Blue Smoke

work to bring it back. “Toyota. One of the 4Runners, I think. Dark blue, maybe black. It impinges my masculinity, but I don’t actually know every make and model of every available car out there. I made this one because I dated someone who had one. So anyway, I’d sort of half-waved, like you do if you see someone familiar. He drove by, gave me one of these out the window.” He made a gun out of his thumb and forefinger. “Said bang, and drove off.”
    “Ballsy bastard.” Her throat was hot and dry at the thought there might have been a gun. “He must’ve been standing out in front of his own house, watching the shop. He said he’s got another surprise planned for me tonight. He’s plank stupid if he thinks I’ll give him a chance to hit Sirico’s.”
    She stabbed a pin into the map. Temper steadied her nerves. “I need to make some calls.”

28
    There were cops posted at Sirico’s, in position to watch the restaurant and the apartment above. There were two more who’d be enjoying her parents’ hospitality, and yet others keeping watch on Fran’s home. And though Vince had objected, and pointed out his home was protected by state-of-the-art security systems, Reena had men patrolling their grounds.
    “He could try for any one of them. Or none of them.” She paced the living room. She stopped, stared at her map. “He’s going to light a match somewhere tonight.”
    Bo had hauled her board downstairs at her request. So much for keeping the job and her life separate, she thought, even symbolically. Right now, the job was her life.
    Her cell rang in her pocket. She yanked it out. “Hale. Wait.” She grabbed a notebook. “Go.” And scribbled. “Yeah, yeah, okay. We need to send a unit out to BWI, check long term there. Most logical place for him to ditch one, grab another. Good. Thanks.”
    She flipped the phone back in her pocket, moved back to the map and used a yellow pin to mark the airport. “Family just got back from a big vacation in Europe. Shuttle out to long-term parking at Kennedy, and their Jeep Cherokee’s gone. Boost that to make the trip south, go see an old pal and get the bum’s rush. Maybe you keep it awhile. Going totake a while for them to track it all the way to Maryland. Then you drive it to BWI—maybe Dulles, maybe National, but probably BWI, pick another, do the switch, drive away. You like SUVs. Plenty of room to hold your toys.”
    “I’m going to go next door and shower, it was hot out there today.”
    Distracted, she frowned over at Bo. “What?”
    “I said I need to go clean up.”
    “Would you mind cleaning up here? Don’t you watch movies? The bad guy always breaks into the house when you’re in the shower. Look what happened to Janet Leigh in Psycho. ”
    “Janet Leigh’s a woman.”
    “Regardless. I’d appreciate it if you’d grab that shower here. You’ve got a clean shirt in the laundry room.”
    “I do?”
    “You left one here. It got washed. So, do me a favor, okay?”
    “Sure.” He put his hands on her shoulders and understood what people meant when they talked of someone coiled like a spring. “Any point in telling you to try to relax?”
    “Not one.”
    “Then I’ll go clean up. Look, if some guy dressed in his mother’s clothes breaks in, fight him off until I get my pants back on.”
    “There’s a deal.”
    Alone, she went into the kitchen to get another bottle of water to offset her intake of caffeine. She saw the bag of takeout he’d set on the counter. No, she couldn’t relax, she thought, but she could be grateful. Grateful to have someone who fit so truly into her life.
    She was definitely going to marry him, she decided as she took out the plastic containers. He could wriggle on the hook for a while—he was entitled—but she was reeling him in.
    It made her laugh to remember buying red shoes with Gina at the mall, and having Gina tell her she was marrying Steve. He just didn’t know it yet.
    All these years later, she finally understood.

    She put the chicken in the oven on warm. A meal would keep her energy up more productively than nerves.
    She took the water back into the living room to study the map. “Where are you, Joey?” she asked aloud. “Where are you now?”
    T hey look over there, you work over here. It wasn’t just timing that counted. It was planning.
    Rattled now, sure she was. Thinks I’ll come after her mommy and daddy.
    Not yet.
    Nice little spot, Fells Point. Be nicer yet when it starts to