Stuart Woods - Heat

She had never seen anything like it; there were Sak’s Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus and the Ralph Lauren shop, all within a few steps of each other. With his first ten thousand dollar payment from Coldwater in his pocket, Jesse made her shop. After all, he thought, they wouldn’t be abandoning their luggage at the hotel to sneak out of the country.

Jesse watched constantly for a tail, checking reflections in shop windows, never looking behind him, and it wasn’t long before he found his man. He didn’t recognize this one; he was tough-looking, better than six feet, more than two hundred pounds, close to Jesse’s own size. He was very good at his work, Jesse thought.

They had lunch in a pub, then shopped some more. Finally, when they were ready to drop, they took the cable car up Powell Street and walked a block or two to the hotel, lugging many packages and shopping bags.

At Ernie’s that night they were treated as old friends, given a secluded table and served to within an inch of their lives.

“I’ve never seen such a beautiful room,” Jenny gushed, waving at the mahogany paneling and the fresh flowers. “How much is this costing?”

“It’s not costing us a dime,” Jesse replied, smiling. “It’s all on Jack Gene, one way or another. We can take some comfort in that.”

The following morning, Jesse rented a car and they drove north, over the Golden Gate Bridge, through Marin County and up into the wine country. They followed the road up the Napa Valley and found an Italian restaurant, Tre Vigne, for lunch. It was an unusually warm day for the time of year, and they asked for a table in the garden, which they had to themselves.

They ordered pasta and a good bottle of Napa chardonnay and had a leisurely lunch. As they were finishing, there was a sudden scraping of chairs, and men in suits occupied the tables on either side of them. Then, another man in a suit pulled a chair up to their table and sat down.

“May I join you?” he asked, somewhat tardily.

“Hello, Kip,” Jesse said.

“Hello, Jesse. And may I be introduced?”

“Jenny, this is Kip; Kip, this is Jenny.”

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Jenny,” Kip said. “I wonder if you would be kind enough to go to the ladies’ room? Mr. Smith over there will guide you.” He nodded toward a man at the next table.

“It’s all right, go ahead,” Jesse said.

Jenny got up and left.

“Well, Jesse,” Kip said, “what brings you to this part of the country?”

“I’m on my honeymoon,” Jesse replied.

“I thought I told you not to travel without... What did you say?”

“I said I’m on my honeymoon.”

Kip’s mouth fell open. “You got married? ”

“That’s what you do, right before a honeymoon.”

“Are you completely crazy?”

“Kip, I thought you’d be pleased; it’s excellent cover.”

Kip stared at him a moment, then smiled. “You’re right, it is excellent cover; I’m pleased. I mean, congratulations. I never thought you’d go this far, Jess.”

“She was my landlady from the beginning. It didn’t take us long to fall in love.”

“You’re a lucky man, Jess — so far.”

“Why so far?”

“What happens if this all goes wrong? What are you going to do with a wife?”

“Having a wife is good motivation to keep things from going wrong, isn’t it?”

Kip shook his head. “I’m flabbergasted, I have to admit it.”

“Kip, stop being flabbergasted and tell me what you’re doing here, intruding on my honeymoon.”

“You were spotted on Friday night at the airport. Remember a guy named Hennessy, from the South Florida Task Force?”

“Vaguely.”

“He called Dan Barker, and Barker called me. Barker was not happy. He thought you were planning to skip the country.”

“You can put his mind at rest. We’re here for the week, and we’re going back next Sunday.”

“How do I know that without keeping a tail on you?”

“Jenny has a daughter; she was supposed to come with us, but at the last minute she was required at a weekend school project.”

“So Coldwater is keeping you on a short leash?”

“That’s about it. He knows Jenny wouldn’t go anywhere without her daughter.”

“Jesse, if you’re going to go bouncing off like this, maybe I’d better put somebody else in St. Clair to keep an eye on you.”

“You got somebody you want immediately dead?” Jesse asked. “Or is it just that you want me immediately dead?”

“We’re a little slicker than that.”

“Kip, listen to me. You reached into the gutter and you picked just about the only guy in the world who could waltz into that town and do what I’ve done. Two guys had already vaporized, remember? You send somebody else in there now, you’ll not only kill him, you’ll kill me. I’m your only shot at wrapping up this crowd, and you’d better not fuck with me, do you understand?”

Kip nodded. “I understand, Jess; I was just pulling your chain a little. After all, Barker’s been pulling mine.”

“You tell Barker that if these people tumble to me and start asking me questions under, shall we say, duress, I’ll give him to them. One dark night they’ll snatch him off some Georgetown street corner and disembowel him. They’re like that.”

“I’ll mention it.”

“Tell me, when you decided to put a team on me, did it occur to you that Coldwater might have been in there ahead of you with his own team?”

“That’s the first thing we checked for. Remember, we spotted your tail in New York.”

“Another thing: I was on to the tail yesterday, practically as soon as we left the hotel. If I find somebody else behind me during my honeymoon, I’ll drag him into an alley and break his arms, and I mean it.”

Kip held out his hands. “Jesse, Jesse, there’s no need to get riled. You did something you weren’t supposed to, and you got caught. Don’t repeat the experience.”

Jesse nodded. “Now, since I have no information to impart to you that I didn’t impart in our conversation on Friday, I’d like you and your merry band of flatfeet to be gone before my wife returns to the table.”

Kip stood up and gestured to the others. “Sorry for the intrusion. I’ll give Barker your message.” He turned to go.

“Kip?”

Kip looked back. “Yeah?”

“How’s the new baby doing?”

“Just great.”

“I’m glad. Give him my best.”

“Thanks.” And he was gone.

Jenny came back to the table. “What was that all about?” she demanded.

“Kip is the guy who sprung me from the joint.”

“Joint?”

“Prison.”

“And he’s who you’re working for?”

“He’s my contact.”

“What did he want?”

“He wanted to be sure we weren’t skipping the country. Seems a colleague of his recognized me at the airport the other night, and there was a general panic that I was about to bolt.”

“What if we had been bolting?”

“It wouldn’t have worked. I’m going to have to give bolting some additional thought.”

Jesse and Jenny arrived home late on Sunday evening, exhausted and happy from their time together and, especially, their time away from St. Clair. As they climbed the front steps with their bags Jesse was again feeling the strain of being someone else, and he was filled with dread to see an envelope pinned to the front door. He ripped it open and read the note.

Meeting tomorrow morning at eight sharp at J.G.’s.

Casey

Here we go again, he thought.

Jesse was normally at his desk by eight, and he had to call Herman Muller and beg an hour or two. When he arrived at Coldwater’s house there were half a dozen cars and pickup trucks parked in the forecourt, and when he was let into Jack Gene’s study there were as many men there. He took a few steps into the room and froze. Sitting in a chair beside the fireplace was perhaps the one person in the world he least wished to see at that moment. His presence meant that Jesse was, from this moment, effectively a dead man, that perhaps the only thing between him and death was torture.