Devlin's Defiance: Book Two of the Devlin Quatrology (35 page)

“
Any word
from our gal over there? Oh, well; she'll get in touch when there's
something to report.

“
Okay.
Next? Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay. Already dead? Any ID on the –
well, when you get one on her, let me know. Right, it's competition,
and we need to keep tabs on the market. No, that's fine; they
deserve it all. But tell the client that we'll discount the final
payment by half, so just five mill. No, tell him
the truth; always be
straight with the clients. And
if he balks at the half, tell him we'll waive it completely. He's a
repeat client, and I always want to under-promise and over-deliver;
keep them satisfied and happy.

“
Okay.
Anything new from the teams on Pam's guy? Did he make his Sunday trip
yesterday? Ah, well, maybe next week. Keep on the rest of it, okay?
Put the folks we had on Gordy's stuff on him, too. Good.

“
Anything
else? Just two? Good; a quiet week at last. Okay. Say hi to Gisele
and the girls, okay? Okay. Yeah, I will. Bye.”

Five minutes
later, in the master suite, he caressed Pam's back as
she
nuzzled his neck. “Amber said to say hi.”

“
And what
might Stevie Bruce have to say?” she murmured, as the opening
strains of the Bolero filled the room.

- 93 -

January
14, 2013
11:19
p.m. local time

Bonita Springs,
Florida

“
Oh, God,
Gordy, it is so good to hold you again.”

“
And it's
good to be held, Ro. Ow. Just be a little careful of the ribs on
that side, okay?”

“
Oh, God,
I'm sorry.”

“
And my
left ear.”

“
Promise.
Are your lips okay?”

“
Yup.”

“
Good.
Does that hurt?”

“
Mmf.
Not a bit. You can keep doing that, if you want.”

“
Oh, I
do.” And she did.

“
Mmm, you
taste good.”

“
So do
you. Chocolate?”

“
Mint
chocolate chip. Want some?”

“
Maybe
later.”

“
And are
you okay, uh, down there?”

“
Yup; no
problems.”

“
Okay if
I check that out for myself?”

A few minutes
later, Gordy said, “Wow! You've been talking with Dallas while
I was gone, haven't you?”

“
Only
about you; she kept telling me to keep my hopes up. And the rest of
the beach folks were doing everything they could to help.”

“
That
video really clinched it; those guys went crazy when they saw it.
How did you get the media involved?”

“
That was
Janet; she knows some people, I guess. Sharon got the signs made, and
everybody contributed for that.”

“
Everybody?”

“
Well,
not Ron. But Jenny snuck twenty bucks into the pot. Don't
let
Ron know.”

Gordy chuckled.
“Promise.”

“
Oh, that
Sergeant Dooley showed up yesterday, too.”

“
Who?”

“
Sergeant
Dooley, the one who broke up that anti-abortion gang a couple months
ago.”

“
Oh,
right. I'd QH'd him. Damned Quarterheimer's.”

“
He
wanted me to tell you he got the book and doesn't have a
problem
with how you used his name.”

“
Oh,
good.”

“
And he
said he'd call the FBI, see if he could pry any answers
out
of 'em. But he didn't sound too hopeful, said the – oh, what
was the word?”

“
For
what?”

“
For the
FBI, some word he used, kind of a derogatory thingie.”

“
Ah,
maybe 'feebies' – or 'feebs'?”

“
That
might have – yeah, that was it. Anyhow, he said the feebs
weren't too friendly to local cops.”

“
Yeah,
usually they're not, except when they need the locals for something.
And even then, they can be arrogant and bossy. Or so I've heard.
But it was really that video that clinched it.” He sighed.

“
I was so
afraid that they'd killed you.”

“
That
thought crossed my mind a few times too, especially when
that
cokehead was around.”

“
It must
have been terrifying.”

“
Yup,
some of the time, but they were way out of their depth.”

