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Laura discovers the answer to one of Remington’s secrets

As Laura was coming off the elevator, the FedEx gal was waiting to get on, which was nothing new for Laura. “Hello Jeanne.”

“Hello Miss Holt, it’s good to see you again.” Jeanne got on the elevator before the conversation could go any further.

Laura headed to her office and as she entered, she saw Steele taking a FedEx tube from Bernice and heard him say, “Thank you, Miss Wolf.”

Bernice replied, for the millionth time, “That’s Foxe not Wolf,” as Remington headed towards his office.

What is this all that about? Laura wondered. “Morning Bernice, what’s going on?” It was more a need to know then usual.

“Steele just received his third package from the Honolulu State Police Academy in as many days.” Bernice stated. “What do we have to do with that place anyway?” wanting to know what it was about since she was familiar with all the cases that the agency was working on or had worked on.

Laura wondered as well. What was he up to now? “I don’t know, but I will get to the bottom of this.” Laura took the morning mail to her office along with a cup of coffee.

Once in her office she put her hat and purse away and started to go through the morning mail, which was the usual collection of bills to be paid. In addition to the normal correspondence, there was a FedEx letter from the Honolulu State Police Academy addressed personal and confidential to her. She drops the rest of the mail and opened the package.

Dear Miss Holt:

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for allowing Remington Steele to continue the job he started at the academy eighteen months ago. I appreciate that you as the owner of Remington Steele Investigation Agency has agreed to the terms of payment.

She looked at the end of the letter to see who had written it, “Deputy Chief Caterine McGarrett of Hawaii Five-O.” Laura was shocked that someone knew about Steele and knew the secret. “How dare he jeopardize my agency?” Laura said in heated passion, then Laura read the beginning of the letter again where it stated eighteen months ago, then she realized, “I didn’t know him eighteen months ago. What the hell is going on here?” She continued reading the letter.

As of now, your employee, Remington Steele should have received three packages from the Academy, and as a result, I now will be expecting you and Remington Steele in Honolulu within the week to complete the work necessary.

I must apologize for the short notice but an emergency situation has arisen and no one in the Honolulu area is familiar with the new alarm system that Mr. Steele put into the academy. His system is a little advanced for anyone here in Hawaii to repair and expand upon. He was very unique in his technical abilities that came from his former occupation.

I look forward to meeting with you and seeing Mr. Steele once again to repair the current problem that my alarm system is experiencing.

Sincerely,

Caterina McGarrett

Deputy Chief of Hawaii Five-O

The letter floored Laura. The shock that someone else knew the secret; a cop no less, plus, she was not going to the licensing committee with the secret that there is no such person as Remington Steele. “What am I supposed to do about this?” She reread the letter again. This is another of the women from his past. HIS PAST. To many secrets and mystery women in his past, but this woman was different, Laura felt it. She didn’t know why but she had a feeling things were going to work out and she would be allowed to keep HER AGENCY.

Laura was still in a daze when the door from Mr. Steele’s office to hers opened. “Laura” when she did not answer, Remington looked up from the folder in his hand and saw her sitting there dazed. “Laura, are you alright?”

“What?” Laura saw him standing there with a look of concern on his face.

“I said, are you all right?”

“Yes, Mr. Steele, I’m fine.” Laura saw a folder in his hand with the seal of Hawaii on it. It must be from that McGarrett person Laura thought, “Paper work Mr. Steele. That’s not like you!”

Remington looked a little sheepish at having been caught with paperwork but when plotting a job, he always did his homework first. “Yes, Laura. It is regarding a case we have in,” he hesitated just a little over the word “Honolulu.”

“Really, I don’t remember any case in Hawaii.” Laura was going to love making HIM sweat while telling her about this job they are about to engage in. “Are we falling in love with our letterhead again?” Laura looked sternly at Steele but she was smiling on the inside at the look on Remington’s face.

Remington liked to keep his past his past but this time he could not hide from it. Remington started to comment on Laura’s statement when he noticed the letter Laura just laid down on her desk with the Five-O logo on it, which meant it was from Caterina. He should have known Caterina would cover all her bases to keep everything on up and up. He cleared his throat to tell the truth, “Before I met you Laura, I was in Hawaii on a working holiday. This woman who you got the letter from, Caterina managed to” Remington spoke the next few words slowly because they stung to admit, “catch me in the act of stealing something at the Academy. This was about a year before I met you.” He thought to himself and was captivated by you. Remington had closed the folder in his hand while talking to Laura and was leaning against the file cabinets with his ankles crossed.

Laura missed part of what he said when she heard the words ‘caught in the act.’ She thought to herself, Mr. Perfection when it came to these kind of cases and he was caught.

Remington noticed that Laura was not listening any longer. “Laura???”

“What?” With surprise in her voice, “You were caught?”

“Yes Laura, I was caught, and due to the fact that Caterina was a woman in trouble and needed help, we made a deal, so I gave her the help she needed, and in return she gave me what I needed, twenty hours to get out of Hawaii before the full force of Five-O came knocking on my door. The work I did for Caterina, was to put in an alarm system at the Police Academy for a price that she could afford. The cost was air fare for two out of the State of Hawaii and all the materials I needed for the job, along with a promise that I would not visit the islands unless requested by Caterina for whatever reason for the duration of her tenure at the Police Academy.” Remington found he did not mind telling Laura the truth about this because it felt right. He looked into those wonderful deep brown eyes of hers and continued. “I’m sorry to say, Laura that the price this time will the same as the last time.” He was a little afraid to tell her the price being paid, but delaying the point would not help. “The payment is a pair of round trip tickets, lodging with food and materials to fix and expand the alarm system.”

Laura had regained her sense of composure, when he mentioned the form of payment. “Really, what about being paid for the time we spend doing this job in Hawaii?” Laura was angry about the price, how dare he agree to that cost with all the bills that needed to be paid.

“Laura before you get mad, Caterina will pay the normal daily expense charges,” Remington saw the tension in her shoulder released but knew it would come back, “but the $300 a day will be given back to the Academy as a donation so Caterina can continue the work she is doing there.” He was right the tension was back.

“How could you agree to that?”

“I didn’t.” Remington handed Laura the contract for her to co-sign and it did state $300 a day plus expenses.

Laura looked over the agreement and it stated expenses plus $300 a day. She could say no to all this by not signing the contract, then again, a paid trip to Hawaii was inviting.

Remington could see that Laura was considering the idea, so he came up with a reason for giving back daily charges, “Then why give back the daily charge you wonder, how about, because it is tax deductible.” He smiled one of his smiles that could always melt her heart. “The truth is Laura, the Honolulu Academy is having financial troubles and I don’t want to take anything that can help Caterina out in the long run. Laura I have my reasons, I only can hope you will understand when you get to Honolulu. The reservations are for us to leave early Saturday morning, getting us in to Honolulu late Saturday morning….”

Laura wanted to meet this woman that could outfox her Mr. Steele. She had to have something on him to make him jump through hoops for her, but what? That is what she would find out on Saturday. “All right, Mr. Steele, you have a deal. The daily charges will be donated back to the academy.” Laura thought to herself, maybe she knows what his real name is?

“Thank you Laura.” He smiled and instantly felt like both Laura and Caterina had just out motivated him again. Remington realized that Laura agreed to this a little to easily Laura wants something or has something on her mind, but only time would tell what that would be. Remington headed for his office asking, “Would you care to join me in my office so we can discuss the details of what we will be doing?”

Laura followed Remington into his office and started to study the blue prints to the academy.

Pau for Now