Couples

Chapter 123

"How are things going with your new case?" Rick inquires over breakfast. "You got in late last night."

"I was waiting on an I.D. of the victim and trying to track down the car that dumped him in the alley."

"Any luck?" Rick asks.

"In identifying the vic, yes. His name is Wilfred Morrison. We had his fingerprints on file for multiple petty thefts."

"Hmm, you think Wilfred tried to rip off the wrong person?" Rick wonders.

"It's possible," Kate considers. "As far as the car goes, locating it is going to take more work. The DMV listed only two fifties' Cadillacs that fit the description – both belonging to the same man. He bought them when that show about the cop vampire went off the air, and they went up for sale."

"Ah, from Crimetime After Primetime. I remember that entry. The vampire trying to atone for his sins drove that car because it had the most trunk space. He could hide there if he were caught outside when the sun came up. Very practical, actually," Rick reflects. "The show was built on the Anne Rice mythology. I liked it."

"I kind of did too," Kate admits. "But right now, one of its cars is a problem. It was stolen on Thanksgiving. The owner reported the theft and has an alibi for the victim's time of death. Whoever stole it is either the killer or part of a murder conspiracy. Ryan is going to scrub the traffic video around where the car was taken to see if he can find an image of the thief. That could take a while, but I'm hoping he'll have something when I go back in on Monday.

Rick grins. "Which gives you the weekend away from the case. It's early in the holiday season, but a live production of Amahl and the Night Visitors is on tonight," Rick announces. "The way Lily loves music videos, I thought she might get a kick out of a real T.V. opera."

"She might," Kate agrees. "And if it puts her to sleep, that could be even better."

Rick winks, giving Kate a thumbs up. "Exactly my thought."

"Kate, hurry up," Rick urges as Kate fills a platter with fruit and dessert cheese. It's started already. Amahl's mother is going to sing her solo."

Striding to the couch, Kate puts the food on the coffee table and settles down beside Rick. "Wait a minute. I recognize her. The woman playing the mother, I mean. She was the witness to the body drop. That explains why she had that piano in her apartment and why her voice was strong. She's an opera singer."

"Small world," Rick comments, "but do you think it's important?"

"It explains why she was as observant as she was. She takes in the nuance of people's actions like your mother does."

"Unless she was involved in the murder," Rick suggests. "Or maybe she's more than an opera singer. Maybe she's an agent planted to keep track of foreign virtuosi."

Kate lays a hand on Rick's thigh. "Really, Babe?"

Rick shrugs. "It could happen."

As the opera goes on, Lily begins to get restless until she points excitedly at a cage King Kaspar is carrying. "Bird!"

Rick chuckles. "The show finally got her attention. I think our daughter may grow up to be an ornithologist – or a zookeeper."

"Bird. Zoo." Lily repeats proudly.

"Next time I try to introduce her to anything close to classical music, I'll go straight to Carnival of the Animals," Rick declares.

Kate grabs a grape from her platter. "Good idea."

Jack doesn't pay much attention to weekends. In his line of work, they don't mean a lot. In fact, when much of the population is kicking back can be an easier time to get down to serious business. With that in mind, he's watching the building he considers to be the uptown terminus of the hidden train.

According to the sign over the door, it houses a group of consultants in global markets. There couldn't be a much better cover for foreign actors to come in and out. So far, Jack's spotted assets he recognized as taking assignments in India. With that country doing an increasing amount of business around the world, it makes sense. The Indian government also keeps an intense watch on Pakistan. Given its border with Afghanistan, that country is also of considerable interest to the United States. Azra's languages, particularly Urdu and Pashto, would fit right in with that mission.

He hasn't seen a sign of Azra yet, or at least he doesn't think he has. What women he's seen so far have been covered head to toe. Without clues from body shape, he'd have trouble identifying a surgically altered face. But he took pictures just in case. If he studies them later, something may pop.

Jack can't stay long. Even watching through a scope from a half-mile away, he'll eventually be spotted on security scans. And assuming no one shoots first and asks questions later, he'll still have a lot of explaining to do. So he'll give his surveillance another half hour and then take off to find a different perch. Fortunately, this part of the city has a lot of tall buildings.

Esposito rubs his eyes. He's not sure how Ryan pulled him into scrubbing video on a Saturday morning, but he's doing it. He supposes it's just as well. Bambi told him she was going to spend the day at some teachers' supply stores in Brooklyn. He offered to come along to carry things, but she said she'd be with some other teachers, and she could get anything she bought shipped straight to her school. He admires her devotion to her profession, but he's going to miss her. And he isn't about to tell Ryan. His partner is giving him enough knowing looks already.

"Hey, Bro, I've got something!" Ryan calls from his monitor. "Look at that. That's the car we're looking for—even the license plate matches. But I can't get a view of the driver. We'll have to pick it up on camera on the route to wherever it's going."

Esposito groans. "That's going to be a lot of video."

"Have you got something better to do, partner?" Ryan asks.

"No," Esposito admits. "Not really."

Mouth twisting in disgust, Britni Maynard turns away from an ad for the supposedly latest innovation in bras. She's already tried it. Sometimes it seems like she's tried them all. She's even thought about breast reduction surgery, but her boyfriend almost cried the moment she mentioned it. And he's about as loyal as a man can be. He already helped her commit murder to cover up her past.

It was bad luck to run into Wilfred Morrison. It was miserable luck that he recognized her and even worse luck that he remembered who she was. She thought she'd left her life in Tenbury behind her. She'd never been caught, but she'd been quite the thief. While men's eyes were glued to her upper half, she'd been able to slip things into her pants. Unfortunately, she and Wilfred used the same fence. And that fence had eventually ended up in jail. But, as his customers went, she was a minor player, and she'd managed to get out of Tenbury before the cops bothered with her.

Still, Wilfred knew about her past and pointed out that their former colleague could back him up. She'd worked hard to build her reputation as a money manager, and she's good at it. If she were exposed as a thief, she would have been through. She made her boyfriend a damn fortune, and he's still raking it in. Otherwise, she would have had a harder time talking him into going along with her plan. Stealing the old caddy was a great touch. Wilfred had a thing for old cars, sometimes stealing them for parts. It was sweet that she should end up hauling his body in one.

Unfortunately, her generous bustline already gives Britni backaches. And taking care of Wilfred just made things worse.