“Mulqueen’s all right. She reminds me of my dog when he was a puppy. All paws but a lot of heart. She might even make a decent cop someday.”
“Mmm-hmm, I thought so,” Melanie said, smiling.
“No way, you got me all wrong, sweetheart. I’m not egotistical like that,” he said, smiling back.
“Oh, right. There isn’t a man alive who doesn’t love some girl looking at him like he’s God’s gift.”
“If you looked at me that way, that’d be another story. That, I would like. But you need taming. I’d be doing the world a favor, getting Melanie Vargas into line. In fact, you better watch out, because I just might decide to try it.”
“Taming? You’re gonna pay for that remark, pal.”
“Yeah, says who? I’m bigger than you, in case you haven’t noticed.”
She’d noticed, all right. His reminding her of that fact set her pulse to racing.
“Will you please stop distracting me from work?” she said, a warm, tingly feeling spreading through her body.
“Aw, c’mon, give it a rest with the work stuff. I’m having a lot more fun joking around with you.”
“Resting is for dead people, baby.”
“Lucky you look so good, because you can be a royal pain in the backside,” Dan said, grinning, as he changed lanes smoothly and headed for the Sixty-first Street exit.
“Seriously, though. I think there’s a connection between Carmen Reyes going missing and the internal carries,” Melanie said.
“Yeah, that reminds me, I had an idea. What do you think of this? Maybe it wasn’t that Carmen witnessed something or nothing. Maybe she’s just scheduled to move the new shipment on Friday. The one Brianna Meyers mentioned in her e-mail. So they’re keeping her on ice till then.”
“Hmm. That’s very interesting. But do you really think Expo would use her as a courier now that her name’s been in the paper?”
“Good point. Although the guy’s pretty brazen. And stupid,” Dan said.
“He could always have her travel with false papers.”
“We should cover our bases, don’t you think? We know the route. We know the likely dates of travel. Get her picture out to the guys at the airport, and Carmen shouldn’t be too tough to spot.”
“Yeah, fine, but I’m not prepared to wait till Friday. I think she’s in danger, and I think we need to do more to find her now.”
“Like what? Her description and photo are on every database. We checked out her known contacts, took a hard look at her routine, but we came up empty so far. This is a big town. Where else do we look?”
“I have an idea,” Melanie said.
“Okay. Shoot.”
“We have a cell number for Expo, right? Why not write for his phone?”
“You mean do a wiretap?”
“Yes.”
“Wouldn’t it take a while to develop probable cause?” Dan asked.
“We don’t have a while. We use whatever we’ve got now and see if we can sneak it past a judge.”
“What do we even have to put in an affidavit?” Dan asked.
“Well, Whitney Seward calling Expo’s cell phone, including the night the girls died. Brianna Meyers texting Trevor that they were escorted to Puerto Rico. The flight manifest confirming that it was Esposito riding shotgun, when you get it.”
“Whoa, hold your horses, princess. I did get it. Negative on that.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, sorry I forgot to mention it. I tracked down the manifests from the flights Whitney and Brianna took to and from Puerto Rico. No Esposito.”
“Shit!”
“Yeah.”
“Shit!”
“I know.”
“Maybe he flew under a false name?” she offered.
“How we gonna prove that? You pointed out before, Puerto Rico’s a domestic flight. No immigration checks, so no fingerprint scans.”
“Well, all right, let’s think what else we can use. We still have all the background from your friend’s old case on Esposito, that he was previously investigated for heroin trafficking. We have the suggestion in Brianna’s text that there’s a new shipment scheduled for Friday.”
“Isn’t it all shot down by the fact that we tried making a buy tonight and came up with squat? So we don’t got any drugs to put on the table to show a judge there’s an ongoing operation here.”
“Yes, we do! The balloons of heroin from Brianna’s stomach. When you put that together with Expo’s past history, it’s something anyway. Right?”
He grinned. “You got guts, I’ll say that for you. Not too many prosecutors I know would go to a judge with such crappy evidence. They’d be too worried about their precious reputations.”
“I’m more worried about this missing girl.”
“I know. That’s good. Refreshing.”
“Oh, and one more thing. Esposito let something slip. I think he lost a swallower before. A female, probably Puerto Rican, by the name of Mirta. If we could corroborate that, we’d have a slam dunk.”
Dan pulled into an empty parking space on Melanie’s block.
“See? I remembered where you live,” he said, holding her gaze as he shut down the engine. With the heat off, the car’s interior instantly cooled to frigid, but Melanie was in no hurry to get out. It was months ago now that they’d kissed, but she hadn’t forgotten what Dan tasted like or the feel of his powerful arms around her.
“You remember my address from that one time?” she said, seeing her breath in the frosty air.
“It was twice. Besides, I’ve been stalking you.”
“I don’t think so,” she said, her voice low and flirtatious. “I’d’ve noticed you.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m good at what I do. Nobody makes my surveillance unless I want ’em to.”
He reached out and twined his fingers into her hair where it lay against her neck. Her heart started hammering wildly inside her chest.
“I knew you were crazy,” she said, her eyes fixing on his strong, sensual mouth.
“When it comes to you, I’m a total fucking lunatic.”
He slid his hands down the sides of her heavy winter coat and grabbed her by the hips, hauling her over the gearshift so she sat in his lap, facing him, her back pressed against the steering wheel. For a small eternity, they stared into each other’s eyes, not even touching, their breathing growing heavier. She felt the muscles of his thighs under her and arched her back to press herself more firmly down against him. Oh, yes. They hadn’t even kissed yet, but she was burning up with desire. Not just because she was starved for sex either; it was Dan, the effect he had on her.
He reached out, took her by the hair, and pulled her face toward him. His hands were trembling. Their mouths met greedily. His was hot and rough and demanding, tasting of the beer he’d drunk in the bar, yet, miraculously, soft and sweet, too. Jesus, she thought, I could lose myself in this man.
She pulled away, momentarily shaken by the intensity of the kiss. “Dan-”
“Don’t,” he said, looking up at her, his eyes vacant, heavy-lidded.
“It’s just my mother I think is up there sitting with Maya, and-”
He put his hand over her mouth. “Don’t say anything. I don’t want to know about the limits you’re putting on this or what you don’t feel or why you can’t be with me. This can be anything you want. It can be just sex. If I’m setting myself up for a fall, that’s my problem. I’ll take my chances. But I’m coming upstairs with you now.”
SHE WAS GLAD it was late enough that Hector had gone off duty. The night-shift guy Melanie barely knew, and she scarcely acknowledged him as she and Dan hurried to the elevator.