HARD CASE (A John Harding Novel - Special Ops, Cage Fighter, CIA Agent) (30 page)

I couldn’t think of any objections. “As long as you two stay inside I’m okay with that. Take the Chevy to school.”

“Thanks, John.”

I looked at my watch. “It’s almost ten. I’ll be home sometime after midnight.”

“Will you need a ride?”

“I’ll call a cab. Get some sleep.”

After I hung up I stood outside the bar gawking up at the clear night sky like some rube in the middle of a cornfield, my windbreaker allowing more than a little cool breeze through. In reality I was counting my blessings. A lot of innocent people would have been killed if I hadn’t taken an interest in my little twin neighbors and struck up a relationship with Alexi. Bad guys died today and I’m still breathing. It’s always a precarious notion to go out and celebrate anything but I’m not much at hiding. I figure when my time’s up I don’t want to look back wonderin’ why I didn’t have a few when I had the chance. I usually celebrated alone at home with music or 1080P HD but I thought I’d run into some of my OPD pals. Denny would be interested in anything I picked up about our gun battles at a major tourist spot.

Besides, tomorrow I have to start work on neighborhood renovation in the form of gang-banger adjustment. That will take some recon and planning. Then there’s the little item of finding out whether I have a lawyer for my business or not. I took a deep breath of the cool air and walked in the side entrance. I spotted Earl and Jeff Furlong back in the game room. Marla’s working the bar so I stop to order first. There’s a pretty good crowd at the dining tables and the bar. I nod at some familiar faces who give me a wave.

“Hey, Champ. What can I get you? Is it a Bud and Beam night?”

“Right as rain, Marla. No foul taste to get rid of, but I feel like a little celebrating for no apparent reason. Better run a tab for me.”

Marla chuckles while putting a double shot and Budweiser in front of me. “Just plop the empties on the bar if you want refills. Earl asked about you when he came in.”

“I’m headin’ over there now. Thanks, Marla.”

“Enjoy.”

I sipped my Beam while approaching the police department representatives. I stopped to exchange pleasantries with a few I knew at the tables that have to be threaded through to reach the gaming half of the bar. By the time I made it around the corner Earl was already gesturing at me. I didn’t see any smile so I figured our set to at the Square must have drawn a lot of attention, especially with the near riot meant as a diversion. Since I was certain both the restaurant inside and the pier outside had security cameras I figured to be a star in most of the footage. Cleanup gathers all video evidence but there’s always some stuff missed in this day and age.

“Hi Earl… Jeff.”

“I’m surprised to see you in here.” Earl’s looking me over with professional curiosity. “Give me the short of it, John. All security tapes were confiscated. Whoever those suits were, smoothing things out, ordered us to scour the entire area to gather up all video taken by onlookers. ‘Rique and me took a peak before handing the stuff over. That business at the JL was serious action and you were the star. What the hell you into?”

I’d gone over all kinds of answers for a confrontation. I had decided on a very short version of the truth. “Where’s ‘Rique?”

“Home. He wasn’t allowed out tonight. Don’t change the subject.”

“It was an action related to Homeland Security. I can’t tell you any more than that, Earl.”

“That’s plenty, John. I assume you’re on the right side of it though?”

I grinned and took a long gulp of Bud. “Are you trying to insult me?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“We were just surprised, John,” Jeff added. “Earl and ‘Rique know you pretty well. Hell, Earl says he’s known you for years. They had no clue you did anything other than-”

“Break legs and faces?”

Jeff shrugged. “Something like that.”

“I do stuff on kind of a contracting basis and I’m still in the Corps reserve. I need to ask if you guys heard much get leaked out to the news or if there’s a lot of speculation about what happened. Is the kidnapping ring story holding? That is what the major part of it was in reality.”

“It’s holding,” Earl answered. “That’s what you’ll be seeing on the news and in the papers. Should we be worried about something a hell of a lot worse?”

“Nope.”

“I never figured you for a secret agent man in a million years.”

