Chapter 2 - 10 days earlier
It was an overcast morning when Teresa joined Patrick in the kitchen of the spacious apartment they rented. Both agreed that they had not yet taken the time to get to know Austin well enough to buy a place and the only other option was his Airstream, which, while she acknowledged its comforts for travel to regional cases or the occasional getaway to a state park, was not an ideal permanent address for them. When she thought she would be moving to DC she had paid the penalty to break the lease and the landlord had found a new tenant that was fine because it was not much bigger than the Airstream. They ended up finding an airy two bedroom unit with plenty of space - "to play," as Patrick would say with a theatrical waggle of the eyebrow.
She had showered and dressed for the day after Patrick had kissed her from sleep and was now craving coffee and more time with her tormentor- the order of those was optional. Patrick was sitting at the breakfast bar having his morning tea and reading the paper when arms came around him and teeth started nibbling at his ear. Chuckling he said, "Hungry this morning, love?"
"Mmm! Very and for a number of things," she responded while whispering in his ear.
Patrick turned on the stool, put his arms around her, and gave her a warm kiss before they both sighed. "Yes, but if you're determined that we should work for a living, I'm not sure how you'll get everything you want- right now."
With one final squeeze, she reluctantly walked around the breakfast bar and poured herself a cup of coffee. "As long as I have a promise of tonight, I'll sacrifice the morning," Teresa teased in her best-martyred tone.
They both made quick work of the newspaper and their breakfasts before Teresa filled her travel mug with the last of the coffee, grabbed her messenger bag containing the files they had read the night before, while Patrick folded the paper into his pocket. At some point during the day, he was sure he could find a moment to finish working the crossword and Sudoku.
The couple arrived at work with the announcement that Team Leader Special Agent Dennis Abbott had a new case briefing starting, "as soon as Lisbon and Jane can tear themselves away from their argument over radio stations."
"Jazz, jazz, jazz! I love jazz but I also love other music, too. I just don't see why we can't listen to other music once in a while," Teresa continued to argue.
"I didn't say we couldn't listen to other music- occasionally. But you have to admit it was good," Patrick countered.
"Or NPR? I would settle for NPR," she proposed as she takes a seat.
"Fine," he muttered as he sat down next to her and glanced at Abbott who was standing in front of the team watching in complete stunned silence as the two bickered.
Realizing that everyone is watching and listening to them, the two music aficionados muttered, "Sorry," and went silent.
"Oookay then," Abbott said, "Now that we have an agreement on one of the great debates of our time, let's get started."
Abbott started the PowerPoint presentation and began the briefing. "In the last three months there has been a large upswing in drug sales and crimes against women in the greater Austin area. The local PD has attempted multiple stings and undercover operations but nothing has worked. Every time the narcotics unit goes in, the places are completely clean."
Agent Cho, sitting in front of Jane and Lisbon, asked, "How many is a 'multiple?'"
"Five."
"Sounds like there's a leak in the department," Cho said.
"That's why the Chief of Detectives met me for lunch in Dallas last week. He wanted to work on getting outside help to break up the drug ring and then he'll be able to find out who's dirty in his department."
Frowning slightly, Lisbon asked, "But you said it was drugs AND crimes against women. Are they related?"
Abbott looked at the sharp agent and slowly nodded. "We think so but there's nothing concrete."
Turning to everyone, he continued, "The women reporting rapes and assaults in that area have told the same basic story. They have no memory of events surrounding their attacks, but tracing their movements they were all in the same club where we are confident the drug deals are being made. The few that reported the attacks quickly enough show a cocktail of date-rape drugs in their systems. These drugs, along with the usual heroin, coke, oxy, etc., are exploding all over the club district but seem to be coming from one central location."
He clicked to the next slide showing a brick two-story building with a parking lot next door. The place had a slightly rundown appearance, as if it had seen its best years a generation ago. "This is the Noted Lady. It's a club not quite at the end of the 6th Street District but located in a quieter area." Clicking the slide, he shows it at night with the parking lot half-filled and the marquee lights on with the exception of three bulbs, enforcing its somewhat tired appearance. "It's owned by a man named George Calhoun who used to play piano at the club until two years ago. According to public records, he bought the place for $500,000 from the previous owner who has retired to Boca Raton."
