Disclaimer: Don't own anything but the plot and Annie. Even the title is borrowed from Van Morrison.
Italics - Spanish
Some bad words, some violence, and fade into black sex-scenes, nothing too graphic.
Chapter 16. A new week, new possibilitiesAfter breakfast the next morning Annie packed most of her things. Tank persuaded her to leave some. Then they decided to go to Haywood first, and make a plan on how to tackle Helen Plum.
They got a report on Morelli first. He still had withdrawal symptoms, but had eaten a sandwich, and drunk a lot of water.
"A week of this and maybe he'll be more coherent," Bobby said.
"We'll let him stew for at least some hours more. I want to see if we can get any answers from Mrs. Plum first."
Hector, Bobby, Cal and Hal were meeting Tank and Annie in the conference room.
"Frank Plum has some steady customers, and he's already out driving his cab. Mondays he usually eats out, so Helen has an empty calendar until she needs to cook dinner."
"I´ll try to call her and set up a meeting then. Where should we meet?"
"Tell her the park near your place. It´s quite small, and should be easy to supervise without being seen. And you can tell her you know her car was in the vicinity the other night, so she shouldn't have any problem finding her way…"
"Any tips on how I should persuade her to meet me?"
"Tell her you're a friend of a friend of Steph's, and that you want her help with a couple of things. If that´s not enough you could start dropping some names – Morelli senior, Valerie, Joe Morelli."
"OK, here we go."
Tank dialed the number and put her on speakerphone.
"This is Helen Plum speaking."
"Mrs. Plum. My name is Annie, and I´m a friend of a friend of your daughter Stephanie."
The silence on the other end was deafening.
"I have a couple of questions to ask you, and wonder if we could meet up?"
"I don't have time to meet unknown people."
"Oh, but we have some mutual acquaintances. For example Joe Morelli. I saw you were out driving with him last week. In fact you were quite close to where I live."
"What do you want?"
"I told you. I want to ask you a couple of questions. Eye to eye."
"If you´re not comfortable meeting me at my home or at a café maybe we could meet at the park a couple of blocks over from my apartment. How about two o´clock?"
"I'll be there."
"I think you´ll recognize me. I´ve been frequently told I look just like your daughter from a distance."
Helen hung up without saying a word.
"How rude."
"Great job, Annie. "
After a couple of minutes they could hear Hector´s bug in the kitchen picking up the sound of something being poured in a glass.
"Hope it isn't whisky before she gets in the car," Bobby said.
The next thing they could here over the microphone was Helen trying to phone Morelli´s cellphone. She swore when it went to voicemail.
"It´s Helen Plum. Call me back."
Over the microphone they could hear Helen pacing and mumbling to herself, but couldn't make out the words.
Then they could hear her picking up a phone again.
"Joe. It´s me. I had the strangest call just now. An Annie who claimed to be a friend of a friend of Steph´s. She wanted to meet me to get answers on a couple of questions. I said I´d be there, but I don't know what to do."
Since they hadn´t been able to find Helen´s cell phone they couldn't hear the answer from 'Joe', whom they all presumed to be Joe Juniak.
"In the park at the street near where she lives. And she said that she knew I´d been around last week with Joe Morelli."
"-"
"Yes, she said her name was Annie. And that people tell her she looks just like Steph from a distance."
"-"
"I'll meet her in the park at two o'clock."
"-"
"I see. Bye."
"Alright," Tank said. "We need two men who Helen won´t recognize in the park. Out of uniform. Camera and microphone on Annie."
"Maybe I should bring the test results you got, Hal. And a copy of one of Hector's photos. Preferably where you don't see too much skin, but where there's no doubt what they're doing or have done," Annie said.
"Sounds good. Any thoughts who should be in the park?"
"Mrs. Plum has seen all of us in here. Maybe Eric and Zip?"
"Sounds good. Send them up to me later, so I can give them their orders."
Tank and Annie ate their lunch in Tank´s office. Eric and Zip had been briefed, and Bobby and Hector had decided they should be in a parked van with surveillance equipment near the park.
Tank didn´t say anything. But Annie knew that he would be somewhere near the park.
"If you want to you can be in the apartment. Then you would be close by, and still out of sight. And you could drop me off there, and I can walk to the park. It would be consistent with my story."
"Sounds like a good idea."
He hesitated.
"Spit it out."
"I know I'm paranoid. Would you please wear a flak vest?"
"If it means that much to you, yes."
Half an hour later they were on their way over to Annie´s apartment. They brought up her things in the bag, and Tank had a laptop with the feed from the camera and microphone on Annie. They had hid both objects in her coat, and she had a flak vest under it.
"It´s not as uncomfortable as I feared, but the extra weight is a bit irritating."
"It'll only be for now."
Tank double checked the feed, and also checked with Hector that they had reception in the van. Eric and Zip had earphones, and they also reported that they got the audio.
"OK. This is it. Good luck."
Tank gave her a kiss, and Annie left for the park. She felt like someone was following her on the way over, and kept looking over her shoulder. After a couple of minutes she called Tank on her cell phone.
"Is there anyone else following me? It feels like there's someone there."
"I put Vince in a car, circling the park until you get there."
"OK, then I suppose it's him I'm picking up. Bye."
"Bye."