She looked at Alison and said, “Is that okay with you, Miss?”
“Oh, Gawd, yes!” Alison purred, displaying not the slightest trace of embarrassment. To me, she said: “This handsome jewelry salesman just made my day!”
As we rode the elevator to our rooms I said, “I’ve got to make a few calls. You want to get together in an hour, have some dinner?”
She said, “That sounds great. I’ll freshen up. Just knock on the door whenever you’re ready.”
Dinner with Alison had to be someplace other than the Marriott because of the terrifying man in the lobby she thought was staring at her. We hustled past the scary man and caught a cab to I Fratelli’s.
Though I like Italian food, I generally prefer a more upscale dining experience. Still, this family-friendly restaurant was good food at great prices. Their wine tasting highlighted a wide selection of Italian coastal varietals. That, along with flatbread and antipasto would have made a meal for me, but I kicked in for their specialty, a large, hand-made, thin-crust pepperoni pizza, which I shared with Alison.
As often happens on a first date that’s going well, our conversation focused on a wide range of safe subjects, and only a couple of suggestive ones, such as the loneliness of road travel, which she mentioned several times. Since we were eating finger food, there wasn’t much physical contact during dinner. But there was no question where I stood: between her sultry facial expressions, winks and sensual lip licking, Alison was throwing more signals at me than a third base coach in the bottom of the ninth.
In other words, Darwin had nailed her on the cover story.
For a dedicated auditor, Alison possessed a surprising tolerance for liquor. In addition to three glasses of wine, she polished off one of her trademark cosmopolitans and was deep into her second when her face suddenly turned white.
“There he is again!” she whispered.
I started to turn, but she grabbed my arm. “Don’t look!” she said.
“Who are we talking about?”
“The big, creepy guy from the hotel lobby.”
I took a minute to process. “The one that scared you? Are you sure?”
“Yes!” she whispered. “I just saw him through the window.”
“Maybe it was the lighting or a reflection off the glass.”
“Cosmo, I swear it was him.” She was visibly frightened. Shaking. She tightened her grip on my arm. “Thank God you’re here,” she said.
“What do you think he’s up to?”
“I think he’s following us.”
Chapter 28
I got the waiter’s attention, gave him a credit card and asked I him to call us a cab. I stood and said, “I’m going to check out front, make sure he’s gone.”
Alison said, “Please don’t go out there. You might get hurt.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ll just have a quick look around.”
“Wait,” she said. “Log in my cell phone number. If something happens, just press send.”
She gave me her number and I punched it into my phone. Then I went out the front door and circled the restaurant, looking for darkened areas where a big guy might be able to hide. When I turned the second corner I found myself face to face with him. He pointed a finger at my face with his thumb up, as if it were a gun. He let the thumb fall. “Bang,” he said.
The horrifically deformed giant had indeed been following us, just as I’d asked him to do when I called him from The Spotted Pig after talking to Darwin.
His job was to meet us in Dallas, follow us around and scare the shit out of Alison. His name is Augustus Quinn, and, like Callie, he’s an integral part of my team, which is to say, he knows where most of the bodies are buried.
Literally.
“She hasn’t mentioned Afaya,” I said. “Then again, I wouldn’t expect her to.”
