Page 26 of The Hacker
Maybe he’d changed his mind when he couldn’t find company to watch the game with. Or maybe he was up to something nefarious. She shook her head. She just didn’t buy Chad as a criminal genius. Maybe the heavily muscled sidekick for one, though. That made her shoulders tense up.
She nearly shrieked when a limousine stopped at the curb beside her and the door swung open. Leland got out and extended his hand for her gym bag. “Did we fool Chad?” he asked.
“I don’t know but he didn’t appear to have seen me.” She passed him her duffel but pretended not to notice the other hand he held out to help her into the limo.
Leland slid onto the leather seat beside her and placed her bag beside his on the expanse of carpeted floor in front of them. He stretched out his long legs, now encased in his usual jeans, and crossed them at the ankles. He had changed shoes to a pair of black sneakers that she happened to know cost more than $1,000. Her job wore out sneakers fast so she was always browsing the latest styles. “What do you mean he didn’t see you?” he asked.
“I just saw him on foot, headed away from where his car should be parked in the staff lot. He probably changed his mind about going to the bar since he couldn’t convince anyone to go with him.”
“That’s certainly plausible.” Leland went silent for a moment. “You shouldn’t be involved any further in this matter.”
“You’re thinking of what happened with Alice and Derek.” Thank God Alice had paid attention in the self-defense class Dawn had talked her into joining.
“It’s difficult not to.” He drummed his fingers on his knee for a moment. “Where shall I tell the driver to go?”
“Oh, right.” She raised her voice. “We’re going to Carmella’s. It’s on the corner of Broad and Belleville.”
The driver nodded and the limo slid away from the curb.
“Italian?” Leland asked.
“We’re in Jersey so, yeah, Italian.” Carmella’s was a real throwback with red-and-white-checked tablecloths, candles set in Chianti bottles coated with wax drippings, Frank Sinatra crooning in the background, and Carmella presiding over the kitchen with a Neapolitan accent and an iron hand. Might as well show Leland the kind of folks she came from.
“Time for some carb loading?” he asked. She had angled herself into the corner of the seat so she caught a flash of smile in the dim illumination cast by Cofferwood’s streetlights.
“No, I just like Carmella’s lasagna.”
His smile disappeared. “What moved up the timetable for our ... research?”
“Vicky decided to pay attention to the problem. I talked her into delaying a visit from her computer geeks until Monday. They’re not very good but I figure they still might gum up the works.”
Leland muttered something that sounded like a curse. She could read tension in the clench of his jaw and the rigidity of his shoulders.
“You don’t have to deal with this,” she said. “Vicky’s guys will chase away whoever it is and the gym’s tech will go back to normal. I only got involved because Ramón has been very good to me, and I don’t want to see anything damage the gym’s reputation. It’s not a problem as long as the dark node moves somewhere else.”
He shook his head, making his lenses flash with reflected light. “This has a criminal stench and I can’t walk away from that. But you can.” He turned toward her. “Let me work on this by myself. I’ll bring Tully in on it as soon as I have something more concrete. He’ll know who to contact in law enforcement, if necessary.”
“How are you going to get something more concrete?” She crossed her arms and shot him a challenging look.
He shifted on his seat. “Where is the router for the gym?”
“In Ramón and Vicky’s office. I have plausible access. You don’t.”
The limo glided to a stop. “We’re here, sir,” the driver said.
Dawn had forgotten all about the third person in the car. But then she didn’t spend much time in limos. In fact, none since her high school prom. How much had the driver heard? Could he be trusted?
Leland looked pissed but not about the driver. “You are not going into that office on a spying mission.” His tone held no trace of southern charm. “I’ll find a way to get in alone.”
“You’ve got only two days to do it, so that’s not realistic.” She reached for her gym bag.
“Are you bailing on our dinner?” She heard disappointment, sending her heart into a flutter.
“No, I’ve got the wine in my duffel.” She unzipped it and pulled out two bottles of Barolo that she’d splurged on big-time. If Leland wore $1,000 sneakers, he wasn’t going to be happy with Two-Buck Chuck wine. “Around here, it’s BYOB in most restaurants. It’s a good thing because you can afford better wine with your meal.”
She winced as she realized how meaningless that would be to Leland.
He took the bottles from her, turning one to read the label. “I’m more of a beer drinker but I’ve heard of Barolo.”
