After the activity of the past six weeks, it seemed all the energy had gone out of the cabin. Kathy was in India, and Anita was in Dublin to meet with Bernadette O’Brien for an 8:30 breakfast in the Tea Room at The Clarence. Only the date had to be included in the email. The other arrangements were fixed.

Jack was scheduled to leave tomorrow for Amman, Jordan, to contact Hamid Hassan, the young Jordanian his father had put through school and then hired to help with overseas investigations in the Arab world. According to Peter Brandon’s contact instructions, Jack sent an email arranging to meet Hassan. The meeting place and the time of the meeting at the Café Boulevard in the Intercontinental Hotel was always the same. Only the date had to be included in the email. Jack put Shadow in the best boarding kennel he could find and left for Amman.

Kathy’s first encoded email from New Delhi reported she used the Southeast Development Inc. letterhead arranged by Lee Jensen and an attention-getting retainer to hire a consulting firm in New Delhi to provide advice on the feasibility of establishing a small import/export business in New Delhi. Kathy told the consulting firm she expected to review dossiers on several firms within a week. Of special interest were new firms established within the last five years. Using the same credentials and a cash retainer, she hired the All India Detective Company, owned and operated by Arjun Singh.

She liked Arjun Singh on sight and quickly came to terms with him. He had a straightforward approach with close ties to the Delhi police. Singh employed 15 people full-time and could quickly expand this force with others he could call in. His investigators were former police or intelligence service officers, most of whom were highly experienced in the art of surveillance. Arjun’s English was excellent, and he was familiar with civil as well as criminal law. Although he was a Sikh, he was clean-shaven except for a rakish moustache. Looking into his startling blue eyes, Kathy decided a formidable and intelligent man lived in there. She told him to stand by, she would have some tasks for his agency in the next few days.

Anita arrived in the Tea Room of The Clarence in Dublin for breakfast before Bernadette O’Brien and was surprised to see an elegant, beautiful woman enter the restaurant. The woman fit the description, but Anita had expected a rather dowdy scholarly type with a taciturn demeanor. Instead, she confronted a very attractive, vivacious woman who couldn’t have been any older than her mid or late 40s. Spotting Anita’s recognition signal of a red book on the table, she walked up to her table and said, “How is Peter?”

Waiting until she was seated, Anita said, “Peter is dead. He was killed by a team of terrorists.”

Bernadette covered her face for a moment and said, “I loved that man. He told me his work was too dangerous for him to share his life with me. I never quite believed him. Tell me how it happened.”

After Anita told her about the attack on the house and the battle Peter, Shadow and the Nguyens had put up, Bernadette told her she had had a long-term special relationship with Peter and was deeply saddened by his death. She asked more about his last days, and Anita told her Peter’s son Jack had taken over his father’s work, and he needed her to help track down the people who had killed his father. Anita said she knew she was imposing on her on such short notice but it was important, and Jack believed she could play a unique role.

Before breakfast was over Bernadette and Anita were getting along like they had known each other for years. Fortunately for them, she was planning a trip to South Asia in the next few weeks and agreed to leave as soon as she could to start her trip in New Delhi.

Anita loved Ireland and was sorry she had to leave so soon. Bernadette jokingly told her all of Ireland wasn’t like The Clarence. Some places were better.

She asked Bernadette to contact Kathy Grayson at the Oberoi in New Delhi, and she would give her additional instructions.

As Anita was getting ready to send her email report to Jack and Kathy, she received an incoming mail signal. The message, from Kathy in New Delhi, said Jack and Anita should leave immediately for New Delhi. Anita emailed Kathy she was on the way.

Buy “Justice Beyond Law” on Amazon, as well as the rest of the Jack Brandon series and other books by Barry Kelly, a former CIA agent and adviser to President Reagan.