Easy Prey

you.”
    “The loose woman . . .”
    “Not just trying to get laid—I mean, some of them will—but some of them will have been looking at you for a long time, and liking you.”
    “Lucas--”
    “Hey, it’s gonna happen. If you walk--”
    “I don’t think I’ve got any choice now,” she said.
    “Listen, what you’re telling me . . . have you thought about telling Jack? Scream at him a little bit? Throw a little crockery? I mean, do you still love him?”
    After a long silence, she said, “I don’t think so.”
    “Aw, jeez.”
    “What happened was, his reaction made me angry,” she said. “So angry. But I feel like . . . I don’t know. I’m a little excited in a dirty way. Like I just broke out of jail.”
    “Aw, man.”
    “You keep saying ‘aw, jeez.’ What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “You’re hurting a lot worse than you know, but you’re going to find out,” he said. “So’s Jack. I can’t hardly stand to think about it.”
    “Well. Maybe. But I’m getting out.”
    He couldn’t think of anything to say. Thinking about her, sitting on the side of a road, talking about the end of her marriage on a cell phone to somebody she hadn’t seen in twenty-five years.
    “So congratulate me,” she said. Now she did start crying.
    “Awww . . . jeez.
     
 
ROSE MARIE CAME down.“The media’s got Rodriguez surrounded. His lawyer just called the county. . . . What happened to you?”
    “I was talking to an old friend. Her marriage is breaking up,” Lucas said.
    “Did you have anything to do with it?”
    “No. Not directly. I mean, I’m not fooling around with her. Maybe I could have said something that would have changed things . . . I don’t know. She’s just an old friend.”
    “Huh.” Rose Marie might have been skeptical. “You can’t take care of everybody, Lucas. They don’t even want you to.”
    “She needs a little help,” Lucas said.
    “I’ve got no advice,” Rose Marie said. “Now: Rodriguez is gonna sue us, of course. And Tom Olson has called twice in the past half hour, asking about Rodriguez, but I’m not in. I’ve got to come up with a story.”
    “When’s he coming in? You’ve got a briefing?”
    “Yes. In a half hour. I’d like you to be there,” she said.
    “Sure. I don’t know what I can say.”
    “If he tries to throttle me, you could hit him over the head.”
    They were still talking when the phone-tap monitor called: “We got some stuff on Rodriguez’s blind phone. Three calls in a hurry.”
    “Where?”
    “The first one, to Miami, to an unlisted number. I mean, we’ve got the number, but when we tried to check on it, the directory supervisor said she needed to see some paper before she can give us a name.”
    “Another blind phone, I bet.”
    “I think so. Anyway, he told whoever answered not to send Jerry up, that he had a problem. We think it might have been a delivery. Hell, I know it was a delivery. I’ve heard the same thing two hundred times, in almost the same words,” the cop said. “Nothing specific mentioned, like it would be if it was legitimate. Just ‘You know that delivery we talked about, with Jerry? Better hold off, I’ve got some problems up here.’”
    “Good. Give me the Miami phone number,” Lucas said. He scribbled the number on a pad. “I’ve got a guy with the FBI who might be able to help.”
    “Great. Then there was another call, this one to a real estate guy. He asked the guy to look into selling the apartments, and suggest that a Reet might want to buy them. I don’t know the name.”
    “It’s R-E-I-T, real estate investment trust,” Lucas said. “It could be a way to get out in a hurry.”
    “Well, the guy he talked to . . . he was hot to handle it. You want the name?”
    “Yeah.” Lucas wrote down the name.
    “And the third thing is he called another dope guy. He said, ‘I’ve got to shut down my business for a while. Tell everybody I’m sorry.’
    “The other guy said, ‘What’s the problem?’
    “Rodriguez said, ‘Just a problem. The cops think I had something to do with that Alie’e thing. They’re messing with me.’
    “And the guy said, ‘Where’re you calling from?’
    “And Rodriguez said, ‘I got a good phone.’
    “And the other guy said, ‘I’d throw it in the river, if I was you. If they think you were involved with Alie’e, they’re gonna tap you three ways from Sunday.’
    “And Rodriguez said, ‘Well, tell everybody. I’ll call you back when