Undercover Encounter. Rebecca York

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СКАЧАТЬ didn’t back down. Raising his head, he gave Alex a direct look. “What about when you disappeared down the hall a little later? You were gone for ten minutes.”

      Alex fought the urge to cross his arms defensively over his chest. “We’ve been waiting to catch Jack Smith making another move. Last night I saw him slip some white powder into a customer’s drink. One of the businessmen who came in after that fight. Like Longbottom, he left with a prostitute. Why didn’t you follow them?”

      Mason’s complexion turned a dull shade of red. “I didn’t see Jack do anything.”

      “Well, I was closer to him,” Alex said, giving the ex-con a way to save face, when what he wanted to do was ask Mason why he hadn’t taken a seat nearer to the bar. “Since I knew what he’d done, I wanted to see where the couple was going.”

      “And?” Conrad asked.

      “They went around the corner, then inside the McDonough Club.”

      “Which is?” Mason asked.

      Conrad answered. “For years it was a prestigious men’s club in the city. Recently, I heard it changed hands.”

      “Yeah,” Alex agreed as he took one of the empty chairs around the large conference table. “I did some research on the place this morning. That’s why I’m a little late.” He paused for a beat to let the explanation sink in, then continued. “I checked out the ownership on the city tax records. The deed is in the name of a Cynthia Dupré.” He took out a photograph he’d downloaded of a woman with a rounded face and dyed blond hair who appeared to be in her mid-fifties.

      Phil studied it carefully. “She looks familiar, but the name sounds wrong.” He tapped his finger against his lips, looking thoughtful, and Alex waited for some bit of buried information to come out. Phil gave the impression of being an easygoing, fun-loving guy with no other purpose in life other than being a party animal. But he was sharp, and he’d been working around New Orleans for years. One thing he brought to the Confidential network was a working knowledge of most of the lowlifes in the city.

      “Unless I’m mixing her up with her twin sister—which I don’t think she has—she was arrested for running a house of prostitution. I recollect that she paid some bribes and got off with probation,” he said.

      “Very interesting,” Alex murmured. “I also checked out the liquor license for the establishment. It’s supposed to be a private club, bar and dining facility—with a small hotel upstairs. I’m wondering if the rooms are rented by the night or by the hour.”

      Rich laughed. “Good going, Alex. It looks like we need to do some digging into that place.”

      “Bartley, you get a report on my desk by tomorrow morning,” Conrad said, giving the sour-faced agent some extra work to do.

      Mason answered with a tight nod.

      “Did you already discuss the Latin types who came in later in the evening?” Alex asked.

      Rich nodded. “I followed them after they left the bar.”

      “Where did they end up?”

      “In a stretch limo that looked way out of their price range.”

      “Oh yeah?”

      “I’m going to talk to the rental company.”

      They discussed more of the previous night’s activities. Then Conrad asked, “Is that it?”

      Alex took that opportunity to say, “Not quite. I’d like to ask some questions about the liaison with the police department.”

      Conrad nodded.

      “Last night a rookie cop named Gillian Seymour came into Bourbon Street Libations dolled up as a prostitute. I assume she’s part of the undercover sting set up by the N.O.P.D. to help crack the suspected prostitution ring and finger the drug distributor. She left with one of the patrons.”

      “And?”

      “She just graduated from the academy a few months ago. She’s too green for the job.”

      “The police commissioner approves department personnel,” Conrad said.

      Alex was aware that the rest of the men around the table were listening to the exchange with interest.

      “You mean, the redhead?” Rich asked.

      “Yeah.”

      “She looked nervous,” Rich observed.

      “She should have,” Alex rasped.

      Mason jumped in. “You know her?”

      Alex swung his gaze toward the ex-con, knowing he’d made a strategic mistake. He should have waited to bring Gillian up when he and Conrad could speak in private. “Yeah.”

      “I don’t envy her the job,” Mason said. “Getting pawed by horny guys can’t be fun.”

      “If she can’t handle them, perhaps we can ask for a personnel change,” Conrad offered.

      Oh yeah, Alex thought, suddenly struck with the perfect way to get her off the case.

      TWO DAYS LATER, just as Gillian had been about to leave the station house to go over to her mom and dad’s for dinner, she got a message from the lieutenant’s office. It seemed she wasn’t off duty, after all. A training meeting for her undercover assignment was scheduled at an apartment off Esplanade Avenue, the dividing line between the French Quarter and the city’s downtown Creole neighborhood.

      She changed out of her uniform and into a conservative beige pantsuit with a navy blouse—something that shouldn’t call attention to her on the street. Then she made a quick call to her parents, apologizing for canceling the evening. Already late, she tried to get to the meeting on time. But she had to fight traffic all the way from the station house. By the time she arrived in the area, the only parking space she could find was a block away.

      It was getting dark as she hurried down the cracked sidewalk, all her senses on alert. And she found herself thinking about when she’d been a little girl and Mom had told her never to walk home from school alone.

      If she’d been given the choice, she would have picked a better location and a better time. But that was simply par for the course. It went along with the serious second thoughts she was having about the assignment.

      If anybody asked why she’d taken the undercover assignment, she could come up with some kind of idealistic answer. And it would have been true, as far as it went. She certainly wanted to help get that Category Five off the streets. But now that she had a little taste of playing prostitute, she wasn’t so sure she could handle the role. And what made it worse was the knowledge that Alexander McMullin would be sitting there watching her. She could deal with the remarks she was getting from the guys at the station house, but McMullin was another matter. With him it was personal, because he’d make it that way.

      What if she asked to be reassigned? Would that be a black mark on her career? Something that would follow her through the department for years to come?

      The СКАЧАТЬ