Steele Bitter (part 1)
Date: Friday, March 31, 2000
sue hantak <hantaks@mtco.com>

STEELE BITTER

Actually, orchestrating this from prison made it a greater challenge. In a perverse sense he would relish this even more. Descoine lay on his cot plotting the downfall of the great Remington Steele. Like any tactical battle, the objective is to find a weakness in your opponent and prey on that vulnerability. Unfortunately for Descoine, his contacts in the outside world did not reveal any apparent soft spot in the armor of Remington Steele. He had no family, the agency assets were invested, and it didn't appear he even had a closet to look for ghosts. Descoine arranged for surveillance and had photos provided on a regular basis. The presence of Miss Holt in every photo was obvious. His arm draped casually around her shoulder while exiting a movie theater, two engaged in an intimate dinner, dancing at a fund-raiser closely...very closely. Descoine knew he found Steele's Achilles' heel. Killing her would be too easy. In fact he tried that once and vanity prohibited from ever repeating himself. Descoine decided to play on the most basic of all human emotions; jealousy and betrayal.

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A bouquet of flowers obscured a large part of her desk when she arrived Monday morning. Mildred searched for a card before placing them in her office, but reasoned Mr. Steele didn't have to include any further message than the flowers themselves. Laura strolled into the office with a Cheshire smile,

"Good morning, Mildred"

"Looks like you had a good weekend, hon"

"Nothing special... just some spring cleaning and rearranging my apartment" she replied with a blushing smile that indicated more than that.

"Nobody sends me flowers when I clean my apartment"

"Flowers?"

"I just put them in your office".

Laura walked into her office, placed the mail on the corner of her desk and smelled the sweet fragrance of the arrangement. She started pushing the stems aside when Mildred cautioned, "There is no card".

"No card?" Laura sounded slightly disappointed.

"Like you don't know WHO they are from," Mildred replied sarcastically.

"Well I guess I could narrow it down."

As Mildred was walking back into the reception area, Steele came breezing through the double glass doors,

"Morning...Morning...Morning"

"Something wrong with Caroline's, Chief?"

"Caroline's? The florist?"

"I noticed today's batch came from Bloomer's not Caroline's" she motioned in the direction of Laura's office.

"Mildred, it's early Monday morning, would you mind telling me what the devil you're talking about."

"A beautiful arrangement came this morning for Miss Holt...There was no card...Don't tell me, you didn't send them?"

The blank look on his face made that question rhetorical. In a hushed tone, he instructed, "Call Bloomer's and find out who ordered the flowers" He then made his way into Laura's office. Before he could say a word, Laura's arms were around his neck and her lips pressed to his. Laura seductively whispered, "I should be sending the one sending you flowers after helping me yesterday."

"I never knew cleaning could be so...Stimulating" he replied with a wink.

"That's 'cause you never cleaned with me before". She kissed him again, even more ardent than before.

He briefly considered telling her he didn't send the flowers, but reasoned there was no harm in taking the credit. After all, his Monday morning was off to a good start and why ruin that?

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The sound of closing metal reverberated in the hollow halls of the prison. Descoine made his way to the visitor's room. A young woman in her late teens sat waiting for her father. They spoke between a Plexiglas divider.

"Father, Steele took the bait. He had his secretary call the florist"

"And--what did you tell her?"

"That a rather attractive man in his thirties wanted to impress a woman he just met"

"Did you leak the credit card number for them to trace?"

"Of course, Father, it shouldn't take them long to find Devin"

"Is he ready?"

"All prepped, he wants to get Steele as badly as you".

"Did you arrange to get Holt out of the way for a few days?"

"As soon as I get her cell number cloned, she'll be gone"

"She can be resourceful. We have to make sure they drop her somewhere very, very remote."

"Prison seems like a good place for her, Father."

A wicked grin spread across his face, "Sounds perfect."
 
To Be Continued---
To Part 2

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