Tansy Taylor (16 page)

“I’m going to say something, but I don’t want to come off like some jerk that’s trying to be all macho or demanding, okay?”

I nodded, and gulped, expecting some sort of lecture on why women had no business trying to track down a body and messing with the mob.

“I think that it’s best that you take your car being torched, and the warning that was scribbled on there, seriously. I have seen some questionable characters hanging around the car dealership. I think that you and Callie need to be seriously careful if you go out looking for more clues. I realize that I have no right to ask you to stop, we’ve just met and it’s not like we’ve talked about being exclusive or anything. I just want to let you know that I like you, a lot, and I’m really looking forward to finding out more about you. I would hate if something were to happen to you. Totally selfish reasons, I know, but I would give anyone I cared about the same advice.” He leaned in and gave me a perfect kiss-tender yet hot and steamy. I looked him in the eyes and could see his concern. How could I possibly be upset at him for wanting me to stay safe?

“I’ll take care. I think that we’ve found a way to look for clues without being obvious, so no worries.” I kept it short and light, trying not to intentionally lie about our covert activities.

He looked at me askance. “That was a bit cryptic, don’t you think? But, I won’t ask anymore if you don’t want to tell. Just be careful.”

“I will.” I gave him another quick peck on the cheek and then got out of the car. I let myself in the house and noted that chivalry wasn’t dead as Sam waited until I was inside and had flipped on the lights before he took off back down the driveway.

I flung my jacket and purse on the couch and then sunk down in a funk. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was in a funk over; after all, he did agree to go slow and that Callie took priority. I should be overjoyed, but I felt restless instead. Probably just sexual frustration. I let out another huff, where was a glass of wine when I needed it? Duh, I thought to myself, probably out on the kitchen counter. I got up and kicked my shoes off. I flipped on the switch and there, sitting on the counter was a nice big brownie and a note from Jeni. How did she always know exactly what I would need? There was a nice bottle of pinot noir on the counter and a glass. I poured myself some and then nuked the brownie for just a couple seconds to soften it up to a state of chocolate bliss. I flipped the note open. It simply had a smiley face on it. Enough said; I would try to perk up. I’d shared my little plight with her earlier, and I silently thanked her for having faith that I would do the right thing. I took my brownie and my glass of wine and headed upstairs.

Chapter Thirteen

The next morning came quickly and was shrouded in a layer of fog. I decided that I would shower and get dressed as if I had somewhere to be. I hoped that maybe it would provide incentive, or at least positive reinforcement, for me to start looking for a job.

I was wrapping the towel around my head when I heard my cell ringing. I raced to get it but as usual flipped it open just as it went to voice mail. I decided I would focus on my hair and face first and then on whoever had called. Too many times I had gotten wrapped up in a phone call only to find that my hair had dried into a frizzy out of control mess. I finished getting ready to look for work and grabbed the phone on my way out of my room.

Once in the kitchen, I started the coffee and popped a bagel into the toaster. I decided that I needed some serious caffeine this morning to get the fire burning. I flipped my phone open and listened to my voice mail. It was Callie; she had the day off and was wondering if she should pick me up to go do some recon with the new listening devices. This was good news, since I really didn’t know where to begin with my quest for job that I would enjoy and pay me enough to take care of all of the bills.

I called her back and made plans for her to swing by and get me. I made both of us travel mugs of coffee and put some more in a big thermos. I grabbed a couple of scones from Jeni’s platter on the counter. I hoped that they weren’t for work or anything, but she wasn’t around to ask.

“Hey there!” I said, climbing into the car.

“Oh, you’re so wonderful!” Callie said, grabbing the cup of coffee and the bag of scones.

“Well, we can’t very well have a stakeout without sustenance. That would be just plain silly. Its ten now, so I figure this will keep us fed until early afternoon. Any idea on how long you want to do this?” I was hoping that it wouldn’t be an all day affair, but I didn’t want to leave her on her own either.

She got a determined look on her face. “As long as it takes.”

I smiled and took a drink of coffee. Well, there went my day. “Oh, wait, let me go grab my laptop-if we’re near wifi I can do some job searching too.” I ran back inside and grabbed my computer and a handful of chocolate kisses.

We pulled up on the far side of the park that backed up to the dealership. There was a Starbucks on the corner, and I was hoping that I could pick up the wifi from there. I was in luck. The park was empty this morning; the fog must have been keeping everyone, including the regulars, out of the damp and dreary day.

It didn’t take long before the damp cold started seeping into Callie’s old Volkswagen. Luck for me, she’d brought along a couple of wool blankets. We wrapped ourselves up in the army surplus wool, like two gigantic grey burritos. The transmitter radio was sitting on the dash so we could listen in to the conversations coming out of Mr. Big’s. So far, it hadn’t been anything too interesting; Big gave someone the boot because they couldn’t sell, and Ronnie had scheduled a dental appointment. We drank our coffee and surfed Craig’s list for fun. I had made an effort to look for work, but at this point I wasn’t even sure what to type into the search box on the career websites, and the number of jobs to sift through without a filter was daunting. I decided to wait until later.

