wanda1969

Title: "Jack's Angels IV: The Case of The Missing Heiress"
Author: wanda1969
Rating: PG- I don't think there's anything dodgy in here

Spoilers: Can’t think of any??
Summary: Torchwood characters shoehorned into a rather unexciting Charlie's Angels adventure! No Charlie's Angels characters in this though! The Team travel to sunnier climes...
A/N: This fic is slightly gwen-bashing. Not upsettingly so, I wouldn’t think....
For the very few people who wanted another sequel, here goes.

I have also decided to try and stop my anally retentive habit of posting all at once and therefore am going to post this in 1 or 2 chapters at a time. Let’s hope I don’t forget where I’m up to by the next post...

Other parts, if you are interested:
Jack's Angels:
http://wanda1969.livejournal.com/957.html
Jack's Angels II (part 1):
http://wanda1969.livejournal.com/1202.html
Jack's Angels II (part 2):
http://wanda1969.livejournal.com/1456.html

Jack’s Angels III:

http://wanda1969.livejournal.com/2726.html

"Jack's Angels IV: The Case of The Missing Heiress"

Ch 1

“Mr Jack Harkness?” the man questioned looking between the two men on the doorstep once he’d opened the door.

Jack smiled widely as he replied, “Yep, that’s me!”

“If you’d like to follow me, Sir Alistair is waiting for your appointment, Sir.”

As the butler ushered the two men inside and into the large hallway, he turned to close the front door before leading them towards a double wooden panelled door.

A few years ago, when he’d first come to work for Jack, Ianto would have felt intimidated by the butler and the surroundings of the Lethbridge-Stewart mansion. Now, though, he’d been working for Jack for almost five years- heck, he’d been seeing Jack for about four years and more or less lived at Torchwood Villa, even though he’d kept his flat in central Cardiff. He’d got used to the villa and its large and spacious rooms and even though Jack didn’t keep live-in staff, he’d got used to the daily cleaner, too. He followed Jack as they were shown into the drawing room, where Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart was sitting in a wing armchair. Ianto judged he was in his late 60s, possibly early 70s, and he had the bearing of a man who had worked with the military all of his life.

And that was exactly what the man had done. Graduating from Sandhurst, he’d gone straight into the Army, before being head-hunted by UNIT, where he’d risen to the rank of Brigadier. His family was wealthy and he’d moved in the same circles as Jack, and he’d also been a close a family friend of Estelle, Jack’s wife.

As the butler turned and left the room, Sir Alistair got to his feet, moving towards them as he held out his hand and greeted Jack enthusiastically.

“Jack Harkness! Good to see you! And this is...?” he said looking over to Ianto.

“Alistair, I’d like to introduce you to Ianto Jones- my Personal Assistant and the Torchwood Agency’s Administrator.”

Ianto reached forward to shake a proffered hand. “Good to meet you, Mr Jones.”

“And you, Sir Alistair.”

“Less of the ‘Sir’- call me Alistair! Goodness me, Jack, it must be ten years since we last met!” he said turning his attention back to Jack. “And how are you? I was so very, very sorry to hear about Estelle...”

Ianto noticed a brief, pained look in Jack’s eyes before he responded. “Thank you Alistair, but that was a long time ago now. Life has to go on, and with the help of my colleagues and...friends,” Jack’s eyes flickered towards Ianto as he paused, “...things are going well now. More than well.”

“Good. Good. It’s so nice to see you looking so well and so happy again.” It was obvious that Sir Alistair didn’t know what to say next.

“Anyway, Alistair, how are you? And how is Fiona?”

“Oh, we’re both keeping well, and Fiona is helping the WI with the village fete. That’s where she is now, down at the village hall. Couldn’t get out of it but asked me to give you her regards.”

“Still tirelessly making jam, eh?” Jack could see something was worrying the Brigadier, and continued, “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this invitation? Although, you know it’s always a pleasure to see you.”

“I suppose I should get to the point, Jack. Take a seat, both of you.”

As Jack and Ianto settled themselves on the chintz sofa, the retired Brigadier continued to speak as he moved back to sit in his chair.

