James Grippando - Last Call

"Whassup, baby yourself." It was Isaac's voice.

Theo struggled to show no reaction, but his uncle seemed to pick up his sudden annoyance. He drifted in the general direction of Theo's future stage, pretending to act busy by pacing off the room's dimensions.

"I thought we were done," Theo said through clenched teeth.

"We would be if you hadn't tried to change our deal."

"What the hell do you mean?"

"Come on, dude. If I didn't know you so well, I'd think you got your phone calls open to the cops or somethin'. Quit playing games and stop talkin' like it wasn't you who helped me blow TGK in the first place."

Theo was on to him immediately. Isaac was making good on his threat: If Theo went to the police, he was going to convince them that Theo had "come to Jesus" only after he'd helped Isaac escape. Thank God he and Jack had decided not to let the cops monitor his phones.

Theo said, "I got nothin' to say to you."

"Hey, I know it didn't go exactly as we planned, but-"

"We never had no plan, you son of a bitch."

"I ain't askin' for freebies here. There's something in it for you, too.

"I already called the cops, all right? Don't bother me no more"

"You what? You motha'-"

" Don't call me." He ended the call and drew a deep breath as he rolled his head from one shoulder to the other, trying to release the anger. He opened the flip phone again, but the sound of his uncle's voice kept him from hitting Jack's speed-dial digit.

"What's wrong?" said Cy

Theo closed the cell phone. The old man had always been good about not butting into Theo's business, but he seemed to have a nose for real trouble.

"That definitely wasn't Trina," his uncle said. "Who was it?"

Theo slipped the phone back into his pocket. He'd already done the right thing. He'd called the cops. Like Jack had said: It was best to keep that between him and his lawyer. No point spoiling his afternoon with his uncle.

"Nobody," said Theo. "A real nobody."

Jack felt naked when he opened his front door. He was wearing only a swimsuit, and an FBI agent standing on his doorstep made him want to run for cover. Especially when it was Special Agent Andie Henning – with the emphasis on special.

"Hey Andie." He didn't know what else to say. It had been almost three months since their last date, which hadn't ended on the best of terms.

"Sorry to drop by unannounced," she said. "I was afraid you might blow me off if I called. But I knew you'd be professional if I showed up on official business. It's about-"

"Jack, did you hide my cover-up?" said Rene. She was suddenly standing right behind him, wearing a white string bikini that showcased every square inch of her suntan.

"Your what?" he said.

"My swimsuit cover-up. It's a tunic-style wrap, Hawaiian-print. Keeps the sun from turning me into a lobster."

He'd last seen it on the floor. Next to the bed. Jack looked at Andie and said, "We were just getting ready to take the boat out."

Andie was caught staring. Funny Jack thought. If a man checks out another man in a bathing suit like that, he's gay. If a woman checks out another woman, she's – well, a woman.

"Sorry," said Andie, "but this is important."

"I'm sure it is," said Rene. She was speaking to Jack but looking at Andie.

Jack said, "I'll catch up with you on the boat."

"How long are you going to be?" said Rene, as she slipped her arms around his torso and hugged him from behind.

The affection wasn't overdone, but it was still uncomfortable for Jack in front of Andie. "I'll be quick. Just, uh… how about picking out some CDs?"

Rene let go of him. "You two have any favorites?"

For a split second he wondered how Rene could possibly have known, but how stupid was that? They always know .

"Anything you like is fine," said Jack, though he actually would have been more comfortable giving carte blanche to Andie. Weird, but Andie's tastes were more in line with Jack's than were Rene's.

"Leave it to me," said Rene, as she left the living room and headed for the back patio. It wasn't until he heard the California door slide open and then close that Jack realized he was being rude to Andie. "Would you like to come inside?" he said.

"That's okay. I can see you're in a hurry."

"What's the official business?"

"Isaac Reems. There's a joint task force led by the U.S. Marshals Service. I'm the bureau's point person for the Miami field office."

Jack couldn't hide his surprise. When he'd cut a deal with the state attorney to keep Theo's name out of the manhunt, he would have thought that had also covered the name of his attorney. "And what brings you here?" said Jack.

"You were Reems's attorney of record during his first federal incarceration."

Jack reeled in his anger against the prosecutor. Suddenly, he – not Theo – was the tie to Isaac, but there was an even more surprising part of the equation. "The FBI chose you to come and talk to me?"

"Uh, yeah," she said. "My ASSC remembered that you and I got to know each other on that kidnapping case I headed when I first moved here from Seattle."

"So you didn't tell them that after the case was over we… "

"No. I didn't tell anyone."

Jack understood. That kind of personal history didn't exactly spell career advancement at the bureau – an FBI agent crazy enough to date a criminal defense lawyer.

Andie said, "So, you weren't Mr. Reems's lawyer?"

"No."

"But your name was on his list of approved visitors when he was serving time in the early nineties."

"I'm sure he put it there when he heard that I got Theo Knight off death row. Half the inmates in Florida wanted me as their lawyer after that. The innocent half, anyway," he said with a defense lawyer's grin.

"Did he know Theo?"

Jack reeled in his smile, reluctant to involve Theo in anything that had to do with the FBI.

"Did he?" she pressed.

"They knew each other as teenagers. Basically, just two guys who grew up in the same neighborhood."

Andie pulled a pen and notepad from her pocket and jotted something down.

Jack nearly groaned. "You're not going to drag Theo into this, are you?"

"I'm just following every lead."

Jack tried to fight it, but he could feel the personal emotions taking over the business profile. "When are you going to get off Theo's back?"

"I'm not riding anybody's back."

"So it's all in my head, is that it? It's always been just my imagination."

"Jack, please. Before…" She paused, as if wary of their immediate past. "When you and I were… you know, together, I wasn't forcing you to choose between me and Theo."

"You said if I stayed friends with him, he was going to get me disbarred someday"

"I wasn't even serious. Give me a little credit. I fully understand that Theo's your friend."

"Best friend."

"Okay. Best friend. And I like Theo too. Really I do. I just made a stupid joke."

"That's the funny thing about stupid jokes. They're loaded with truth."

"Not this one."

"Is that what you came here to tell me?"

She made a face, as if trying to stave off a migraine. "No. I came here to talk about Isaac Reems, and now I've bumbled the whole thing. I'm sorry."

"I am too. But you know what I'm most sorry about? Every time something goes wrong in this city, it seems like Theo's on somebody's list of suspects."

"You know that's not true."

"Then why did you write his name in your notepad?"

"There's been a prison break, and the latest advisory said that Reems was last seen at Sparky's around two thirty in the morning."

"Oh, I see. So you put two and two together and figure that-"

"I'm not figuring anything, Jack. Can we please just drop the whole Theo thing?"