I nodded, and Lucy accepted my judgment, for the moment. I'd explain to her later that the FBI did a damn fine job of taking care of witnesses.
"Agent Hawkes" – "Please, call me Clara. I think we're going to be spending time together, and we might as well make it friendly" – "Fine, call us Dan and Lucy. Clara, what about Lucy, here?"
"We already figured to have some people on her. Plus you, too, I expect." – I smiled at her, she got the message – "Dan, do you carry?"
"Not normally. Never wanted to bother getting the permits and all that."
She frowned slightly, and said, "For this case, it would make me feel better if you would. Go shopping tonight, and pick something out you like. I'll have a federal permit for you tomorrow morning; give me the receipt, and we'll reimburse you. If it needs anything, we've got a guy here that can take care of it for you real quick like. Vest?"
"I don't own one."
"Okay, I'll have one waiting for you on your way out. They're a lot lighter and more comfortable now, so wear it, okay?"
I nodded, and she went to the phone again. As she was making arrangements for my vest and permit, I explained to Lucy that I'd be wearing a bulletproof vest when we went out, and carrying a gun. She got a real worried look when I told her that, and was ready to cry by the time Clara got off the phone. Clara saw it, and knew the reason.
"Lucy? I know it's scary. Scares me, too sometimes. But you're doing the right thing. We're the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This isn't the first time we've done this, and it won't be the last. You, and Dan here, are making a case for us that we've been on for months, if not years. We're going to protect you.
AND your daughter, AND her friend. ALL of you are important to us. In fact, the people we assign to protect our witnesses are all volunteers, and have special training; if anything happens, THEY'LL get hurt, not you, not your kids, okay?"
Lucy nodded, and Clara went on "All the stuff we're talking about, all the plans we're making to protect those girls and you, is prevention. The chances of catching measles is pretty small, isn't it?" – Lucy nodded – "But you took Robyn in for the shot anyway, didn't you? Well, that's what we're doing here – the chance of anyone bothering you are real small – but we want to make sure that nothing happens to you, or them, anyway. The first time she got sick, you were scared, weren't you? But it turned out okay, didn't it? Well, this is scary too, but it's going to turn out just as good, okay?"
Somewhat mollified, Lucy nodded, and dabbed at her tears. I knew that I was going to be doing some talking that night, though. Clara looked at me in sympathy; she knew it, too.
I asked Clara "Do we say anything to the girls? If so, how much?"
She got a thoughtful look on her face, and answered "Our experience has been that if they know a little bit, it's better for everybody involved. You don't have to tell them*everything*, but it helps if they know to watch out. How much to tell them depends on how mature they are, and how well they can handle themselves."
Lucy and I shared a smile at that.
Clara suddenly brightened up, and said "Come on with me, I've got an idea. How about if you two meet the man I was talking to?"
Lucy perked up a little at that, and I nodded. Clara stood up, and guided us through a few twists and turns in the corridors until we got to a rather bland looking room. Behind a desk sat a man that looked as though he was carrying the world on his shoulders. He stood up, and Clara made the introductions: "Bill, this is Lucy, and Dan. Dan and Lucy, this is Bill, the man I was talking to on the phone."
Bill shook hands with me before focusing on Lucy. He looked at her a moment, then said "It's okay. Both girls are at the hotel pool, and I've got three people watching out for them this very instant. Another hour, we'll have five more. Every one of them is armed, and wearing body armor. Their ONLY job right now is to make sure those girls, and you, don't get hurt. Every one of them is ready to get between either of those girls, and any trouble. Nothing's going to happen to them – they're OUR girls, too, now. I'm a father. I've got three daughters these girls' ages. I'd trust our people to protect them. In fact, I have."
Lucy looked at him questioningly, and he told her "It's a long story. Short version, a couple of drug dealers got mad because we kept them from killing a couple of witnesses. They thought they could take it out on me, through my family. One's dead, the other is in jail now, doing some seriously hard time.
My daughters are fine – well, except for being teenagers!", he teased.
Lucy managed a small laugh, and nodded her understanding.
That taken care of, Bill turned to look at me. He asked me "You ready for this?" I just looked him in the eye, and after a moment, he answered his own question "Yeah, you're ready." He turned to Clara, and said, "I read his file; thanks for the heads up. My people know to leave him alone; after seeing these two, I can tell them why, too.
Suddenly, Bill made as though to jump at Lucy.
As he was picking himself up off the floor on the other side of the room, he groaned, and said, "I think you broke a rib."
"Good."
Lucy and Clara were just standing there, trying to figure out what happened.
He tried to laugh, then grimaced, before saying "Sorry about that, but I just *had* to be sure you could still do it. I don't like to lose witnesses."
"Fair enough. Glad I didn't hurt you too bad."
"Me, too."
Clara finally spoke up, asking him "Bill, what the hell did you think you were doing?"
He smiled and told her "I had to know if he was good enough – at least, as good as his file said."
"And?"
"He's better", with another grimace.
She frowned at him, and told him "Okay, Mr. Macho, now go see the doc and get yourself taken care of."
He nodded, and excused himself before heading down the hall.
Clara turned to us and asked "Do you have any more questions right now?"
Lucy and I both shook our heads, and Clara told us "Then I'd like to meet with you again tomorrow morning, say, ten o'clock, if that's okay. Until then, I think I'd better get you out of here before anyone actually gets hurt!", smiling.
She guided us back to the front, where the receptionist had a small package for me. Out of Lucy's hearing, Clara told me "Please, get something as soon as possible. We'll have some people follow you tonight, just in case. If anything happens, we'll be there." I nodded my understanding before Lucy and I headed for her car.
Back at the hotel, Lucy and I headed first for the rooms; when we didn't find the girls, both of us changed into casual clothing – I put on the vest they'd given me – and headed for the pool where we found Robyn and Sandra splashing around. We sat down at a table near where they'd left their robes, and Lucy whispered to me "I don't see anybody."
I told her, softly, "You don't need to whisper, okay? There's nobody close enough to hear us, and the noise in here would beat any listening devices.
Actually, I can see all four of them."
"Four?" she asked.
"Yeah. The exec over there with the laptop? Too noisy in here to get anything done, and he's looking around too much. The college girl on the lounge?" – "You mean the built one?", Lucy asked, archly – "Yeah, her. No tan, but she's too fit not to have gotten at least SOME sun. That, and her bag is a little too big – meaning she'd got plenty of room to reach in and grab the gun that's in there. The guy by the door, reading the paper? He's not holding it the way most people would, and not changing pages often enough, even if he was reading every word. He's looking around too much, too. Last, the lady with the baby carriage over there. She keeps leaning over toward it, but there's no noise coming out of it, and she'd not actually doing anything with it."