“I think that there’s no point beating about the bush. You were recommended to me by Jamie Stephenson- you sorted out an insider trading incident at his bank. Came as a bit of a surprise that you were doing investigation work, I’ll admit, Jack.”

“You know, it was nothing I planned, just kind of fell into it. Anyway, what’s been going on?”

“Well, it’s my granddaughter, Caroline. I’ll try to cut a long story short. She fell in with the ‘wrong sort of crowd’. Trouble is, she’s going to be 25 soon and she’ll be able to access her trust fund. And it’s a considerable amount of money. But worse than that, she’s disappeared. She set off on round the world trip but we’ve had no contact with her for three months. She went to Cuba, the first stop on her trip, with this boy she’d been seeing, Jake, and after three weeks, no trace of either of them! We’ve tried to track her down, but no sign of either of ‘em. I don’t even think she’s in Cuba any more...the only information about her was a bank withdrawal from her current account at a bank in Panama City.”

“You remember William, my son in-law? Kate’s husband? He’s at the end of his tether. He even went out to Cuba himself before he got an investigator involved...Nothing. Pile of rubbish that so-called private eye was. I think it’s obvious what we need here- I need your investigators to go out there, all of ‘em if necessary, to find out what’s happened...Are you interested? I’ll pay anything to find out what’s happened to my granddaughter.”

“I can take this on, take my whole team with me; and It won’t cost the earth! But there’s no guarantees, we can only do the best we can...”

“I can’t thank you enough, Jack...” Alistair’s voice trailed off.

***

Jack flopped almost untidily onto the four poster bed back at their hotel, an old coaching inn. Fiona had arrived back later in the afternoon and invited the two men to stay to dinner and it was now just past ten in the evening. Alistair’s estate was in Buckinghamshire and he and Ianto had decided to stay overnight in the area to take advantage of their time away from Cardiff and Torchwood.

“Come here,” he smiled holding out his hand to Ianto. The young man took it and found himself pulled onto the bed next to Jack.

“We’re going to pull out all the stops on this one, Ianto. Always had a soft spot for The Brig -Alistair, that is. When we get back I think you should start booking a trip for all of us to Cuba, with the option of onward tickets to Panama, or wherever else this’ll take us.”

Ianto moved to get up. “I can get the laptop out now...”

“Stop - NOW!” Jack actually shouted. “I’m the boss here, and as far as I’m concerned, work’s officially ended for the day. I was kinda hoping we could take advantage of this four poster...There’re quite a few possibilities.”

“Ahh,” Ianto said quietly, as he leant over to Jack. “I bet I can think of a few more...”

***

Ch 2

The two men had driven back to Wales the day after their meeting with the Brigadier, and Jack had called an urgent meeting the next afternoon to tell everyone about their new assignment.

As usual, the rest of the team had been called in early, ahead of Gwen’s arrival, and they’d just finished discussing their more recent cases. Gwen was perpetually late for meetings and had always failed to notice that the others were always there ahead of her...

Andy had been with Torchwood for a few months now, and he’d settled in well, turning out to be quite an asset to the Agency. He was dedicated to his work, following orders with precision, but ready to think on his feet when it was needed. And he got on well with the rest of the team, even making an effort with Gwen.

He was particularly friendly with Ianto and Jack had noticed that when they got together over a pint or a game of pool, the result was good-natured sarky banter; it was good to see Ianto enjoying himself with a ‘mate’- he’d spent too much time dedicated to his job and not seeing his old friends.

“Now, just to let you all know before Gwen arrives,” Jack said in a conspiratorial tone, “We’ve got a very important case starting as soon as possible. We’ve only got two, non-urgent cases, so, unless anyone’s got anything they can’t put off, we’re all leaving Cardiff the day after tomorrow. You all OK with that?”

The three Angels exchanged glances, finally looking over at Jack, and nodding.

“Nothing I can’t put off, Jack,” Johnson said.

“Good!”Jack beamed. “Because I think you all might be pretty pleased with this assignment...” he paused for effect. “We’re going to the Caribbean! Starting with Cuba, to be precise...”