“I’m not, Earl.” I’d gulped my stuff faster than I meant to. I felt it right down to my toes. “Let me get a couple more. I’ll be right back.”

Jeff blocked me. He took my empties and walked to the bar without a word.

“Did the riot mess you guys up in the front?”

Earl shook his head in the negative. “The neat timed tip we received put us in the right place at the right time. We were all over them before they got out of hand. So, it was meant to be a riot?”

“Yep. It was meant to cover the kidnapping.”

“I wish we could nail those gang-bangin’ pricks for it,” Earl replied as Jeff arrived back with my Bud and Beam.

Jeff handed me my refills. “Was Ms. Connagher the target?”

“She was an unfortunate addition to the mess. Samira Karim, whom I’m taking care of for the next few weeks was the prime target. What’s the rumor mill churning out?”

“Suicide bomber, terrorist cells… you know… the usual,” Earl answered. “Care to confirm or deny for us simple uniforms?”

“Confirmed and taken care of, thank God, because it was mostly due to plain old dumb luck or divine intervention. The three letter suits are busily rounding up all the participants.”

“I hate that luck out scenario,” Jeff commented. “How often… oh yeah… you can’t tell us anything anyway. I’m glad it worked out in our favor.”

“How does all this change our run-ins from now on, John?” Earl let a slow smile spread on his face as I polished off my Beam without answering. “I have to hand it to you. You never pulled the secret-agent-man card on us when we took you downtown. Do you have a get-out-of-jail-free-card you can pull?”

“I’m talking to you guys tonight because I don’t want to get relocated. If what happened today is under the radar we can keep on helping each other and I won’t have to take up residence in Bumfuck, Idaho.”

Earl and Jeff yucked it up for a few moments in appreciation of my declaration.

“It went down without any notice, John. Most speculation will be rumors. I’m glad you came by to fill us in. We were debating whether to stop over at your place and bring you in.”

“If there are any repercussions you guys hear about, I’d appreciate a heads-up.”

“I hope that goes both ways, John.” I can tell Earl is thinking about what I hadn’t told them about the Square adventure. “You’ve always been straight up with us, I hope, if our lives out there were in danger.”

“Nothing’s ever come up like this before, Earl. You can damn well believe I’d tip you if something like this ever surfaces again. The tip about the bangers doing a Mehserle protest to cover for the kidnapping attempt didn’t come to us until an hour before it happened.”

“That’s good enough for me. We have to call it a night. C’mon, Jeff. Take care, John.”

“You too, Earl. See ya, Jeff.”

“We’ll call you if the media start playin’ this any other way.” Jeff followed Earl out with a wave.

Watching the two OPD exiting the bar, I’m thinking Denny would probably be less than thrilled with how much I let slip. Gulping down the last of my Bud and Beam I decided to sip another duo at the bar slowly while I listened to the sounds of relative normalcy for a while. As I made my way to the bar, Tess’s sister Lora entered through the front entrance. I thought karma was catching up to me and the shit hit the fan, but when Lora saw me she waved and smiled. She was wearing an ankle length black cashmere coat that highlighted her long red hair. Lora hurried over to me and grabbed my hand.

“John! Jafar told me you might be here. Thank you for saving Tess today.”

“I wasn’t alone, Lora. What brings you out here tonight? Is everything okay?”

Lora’s smile faded. She looked around the bar quickly before pulling me toward an empty table. “Maybe we better sit down.”

I caught Marla’s eye and held up my empty Bud bottle. She nodded and I sat down with Lora. “Would you like a drink?”

Lora shook her head no at the waiting Marla. “I’m driving so I think not. Tess is gone. She left you this note.”

I accepted the envelope Lora handed me while Marla delivered my drinks.

“Pace yourself, Champ,” Marla needled me.

“I will, Mommy.”

