Chapter 28
“So you’re the nanny?” Lucky Lou scanned Lincoln up and down. “How’d you get into that line of work?”
“I met Zara when we were both working at the Royal Leilani. She needed childcare. Anything to make ends meet, you know?”
“That’s the thing.” In his rumpled cream linen trousers and vintage aloha shirt, Lou had a certain flair to him.
He was personable, likable—if you didn’t know anything about him.
“I don’t buy into that system. You work your whole life just to end up with some pension fund manager making off with your life savings.
It’s a scam, my friend. I know a scam when I see one.
” He gestured at the mess in the living room.
“Does the nanny gig include cleaning up?”
Lincoln’s jaw tightened. “I usually encourage the kids to tidy up after themselves. That would make it your job.”
Lou shrugged and bent down to pick up a stack of ancient VHS tapes. “Surfing videos. Want to light up and watch Zara shredding it at Banyans?” He pulled a joint from behind his ear, like a magician.
“Is that what you were looking for when you tossed this place? Your weed stash?”
“Nah, I bought this right outside the prison. Been looking forward to that first drag for two years and four months.” He plopped onto the couch and put his feet on the koa wood coffee table. “Join me?”
“Sorry, I’m on the job.” To emphasize the point, he scooped up an armful of books and began repopulating the bookshelves.
Lou shrugged and lit up. The scent of marijuana filtered into the room. Lincoln had never been any kind of drug user, unless you counted all the fish oil and longevity supplements he’d consumed over the years. He coughed, hoping to keep the smoke out of his nostrils.
“So… is canoodling with my daughter part of your job?”
Was Lou waving the smoke toward him? Lincoln moved a few steps farther away. He picked up a box to collect Eddie’s Legos.
“That’s between her and me,” he said shortly. He didn’t owe this man any kind of explanation.
“Well, I hope you know what you’re getting into. My daughter has issues. That’s probably my fault, if I’m being honest.”
Lincoln coughed as he tossed Legos into the box. “You can skip this part. I don’t need any information about Zara that I can’t figure out myself.”
“Maybe, maybe not. My girl deserves the best. She should be a champion by now. She could have been, if she’d just stuck with it.
That’s her problem. Attention span.” He tapped the side of his head.
“She always has to move on to something or someone else. There’s your warning, Nanny-boy. Don’t expect her to stick around.”
Lincoln ground his teeth together. He couldn’t stand hearing this Zara slander. “She stuck around for her brother and sister, unlike you.”
“I was trying to do my best for my kids and make them enough money so they don’t have to be slaves to the system. You know what’s priceless? Freedom. That’s something I taught Zara too. Always be ready to walk away from any situation.”
“Wish I could walk away from this one,” Lincoln muttered to himself. But if he did, he might miss a golden opportunity. “Would you like some help finding that go bag you were looking for? Might as well, while I’m tidying up.”
Lou Morrissey finished an inhale and released a puff of smoke. “No need. I’m not going anywhere after all.”
Lincoln was starting to wonder if that go bag even existed. “I’m surprised I never saw it around here. I’ve been all through this place, cleaning up and that kind of thing.”
“That kind of thing?”
“Yeah, you know, nanny stuff.” He tried to remember what his housekeeper did. “Picking up laundry, folding laundry, taking things to the dry cleaners.”
“The dry cleaners?” Lou squinted at him through the smoke. “Those kids live in shorts and slippers. What the hell needs to be dry cleaned?”
Oops. “If you could tell me exactly what you were looking for, I might be able to help. You know, what the bag looks like. Or anything else you were looking for, that maybe you don’t want Zara to know about. I can be discreet.”
“Heh heh. Man to man, you mean? Or man to manny?” Lou found that so funny he let out a series of hearty chuckles. “Say, I just thought about something. Do you run into any ultra-rich folks in your line of work? That’s who hires nannies, am I right?”
“Sure. I give Zara a discount because—”
“Because you’re hot for her. Saw that from the word go.” He filled his lungs with another massive amount of smoke, then released it with a happy sigh. His eyes were already red. “Damn, the weed got a lot stronger while I was inside.”
Lincoln wished he could flee to a less smoky room, but he had to keep an eye on this guy. Something told him Lucky Lou was pure chaos.
“Any billionaires on your client list?” he asked after a few more puffs.
“Maybe,” Lincoln said, curious to know where this was going. He thought about Zara’s warning not to reveal his own billionaire status. “But I had to sign NDAs so I can’t talk about them.”
“But can you say things to them?”
“Well, sure, why not?”
Lou’s eyes lit up. “About, say, investment opportunities?”
Good lord. Was this man already scheming about ways to defraud his daughter’s nanny’s hypothetical other clients? He had some brass balls. Or maybe he was just too stoned to know better.
“I’d have to be pretty sure it was something solid,” he told the man.
“Oh, it’s solid.” He let out another long exhale. “They think I’m just a small time operator. But I got ears and I heard what I needed.”
They? “Who’s they? Were you eavesdropping on someone?”
“Just minding my business in the back seat after they got me out of prison.”
Okay, now Lincoln was very interested. But he didn’t want Lucky Lou to know that. He went back to his task of plucking random pieces of clothing off the floor and folding them. “Sounds sketchy. You should probably mind your own business.”
“My business is taking advance…advant…advantage,” he finally managed, “of opportunities. They want me to do their dirty work, but I don’t do any work unless I know there’s a pot of gold at the end.”
“A pot of gold? What are you, a leprechaun?” Come to think of it, the man did resemble one, with his ruddy round cheeks and bright eyes. “Maybe you should help me with this mess instead of spouting crap about pots of gold.”
