The second base of operations was in the Highrise. I chose the penthouse suite for my own and waited while contractors and interior designers completed the work, transforming the space into my new home. I paid nearly quadruple their normal fee to get the work done much faster.
The penthouse had a large master bedroom and bath, a living space, a formal dining room, a large chef’s kitchen with granite countertops and new appliances, an office, and five guest bedrooms. Hermes, Ares, and Bill each claimed a guest room for themselves.
The nineteenth floor had twelve apartments for my entourage. I gave everyone carte blanche in their decorating choices hoping to make everyone comfortable. The eighteenth floor had a large conference room and eight apartments. Already, space was tight, so we attempted to buy the entire building. The owner was agreeable. We simply had to nail down the right price.
The minor repairs to the space only took about five days and the decorators had a field day transforming the space into something closer to my taste. Lots of blue and cool gray dominated. They added expensive artwork, vases, lamps, pillows, and throws. I approved the final product, gave the decorator company owner a check for the entire amount, and retrieved my keys from her. The area was mine.
Bill, Ares, Eli, and I toured the penthouse suite together as soon as the decorators announced it was ready for occupation. New carpets and furniture, fresh paint on the walls, and that new house smell beckoned to me as I moved from room to room. Every turn brought a new delightful surprise. I envisioned the entire penthouse being featured in a magazine spread, it was that well done.
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“I have three places to live now,” Bill commented. “I don’t know how to act.” He fingered a soft yellow throw tossed casually over the back of a white slipper chair in the room he claimed as his bedroom. He walked to a desk that faced the Chesapeake Bay behind a huge plate glass window and opened the cover to the laptop that he used when he was a cop. He smiled at me over his shoulder. Bill approved of his new digs. “Very nice,” he said.
“You may as well get used to it,” Ares said. “It looks like you are stuck with us for a long time.”
“Like the rest of your life,” Eli added.
“But, my house was enough for just me. Now I have two dozen people traipsing in and out of there. I even had to fire my housekeeper because she was asking too many questions,” Bill said. “But, Athena, thanks for paying off the mortgage for me.”
I waved a hand in dismissal. “It was the least I could do after dragging you into this mess we call a life.”
“Not so bad as far as lives go,” Bill said. William Townsend, lately of the Virginia Criminal Investigations Department joined our merry band while we searched for a killer who was literally blowing people up from the inside with a magical thought. The count ended at twenty-two dead throughout Hampton Roads. He became part of our power partnership, but we still had not caught the killer.
Knowing who was killing people was one thing. Catching her had proven to be very problematic. I had people continually on the watch for our quarry and others actively searching for Circe, but we had not prevailed. That one was too good at hiding her trail and creating false leads. I imagined her laughing at us every time we followed a trail that ended up at a dead end. That image only served to make me angrier and more determined to locate her.
I sat on the king-size bed in my bedroom and flopped backward to enjoy the feel of the pillow-top mattress. Very nice penthouse, indeed.