“I have a contact at the NYPD. Detective Mary Jordan. She’s looking into something for me. I can’t give you any more than that, except to say she needs some help digging up some dirt on a corporate merger in Europe.” The elevator slowed. “Can you send a list of names?”
“Europe’s a little out of our jurisdiction,” Jack said, as the elevator doors slid open. “But I’m sure there’s a way in. Maybe we’ll find something. Maybe not.”
“So you’ll help.”
He nodded and stepped out into the hallway. “I’ll get you a list. But keep me out of it.”
Leopold followed behind. “With pleasure.”
Chapter 20
THE TOWN CAR pulled to the curb at the hotel lobby entrance. A large man walked to the door, opening it for June. She recognized him from the pictures Jack had sent over, one of the security team for the weekend. His name was Jerome. He stood maybe six-feet-seven-inches tall, pushing three hundred pounds, none of it fat. Dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, black skin. Cropped hair, flecks of silver. Maybe early-to-mid forties. He opened the passenger door for her, and the driver got her bags from the trunk.
“Is Jack here yet?” she asked, after the greetings were taken care of.
“Already upstairs with Leopold,” Jerome said. “You’ll have dinner with him shortly. But we have a laundry list of things to do first.”
“Oh?”
The driver climbed back in the car, engine still running. He pulled away.
“This is the way it works, Doctor,” said Jerome, after the Town Car had gone. “You’ll wait in the lobby while I take your bags upstairs. Leopold will check those and I’ll come back down here. Then we go to the ladies’ restroom to search you and your purse. Then we’ll go directly to the restaurant where a table is waiting for an early dinner.”
“You don’t seriously think you’re coming in the restroom.”
“Yes, I do.”
June glared at him. There had usually been a female Secret Service or security agent on staff to frisk her in the past. “I have things in my suitcase I’d like to keep private.”
Jerome ignored her. “You’ll ascertain that the restroom is empty, and when it is, I’ll enter and check your person for contraband. It’s the only way anyone’s getting near Mr. Melendez while he’s under our protection.” He paused. “The alternative is that I frisk you and search your purse in the lobby.”
June gripped her purse a little tighter. “The restroom will be fine. But I’ll need to check in.”
“You’ve already been checked in.”
They went to the lobby restroom, and Jerome waited while she made sure the stalls were empty. Following her through, he locked the door and asked for her purse. That routine she was already familiar with. Every time she had gone to visit Jack at his home, she had to submit to being searched and frisked by strangers.
She handed the purse over and he quickly checked it for anything that could be used as a weapon. It was small, so mostly cosmetics and a wallet inside. He was curious about the empty jewelry box, but she pointed out her pendant.
The article searches were never too bad. It was the pat-downs that got to her. As a fashion model, she had been touched, air brushed, made up, hair dressed, spray tanned while nude, and positioned uncountable times, and it never bothered her much. But this was different.
It’s worth it to spend time with Jack, she told herself. Just a formality. These guys are pros.
Undoubtedly, June would also have to put up with someone going through her suitcase. On previous visits with Jack, she had learned what was acceptable and what wasn’t. It had become easier to leave behind the unnecessary things she could live without, and only take the bare minimum. This weekend was a little different; there was the chance for more time together than usual. Hopefully, involving some extended periods of intimacy. And intimacy meant the chance to show off some new lingerie.
Jerome handed her purse back to her. He asked her to turn around so he could start the pat-down. “This should take only a moment, Ma’am.”
“Please don’t call me ‘ma’am’. I hate that.” June felt a shudder pass through her as his large hand slid over the contours of her body. She needed to distract her mind from what he was doing if she was going to keep any appetite at all.
He finished his search and looked away. “Doctor Kato, then?”
“June would be best.”
“Doctor Kato is best.”
June collected her purse and nervously poked through it. “Whatever.”
Jerome acted the diplomat. “Well, we have a saying, that it really doesn’t matter what we call you, as long as we don’t call ‘Look out!’”