Chapter 15

Chapter 15—Allison reflects

10:30 a.m., Tuesday, December 13

She abhorred the restrictions the Secret Service placed on her. Not only did she resent the loss of privacy, but she simply did not trust them. In fact, she did not trust anyone—at least not totally. But she was particularly suspicious of the Secret Service. If someone’s paycheck was signed by any but her own hand, that person’s loyalty could not belong totally to her.
Perhaps she learned too much from her husband when they were in the White House. His relationship to the Secret Service was possibly unique. To Bob, the Secret Service was just that—a service. Sometimes he used them a little like OJ used Al Cowlings, to spirit him around secretly.
She had heard that Bob would crawl under a blanket in the rear of an agent’s private car, and then be chauffeured around to private parties. Other times he used the Service to keep people away from him—friends and enemies.
Her husband was able to garner the loyalty of the Secret Service for a few good reasons. First of all, they feared him. Plus, Bob rewarded them well for their service to him. Not only did he pay them handsomely under the table, but Bob’s agents were well known around DC as the go-to guys for girls and drugs—all thanks to their relationship with him.
Allison did not share Bob’s ability to use the Service in such a self-serving fashion. But she did develop her own method of working with and around the agents assigned to protect her.
For instance, when she was ready to venture out on her own, secretly, Allison would lock herself in her bedroom, leaving the Secret Service sitting outside. It was always understood that when she entered her bedroom, she was virtually entering her own private country, of which she was not only the president, but lone citizen as well. No one, other than herself, ever dared challenge her on that, and few ever even challenged the Secret Service agents assigned to protect the privacy of this former First Lady.
Once inside the bedroom (which was actually more like a giant safe room than a bedroom, given the physical security employed in its construction), she would then enter a special walk-in closet. She had three closets which were accessible only from her bedroom. They all looked the same, unless you were Allison. She knew that in the back of one of these closets was a secret door. It opened to reveal a small spiral staircase which led upward—upward to a secret apartment, and to her secret life.
When using the staircase, she would always first take off her shoes. She had some very good reasons to go barefoot. First of all, the space inside the staircase was very tight—so tight, in fact, that it made her uneasy to use it. The last thing she wanted to do would be to stumble and injure herself. “These damn stairs,” she frequently muttered, “I’m gonna kill myself on them one of these days. I don’t know why the hell they could not have put in the elevator that I wanted. I can’t imagine how I am going to do this in my old age. Guess I’m just going to have to move back into the White House.”
With that comment, she would chuckle, sometimes out loud, other times through clenched teeth and a grin.
Actually, she was well aware why she was not allowed to have the secret elevator she wanted. For one thing, no elevator could ever be installed in the City of New York without a permit; not even for a former First Lady. And permits meant there would be architectural drawings filed with the city.
Second, elevators had to be inspected periodically. That meant that the elevator she requested would not have been very secret.
But a spiral staircase, even a secret spiral staircase—that was a different matter. She merely waited until construction was finished, and the inspectors had signed off on the project. Then she hired a different contractor to construct the staircase. That way she avoided having to take out permits, and inclusion in the final architectural drawings.  Of course, her little side project was illegal, but that didn’t matter to Allison. All it took was a lot of money, and she had plenty of that.
Not only was it safer, she thought, to use the spiral staircase without shoes_ but if she always removed her shoes before going up or down, she would never confuse herself with regard to wardrobe. She did, after all, maintain a totally different set of clothes in each apartment. And, not only was it a different set of clothes, elements of the wardrobes were stylistically distinctive from one another—totally so.
The third reason she never wore shoes on the spiral staircase was to avoid noise. She did not want to gamble on someone, such as an overly observant agent, hearing the hard soles of her shoes clanging on the steel staircase, then zealously investigating. No, Allison had no desire to advertise her secret. The spiral staircase, Allison believed, was the key to keeping her sanity—in her self-talk she referred to it as her “staircase to heaven.”
During the renovation of her building, Allison had purchased the apartment directly above her apartment under a different name—Bernadette Lowery. Her status and connections allowed for that. Using her secret staircase, when she wanted to venture out on her own without the Secret Service tagging along, she would lock her “safe room” door, enter her special closet, and head up to the apartment above hers.
Interestingly, also during the renovation, she had the opportunity to buy the apartment beneath hers, as well as the one above. Apparently, when the existing tenants discovered that a former First Lady was moving into the building, several of them opted to move out, not wanting to deal with all the media attention and security personnel. Initially she considered buying only the one above. That, she thought, would be ideal for the development of her secret persona. By placing Bernadette above her, she would be the only one able to hear noises passing through the floor. Actually, she was more concerned about the noticeable lack of noise emanating from above, because the only person ever to enter that apartment would be herself, disguised as Bernadette.
After giving it considerable thought, she decided also to purchase the apartment below hers for the Secret Service to use. While, technically, one agent always had to be stationed inside her living quarters, she knew that if they had a separate apartment it would provide her with a higher level of separation from them.
