Murder in the River City(50)
“I had to see you,” Sam said after Melanie walked out. He took her hands and kissed her lightly. “You’re so beautiful.”
“Careful what you say. They might be listening.” Shauna pointed to her comb.
“The Feds get all the fun toys.”
“I’m glad you came by. It’s been a strange day.”
He kissed her again. “Did you say anything to Mike about us?”
She nodded. “I’m sorry. But he knew something was up, and he kept asking questions and I had to say something. He called it weird and said he didn’t want any details. But he wasn’t upset or anything. At least he thinks I was nervous because of us, not because of all these lies I’m now party to.”
Sam laughed. “Now it all makes sense.”
“What?”
“After you left the bar, he came up to me and said you were now my responsibility and if I screwed up, he’d send Brian to hunt me down.”
“Mike’s the pacifist. Brian has always been the enforcer.” Then she narrowed her eyes. “I’m not your responsibility. I’m my own responsibility. I’m almost twenty-eight now, hardly a little kid getting into trouble and needing my big brothers—or my boyfriend—to bail me out.”
“Anything you want, Shauna.” He kissed her, then held her chin with his hand. “I’m proud of you. It takes courage to do this, and you have it in spades.”
From downstairs, Melanie called up, “Now, Sam.”
“See you soon,” he said. Then he kissed her a last time and whispered, “I love you.”
Chapter Eighteen
John Black walked into the FBI communications room on the fourth floor of the Hyatt, the lowest level that had guest suites. Two computers, a printer, and a variety of other equipment was set up around the room. There were only three people working in the room—Hooper, Melanie Hale, and Tim Abbott who was sitting at the main computer.
“We’re set,” Abbott said. “Audio in the restaurant. Video is stationary at the door, we can’t see the table—they have the small room in the back—but it gives us a good view of who comes and goes. I also tapped into the outside security feed to monitor the street.”
“Where are they?” John asked.
“Mulvaney’s. Which is smart, because it’s not a place we can stake out easily,” Abbott said. “But Dean knows the owner and we have a transmitter under the table.”
“Has Shauna arrived?”
“Not yet. He picked her up at five-thirty, but she wasn’t ready. They didn’t leave until quarter to six.”
Melanie frowned. “She was tense, but seemed calmer before I left at five. And she was ready.”
“And Butler?” Hooper asked.
“Davis set him up with one of the partners, Amelia Shepherd, at the last minute,” Melanie said. “That makes me a bit nervous.”
Hooper shook his head. “No, that makes sense for Davis. The whole dinner is people he trusts. He’s making sure Butler is in for real, that he’s one of them.”
“Detective Garcia came by the house before I left,” Melanie said. “He makes me nervous, too.”
“He’s good,” John said. “He knows what’s at stake.”
“Too many things can go wrong,” Melanie said.
Hooper said to Abbott, “Everything’s set on Butler’s hotel deal, right?”
“Yes. Davis has already been inspecting the funding sources. But he’s gone a step further—he’s making specific moves to make the investors nervous. If they were legitimate, they’d walk away with the information he’s getting to them. But I can’t even trace it to Davis, not personally.”
Hooper shook his head, but he was smiling. “That’s one of his key steps. He gets shady businessmen under his financial thumb so he owns them. If anything happens to the law firm, all assets are frozen. Every one of his clients will be stuck until the courts release assets. That keeps them in line, prevents them from turning state’s evidence because they’ll be stabbing themselves in the back. I can work with that.” He started typing rapidly on his laptop.
“Davis and Shauna just walked in,” Abbott said. He handed Dean a set of headphones.
John picked up an extra set and listened to the dinner conversation. At first, it was difficult to pick up the threads, as the microphone caught everything, but eventually he was able to discern the group. There were eight people total, four men and four women, and Shauna’s lilt was obvious. Conversation ranged from the charity to the economy to politics to local business, with a healthy amount of time spent interrogating Jason about his time in prison. It seemed Davis and his cohorts wanted to make sure Jason was doing exactly what he said he was with the hotel, and it was also obvious Davis wanted to be part of the project.