THAT SAME DAY
I checked my watch and glanced at Connie. I couldn’t help but notice the concerned look on her face. “I know you’re not happy about me asking for your dad’s help,” I said. “But he’s not just the only one I could trust, he’s the only one I knew with the know-how to pull it off.”
“I get that, Tank,” she said, her voice low and barely audible. “And if he didn’t want to get involved, he wouldn’t have done it. And, to be honest, helping you out on your cases this past year has brought more energy back to his life. I didn’t realize how much Dad missed being around the action. It was all he’d known since he was a kid running numbers for the local bookies.”
“There’s a ‘but’ coming my way,” I said, trying to lighten the mood. “I can feel it, rushing in at any minute.”
“The ‘but’ is he can get hurt,” Connie said. “He was beaten up pretty badly earlier this year when he helped you chase down that drug dealer. Now he’s going up against a firm that seems to play as rough as any dealer or mob crew, if not rougher. If in fact they had your brother and his wife killed, that means they will do anything to protect what they have. That scares me, Tank. Scares me for my dad. Scares me for Chris, Pearl, and the others on the team. And it scares me for you.”
“It’s not a case I ever envisioned working,” I said. “But there’s no stepping back from it for me. I’m aware of the risks going up against these guys’ posses. Your dad is, too. But he’s been moving around large amounts of money all his life. He understands the ins and outs of that business a lot better than me. He’ll know how to keep them on the hook. Trust me, I would rather be out banging heads with a high-end dealer or taking you on a nice vacation. But Chris laid this on my lap, and I can’t ignore it.”
Connie reached out a hand and placed it on top of mine. “I never expect to talk you or my father out of doing anything you set your minds to,” she said. “I learned that lesson a long time ago.”
I sat back and nodded, letting the brief silence give us both a chance to take a deep breath. “Let’s not forget, on this one, it’s not just my team working the case. We got the U.S. Attorney in on it, as well. We have her full support. She’s assigning your old pal Bobby Gregson to work with us. Under the table, so no one but us knows about it.”
“Have you met him yet?” Connie asked.
I shook my head. “Maybe you can tell me a little about him.”
Connie’s face flushed a bit, and she moved her hand away from mine. “It’s been years since I’ve seen him,” she said. “Didn’t know he was a fed. Last I saw him he was planning on practicing law.”
“You downplayed it when I first brought up his name,” I said. “But there was more to the two of you than an occasional cup of coffee and glass of wine.”
“I got caught off guard,” Connie said. “Plus, you saw the way my dad reacted. Thought it best to keep it simple. Which, in fact, it was.”
“So, you did date him,” I said.
“We were friends, Tank,” Connie said. “Nothing more. Bobby was working for a cable company, helping to pay his way through law school. I was taking classes during the day and helping out here at night. There wasn’t much time for serious dating. Though I don’t see how any of that will help you work this case.”
“Just trying to get a better picture of the guy, seeing as how we’re going to be working together,” I said.
Connie brushed a few strands of hair away from her face and smiled. “There’s more to it than that, Tank,” she said. “You’re not worried about working alongside a fed you’ve never met. You’re worried about working next to an old boyfriend of mine.”
“You don’t want to go there, we won’t,” I said. “But he’ll be part of my team, on this case at any rate. And odds are better than even you two will be seeing each other. So I need to make sure you’re okay with that.”
“There’s no reason not to be okay with it,” Connie said. “We never got to the point where it was considered a real relationship. We were friends for a period of time. Then he went his way and I went mine.”
“What brought it to an end?” I said.
“It kind of faded away,” Connie said. “One day he was too busy to meet up. Another day, it was me who couldn’t get away. I suppose if we wanted to be together, we would have figured a way to work all that out.”
“Any regrets?”
Connie reached for my hand. “I love the fact you’re jealous, Tank,” she said, a wide smile on her beautiful face. “It’s a side of you I’ve never seen. But there was never anything serious between me and Bobby. We were two friends with busy schedules who met now and then to relax and forget about work. And it ended because, well, that’s how it was meant to go. There’s no bad blood, no regrets, and no what-ifs.”
“I didn’t mean to come off as jealous,” I said. “I never thought we’d have to talk about one of your boyfriends, let alone me having to work alongside one.”
“Bobby was never my boyfriend,” Connie said. “Not in the way you’re thinking in that cop head of yours. And there aren’t any other boyfriends out there for you to fret over. Most of the time I wasn’t interested in anyone looking my way. And on the rare occasions I was, one glare from Carmine scared them away.”
“I’m sorry it took me so long, Connie,” I said.
“To do what?”
“To be with you,” I said. “It should have happened long ago. I let the job get in the way, and I regret that now. All those years where we could have been together, instead of loving each other from a distance. That’s on me.”
“It happened when it was meant to happen, Tank,” Connie said. “We’re together now, and that’s all that matters.”
I looked at her and smiled. “Then, just so I’m clear, you’re not still carrying a torch for Bobby Gregson?”
Connie laughed as she slid out of the booth. “You mean that Brad Pitt look-alike you’re about to work with?” she said. “Not a chance.”