Russell Andrews - Hades

"Why afternoon?"

"Because I want to see if I can get a date in the city tomorrow night. So I can just stay in."

"Have you lost your mind? A date, Jay?"

"This one'll be worth it," he said. "And besides, we can go see somebody in the morning out here."

"Another social occasion or could it be work related?"

"The morning's definitely work related."

"Who we going to see?"

"Dave Kelley."

"The big rival?"

"I'll tell you what, Reggie. You might want to think about knocking that stuff off. You haven't earned the right to flirt and make comments on my personal life."

She looked stricken. It was the look of someone who'd forgotten she was on probation and had way overstepped her bounds. "I'm sorry," she said. "I mean it. I apologize."

He nodded. "Okay," he said. Then, after a brief pause: "I guess we can't do much more today. At least right now. Would you like to go get dinner?"

He got that crooked smile from her. "Do you want to have dinner with me, Jay?"

"No," he said. "Not really."

"Then I'll see you at what, nine a.m.?"

"Make it eight-thirty. We've got to go to Riverhead and there'll be traffic."

"Eight-thirty it is. I'll be ready."

For the second night in a row he stood at his living room window and watched Regina Bokkenheuser and her lopsided smile head out to her car and drive off into the town and away from him.

He thought about the last time he'd touched her. He remembered the way she felt. And the way her hair smelled. And he remembered his lips lightly kissing the little tattooed butterfly nestled in the small of her back. She used a soap on her body that had the slightest hint of vanilla and even now he could almost taste it.

He thought about the little dots that made up the butterfly.

It's all about the dots, he thought.

Justin took a deep breath because he knew he was going to hate himself for what he was about to do, then he went to his desk, looked up a phone number he'd added into his notes on the Hades file. He picked up his phone and called Belinda Lambert, Ellis St. John's assistant at Rockworth and Williams. When Belinda answered, Justin identified himself and said that he'd like to get together. As soon as possible.

"Really?" she said. "You mean, like, in the office or something?"

"No," he told her, and he remembered the vague air of desperation she had about her. And her willingness to be used. "I was thinking more about dinner."

"You're asking me out to dinner?" Even over the phone Justin could hear the combination of pleasure and surprise. But there was something else, too. There was also a certain amount of satisfaction. As if she somehow knew that he'd call sooner or later. He thought that came from being around the hounds on Wall Street. There's no question she had a certain amount of sex appeal. It might be obvious and it might be a bit cheap, but it was there. And in her world, that meant that eventually she'd be a target for somebody on the prowl.

"If you'll go," he told her.

"Well, sure I'll go," she said eagerly. "When?"

"How about tomorrow night?" he asked.

"Tomorrow? Well… I…" The hesitation wasn't genuine and it didn't last long. "Okay," she said. "Sure."

They arranged a time and a place-he asked her where she lived and picked a good restaurant within a reasonable distance of her apartment. He said, "I'll see you there."

She said, "This is cool."

He said, "Yeah, cool," and after he hung up, he felt like a total shit for a minute, maybe two.

And then he went back to his computer and began to work.

Justin was just about to call it quits. It was about ten-fifteen at night when the phone rang.

"It's me," Reggie said.

There was a strange air of familiarity in the way she said those two words. There was both a hesitancy to the greeting and a definite intimacy. It was the way an ex-wife would just say hi when calling after the split. It threw Justin a little bit. There was no question that intimacy was hanging over the two of them. He wanted it to go away. But at the same time he liked it. It evoked a certain warmth and, he had to admit, lust. He wondered if it was the same on Reggie's end and decided it had to be. He shook his head-he did not need such distractions at the moment. But he couldn't help picturing her on the other end of the phone, shoes off, sitting on the motel bed, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, one foot planted with her knee up, the other leg tucked under her. He knew that's the way she sat. And he also couldn't help wondering if this was a personal call or business and he realized he wasn't sure he wanted it to be all business.

But it was.

"I got a hit on your Rhode Island shooter."

"Let's have it."

"His name's Pietro Lambrasco, just as Billy said it was. And he's not mobbed up-"

"So what the hell is he?!"

"Let me finish. What I was saying is that he's not mobbed up here."

"Back in Italy?"

"Sicily, to be precise. The only reason we have it on record is that two of the guys in the Bureau were over there a couple of years ago to help with the murder of that judge who got blown up on the highway, the one from Rome. They exchanged a lot of info and computer files. This guy Lambrasco was in one of their files."

"What's his story?"

"A stone-cold hit man."

Justin stayed silent.

"You still there, Jay?"

"Still here." Another brief pause. Then, "Reggie, what the hell is a Sicilian hit man doing in Providence, Rhode Island, going after Bruno Pecozzi?"

"I was hoping you'd have the answer to that one."

Again, nothing from Justin.

"So what now?" Reggie asked finally.

"I'm going back to work on the dots," Justin said.

"Did you make your date for tomorrow night?"

"Yup," Justin said.

"You going to tell me what that's all about?"

"Nope."

"Then I guess I'll see you at eight-thirty."

"Yup," Justin said again.

David Kelley was not the brightest guy Justin had ever met. But the contractor was nowhere near the dim-witted lout as portrayed by the tabloids and the local news stations. It didn't take long for Justin to realize that he was talking to a competent blue-collar contractor who'd gotten in over his head-both professionally and personally. He had moved up to deal with the moneyed class and gotten caught up between the two worlds. He'd been exposed to a lifestyle so grand that he could never again look back at his own life and be totally content. But the people he serviced lived at a level he could never attain. Justin realized it was that very fact that made Dave Kelley such an appealing suspect for Larry Silverbush and his crew. Greed was usually a pretty safe motive. As was lust. Kelley was also a guy with a temper and a cruel streak. That was immediately apparent from the sneer on his lips and the anger in his voice. It was not a combination that added up to a very appealing personality. But Justin was convinced it also didn't add up to someone who had murdered Evan Harmon.

Staring at Kelley in his prison grays, Justin wondered what it was about him that had appealed to Abby. Maybe it was his crudeness. Maybe it was the fact that this was a guy who had never in his life dreamed of having a shot with someone like Abby, so maybe she liked the idolatry that came along with this relationship. It made Justin wonder what she had seen in him, what had made her search him out at Duffy's that night. He wondered if there was any link between him and Dave Kelley.

Then he thought maybe there was.

Cruelty.

He shook the thought away as best he could, because he realized that Reggie Bokkenheuser was staring at him. He had a sneaking suspicion she knew exactly what he was thinking.

"Dave," Reggie said to Kelley, continuing the line of questioning she'd been pursuing, "what can you tell us about the stun gun?"