door to the conference room where—hey! Someone had gone into the rental house and packed up their belongings. Sam’s luggage was neatly stacked against one of the walls—Jules had to assume Robin had already brought their things up to the room they shared whenever they came to visit.
All of their piles of their notes and printed reports—including Sam’s creatively constructed timeline—were out on the big wooden table, the paper towel roll stretched out down the center, like the world’s weirdest table runner.
“We have lots of real paper you can use,” Jane said, eying it, too. “Although... that method looks shockingly effective.”
“Once you go Bounty, you don’t go back,” Sam drawled even as Jules asked Robin, “You didn’t go into the?—”
“No!” Robin said. “God, no. Silverman—one of Cos’s friends from Team Sixteen—went into the rental and got everything. But then he had to go pick up his kid from school. He’s not available again until Monday—I think he’s got her for the weekend, so Cos is trying to see who else he can wrangle to come help. I know he wants to directly assist you, so he’s trying to find some reliable bodies for guard duty.”
Jules nodded. Yes, it would be nice to have Cosmo on hand to directly help him and Sam, but making sure Robin was safe—and that trouble didn’t find its way here to this house or to the studio where Robin was working—was a bigger priority. For him, at least.
“Are you sure you don’t need this room?” Jules asked Jane. This conference room was a large part of her film production office. A huge, wall-sized TV screen lined onewall. That was new since he’d been in here last—whenhadhe been in here last? Had it really been...
Oh. Probably not since the production ofAmerican Hero, the movie Jane had been making when Jules first met her younger brother Robin. First met and collided with.
Yup.Thatwas when he’d last been in this room.
All those years ago...
Funny, they’d made a lot of visits to Jane and Cosmo’s house over the past few years since he and Robin had been married, but Jules hadn’t made it back into this part of the production office until now.
Other than that giant flat-screen TV, the room was mostly unchanged. Around the table, a dozen far more comfortable-looking office chairs replaced the glorified dining room seating that had been in here before. The chairs were the kind that swiveled, on wheels, which was nice. But the table was the same. Same windows, same curtains, same gleaming hardwood floor. The built-in cabinet that had acted as a dry bar with glasses and bottles of gin and whiskey and what-all was, of course, gone. Well, the cabinet was still there, but it no longer held any liquor.
“I mean, thank you, this is really great,” Jules continued, “but I don’t want to impose.”
“I’ll let you know if I need this room,” Jane reassured him. “There’s nothing planned right now, so just keep your things in here. Maybe lock the door when you’re not in here so that no one—” she cleared her throat “—colors on your notes or uses your timeline to mop up a spill.” She held out her hand to Billy. “Let’s go in the kitchen, bud, and figure out what’s for dinner,” she told him. “Give Uncle Robin and Uncle Jules a little time to combobulate.”
“I’ll come find you,” Robin promised the boy, “after we—” a glance at Jules “—combobulate. Good word, Mommy.”
Jane closed the door behind them, but they could hear Billy loudly suggesting they have corn-on-the-cob for dinner as Jane patiently reminded him “Inside voice, bud.”
Sam was already gathering up his gear. “We’ve got a team from San Diego heading in our direction,” he reminded Robin before asking Jules, “So what do you say? Shower then back down here in fifteen?”
“Forty,” Robin interjected. “Five. Forty-five. Jules has alotof splinters.”
Sam shot Jules a look as he hefted his bag. “I’ll start working up a plan for who goes where—Devonshire Place’s garden is number one on my list. Oh, and we might want to send a team to go talk to Harper—findhim, then talk to him, and you know, maybe even sit on him until the police arrive. But we’ll discuss that after youcombobulate.” He laughed and shook his head as he went out the door. “Boy Wonder, your sister knows you really well.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Jules: Age Seventeen
Connecticut
“Can I make an embarrassing confession?” Hobbit said to Jules as he climbed in and closed the door of Jules’s car, before he even fastened his seat belt.