By far the most energetic aspect of the whole project involved the addition of new elevators. Initially the eight-story building had only two—one used by the residents and their visitors, and a larger service elevator. The service elevator was used by residents only when moving in or out of the building, and for deliveries of larger items.  Workmen doing construction, and the building’s maintenance personnel also used it on occasion. But, generally speaking, it probably was not needed more than a couple times a week, if that.
Nevertheless, Allison insisted that there be three additional elevators incorporated in the renovation drawings. Initially the architect objected, but soon he learned that once Allison had made up her mind, there would be no compromise.
She explained that the Secret Service needed its own elevator, and she needed hers; plus, she needed her own service elevator. She did not discuss this matter with the Secret Service, because she knew that they would insist on sharing the use of her elevator.
Her intention was to share the new service elevator with the Secret Service, as well as her personal elevator. The third new elevator (the one she originally demanded for the Secret Service) she actually intended for the exclusive use of the occupant of apartment two—Bernadette Lowery. That way, when Allison was moving about as Bernadette, she would never have to come face to face with any other occupant of the building, at least not in the narrow confines of an elevator.
She was particularly concerned about Bernadette being stuck face to face with female Secret Service agents. She feared that no matter how good the disguise, another woman, particularly one familiar with her, would eventually see through it.
Another interesting aspect about the new elevators involved the way the elevator doors were controlled. All three of the new elevators could be accessed through the lobby, just as could the two existing elevators. But there was a second door on each of the three new ones. Allison’s private elevator (the one she was planning to share with the Secret Service), the new service elevator, and the elevator she was intending for Bernadette’s use, all could be accessed from a rear parking lot, where the Secret Service parked their cars.
The tenants always had to use the single doors on the passenger elevator, and then walk around and through a secured door that led to the same parking lot. That did not change. Those residents (the ones not associated with Allison and the Secret Service) still had to follow the old procedure.
The original service elevator did, however, open from front and rear. That way deliveries could be made from the courtyard, or through the lobby.
Access to all elevators could be gained at ground level through the use of proximity tags. In the cases of the two original elevators, tags had to be presented at a distance of five inches or less. That feature had been added prior to Allison’s renovations. Nothing changed for the original occupants in that regard either.
Of course, all the original elevators, and the new ones, could be accessed and used to go down to the ground level with the simple push of a button. Any other operation would not have met with the approval of the inspectors.
The three new elevators worked in a slightly different fashion.  They all were equipped at ground level with a biometric reader, as well as the prox reader—at both the lobby and rear access points. That way Allison and the Secret Service could simply place their right hand on the reader, and gain access to an elevator. So, if they did not want to present their tags, they could still use one of the new elevators.
Bernadette, however, never used the biometric reader. She always used only her tag.
The building was equipped with an inordinately large natural gas powered generator. This generator was added at the special request of Allison and the Secret Service. It was designed so that if the power to the building failed, the elevators and emergency lights would still function. Of course, that emergency generator also backed up the power in Allison’s, Bernadette’s, and the Secret Service’s apartments. The rest of the building’s tenants did not enjoy this feature, nor did they even know about it.
However, even if they had known, they would not likely have cared much, because prior to Allison moving in, there was no generator at all. At least now the elevators functioned during a power outage.
Of course, there were emergency stairs. They could be accessed from the ground floor by using the same type of tag reader as was located at the front door, the courtyard (rear) door, and for all the elevators. That was a plus for everybody.
There were, however, additional readers in this stairwell at three locations—those were the doors leading onto the floors housing Allison’s entourage (her two apartments, and the one used by the Secret Service). In all three cases, Allison’s apartments occupied an entire floor.
The lock on the ground level door leading into the stairwell could also be accessed by a high-security key. The only people holding those keys were Allison, Bernadette, and the Secret Service. That means should the elevator fail altogether, all residents of the building could still use the stairs by accessing it using their prox tag.
However, if the reader system failed as well, only Allison’s people had keys to access the stairwell from the ground floor. Those same keys would access the doors leading onto Allison’s floor, and the Secret Service’s floor. But only Allison’s key would also access the emergency stairwell door leading onto Bernadette’s floor. That meant that she, and only she, could ever access that floor from the stairwell.
On the stairwell side of each of the three special floors was a hidden color camera. There was a monitor just inside of each of those doors. They were there so that anyone desiring to enter the stairwell from any of those three floors would be able to see if someone was lying in wait.
There were, in fact, several very sophisticated closed circuit color TV systems in place at her building. Again, Allison had designed much of it. From her apartment she was able to monitor the activities in all the common areas throughout her whole building, and outside the building front and rear. The Secret Service, as well as Allison, could access that part of system.
However, the cameras on Bernadette’s floor and in Allison’s safe room, could be accessed only by Allison via monitors in her safe room, and in Bernadette’s apartment.
Access to Allison’s private closed circuit TV system was also biometrically controlled. But these readers were not like the ones that controlled the elevators. These were retina readers. They were more sophisticated than the others. She had considered employing retina readers at the new elevators, but decided against it for hygienic reasons. Thinking that only she would ever be able even to attempt a retina read from within her private apartments seemed to justify that application in those instances.