Two hours later, Callie had fallen asleep and I was resting my eyes.

“Hey!” A voice said followed by a sharp rap on the window; I jumped and hit my head on the low ceiling.

“Ow!” I rubbed my head. I forced my eyes open and realized that we had completely steamed up the windows. I had no idea who was out there banging on the window.

“What?” Callie looked over at me groggily, and then rolled her head back toward the window.

I could see the shadow of a person standing right outside my window. I decided to crack the window and see if I could see get them to go away.

The window creaked as I rolled it down about an inch. I stretched up so that I was looking out at the interrupter’s chest. It was a man judging from the trench coat.

“Go away. We’re not interested.” I figured the guy was most likely some drug pusher. This wasn’t the best neighborhood.

The man lowered his head so that his eyes were staring directly into mine. “Did you realize that your car is parked in a no parking zone?” The voice of the mysterious eyes sounded suspiciously familiar.

“Nope, we did not.” This was true; when we had pulled up we hadn’t been able to see anything but the blazing neon sign of the coffee shop through the haze.

“Well, I can understand that with the fog this morning you may not have realized it, but you’re going to need to move the car now.” The voice said.

“Um, okay. I just need to wake the driver up.” I turned to Callie and gently prodded her shoulder. She groaned at me.

“Tansy Taylor? Is that you?” I saw the eyes back up and I got a full view of the face.

Damn, Detective Smith, no wonder the voice was familiar.

“Um, hi Detective Smith. Yep, it’s me.” Crap.

“What in the world are you doing out here?” Of course, ask the logical question that I had no good answer for.

“Oh, um, Callie wanted to talk so we came out this morning with some coffee to talk and um, do some people watching?” I cursed myself as my explanation ended up sounding more like a question.

“Hmm.” Was all he said, eyes narrowed.

I poked Callie in the ribs, hard this time. “Wake up sweetie! We need to move the car. Detective Smith is right outside.” I hissed at her and got smacked in the face by a wild hand. What followed was an indecipherable mumble.

“Callie!” This time I poked harder.

“What! I’m awake, geez!” She rubbed her ribs where I had poked.

“Hi Callie,” Detective Smith said through the cracked window.

“Oh.” She shot a glance at me. “Good morning Detective Smith. I couldn’t sleep so Tansy and I came out here and-“She was interrupted by the static voice on the transmitter radio. It had been silent for the last half hour due to everyone having a staff meeting in the lobby that we couldn’t hear. Now Ronnie’s voice was coming in loud and clear. I covered it by faking a huge coughing fit and knocking it off the dash into Callie’s lap.

“You okay?” He was already skeptical of us and I wasn’t making it any better. “I’m not even going to ask. I just hope it isn’t anything illegal. Just move your car around the block, okay?”

“Okay,” we both said together, like a couple of scolded children.

We wiped the fog off of the window, which revealed that it was actually clearing up outside. Callie pulled the car around to the side of the park where there were legal parking places.

“Are we still getting a good signal?” I asked. Callie picked up the transmitter and fiddled with the knob. I glanced out the window and saw Detective Smith heading around the corner and towards our car. “We’ve got company, again. I’ll go stall him while you see if you can pick up the signal again. Hopefully he was just in the area getting his coffee fix.” I noted he was carrying a Starbucks cup.

I hopped out of the car and headed his direction with no idea what I was going to do. I hoped Callie had been right about him seeming interested in me.

“Ms. Taylor, it’s nice to see you again so soon, but I’m wondering what it is that you and your friend are actually doing sitting out here in the drizzly fog.”

“Oh, you know, girl stuff; nothing you’d be interested in.” I waved my hand off like it was no big deal. “We both couldn’t sleep very well last night, you know, after the car and Callie is still dealing with Buster’s disappearance. We decided to get coffee and have a good talk. We figured it would be better if we stayed in the car, what with the tears and sobbing and all-tends to make people uncomfortable.” I shrugged knowingly and then wrapped my arms around myself. It was still pretty chilly out here, especially after coming out of my warm wooly cocoon.

He gave me a head nod, crossed his arms and then raised his eyebrows. “Well, that is about one of the worst stories that I’ve ever heard.” I hung my head, ready to take the scolding again. “But, I guess I’ll leave it alone. Obviously whatever it is you’re doing is nothing too serious, since you’re sitting in a car. You don’t take me for the drug dealing type, and I didn’t see anyone approaching your car in the thirty minutes I was watching.”

