Steve checked his watch and smiled as he took a seat on the subway headed for Manhattan. He still had plenty of time to make it to the bar to meet Nowicki.
He had been in New York City for two days, and could hardly wait to return to Salem. Steve had spent time in large cities before. Heck, he had grown up in Los Angeles. But he would never get used to the crowds in New York.
Not that they did not serve a purpose at times. Steve had found the crowds exceedingly useful in losing his ISA tail that evening.
Before leaving Salem, Steve had contacted an old Merchant Marine pal living in New York. Tony had quickly agreed to let Steve stay with him. Like a good friend, he had not asked any questions about why Steve was coming to New York.
After arriving and making his way to Tony's apartment, Steve had set out to find his ISA watchers. To that end, he had spent most of the previous day roaming around the city. He had played the part of the tourist, visiting Central Park, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty.
The crowds had made it difficult to spot a tail, but Steve had found enough quiet spots to finally identify the men following him. Having confirmed they were there, Steve had spent the evening with Tony at a local pizza place.
Although the visit to Tony's had been just a cover, Steve had enjoyed his time catching up with his old shipmate. Tony had served with Bo and Steve in Stockholm, and had been one of the people Bo had contacted after Steve's "death."
After they had discussed Steve's return from the dead, the evening had been spent eating authentic New York pizza and drinking pitchers of beer. They had reminisced about life at sea and challenged each other to games of pool and darts.
Several hours later, the two had made their way back to Tony's apartment. Even in his impaired state, Steve had picked up on the ISA tail. He had chuckled, wondering if they got paid overtime for following his drunken ass around.
When they had reached Tony's apartment, and in spite of the late hour, Steve had called Kayla. She had chided him gently for his obvious intoxication, but had clearly been relieved to hear from him.
Steve shook his head as he thought about the previous night and the call to his wife. There was a time when he would have never believed he would ever be happy to be checking in with someone. But Kayla had changed all that. Knowing she loved him and worried about him made him want to call and reassure her.
His call home had earned him some ribbing from Tony, but Steve had simply pointed out that if Tony had a woman as wonderful as Kayla, he would have been just as happy to check in too. Tony had been unable to argue with that, and they had both more-or-less passed out at that point.
Now, a day later, Steve was thankful he was feeling no ill effects from the previous night. The last thing he needed was to be off his game right now.
At that thought, Steve felt the subway car slow slightly as the first stop in lower Manhattan was announced. Steve remained casual as he felt the car come to a stop and the doors opened. Counting softly in his head, Steve waited until the last possible moment before jumping up and out the doors, barely avoiding having them slam shut on him.
Looking up and down the platform, Steve checked carefully for anyone else who might have jumped off. He did not see anyone, but the crowds made it impossible to be sure. It did not really matter, though; this was only his first step.
Moving quickly, Steve placed himself in the middle of the crowd heading up to the street. About halfway up, he ducked left through an archway that took him to another subway platform where a train was about to depart.
Without hesitating, Steve jumped on the train. He kept a close eye on the adjoining cars to see if he had been followed. Again, he did not see anyone.
Steve followed this pattern or another hour. He randomly got on and off the subway, always watching for his ISA friends.
When he was finally convinced that he had lost them, Steve exited to the street and hailed a cab. Still not taking any chances, he had the cab drop him a few blocks from the bar where he was supposed to meet Nowicki.
Only after circling around several times, did Steve finally approach the door to the bar called "The Three Kings." Once he entered, Steve walked directly to the bar and ordered a beer. Using the mirrors behind the bar, Steve studied the room, finally spotting Nowicki at a booth in a back corner.
Picking up his beer, Steve walked towards Nowicki. He kept his eye on the other customers, trying to see if anybody was a little too interested in his movements, but nobody seemed to be paying any attention to him at all.
Deciding he had done all he could, Steve walked to Nowicki's booth and without a word, sat down on the opposite side of the table.
"Nice of you to finally show up." Nowicki barely looked up from the magazine he had been pretending to read.
"Sorry about that," Steve said. "I had to take the long way around. I didn't want my friends to crash our party."
Nowicki smirked at that. "I know the feeling." He gave Steve a hard glare. "Did you manage to ditch them?"
Steve nodded and returned the glare. "How about you? You sure none of your friends are here?"
Nowicki flashed Steve a smug smile. "Don't worry. I know how to deal with potential party crashers."
"Good." Steve took another drink from his beer. "So what brings you do New York?"
Nowicki did not answer at first. Instead, he waived the waitress over and ordered a scotch and soda for himself and a beer for Steve.
When the waitress left, Nowicki polished off the drink in front of him. "Officially, I'm here to see my sister's new baby. What about you?"
Steve leaned back and smiled. "Officially, I'm here visiting an old friend from my Merchant Marine days."
"What about unofficially?" Nowicki asked.
Before Steve could answer, the waitress returned with their drinks. After she left, Steve leaned forward. "Unofficially, you know exactly why I'm here. I need your help to get Donovan off the hook."
Nowicki avoided Steve's eye for the moment and asked in a low tone, "How's Donovan doing?"
"He's recovering pretty well," Steve said. "But having these bogus charges hanging over his head isn't helping anything." He eyed Nowicki. "I'm hoping you can help me change that."
Nowicki lifted his glass, drained his drink, and then looked Steve straight in the eye. "I know what you're here for, Johnson, but I only agreed to meet you for one reason - to tell you to leave me and my men alone. We can't help you. No one can."