There was one glaring exception made regarding ease of access to the CCTV system. Inside the stairwell that led from Allison’s apartment to Bernadette’s was a station where every camera inside and outside the whole building could be accessed without using any sort of biometric or card readers. Allison had set it up this way intentionally. Her thinking was that this stairwell, the one between her apartment and Bernadette’s, would serve as a “safe room” within safe rooms.
In the event of an emergency, she could retreat to the secret stairwell, and there wait until it was safe to leave—either through her apartment, or through Bernadette’s.
Therefore, she designed it so that all cameras could be accessed on the upper landing without any additional security precautions. All she would have to do, in such an emergency, would be to open a small door, and it would reveal a monitor and a sophisticated digital switch.
Below the door that concealed the CCTV controls was another door. That one, when opened, exposed a seven-day supply of food and water, and necessary toiletries. It also contained an inflatable mattress just small enough to fit nicely on the landing when inflated.
Also, the door of that storage area had a fold-down cushioned seat, so that she could view the monitor for extended periods of time in relative comfort.
Allison had done a masterful job at designing every aspect of her secret life, and she took a lot of pride in it. “Imagine what I will do as President?” she often asked herself.
 Allison kept her elevator tag in her purse. When she was on ground level, she merely had to hold her purse to within a dozen inches of any reader, and that would activate the special prox reader granting access at that particular point. However, when entering Bernadette’s elevator, she would always remove an access card from her purse, just like the other residents of the building had to use.
As she expected, she had no problem having her plans approved by the City of New York, and the Secret Service. No one ever wanted to do battle with Allison. Those who did were always severely punished.
In fact, at times it seemed as though she intentionally provoked fights, just so those around her could observe the futility of trying to stand up to her. Besides, it was always lucrative doing business with Allison.
The construction end of the project went as anticipated. And, just as she expected, the Secret Service insisted on sharing the use of Allison’s elevator, seeming oblivious to the existence of Bernadette’s private use of the elevator initially designated to them. Even Bob, Allison’s quasi-estranged husband knew nothing about the existence of Bernadette’s apartment.
The truth is, Bob had for years viewed Allison as one of those proverbial “sleeping dogs.” If Allison was not screaming at him, or throwing things in his direction, he pretty much didn’t get involved in her life. And he certainly made every effort not to antagonize her by involving himself in her affairs without invitation.
When Allison wanted to move about incognito, she would make certain that her keepers knew that she was retiring to her bedroom. Then, once she had secured her bedroom door behind her, she would access her special closet, enter the staircase, and make her way up to Bernadette’s lair. That’s where the transformation would take place. There she would don the Bernadette persona.
When Allison first began to develop the disguise, she had choices to make: Would Bernadette be older or younger? Would she be a flirt, or a tough broad? And if she were a flirt, would she be a straight or a gay flirt? Those were all decisions that had to be made before the wardrobe could be selected.
Allison decided that Bernadette would be a little on the younger side, and that she would be a bit more coquettish than was Allison. And that Bernadette would definitely be gay. Allison liked the idea of being able to be openly gay—something she could not get away with in the White House. Besides, as a lesbian, she would be permitted to maintain a higher level of anonymity, as that would help defend against guys hitting on her. In every respect, Allison liked Bernadette more than she liked herself.
Depending on how much time she had to work with, and where she was going, she would begin selecting what she would wear. Normally, when functioning as Former First Lady Allison, she always had attendants to help her with these mundane tasks. But upstairs, as Bernadette Lowery, she was totally on her own.
Initially she had help putting the wardrobe together. But when it came to selecting a particular outfit, and putting it on, there was no one to help her. She would have liked to have had someone she could trust enough to share this confidence. But there was just too much at stake. If she ever wanted to get back into the White House, every aspect of the plan must work perfectly. There could be no loose ends.
As Allison, she wore very little makeup, and she seemed to relish the more masculine outfits. That was the case partly because she had to perform in a masculine world, out-spitting and out-bragging even the big boys. She could handle that very well, as Allison.
But Bernadette did not have to worry about such stuff. Bernadette had a much softer side. She smiled more, and flirted more. And, best of all, Bernadette got to wear sexier clothes—much sexier clothes.
Allison realized that her thighs were a little too stocky to do much with as far as showing leg, she felt she could produce healthy cleavage.  And that she did with amazing skill. While Allison was not shy about such things, Bernadette flaunted.
Then, of course, there was the alluring hairdo. She spent nearly $20,000 on that one, single piece of the puzzle that was Bernadette. She had researched it thoroughly. She knew that if the hair worked, the whole disguise could work.
Twenty grand was nothing, compared to the millions she had spent renovating her three apartments.  True, the Secret Service was provided to her compliments of the US government. However, she did take it upon herself to provide them with their apartment. It would not have been necessary to arrange for such an elaborate setup—the officers could have commuted. But she concluded that she could control them better by making their lives a bit more cushy.  Plus, by so doing, she kept the Secret Service out of her hair, and out of Bernadette’s wig.
Up until this point, the Bernadette persona served Allison mostly as an element of convenience. It allowed her to get out on her own without all the trappings of a former First Lady. Now, however, her life was taking a different direction, and the effectiveness of the Bernadette disguise took on a new level of importance. It became so significant, in fact, that many lives depended upon it.