“He had no place to go.”
“Did he give you money?” Hannibal asked, knowing the answer but needing to hear it.
Anita, to her credit, stuck to the truth. “Once in a while he bought groceries and such. But he was real good at fixing things around here. And he helped me, you know, get focused. He helped me with having a purpose in life.”
Her designated purpose appeared to be to take care of this man who appeared out of nowhere to take advantage of her and, most likely, to steal the only thing of value left to her. Hannibal was starting to really dislike this guy. “What’s his full name, and what does he look like.”
Anita squared her shoulders as if reporting to a drill sergeant. “Roderick Mantooth is his full name. He’s a little shorter than you but bigger, broader. His hair is black, like his eyes, and he’s…” Here she looked out the window, avoiding Hannibal’s gaze. “He’s white.”
That fact seemed a lot more significant to Anita than it was to Hannibal.
“Rod Mantooth? Could that be his real name? Oh, well. You said you saw him at another woman’s house. Was he driving?”
“Oh yes, Rod was driving.”
Good. “Did you get the license plates?”
“No. I’m sorry, the car was too far away.”
Her shyness, bordering on subservience, was beginning to annoy him. “Well, that would have made it a lot easier to find the guy. Do you think you’d recognize the car again?”
“Oh, of course.” Anita’s smile seemed almost to reflect pride. “You couldn’t miss it with those big fins on the back. It’s a specially customized car, fire engine red with white interior. Rod calls it a Corvorado.”
“A what?”
“The front end is from a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette. From the doors back, it’s a 1959 Cadillac Eldorado. You couldn’t miss that.”
4
Hannibal was afraid he might miss the boat.
The entrance gate to the pier was on the water's edge to Hannibal’s left as he faced the Potomac River, playing with the ring box in his left front pocket. The Nina’s Dandy floated there, her windows reflecting the last few rays of the orange sun at Hannibal’s back. He squinted for a while, and then turned away from that reflection, his eyes not shielded by sunglasses for a change. Across the river, tall oaks and maples blazed golden in that reddened glow, and waves like silver sequins lapped at the shore. Everything was dressed up for the occasion.
Unlike his idyllic backdrop, Hannibal felt unnatural in his costume. His double-breasted Italian suit was pure silk, in a color he wasn’t sure he could name. Creme, perhaps, or off tan with sort of a gold tone. Anyway, he knew Cindy liked it. His navy blue shirt came with a matching pocket square, so he wore both. He did like the tie, kind of a silvery charcoal with a subtle darker diagonal stripe.
Hannibal flashed back an hour or so, to the moments before he left home. He was standing erect, trying to hold still while Sarge worked to tie Hannibal’s tie in an impressive Windsor knot, so much classier than the usual four-in-hand Hannibal whipped into his work ties every day. Sarge appeared to be enjoying Hannibal’s plight, perhaps sharing the experience in some vicarious way. Hannibal knew Sarge’s life had become a lonely one, for no reason Hannibal could identify. Why were so many good people alone? In any case, Hannibal took joy in his own amazing luck in having a wonderful woman after too many years of short lived relationships followed by long spaces of alone time. He was determined to make this one stick.
Several guests had already boarded the Nina’s Dandy, the floating restaurant he had chosen for the special moment. Hannibal wondered if Cindy would arrive in time for them to eat. Then again, he wondered if he would be able to eat. The acid leaping inside his stomach seemed to be voting no.
Only a few blocks separated Cindy’s townhouse from the pier in Old Town, Alexandria, but Hannibal was not surprised to see her pull up in a taxi. He suspected that this was not about inconveniencing him to pick her up, or even about not wanting to walk any farther than necessary in heels nearly three inches high, but really about making an entrance. And as far as he was concerned, it was well worth it.
Cindy Santiago’s black evening outfit didn’t make her look tall and trim, that’s just the way her body was made. Her carefully trimmed deep brown hair, usually worn loose, was swept back this evening, just skimming her shoulders. Her face glowed the way children do in Christmas photographs, and her makeup was so perfect you had to look close to know it was there. High cheekbones and tawny skin betrayed her Latin heritage. Dark brown eyes were a little too big, and her smile a little too broad, but to Hannibal they fit together perfectly. Her black silk blouse bore an elegant drape that only served to showcase her abundant decolletage. It flowed down into black velvet pants that accented her high, narrow waist. Her silver chain belt was the perfect accent, and her heels were high enough to make the most of her legs.
“Well, say something, man,” Cindy said.
“What could I say that wouldn’t get me arrested? You’re a vision.”
Cindy stepped forward to drop a quick kiss on his lips. “Yeah, well I’m a hungry vision and if we don’t get moving dinner’s going to float away.”
Aside from a gentle rocking, being seating at a table on Nina’s Dandy differed little from taking a seat in any upscale restaurant. A band of glass panels surrounded the vessel so that every seat offered an unobstructed view of the river and its thickly wooded coastline. Hannibal watched the oaks and maples slide past, with the occasional dogwood flashing its white or pink flowers that he thought outshone the more famous cherry blossoms. He bit into a piece of sharp, port-wine seasoned cheddar on an unfamiliar cracker and wondered why Cindy chose this particular evening to be so much more verbal than usual.
“Oh, Hannibal this is perfect,” she said as the fresh fruit arrived. “I don’t know how you always know what I’ll want. This is a perfect celebration, maybe just a smidge early, for the Melville’s account.”
At least she was so excited about work right now that she didn’t seem to notice Hannibal’s nervousness. “Is that the business with the IPO?”
Cindy giggled at Hannibal’s ignorance. It seemed to him that she often did. “DPO, silly. IPO’s are a very different kind of offering. Say, isn’t that The Awakening? I love that piece.”
The sculpture Cindy referred to was of a silver-skinned bearded giant, half-buried in the Maryland shoreline. One arm reached skyward while the other had barely broken through the ground. His open mouth was large enough for a small child to climb into. He seems to be struggling for freedom as Nina’s Dandy floats past, much as Hannibal was struggling with words at that moment.
“He seems frozen in time,” Hannibal said. “And no man wants to be held static in time, you know. Time passes and life changes are called for, don’t you think? It’s amazing how much can happen in a few short months.”
“You are so right,” Cindy said, pushing plates and glasses to make room for the spinach salad. “Melville’s has already raised nearly nine million dollars, and their stock is rising instead of falling. This is a good thing, since they gave me a bunch of stock options at the start of this enterprise.”
A shadow passed over the table as the majestic vessel floated beneath the Fourteenth Street Bridge. Hannibal shoved a forkful of green into his mouth and wondered why anyone would think to put mandarin oranges into a green salad. The sweet citrus taste didn’t seem to fit.
“Is that amount unusual for an IPO,” he asked. “I mean a DPO. What the hell’s the difference, anyway?”
“Well, a direct public offering is just what the name says. The company can sell stock directly to the public, without a lot of the hateful registration and reporting requirements that IPOs go through. DPOs range in offerings from up to a million, all the way up to twenty five million, depending on the type of offering made. They all have different requirements and restrictions. This particular group is going for twenty-five million dollars, and there’s a bonus if we hit the total. There are only a few days left but I think it could happen.”
“They must have made quite a commitment to this business,” Hannibal said. Then he moistened his dry mouth with a little wine before speaking again. “Sometimes, commitment is a difficult thing. There can be risks, but
