Last Call

Chapter 15

The meeting was inside Theo's office at Sparky's Tavern. Jack didn't like the venue, but the idea was Andie's. She got her way – with one notable exception.

"Theo isn't coming," said Jack as he closed the office door.

She wheeled and gave him a look of complete surprise – more like Andie the might-have-been girlfriend than the poker-faced Agent Henning.

"What do you mean he's not coming?" she said.

With a conciliatory wave of the hand, Jack offered her a seat on the couch. She didn't take it. Jack crossed the room and braced himself against the front edge of Theo's desk, half sitting and half standing, his arms folded. The entire room had been swept free of the usual clutter – no papers atop the desk, no Post-its on the computer screen, no receipts and records scattered across the floor and furnishings. Even the wall calendar was gone. Theo had followed Jack's cleanup order to the letter: leave nothing for the wandering eye of the FBI.

Jack said, "Don't read anything into this from a personal or investigative standpoint. He's merely following the advice of his lawyer."

"You and I had a deal," she said.

"And we still do, if you remain willing to share the 'something of interest' that required us to meet in Theo's office."

"You were supposed to let me talk to Theo."

"I can answer your questions."

"That's changing the deal."

"That's the only one on the table"

"You're being a pain in the ass."

"Some things change," he said with a shrug, "and some things stay the same."

She smiled a little, as if to confirm that she had the energy to butt heads all day long, and he smiled back. Jack had a lot of time and effort invested in Rene, but for a quick moment, a part of him could imagine the fun in sparring with Andie about everything from unreasonable search and seizure to who would end up on top at night.

Her smile faded, and she put on her business face. "Where was Theo on Sunday morning between midnight and three a.m.?"

"He was working at his bar until the cops came looking for Isaac Reems. I told him to go somewhere. He ended up at his girlfriend's and spent the night at her place."

"Would that be Katrina?"

"Trina. She stopped going by Katrina when the hurricane hit."

Again, Andie showed surprise, but it wasn't about the name change. "They're still together?"

Jack wasn't sure how to take it, but her tone almost seemed to ask, How the heck did Theo and Trina outlast us? "Yeah, still together."

"Doing well, I hope."

"Doing just fine." Jack didn't bother with the tale of the Prince Albert.

"Can anyone confirm that he was with Trina that night?"

"Trina can."

She rolled her eyes. "Other than her, wiseguy."

"No, but let me save you a lot of time. Theo didn't kill Isaac Reems."

"I'm not saying he did. I'm not even here on a homicide investigation. Not my jurisdiction."

"It sounds like you're making it your jurisdiction."

"I'm just trying to find out who on the outside was able to get the guards on the inside to look the other way long enough for Isaac Reems to bust out of the TGK correctional facility."

"I hope you find out. But I'd really like to know why you're looking here."

"Because Theo and Isaac were fellow juvenile delinquents back in the 'hood. Because the first place he went when he busted out of prison was Theo's bar. Because the last time Reems was seen alive he was less than four miles from Sparky's Tavern. Because he was found shot on the same street that the Grove Lords used to cruise as teenagers."

"Based on that, you think Theo helped Reems escape from prison?"

"I know Theo, and I have a really hard time believing that he would do something so stupid. But I have to do my job. And there's one other thing in the mix."

"I can't wait to hear it."

"Theo's phone line was tapped."

Lawyer's instinct kicked in: Confront devastating news with righteous indignation. "You tapped his telephone?" he said in an angry voice.

I didn't say I did."

"I meant law enforcement."

"Ah, the 'royal you.'"

"The 'totalitarian you.'"

"Hold your horses," she said. "It's not what you think."

Jack hoped not. His deal with the state attorney was no searches of the premises, no taps on Theo's telephone. Things were going to get very sticky if the FBI knew about Reems's phone messages to Theo. Be cool, Swyteck. "What are you trying to tell me?"

"There was never an official wiretap of any of Theo's phone lines."

"I'm not sure I'm following this."

"One of the agencies – not me, mind you – sought a warrant, but things don't always move fast on weekends. By the time it was issued and the tech people started acting, it was early Sunday morning. They stopped as soon as they detected an existing power drain on the line."

"Are you saying that Theo's line was already tapped?"

She nodded. But it still wasn't clear to Jack if law enforcement had picked up Reems's messages to Theo. "Do you mean his home or his office?" he said.

"The plan was to tap both. The power drain was on his home line."

That was what Jack had feared. "Whose tap was it?"

"That's the big question."

"Some other branch of law enforcement?"

"No official wiretap would be that easily detected. This isn't the old days where telephone exchanges were mechanical and technicians had to link circuits together to route the audio signal from the call. It's digital technology and done by computer."

"So Theo's line was tapped by someone outside of law enforcement?"

She nodded again.

"You never did actually get a wiretap?"

"No. By the time all this was brought to my attention, Reems's body had already been found."

Jack breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Andie said, "I told you I was going to share something of interest.

"You are true to your word, lady."

"I'm glad you feel that way. Now let's see if you are. When was the last time Theo had any communication with Isaac Reems?"

"I'll have to check with Theo. Let me get back to you on that."

"You gotta be kidding me, Swyteck."

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

"Do I look like I could kill you?"

"Like I said before, some things change." He crossed the room and opened the door for her. "Some things don't."