Home Free - Fern Michaels [58]
“Did Maggie send you here?”
“Lord, no!” Annie blurted. “She did her best to talk us out of coming, but she did give up your address.” At Abner Tookus’s disbelieving expression, Annie’s own features turned sour. “It’s the truth. She did do her best to talk us out of coming here.”
“What do you want?” Abner asked coldly.
“To hire you. Why else do you think we would be here, and why else would we be at odds with Maggie over this visit?” Myra demanded.
“I am no longer in that line of work. I retired. I work for IBM, and I was just about to leave for work.” He rose and headed toward the elevator. When he didn’t hear footsteps following him on the polished floor, he turned around and motioned to the elevator. He shrugged. “You can sit there all day if you want, but I’m going to work, and as I said, I can’t help you.”
“Why not?” Nikki demanded. “Annie made you rich, and just because you and Maggie have a hate on for each other is no reason to turn your backs on the very people who made you rich enough that you could really retire at your age. We need your help, and we’re not budging.”
The Sisters watched as Abner Tookus buttoned up a stylish navy cashmere jacket. He reached for a white scarf, which he wrapped around his neck. The last thing he did before pressing the button on the elevator was to whistle, two sharp sounds. The terrier looked up but didn’t move. The cat arched its back, then settled down as two huge Dobermans pranced into the room.
“Guard!” Abner Tookus said.
“Now, wait just a minute, Mr. Tookus. We came here in good faith. I guess Maggie was right. You are so blind with love for her, you can’t see straight. She said you would do this. Well, not the part about the dogs, but she said you were jealous enough that you would do something. I guess this means something,” Myra said, her eyes on the two dogs, who were eyeing them like they hadn’t eaten for a week.
“Maggie actually said that?”
Myra knew she’d stuck her foot in it, but it was too late to pull it out. “Ah, yes, she did, but we . . . we didn’t believe it. Did we, girls?”
The Sisters nodded.
“That’s why we’re here. If we’d believed her, we would never have come to enlist your help. And also to tell you, money is no object. Maybe there’s another warehouse you want to buy somewhere or, as I understand it, you are big on acquiring oceanfront property. We can make that happen for you.”
Abner Tookus removed his scarf and jammed it into his pocket. He unbuttoned his jacket, but he didn’t take it off as he walked back to the living room and the stool he’d been sitting on earlier. He snapped his fingers twice, and the Dobermans headed down a well-lit hallway. “For the record, I am not, nor have I ever been, in love with Maggie Spritzer. What I have been is annoyed, frustrated, and angry at the way she does things with no regard for a person’s feelings. She’s a bully, she’s arrogant, she’s selfish, and I do not care to work for anyone who works with her.
“I did not charge you for the last job I did that put my ass on the line for all of you. I could have gotten arrested and sent to jail for the rest of my life for that little caper. The only reason I did the job was because Maggie intimidated me by threatening to turn me over to the authorities. And she threatened the wrath of the vigilantes on me if I didn’t do what she said.” Abner laughed ruefully. “And here you are.”
“Yes, Mr. Tookus, here we are. Sometimes, Maggie can be a bit overzealous. The information you garnered for us . . . Well, I’m sure you read the papers at the time and saw the result of your . . . ah . . . expertise. We . . . I . . . appreciate that you did it all gratis, which was not our intention. I respect that you were making a statement by tearing up that check, which could have bought at least a dozen more warehouses.
“But that is not helping us now. We came here as . . . as a group, so to speak, to plead our cause and to ask you to please reconsider your stance. By the way, I happen to know