First Class Killing

Chapter 17

“YOU TOLD HERWHAT? HOW COULD YOU? What were you thinking?”

Harvey was beside himself. The numbness in his legs made it hard for him to pace, but he made an exception in this case, pushing himself from one end of his office to the other, even once around the couch. It seemed I was always driving him to new heights of consternation.

“It’s a test, Harvey.” I sat in one of the more worn chairs, plucking at a flaw in the upholstery where two mismatched seams had been forced together. It was a weird role reversal for me to be sitting while he was moving. “Angel has to have a reason to trust me. I have to prove that I’m willing to get as dirty as she is. That means I have to go on a date.”

“If you go through with this ridiculous plan, you will be alone in a hotel room with a strange man who will be expecting you to have sex with him. Do you not find that the least bit intimidating?” His voice was on the rise, becoming more and more high-pitched.

“I’ve handled worse than a horny businessman trying to get some on the side.” I hated sounding so cavalier, but his tendency to leap directly to Defcon One always forced me to the opposite end of the reaction spectrum: cool nonchalance. I never knew if it was sheer contrarian stubbornness that made me do that or a genuine quest for balance. “Again, I won’t have sex with him. The plan is to make Angel believe that I did.”

“By blackmailing him.” Now he was barely getting the words out. His voice had a strangled quality, as if he had a tourniquet around his throat.

“Harvey, all I need…”I sat back and tried hard not to get pulled into his hysteria. “All I need him to do is call whoever he’s supposed to call and tell them I did the deed. What I need you to do is find me some leverage so I can convince him that would be a good idea.”

“Like what?”

“The names of his wife and kids.” I stared down at my hands on my knees, then looked up in time to see the withering look before he turned his back. “ Harvey, the man will be in a hotel room expecting to have sex with a hooker. He will not be entirely blameless.”

“My objection has less to do with his integrity than mine. And yours. I find this tactic despicable.”

“Me, too. But this is the business we’re in. We deal with despicable people, Angel Velesco chief among them. Besides, what else do we have? Do we have top swappers?”

“Not as of yet.”

I tried to think of the other avenues we’d been pursuing. “I just gave Felix the information yesterday. It’s too soon for anything there. What about that detective from Omaha? That woman’s murder. Did he ever call you?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t tell me?”

“He said nothing, only that the case was solved, there were no loose ends, and he had no real interest in resurrecting a murder that was difficult enough the first time around.”

“Difficult how?”

“To have a young flight attendant beaten to death on a layover in Omaha was quite the civic black eye, as you can well imagine.”

“Is it worth pursuing?”

“Doubtful.”

“Then what do we have if I don’t find a way to get close to Angel?”

He continued to move around, albeit more slowly and in a more confined area. “I do not like this. Not one bit. Why did you keep me in the dark about going to meet her?”

“Did you check your messages? Because I left one on your home phone.”

“I must have been on the computer.”

“And your cell phone wasn’t on, as usual. I am reporting to you now, minutes after having left the woman. She’s still on the massage table.”

He fumed around a little more. I checked my watch. I was due to meet Tristan at the range within the hour. He had not appreciated my last late arrival. “Do you want to quit now when we’re so close?”

He did an abrupt change in course and ended up in front of my chair. “That is the same argument you have been using on me for the past week. It is a specious argument at best.”

“What is specious about it?”

“Every time we get close, the line moves. You keep moving it.”

“ Harvey, the case is not finished. I don’t want to quit when there is still work to be done and we have the time.”

“If we use the time Mr. Wolff gave us and we come back with nothing, it could be disastrous.”

“On the other hand, imagine walking into the briefing on Monday with a full list of all the hookers, a detailed description of how the scheduling works, and proof that these women are being paid for sex. We’d blow them away. That’s what we get if we get the Web master. If I pass this test, it puts me one step closer.”

“You are sure she has one of those?”

“A Web master? Positive. She told me she hates computers. They make her eyes glaze over. Machines aren’t her thing. People are her thing.”

He made his way over to his bookcase, where he began touching each book on one of the shelves, running his index finger along the spine, top to bottom. Checking for dust? He held his free arm awkwardly at his side.

“I can’t do this without you, Harvey.”

“How will we know which flight you will be on?”

“The call comes in advance.” I considered it a positive that he was beginning to think specifically about the plan.

“How far in advance?”

“A day. They’ll arrange the date and set up the swaps to put me on the right flight. Then they’ll call me with the flight number and the code names for the client and me.”

“Code names.” That elicited a humorless chuckle. “Like spies.”

“Once I know the flight, we can pretty much narrow the options to men booked in first class. The date will be one of them.”

He continued doggedly swiping spines until he had finished one row and begun the next. “I do not like it.”

“You said that. What else, specifically?”

“We are not prepared for an operation of this nature. It is too dangerous.”

“I can appreciate your concern, but supposedly these clients are well vetted. I’ll be fine.”

“You cannot know that.”

“I also don’t know if the next plane I board will crash, but I get on it anyway.”

“That is not a valid comparison.” He turned toward me and was suddenly fully engaged. “There is an infinitesimal risk that your airplane will crash, a conclusion based on millions upon millions of hours of data analyzed over-”

“All right, then.” He did have the ability to drive me crazy. “Let’s make a decision based on the data. Depending on what you find out, we can decide at the time whether I go in or back off. That’s the ultimate out, right? I can be a no-show.”

“It won’t work.”

“Why not?”

“Because no matter what I find, you won’t back off.”

I twisted my watch around my wrist but managed not to look at it. “If you get me good information about this man that suggests I shouldn’t proceed, then I won’t. But you have to promise you’ll do the best you can to find the dirt, that you won’t rig the outcome. I have to be able to trust you.”

“We will have to trust each other.”