"A half million for that?" Jane scoffed. "It wasn't exactly a buyers' market."
Chuckling, Abbott had to agree. "We believe that Calhoun received a bit of under the table help here, but it's nothing we can prove. He told the bank handling the closing that a relative had died and he had inherited, plus he had an offshore account where he said he had been squirreling away money for years. Obviously, the most likely scenario is that he laundered money for someone and has now agreed to a complete lack of vision when seeing any illegal activities."
"Any known associates with the mob, gang, or local drug dealers?" Cho asked.
Agent Fischer turned from her seat in the front row and answered, "I've run every check I could on the guy but nothing shows up. He's super clean- too clean. No one who has worked in that many seedy dives over the years can be as untouched as this guy appears."
Abbott nodded in agreement, "The other interesting part is that this is a classic piano bar and the clientele is older than most of those in the club scene. It's just quieter. Perhaps that's allowing the perps to blend in? I'm just not sure."
"So what's the plan?" Cho asked.
Abbott clicked another slide in the PowerPoint. "Directly across the street from the Noted Lady is a small bar that has been closed for a few years for selling liquor to minors one too many times. The ATF has 'loaned' it to us and it will appear to be undergoing a renovation. We will be able to stake out our tactical command from there with the added benefit of a portable unit inside a plumbing van. That's phase one."
Abbott addressed the tactical members of the team, "Many of you will be seen going in and out of the bar as trades' people - electricians, carpenters, plumbers, etc. We will also have two people inside working at the Noted Lady with a variety of people coming in and out randomly as 'customers.'"
Cho leaned forward, "I've worked as a bartender and I could do it again."
Lisbon volunteered, "I can wait tables."
Abbott smiled and nodded to Fischer who started passing out folders. "Here are your assignments for this. If you have any questions, just ask."
Fischer ended with Jane and Lisbon. She gave a file to Jane and returned to her seat without giving a folder Lisbon. "Uh, boss, I don't have a profile," Lisbon said in a confused voice as she tried to look at Jane's thinking that someone had put hers with his.
Jane started reading the scenario, his eyes widened, and his jaw dropped slightly. He looked at Abbott with a strange mix of curiosity, shock, and amusement. He read it to himself again: Customer and boyfriend of recently hired club singer, Terri Lipton / Also, moral support for the agent assigned to the role of the singer. Looking at the love of his life he said, "In the future, when you are complaining about one of my schemes or cons, as you call them, I will remind you of this very moment."
Lisbon looked from Jane to Abbott with a complete lack of comprehension. Abbott sighed acknowledging that this was the portion of the briefing and planning when things had the potential to get a bit ugly. "When we were looking into the possibility of covers we quickly realized that a new bartender or waitress wouldn't work." Looking at Cho he continued, "These are the type of new employees that they expect law enforcement to infiltrate and they're very careful around them. We need an edge and we realized that potential a few weeks ago when the entertainers who had worked there for the last 3 months decided to leave and go on tour. Since then, Calhoun has been looking for new talent and not having much luck. He wants a lot for a little."
Abbott stopped and gave an evil grin at Jane, "Actually, Jane, I would like to think that I was somewhat inspired by your methods to come up with this."
Jane raised both hands to ward off the compliment, "Oh no, please, I want it known I had NOTHING to do with this."
Lisbon was starting to feel a bit nervous but still didn't quite understand where this was going. Did Abbott want Jane to be the entertainment? Maybe put on a psychic show? He'd done it before so there was no problem there. "Jane, what's the big deal? So you do some readings. You'll be careful not to hurt anyone, right?"
Jane just stared at her, not sure what to say. Finally, Abbott stepped in. "Agent Lisbon, it's not Jane that will going undercover as an entertainer. I will be taking the assignment-"
"Oh. Sorry. I'm sure you'll be great, but I don't understand… why… I don't have…" suddenly she was starting to put it together. She stared at Abbott as Jane looked at her with concern.
Abbott continued as if he hadn't heard the interruption "-and be performing on piano accompanying torch singer Terri Lipton- played by you, Agent Teresa Lisbon."