“
And that
sonofabitch – oh, excuse me, but he was – SAC lied to me,
directly to my face.”

“
Yup.”

“
I'm glad
he's dead. I know that's a terrible thing to say, but it's
how
I feel.”

“
Me,
too.”

“
Weird
that a bad guy like that could make it to that level.”

“
Yeah.
But he had his daddy's help behind the scenes, probably a lot of
pressure. And he was political, from what I've learned.”

“
I'm glad
the daddy's dead, too.”

“
Me, too.
You wouldn't believe how corrupt and degenerate that asshole was.
And I heard he passed that on to his son, too.”

“
I don't
think I can ever trust the FBI again.”

“
Oh,
don't condemn the entire agency just because of a few bad
apples.”

“
But how
can you tell if you're dealing with a bad apple?”

“
I guess
that just takes experience and maybe being a good bit skeptical
always, and not leaping into cynical immediately. But sometimes you
have to get burned to learn not to trust too much.
And
sometimes you need to be pleasantly surprised to learn not to
be
too cynical. Ultimately, you've got to trust your own judgment. It's
always a balancing act, sorta between Pollyanna and paranoid. But
you already know that from dealing with all the corruption up in
Chicago.”

“
Yeah;
that was an ordeal, but Kevin finally managed to get it all
closed
down. We won't have to deal with that, uh, crap anymore.”

“
So is he
resting, maybe taking a vacation?”

“
Yeah;
Hawaii, three weeks, with his wife, no kids.”

“
That
should be relaxing.”

“
I hope
so; he was really burned out when we were wrapping
things
up last month.”

“
I can
only imagine.”

“
Yeah; it
was tough on me, too.”

“
At least
you're done with all that.”

“
Yup.”
She wrapped herself closer around him. “And now we can
both
get back to the important stuff.”

“
Yup.
Like maybe some of that mint chocolate chip ice cream.”

“
Really?”
She sat up, starting to get out of the bed.

“
Just
kidding.”

“
Oh,
you,” she laughed, slapping him lightly on the arm, and lying
back down on top of him.

“
Oh, ow.”

“
Oh,
geez; sorry,” Rosemary said, shifting herself off of him.

“
Ah,
that's better.”

“
Good.
Want to try something new?”

“
Sure,
but I've got to be careful for a while.”

“
No
problem. You just lie back and relax; you won't have to do
anything.”

“
I can do
that.”

- 94 -

January
21, 2013
11:38
a.m. local time

Aboard
Defiance

In the Gulf of Aden

“
His
father's grave?”

“
Yup; our
people followed him there yesterday. An hour to get there, an hour
back, and he got a vase of flowers at a shop in Falls Church, put
them on the grave, stayed there about 15 minutes.”

“
Even in
the snow?”

“
Don't
know about snow, but it had to be cold. I've got the video down
below, and we can watch it whenever you want.”

“
How
about right now?”

“
Sure;
let's go.”

An hour later,
Pam said, “Geez, he is one safe driver, signals every lane
change, stays just under the speed limit, defensive as hell.
Boring.
But any of those turns could be a code, right?”

“
Right.
Anything he does that seems really mundane could be a signal. The
team also videoed the cars and trucks behind him, but they haven't
analyzed it all yet.”

“
We used
to do stuff like that back in the day. Like if I put my lipstick on
my top lip first, that meant one thing; bottom lip first, something
else.”

“
Always
the same meanings?”

“
Nope;
woulda been too easy to figure out a pattern. We varied it
every
job.”

“
Okay,
here's the flower shop. We're researching that place, and
we'll
have a few people go in as customers, check it out in person.”

“
You've
also got somebody monitoring the grave?”

“
And
checking out the cemetery staff and any services they use,
like
outside gardeners, lawn mowers, et cetera.”

“
Okay.”

Jake
fast-forwarded the video.

“
And here
he comes with the vase and flowers.”

“
Wonder
if he gets a vase every time; could be a message in those.”