“You were watching our car for thirty minutes?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Well, I stopped in for some coffee and as I sat there I noticed that there was this car illegally parked. Normally it’s someone who’s darting in and out for coffee, but that wasn’t the case. I figured it was my duty as an officer to ask the car to move. Also, Gert, the parking enforcement officer in this area can be a real pain. She most likely would’ve given you guys a ticket.” He added and then took a sip of his steaming cup of coffee.

“Oh, well, thanks then. Well, I’m just going to run over to get some more coffee. Care to walk with me?” I made an attempt to look alluring. I wasn’t sure how it went over though, since I’d been sitting in the car half asleep for the last two hours.

Detective Smith glanced at me, then at the car and then at his coffee cup; the look on his face was hard to read.

“Well, I suppose I could use one last refill on my coffee. And, of course, I wouldn’t mind the company.” He smiled at me and this time I could tell that it was meant to be more than just as a polite officer.

I felt a little tug of guilt at using my apparent feminine wile to pull the wool over the detective’s eyes, and I hoped that the bit of time that I bought for Callie was enough to get us some sort of lead.

I survived the next ten minutes of small talk while getting more coffee. I learned that Detective Smith was an avid hiker and liked to read and that he was an enthusiastic lacrosse player. He even showed me a couple scars to prove it.

“So, this has been nice.” I turned to face him once we were back outside the coffee shop. “I guess that I should get back to Callie so we can get on with our day.” I started to walk off and he caught hold of my sleeve.

“Tansy, I’d really like to spend some more time with you. I know that you’re involved with someone right now, so I’m not asking you to make a choice or anything like that. I just really enjoy talking with you. I’m not sure what to say, I just know that I need to say something. I’ve never met anyone like you before-you’re vivacious and interesting, and kind hearted. I just think it would be fun to hang out and spend some time together is all.” He stuffed his free hand in his pocket and took a drink of coffee. He had caught me off guard; I had never expected him to actually talk about his obvious attraction. I guess that being a detective had taught him to be decisive and confident in his decisions, even if he did look like a little boy who had just pronounced his love to the girl next door. It was cute, and I was flattered.

“Um, okay. I’m not sure what to say-I’ve never had anyone say anything like that to me before.” His eyes started to lose some of their sparkle and hope and turn back to the familiar calculating yet thoughtful eyes; I smiled. “Alex, it’s nice. But, you’re right, I’m sort of in the middle of something right now and I’m not sure where it is headed. I have to take care of Callie too-she’s having a hard time dealing with Buster’s disappearance. That’s why we’re out here this morning.” I didn’t explain any further, and he didn’t ask me to.

“Well, I’m glad that you aren’t completely shutting me down, and that you remembered my first name.” He winked and the lightness returned to his voice and his eyes. “Can I walk you back to the car?” His radio crackled to life. “Bugger.”

“It sounds like they need you. I’ll be fine getting back. You take care.” I put my hand out on his arm. “It was really nice bumping into you this morning.” This time when I smiled I knew that I meant every word. It had been nice getting to know him. Yes, he still was a bit on the scrawny side for my taste, but he was funny and interesting, and well, if I wasn’t so caught up with Callie and didn’t have Sam waiting to take our relationship to the next level, I might have actually accepted a date. I’d never dated a police officer; it might be kind of exciting. Smith gave me a wave as he listened to the radio and said something in return. His ass wasn’t bad either, I thought, watching him walk back toward his car.

“Hey there,” I said, sliding into the Volkswagen. The windows had steamed up again and Callie started the engine and cranked up the defroster. She turned to me, very excited.

“I think we got something! What was the name of that bar on the matchbook you found? Mr. Peeps?” She didn’t wait for an answer before continuing. “Ya, well, anyway, it sounds like Ronnie and Mr. Big are going down there for a meeting or something.” She was like a kid in a candy store, to be cliche. I didn’t know how else to explain it. There was a light to her eyes that I hadn’t seen before and she was raring to go.

“Slow down! When is this meeting? Why do you think that it’s relevant?” I knew that it was my job to try and keep us grounded on this one. I didn’t need us chasing every potential lead that we ran across. “If we’re going to do this we have to be careful. We need to be sure that it’s something that might help us find Buster and figure out what is going on. We can’t risk having them see us and get suspicious.” I tried to bring some logical thinking back into the situation.

“It is! I know it! I heard Ronnie talking on the phone to some guy that had a Russian name-I can’t remember what it was, Anatoly or something like that. Then he went into Big’s office and shut the door. He told Big that they needed to go meet this guy down at Peep’s about the deal on Saturday. You can’t tell me it doesn’t sound like it’s related! You said that the Russian guy that you overheard with Big said something about being at the port on Saturday. I bet this ‘deal’ or whatever is what is going down.”