from the FBI Lab. She belatedly wondered if she’d recognize him now and was glad he’d suggested the rear entrance of the hotel, which was quieter and he’d be easier to spot. Glancing at her watch, she picked up her bag and went out to her truck, making a mental note to stop by the Home Depot eventually to purchase new plants for her porch. She would have to do more than just sweep up the mess of broken pottery left by bumbling critters the night before.
The traffic on Sunset was still heavy but the evening’s milder temperatures were layering in and Jayne drove with the windows down, listening to an Oscar Peterson compilation but not minding hearing music from nearby cars as they idled next to each other along the boulevard. Keeping to surface streets, she turned right on Grand, passed the new cathedral, and made her way to Olive, starting the descent toward the heart of Downtown.
She pulled into the Omni Hotel’s curved driveway, its facade looming skyward, dwarfing the people gathered at the curb. A young valet made eye contact with her, raising his hand interrogatively but she shook her head as she drove past him slowly, scanning faces. When she had made the full circuit of the driveway, she pulled to the curb in front of a taxi and twisted in her seat to look for Gene out the back window. Just then, her passenger door swung open and a man dressed entirely in beige leapt in beside her as she pulled her bag to safety.
‘Christ, Gene, you gave me a fright!’
‘Sorry, I was afraid you were going to drive off without me.’
He leaned over the bench seat and gave her an awkward sideways hug, the zipper of his windbreaker scraping against her cheek. When they released each other, she looked at him and was glad he’d spotted her because she might not have recognized him after all. His blond hair was turning white and his cheeks seemed to droop, which changed the shape of his face altogether. His long body was still lanky, which gave him a certain youthfulness but his pale eyes were as penetrating as ever, their dot-like pupils making it seem as though he were focused on and displeased with whatever he was looking at. But his smile transformed everything, as it always had.
‘So, how the hell are ya, Jayne Hall?’
His exuberance was infectious and she laughed. ‘Not bad, thanks. How was your flight?’
‘Hey, when it’s business class, it’s always good.’
She gave him an admiring glance. ‘Nice.’ She pulled away from the hotel and headed back the way she came, then turned right on Tom Bradley Boulevard toward Little Tokyo. ‘So, what brings you here in business class?’
‘I’ve been working for an electronics company that’s now looking to open a West Coast office. Sent me out here to take a couple of meetings, get the lay of the land. I won’t bore you with the details.’
‘But when did you leave the FBI Lab?’
‘Years ago.’
‘I didn’t know.’
‘Hey, how much of your life do you want to spend dealing with crime and criminals?’
She glanced at him with interest. ‘You miss anything from those days?’
‘Nope! The job I have now is dull and that’s the way I like it. I can get my excitement elsewhere. Seeing you and Steelie is the highlight of this trip. Speaking of which, is she meeting us at the restaurant?’
Jayne was parking at a meter. She raised her voice over the passing traffic as she got out of the truck. ‘She couldn’t come tonight. Pretty busy this week.’
Gene waited until she’d joined him on the sidewalk. ‘She still mad at me, then?’
She gave him an embarrassed grin and started walking.
‘Argh!’ He threw his hands up in the air and caught up with her. ‘How long can someone hold a grudge for God’s sake! It’s been almost ten years.’
‘She’s like an elephant; she never forgets.’
‘And now you two are running this charity. How’s that going?’
‘It’s good. Early days yet.’
‘How long since your doors opened?’
They’d crossed into Little Tokyo’s center and were walking past bubble tea cafes and clothing shops. ‘It’s been about a year now.’
‘I only had a second to glance at your website but you’re trying to work on the backlog of bodies?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Pretty ambitious.’
She shot him a look. ‘What, just because it’s a big job, we shouldn’t bother?’
‘You know it’s not just a big job, Jayne; it’s damn near insurmountable.’
She didn’t like the way he made air quotes with his fingers around “big job”, like she hadn’t assessed the nature of the problem correctly. She wanted to say,
‘You’re saying the glass is half full, not half empty.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Bullshit.’
She stopped walking and turned to look up at his face, remembering how he had a way of making her feel the height differential was just symbolic of his actual superiority. She was suddenly glad Steelie wasn’t there. It would save her from having to post bail after Steelie was arrested for grievous bodily harm from punching Gene in the mouth.
‘It’s not bullshit, Gene. Perspective makes a difference and if that means people like us keep trying to put names to bodies – particularly the difficult to identify – then that’s a good thing.’
Jayne felt like his eyes were boring right through her but then he broke into a grin.
‘That must be the face your sponsors see when you’re asking for grants.’
She couldn’t tell if that was a compliment and didn’t get a chance to ask because the host of the restaurant they had unwittingly stopped in front of asked if they’d like to see the menu. He was holding out a large, vinyl- covered book that Jayne accepted.
They stepped closer to the doorway to get light to read by and walked into the scent of food. She and Gene looked at each other in silent agreement.
They let the host lead them to a table set in a front window. There were a few other diners at tables partially obscured by ficus trees and ferns in pots. The lights were low, and the atmosphere was muted as people focused on their food.
She and Gene shared several dishes, telling old stories and arguing good-naturedly over details.
As they finished up, he asked, ‘Remember when you fell down the ravine in Rulindo?’
‘Oh, we can laugh about it now but you guys left me down there way too long.’
‘We knew you were OK.’
‘I could have broken my ankle!’
‘But you didn’t.’
‘I think I did sprain it or something. It’s never been the same.’
‘Really? You should get it checked out.’
Jayne smiled. ‘A bit late for that, don’t you think?’
‘You, ah, ever get checked out by a psych?’
‘Why? Did you?’
‘When I got back to DC. But you didn’t answer my question.’
‘No, I never saw anyone.’
‘Still could.’
‘I suppose.’ She paused. ‘Did it help you? I mean, not that you needed help per se.’
Gene thought for a moment. ‘It helped me get some clarity about what I wanted to spend my life doing. Working in Rwanda kinda opened things up for me.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘I guess I felt some freedom there. When I got back home, I decided to pursue it; give myself permission to enjoy life, not stay enslaved to my government job and the road to a pension.’ He tapped his cup thoughtfully and then smiled up at her. ‘You charge by the hour or what?’
Jayne smiled back.
Gene continued. ‘And you? What happened for you after the Kigali mission?’