Andy was the first to speak. “Wow! You weren’t joking when you said there’d be travel! This has got to be better than the Saturday night shift with Cardiff Police!!”

The Torchwood Agency’s boss laughed loudly. “There will be some work involved, Andy, but it’s February now. We all need some sun, and there should be time for a bit of relaxation as well. We’re going to have to look like holiday makers, you know!”

“Great!”

“There is something you’ll need to know, though- Gwen’s coming with us, too.”

Again, there were looks between the Angels.

“We’ll be going in two ‘groups’. Tosh, Johnson, Andy- you’ll be going to one resort; I’ll fill you in on the details when Gwen arrives. And me, Ianto and Gwen will be going to another nearby hotel- I don’t want us putting all our eggs in one basket.”

As he finished speaking the buzzer for the front door went, and Ianto got up and pressed the door release button on the wall of the library, before sitting back down on the sofa next to Jack.

Moments later Gwen swept into the room looking around for a seat; she was disappointed that there was only space for her left, and that was on the sofa next to Johnson. She made a mental note to arrive earlier as she sat took her seat, and noticed everyone else’s coffee cups and a conspicuously empty coffee jug on the table.

“Gwen, how’re you doing?”

“Fine, Jack, fine. Just running a bit late- it’s Rhys’ day off again.”

“So, what’s happening?” she asked.

“Well, we’ve got a very important case, and it’s urgent. And, to be completely honest with you all, it’s something that’s very important to me personally. We’re going to be arriving in Cuba, but it’s likely that we’ll have to travel over to Central America- Panama”

Jack explained the case to them, before he went on to the travel arrangements.

He could tell that Gwen was excited; this was the first job abroad that they’d had since Gwen had returned to Torchwood.

“So Johnson, Andy and Toshiko you’ll all be heading off to Guanabo, a few miles east of Havana. When she was last seen in Cuba, Caroline had been travelling along the Northern Coast around Playas del Este. You’re all going to be staying at the same hotel, but Johnson, you’ll be travelling alone, and Tosh and Andy are going to be newlyweds from Porthcawl. Ianto’s booked you suites at ‘Casa Fernandez’. Don’t look so worried, Andy- there’ll be two rooms in the suite.”

“It’s a boutique heritage hotel right on the beach,” Ianto interrupted handing over three sets of information about the area that he’d printed off from the internet.

Andy blushed and looked a little surprised at the character he was expected to play in all of this, but Jack was sure he could see something in Andy’s eyes that showed he was secretly more than pleased with the arrangement.

“Ianto, Gwen and I will be staying at Playa Boca Ciega. It’s only about two, three miles along the coast, so we can all stay in contact.”

Gwen positively glowed with excitement. It was clear that she thought that the obvious plan would be for her to accompany Jack. She was already mentally imagining their hotel suite, and days with him, by the beach or pool, when Jack spoke again, interrupting her thoughts.

“Gwen, you’re going to be a divorcee from Cardiff, and for all intents and purposes, I’m going to be in Playa Boca Ciega taking a break from business in Havana, while travelling with my Personal Assistant, Ianto.”

Gwen spluttered as her daydream was abruptly shattered. Toshiko pressed her lips together firmly, as she choked back a giggle, watching the ex-policewoman’s face colour slightly.

When Ianto had discussed the arrangements with Jack, he had again refused to be partnered with Gwen. Jack had offered to take his place, and that was when Ianto had really put his foot down. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Jack; he had complete faith in his fidelity. Rather it was Gwen’s complete and unshiftable belief that she was irresistible to men, including Jack (especially Jack), that he worried about. The entire mission could become completely embarrassing if she wasn’t kept in check. And, so Jack had agreed to go along with the Welshman’s suggestion that his cover story would be that he was ostensibly taking a break from business in the capital. It hadn’t taken that much persuasion- he had been hoping to find a way to minimise contact with Gwen, whilst maximising time with Ianto when they were away.

Ianto reached forward to the coffee table and handed out four sets of briefing notes on the case and the area to the Angels.

“Angels, I suggest you all get back home- start packing, read Ianto’s notes on Caroline’s disappearance and get some sleep. Next stop Cuba!”

To be continued....