“This is better than gold.” He dug in his backpack for another big doobie and set a lighter to its tip.
Oh lord. There was no way of avoiding the contact high; Lincoln was already feeling woozy.
“This is better than all the pots of gold in every story you ever heard about Ireland. This is about…” Lou paused for dramatic effect. “Power.”
A chill slid down Lincoln’s spine. “Are you talking politics? Not interested. I never discuth…discuth…talk about politics with my clients.”
“No, I mean power, power. Military power. A weapon like you can’t even imagine.
I heard them talking in Japanese after they picked me up.
They didn’t think I could understand but I used to live in Japan before I got married the first time.
Can’t speak much, but I understand it. They said some billionaires had put in a bid for this thing, but their boss was holding out for more.
The Saudis also want it. We’re talking full-on bidding war. That’s where the real money happens.”
That sealed it—Tanaka had gotten Lou released from prison. Had he sent Lou here to look for the missing chip? He needed to keep Lou talking.
“You’re sounding nuts right now. What is this weapon you’re talking about?”
“I can’t just spill the details, can I? You got to ante up first!”
“Me? I’m just a manny. I can cough up a few hundred dollars but that’s about it.”
“Done. You can turn that into a few thousand, no problem.” Lou stuck out his hand, ready to accept the cash right then and there.
“Hang on. Just because you overheard something, you think you can make money off it? You don’t know anything about this weapon, do you?
This is a waste of time. I have real work to do.
” He carried a pile of folded clothes into Mia’s room and set them on her bed.
Strategic withdrawal. Play hard to get. Just like any negotiation.
When he got back, he saw that his ploy had worked. Lou was perched on the edge of the couch, ready to talk.
“Okay, I’m about to tell you something but you can’t tell Zara. She wouldn’t like it. You gotta promise.”
Lincoln didn’t like to break promises, but in this fuzzy state, he figured there had to be an exemption for promises made to a con artist. “Okay, I won’t tell her.”
Lou nodded, his eyes bloodshot and squinting.
The man was thoroughly stoned. “They let me out of prison so I would come here and look for something. It’s a piece of tech, the stuff they make the trigger out of for this weapon.
I don’t know why they think it’s gonna be here, but that’s why they got me out. ”
So that’s what the chip was. A trigger. Lincoln hid his triumph that he’d learned something from this very stoned con man. “That’s what you were looking for, not the go bag?”
“Both. I didn’t want to get Zara in trouble, so I figured I’d grab my bag and skedaddle. But then you both showed up while I was searching the backyard. And here you are, a nanny for the wealthy, so maybe it’s meant to be. I started thinking about how we can make this work. We can all get rich.”
Lincoln forced his fogged-up brain to focus on Lou instead of drifting off the way it wanted to. Think. Get more information. “How. I don’t get it.”
“I’ll tell the Japanese guys their trigger ain’t here.
But Zara will help me find it. They think she knows something about it, so maybe she does.
Then I’ll tell these billionaires they don’t need to keep bidding.
They can just pay me for this trigger. I’ll get some money that way.
But if I can negotiate for an investment stake, I’ll get even more.
And if I can recruit more investors, I can get a cut of what they invest too.
That’s like a win-win-win-win, I don’t even know how many wins.
Then we’ll all head to Bermuda. Might be safer. ”
The plan was outright insane. Lincoln had to give the man credit for sheer balls and chutzpah and crazy blue-sky thinking. But this was Zara’s father, and he didn’t want him to get hurt.
”Listen, Morrissey. Take it from me, you shouldn’t get involved in all this. Those billionaires are not to be trusted.”
“Aw, son, are you worried about me? I always come out okay. I’m Lucky Lou, the undefeatable.
Even when my sailboat sank on me, I was fine.
Went to prison, escaped. Got sent back, but here I am.
Can’t keep Lucky Lou down.” He waved his hand in the air, realized it was empty, and dug in his pack for another joint. “Did Zara ever tell you those stories?”
“No, but I can tell you plenty of stories about how ruthless billionaires can be. I’ve seen it firsthand, and I’m warning you—”
“Wait.” Lou stopped midway through digging in his pack. “I got it. Are you a gigolo?”
“A what?” Had he heard that right? It was hard to know, since his brain was operating at maybe half its usual speed.
“You don’t seem like a nanny to me. You didn’t even fold those clothes right. So what are you doing in all those rich people’s houses? Yeah, I nailed it, didn’t I?”
Lincoln debated for a ludicrously long moment about what was better, Zara’s father knowing he was a billionaire or thinking he was a gigolo. Could he just go with alien?
Deadpan, fighting to control his expression, Lincoln finally said, “Please don’t tell Zara.”
“She probably couldn’t afford you,” Lous said sadly.
“My little Zara’s a fabulous girl, but she’s terrible with money.
Do you know how many of my opportunities she’s turned down because of ‘ethics’ or ‘principles’ or ‘integrity’?
What does any of that shit have to do with making your fortune?
Don’t answer that, you probably wouldn’t know, Mr. Manny.
” He coughed hard into his fist, then paused at the sound of footsteps on the lanai.
“Shit, she’s back.” He snuffed out the tip of his joint with his wet fingers. Jumping to his feet, he pulled out a can of air freshener and dashed around the room, spraying the chemical scent of “Ocean Breeze” wherever he could reach.
“We never talked, you understand?” he told Lincoln. “We never smoked. We never discussed a deal. All we did was clean up in here and we did a damn fine job, if I do say so.”