‘Can we change the subject please,’ I said. ‘What’s for dinner? Champagne always gives me a good appetite.’
‘Appetite?’
‘Before food. As in the dinner you promised.’
‘I say anything about dinner?’
She grabbed my hand and the bottle and walked me out of the kitchen to the bedroom, sitting me on her bed.
‘Haven’t you heard, eating’s cheating,’ she said as she undid my belt.
35
We were in Dooley’s office. Jay, Jonah, Dooley, and me, smoking Cohibas and drinking wine. Jay’s sister had returned to New York.
I’d received that morning an e-mail from Pandora in Detroit; ‘That’s Johnny, honey. Definitely not my type. Big kisses to you and Jonah.’
I deleted it from the computer files together with the e-mail I’d originally sent to her.
Jay said, looking at Jonah, ‘So Milo tells me you’re not coming back to London with us today?’
‘Not today,’ he said. ‘I got me a far better offer.’
‘What’s that?’
‘My friend Lori has a business trip to Grand Cayman for a few days for some high powered conference on money laundering. She’s allowed to take a friend of the same or the opposite sex, these being enlightened days in big corporations. So I’m tagging along for some very high finance and some deep down scuba diving.’
‘We called it muff diving in my days gone by,’ said Dooley.
‘Mine too,’ said Jay. ‘Days very long gone,’ looking straight at me.
The Miami Herald was on Dooley’s desk with a follow-up story on the arms deal and the murders in Boone Dock. Sayers had been officially identified as one of the victims. Further serious outstanding charges against Irish were being investigated. Certain leads were also being investigated on the killings.
Dooley read out the highlights, having earlier put our insurance copy of the video cassette of the lakeside hit into his wall safe, with a further copy in his bank safe deposit.
‘I still can’t believe what happened to Sayers,’ said Jay.
‘Sounds like he got what he deserved,’ I said. ‘It’s no loss to humanity.’
‘Is this really the end of my problems with him? You don’t think someone else he knew is going to appear with some new extortion scheme?’ said Jay.
I said, ‘No way. Stuff he showed you was bullshit. You won’t hear from anyone else. Besides he would have been too greedy to involve any third party. Except Irish for muscle, that is. Don’t give it any more thought. Or send flowers to the funeral.’
‘Tell me honestly, Milo. What did you guys have to do with his death?’ she said. ‘Or perhaps I just don’t need to know.’
I said, ‘No.’
‘Is that no, you didn’t have anything to do with it? Or no, I don’t need to know?’
‘Yes,’ I said, although I knew she knew.
‘OK. I give up. What will happen to Irish?’
‘Don’t worry about him. He’s got a long stretch in some federal pen to keep him occupied for a generation or two. He’s getting hit with more than these charges. Then there’s some matters with the Immigration Service.’
It was time to leave for Miami International. I said goodbye to all at the office as Jonah went off to get some business resort gear.
Dooley drove us to Miami International where we said a brief au revoir.
‘Thanks, bro,’ was all Dooley said at the airport in farewell, shaking my hand.
He hugged Jay, charging her with responsibility to keep an eye on me, then he drove back to South Beach.
We checked in and boarded our direct flight to Heathrow. We had adjacent seats in the upstairs business class cabin.
Jay said, ‘I’ve finally got you to myself. You sit next to the window so you can’t escape. I’m going to check out the loo for its Mile-High Club possibilities.’
Jay went to the rear of the cabin. I put my bag into the overhead locker. As I was about to sit down a tray of glasses of champagne and orange juice was put in front of me. A voice above the tray said, ‘Coffee, tea or me. It’s your choice. And not necessarily in that order.’
I looked up. It was Eva and a widescreen smile.
She said, ‘I was on a call roster and had to come over to Miami at a couple of hours’ notice. I was going to get hold of you but we had minimum turnaround and I was rushed and tired and couldn’t get it together. Not even time to leave our hotel. But here you are on my flight again. Is this fate?’
Jay returned to the seat. We all stood motionless, an equilateral triangle welded to the deck. There was an uneasy silence. A potential ménage à trois this was not.
‘Jay,’ I said at last. ‘This is Eva. A friend of mine. Eva, meet Jay. A friend of mine.’
The girls looked at each other. Longer than they should have. Then they looked at me. Longer than they should have. Eva was right, it was fate. My kind of fate.
I took a glass of champagne and sat down. This was going to be a long and interesting flight, in the Chinese sense of interesting.
I put on my airline eyeshades.
Table of Contents
About the Author
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedications
Also by Warren Roberts
Preface
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Inside Back Cover
Back Cover
Kill City USA Page 29