bad I can’t say the same thing about your roomie.” She was shaking something between her fingers.
“What’s shakin’?”
Molly showed Corbin a small glass bottle containing a liquid that matched the dark-red color on her nails. “I was sitting all by myself in my office, thinking about doing my nails. Then I remembered you were all alone, so I thought I’d come over here and keep you company. I brought plenty of polish, if you want to share.”
“I’ll pass.”
“How are things?” Molly set the nail polish down and began filing one of her nails.
“I’m actually kind of busy, Molly.”
“Don’t let me interrupt you.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Corbin waited, but Molly didn’t respond. “Ok, let’s be blunt. Please leave.”
“No.”
“I don’t want to throw you out, but I will.”
“Doubt it.” Molly concentrated on her filing.
“I can make you want to leave.”
“Not until I find out what you two are up to.”
“If you don’t leave, I’ll start making lewd comments until you do leave.”
“You wouldn’t know how.” Molly still didn’t look up from her work.
“Fine, you asked for it,” Corbin said reluctantly. He slowly examined her up and down, as if he were a computer conducting an electronic scan.
Noticing his silence, Molly looked up to see what Corbin was doing. “What are you looking at?”
“I understand that one of the hardest things for strippers to deal with are guys who show up just to nitpick their bodies. I’m going to put that to the test. First, I’m going to guess your weight, then I’m going to move on to guessing other measurements.” Molly was by no means fat, but she wasn’t exactly thin either. And while Corbin found her figure quite attractive, he knew her weight was an issue for her, as he’d seen the much slenderer Theresa score direct hits on this point several times in the past.
Molly’s smile vanished instantly. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“If you’re still here after that, I’ll start cataloging defects. Last chance to leave.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she repeated.
“Let’s see, you’re certainly north of 150 pounds.”
Molly’s face flushed.
“I’d say you’re probably north of 160 as well.”
Molly’s face turned bright red and her eyes bulged.
“Maybe as much as 164, though I wouldn’t rule out 170.”
Molly’s jaw dropped. Not only had Corbin guessed, but he’d guessed somewhat accurately. “Bastard!” she spat out.
“Are you leaving?”
“No,” Molly said resolutely.
“Those are some mighty big feet you got there, Molly, not to mention some saggy-”
“Stop!” Molly jerked herself out of the chair. As she stormed out the door in a huff, she cursed Corbin over her shoulder.
Corbin breathed a sigh of relief. Now he could get Beckett.
When Beckett and Alvarez boarded in Philadelphia, their car was nearly empty. By the time they reached the outer suburbs, they were alone. With no one to overhear them, they began arguing and accusing each other of making the entire trip unnecessarily difficult. This continued until they reached Baltimore.
Alvarez rose as the train rolled to a stop. He grabbed the duffel bag. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I never want to see you again.”
“Ditto.”
Without another word, Alvarez left the train.
Beckett watched him leave. “Idiot.”
Chapter 12
Beckett climbed into Corbin’s car. Corbin had already spoken to Alvarez and knew the trip had been successful. He also knew Alvarez and Beckett had not gotten along and that Beckett would need to blow off a lot of steam. He took the long way back to the office.
“You’re late,” Corbin tweaked Beckett, as Beckett had tweaked Alvarez earlier.
“Talk to the train.”
“Sure, blame an innocent train. How’d it go?”
Beckett wasted no time unloading. “I don’t know where you dug that guy up, but what a freakin’ loser! He kept panicking! If I wasn’t there, he’d be in jail right now describing you and me in detail.”
“I take it you two didn’t get along?”
“That’s the understatement of the century.”
“But you got it done.”
“Of course, we got it done! I told you we would do it, and we did it, but that’s not the point. I’m not in this for the adventure and I don’t get off on the adrenaline. I’m only doing this because I have no choice. I need to support my family, and my boss made sure I couldn’t do that within the system. .”
Corbin let Beckett ramble. Several minutes later, he was still complaining.
“It makes me nervous as all hell that we’re working with a guy who spent the whole time sweating like a pig, whining like a baby, and freaking out every time he saw a cop.”
“Nerves are a fact of life.”
“You promised me this guy was solid. He wasn’t.”
“What do you mean not solid? He voluntarily walked into bank after bank and handed them fake identification paperwork, knowing he was a sitting duck if they called the cops. Besides, from what I hear, you were nervous just waiting around outside.”
Beckett glared at Corbin. “Who told you that? Did that weasel call you and bitch about me?!”
“Take it easy.”
“Did he tell you about his eruption at the McDonalds?! Did he tell you he nearly started a fist fight at the counter with a cop ten feet away?”
“Calm down. It’s over.”
Beckett’s nostrils flared. He took several deep breaths. Finally, he began to calm down. “You’re right. The hard part’s done.”
Corbin turned off the main road. They were two minutes from the office. “We’re almost back. Last chance to yell, scream, whatever you need to do to get the adrenaline out of your system. Then we need to get you back into office mode.”
“I’m all right. Tell me about the office.”
“You spent the entire day out processing and being pulled from office to office so people could wish you good riddance.” Corbin handed Beckett a sheet of paper. “Here’s a list of everyone who dropped by to see you. The checkmarks mean you e-mailed them that you would drop by later. Patricia’s looking for you. She wants your out- processing file. I’ve got that in my desk. Kak came by a couple times. I think he wants to give you his standard goodbye words of wisdom.”
“He won’t do that at the party?”
“No, he never goes to the party. He’ll corner you privately and tell you you’re a flawed human being and that someday you’ll thank him for telling you that. That’s his way of making himself feel better.”
“Jerk off to the end, huh?”
“Yep. At this point, Molly’s the only one who’s suspicious. She’s been a royal pain in the ass. She doesn’t believe you’re in the office today. She thinks you’re playing hooky. Don’t commit to being in the office at any particular time, she may have been tracking her visits. Also, don’t tell her you were at your desk for more than five