Marla laughed and slapped me on the back of the head before returning to the bar. I opened the envelope and read the letter inside. It seemed Tess had an offer from a firm back in Boston she’d been contemplating along with my offer. Today’s cluster-fuck decided things for her. She wanted no more to do with Government Inc. or me for that matter. Among the niceties like ‘I’ll always care for you, John’ and she ‘hoped to see me again one day’, the bottom line was Tess had packed a few things before getting the hell out of Dodge. I can’t say I blamed her but it did leave me high and dry for a lawyer. Yeah, Tess was a special friend, and I’d miss her; but we were oil and water – we didn’t mix well, and she’d nearly been killed playing around in my world. I folded away the envelope into my pocket and smiled reassuringly at Lora who had been watching me closely.

“That was a quick turnaround.”

“Tess called me over to her place. She told me what had happened while she packed. She also told me how bad she feels about leaving you in the lurch with your business. I know she had contacts with the government through her old firm and you were going to use her already built-up relationships with them.”

I wish Tess would have scrammed without involving her sister. She could have mailed the letter to me. Now, Lora knows too much. “May I suggest forgetting everything she’s told you for your own safety?”

Lora smiled with a similar know-it-all look I’d seen gracing Tess’s face before she learned the facts of life in covert society. “She’d been drinking while packing. My Mom volunteered to drive with her and the cat back to Boston and see some old friends. Tess told me everything. She left the gun you gave her with me.”

There’s some good news. Lora gets a little impatient when I simply sip my Beam without comment. I figure what’s the use of being drawn into a conversation with no exit strategy. Lora nudges me.

“Well?”

“Well what? Believe what you want, Lora. You know everything so what is it you want from me? If you’re dopey enough to start playing games with your daughter’s life at risk, then keep shooting your mouth off. I suggest you remember what happened to your sister in your decision making processes.”

“You’re wound a little tight… even with chugging what you’re putting down. I don’t want anything from you. I want a job application. Alice getting used as a Russian gangster’s family scenario convinced me it doesn’t matter what the hell I do, I can’t protect her. Maybe I could learn how from you.”

Okay, she has my attention. Lora doesn’t look away when I decide to bond a little with my patented death stare. Just like with Tess, I’m not Lora’s mommy, and I like redheads. Did I feel a twinge of regret Tess dumped me and my business? Yep. Was I going into mourning over it? Nope. “For conversation’s sake, why not relocate to where your ex lives in Arizona and what exactly do you think you’d be applying for, Lora?”

“I love the Bay Area weather. I’m not moving to that damn furnace. Tess probably never told you but I have a master’s degree in psychology and-”

“Big whoop.”

“And a BA degree in accounting. I also worked five years for a law firm in Boston as an intern during my college years. In addition to that I worked as an intern in Washington D.C. for a couple of years.”

Hello. “Tess told me your Mom helped you and Chuck while you both attended college. I have an associate who knows business. What the hell would I need with a bookkeeper?”

“I don’t look like an East Oakland leg-breaker. You need an attractive presence out front. I know what you do and I don’t care.”

“You know what Tess knows. Don’t assume you know me. If you did, you’d have put the envelope in a mailbox which is what I figure Tess intended for you to do.”

Lora giggled – a rather attractive sound. “She did. I carefully avoided any mention of getting in touch with you because I knew she wouldn’t like it. I saw the looks she gave us when I hugged you in the school parking lot. I also felt your interest rising, too, by the way.”

The Bud and Beam’s were having their effect on me because the older sis was starting to grow on me. My objection to this was I didn’t need a former law intern. I needed a real lawyer. She read my mind.

“I know you need a lawyer. My expertise is I am a great recruiter of good talent. You want an up and comer with skill and no clients. I’ll find one for you and act as go between. I’ll work for a third what you planned on giving Tess. The rest can be used for our law associate – one who knows our business comes first. In the meantime I’ll start working on my own law degree.”

I take a swallow of beer while my addled brain absorbs Lora’s proposal. Damn… this was raining on my little celebration. I should have known. “I’m going to get something to eat. Want to join me? Where’s Alice by the way?”