His face clouded over. “This is about Musclehead, isn’t it?”
Finished with her makeup, Melanie walked into the bedroom. Steve followed her and laid Maya down carefully in the center of the big bed, placing pillows all around her.
“You mean Dan?” Melanie asked, opening the closet door.
“That guy from the other night.”
“No, not at all. He has nothing to do with it.”
“Wait a minute, is he going on this trip, too? Is this even a work trip?” Steve was asking.
“Of course it’s a work trip! Steve, come on, do you think I would lie to you about that?” she said, turning to him.
He looked down at the floor and then back up at her. He actually looked upset. She felt bad, what with him being so nice about Maya and all.
“I hope not. You wouldn’t, would you?” Steve said.
“Of course not. Listen, the fact of the matter is, I had a huge fight with Dan and we’re not even speaking. It’s going to be totally awkward dealing with him. And there’ll be lots of other people from the team around.”
“Okay. Good. I’m relieved to hear that.”
Melanie found her summer stuff in the back of the closet and picked out a suit with a fairly short skirt. What the hell, she needed a lift. She’d wear it with heels and no hose, freeze on the plane, but show some leg stepping onto the jetway in her ancestral land.
Steve watched her as she got dressed.
“You sure you wanna wear that? If you make Musclehead come after you again, I might have to beat the crap out of him.”
“Will you stop about him?”
“I know, but it’s like I can’t help thinking about it. Seeing him here the other night, I realized how much I hated the idea of you with another guy. Amazing what a little competition’ll do for your perspective, huh?”
She shot him a disgusted look. One thing she could always count on with Steve: Whenever they started getting along, he was sure to go and ruin it.
41
ON THE PLANE Melanie sat alone while Dan and Bridget sat together several rows behind her, a result of the fact that two different government agencies had purchased their tickets. This was fine with Melanie, since she was still fuming at Dan. But she was desperate for an update on what had happened at Screen last night and whether her plan to get Esposito talking about Carmen Reyes had worked. When the Fasten Seat Belt sign was turned off, she’d swallow her pride and go ask them.
They beat her to the punch. Surprisingly, given that it was the beginning of holiday travel season, the seat next to Melanie was empty. The minute the sign went off, Bridget appeared and dropped down beside her.
“Hey,” she said cheerfully.
“Hey,” Melanie replied flatly. She wasn’t in a terrific mood, and she found Bridget annoying at the best of times.
“Dan sent me to fill you in on developments in the case.”
Gee, thanks a lot. Couldn’t talk to me yourself? But, she should remember, she was the one who’d told him to shove off.
“Great. I really want to hear how it went at Screen last night, but speak quietly.” Melanie leaned closer to Bridget, who was wearing perfume and an uncharacteristic amount of makeup. She looked alarmingly pretty, in fact.
“Trev had a major breakthrough,” Bridget said.
“He found out about Carmen?” Melanie asked eagerly.
“No, even better. They asked him to mule tomorrow’s shipment.”
“Are you serious? In his stomach?”
“I mean, we won’t let it get to that point, but yeah. Is that the best, or what? We never thought we’d get so lucky. Oh, and just so you feel okay about things, there was no sign of trouble from Expo whatsoever. They went for it hook, line, and sinker.”
“I don’t get it. Did Trevor even ask about Carmen? I mean, how did the idea of him muling come up?”
“There was an interception last night over Expo’s phone that-”
“Shhh!” Melanie said, looking around.
“Oh, right.” Bridget lowered her voice. “It’s Expo talking to this guy Bud LNU.”
“LNU” was cop talk for “Last Name Unknown,” pronounced “La-NOO” when spoken aloud. Melanie’s first week on the job, she’d been assigned several unrelated cases with subjects known only by first names, and she’d assumed the Lnus were some depraved Vietnamese crime family who, unbeknownst to her, had come to dominate New York City’s underworld. The senior prosecutor who enlightened her had a good laugh at her expense.
“Trevor told us about this Bud guy. An associate of Expo’s, right?” Melanie asked.
“Yeah. We thought he was a lieutenant, and maybe he is. But Expo seems to be taking a lot of cues from him. Who knows, maybe Bud’s really the one pulling the strings.”
“So what did they say?” Get to the point! she felt like screaming.
“Dan has the line sheet. You can read the call. Check out the part where Expo goes ‘anybody listening can suck my dick.’ I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants.”
“No, what did they say about Carmen? That was the whole idea, remember? To see if we could get them talking about what happened to her?”
“Oh. Hmm. Well, they didn’t say much about Carmen. I mean, it wasn’t clear to me from this call that these guys had anything to do with her disappearance at all. Anyway, about the drug case, the plan is for Trev to fly down this afternoon with one of the bodyguards. We’re gonna be all over it with surveillance. Ray-Ray and another guy on the flight. Tons of guys in the airports. You, me, and Dan and some backup from the locals at the El San Juan Hotel.”
Melanie gave up on asking about Carmen. She’d read the call, and maybe that would tell her something. But Bridget was useless, so Melanie might as well focus on worrying about the other vulnerable young witness.
“Listen, Bridget, I’m not convinced this is a smart idea. No matter how much surveillance we do, how can we protect Trevor sufficiently? He’ll still be out of our sight a lot of the time, in their custody.”
“Lieutenant Albano already gave the green light. This is the biggest break in the case so far.”
The flight attendant pulled a wheeled metal cart up to Melanie’s row, braking it with her foot.
“Something to drink?” she asked Bridget.
“Oh, I’m seated a few rows back. I’ll go back to my seat.”
“Coffee, please,” Melanie said.
“Hey, do you have, like, a mirror or a compact or something?” Bridget asked.
“Yes, but it’s under my seat. I can’t reach it now,” said Melanie. The flight attendant was in the process of pouring hot coffee into a cup on Melanie’s open tray table.
“How’s my friend doing?” Bridget said, pointing to a big pimple on her chin. “My zit had to come to Puerto Rico, too. Doesn’t that always happen just when you’re trying to impress a guy? Is it really bad?”
“No, it’s fine,” Melanie lied. Actually, it was pretty bad, now that she mentioned it. The foundation makeup Bridget had caked onto it only made it more obvious. And then, because she couldn’t resist, even though she knew the answer, Melanie asked, “So which guy are you trying to impress?”
“Dan!” Bridget practically squealed. “Isn’t he hot? I have a total crush on him. I think he likes me, too. We went out for beers last night.”
Melanie had to swallow very carefully to avoid choking on her coffee. “Really? Did you have fun?”
“Oh, yeah, big time! I mean, nothing sexual or anything. Not yet. I want him to look at me like a potential long-term relationship, so no hootchy-kootchy on the first date.”
“It was a date?”