Double Espresso (A Loretta Kovacs thriller) Page 8

  But Marvelli’s memories were getting confused. Jennifer now was about the same age that Rene was then, and holding Jennifer reminded him of holding his wife on their honeymoon.

  He didn’t like what he was feeling because he didn’t understand it, and it scared him. He moved away from Jennifer to give himself some space, but she hung on to his hand. He nodded toward the counter. “So how do we get some of this famous Seattle coffee I’ve been hearing about?”

  “Hey, whatever you want,” Jennifer said. “You name it.”

  “How about an espresso?” he said. “Make it a double.”

  “You want anything to eat with that? As if I have to ask.”

  “Sure, anything,” he said, but in truth he wasn’t hungry at all. He was too confused to be hungry.

  Jennifer turned to Loretta. “How about you? What can I get you? Don’t worry, it’s on me.”

  “Do you have any herb tea?”

  “Twenty-three different kinds. But I do make a mean mochaccino. Can I tempt you?”

  “No,” Loretta said flatly. “Just tea. Mint if you have it.”

  “Sure.” As Jennifer turned to go back behind the counter, she gave Marvelli a look as if to say, What’s with her?

  Actually Marvelli was a little baffled himself. Loretta was definitely putting out some pretty hostile vibes, but he couldn’t imagine why.

  As Jennifer got busy behind the counter, Loretta sidled up to him. “In case you forgot, we’re here to find Sammy Teitelbaum.”

  “I know,” he said. “Is there a problem?” “No. Why do you think there’s a problem?” “I don’t know. You seem ticked off about something.”

  “I don’t have a problem.”

  “Oh … I thought something might be bothering you.”

  “Nothing’s bothering me.”

  “Okay. No problem.” Something was definitely bothering her. He could tell.

  “You want me to ask her about Sammy?” Loretta said.

  “No, I’ll do it.”

  “Okay. Fine.”

  But Loretta just stared at him as if she expected him to do it immediately. He would have preferred to have his espresso and visit a little longer before he got down to business.

  “You want me to ask her?” Loretta repeated.

  “I said I’ll do it.” She was getting on his nerves now.

  He walked over to the counter where Jennifer was working the espresso machine. “Say, Jen, did you know that Sammy got out of prison?”

  “Yeah,” she said, squinting against the steam rising from the machine. “As a matter of fact he came by to see me the other day. Right out of the blue.”

  Marvelli caught Loretta’s eye. “Oh, yeah? He was out here in Seattle?”

  “You know Sammy. He’s like a bad penny. He’s liable to show up anywhere.”

  “As long as you’re there.” Marvelli grinned at her.

  She looked a little embarrassed. “It’s not what you think. I’m through with him. Really. We’re not getting back together. I told him I want to go through with the divorce.”

  Marvelli nodded, sympathetic but noncommittal. “Sammy’s a difficult guy.”

  “That’s one way to put it.” She shut off the espresso machine and slid a brimming cup across the glass counter toward Marvelli. “Now, how about a piece of German chocolate cake? I know that’s one of your favorites.”

  “Sure. Fine,” he said. He wanted to know where Sammy was, but he didn’t want her to know that he and Loretta were here to arrest the little schmuck. In the past Jennifer had always forgiven Sammy, no matter what he’d done. They’d broken up a hundred times, and each time she’d taken him back. He didn’t want her tipping Sammy off.

  Jennifer was pouring hot water into a clear glass teapot. Loretta was looming over his shoulder, waiting for him to get on with it.

  “So what’s Sammy doing out here in Seattle?” Marvelli asked.

  Jennifer set the teapot and a blue mug down on the counter. “I don’t know. He probably just came to annoy me.” She pulled out a brown plastic tray and started moving everything onto it. “He mentioned something about having a little job to do out here, but you know Sammy. You can’t believe anything he says.”

  Marvelli exchanged glances with Loretta. Her face was stone. “Sammy didn’t happen to mention what this little job was, did he, Jen?”

  10

  Loretta threw her garment bag down on the bed. “I think your sister-in-law is lying,” she said. “I think she does know where Sammy is.”

  Marvelli dropped his gym bag and went directly to the little refrigerator in the corner of the hotel room. He turned the key to open it and scanned the shelves—beer, wine, premade daiquiris, margaritas, and Bloody Marys, Coke, Sprite, ginger ale, Dr. Pepper, fizzy water, pretzels, nuts, candy, Slim Jims, Twinkies. “I hope I have one of these in my room,” he said.

  “Will you get serious?” Loretta snapped as she emptied her pockets onto the dresser. “We have to find this guy.”

  Marvelli slammed the refrigerator shut and glared at her. “Look, don’t tell me what I already know. Just because you don’t like my sister-in-law, don’t bite my head off.”

  Loretta just stared at him, her face growing hotter. How did he know she didn’t particularly care for Jennifer? She hadn’t said anything. And why was Marvelli getting so angry? He never got angry. Was this because of Jennifer? Did he feel he had to protect her?

  “Look, I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Marvelli said. “I’m just tired from the flight.”

  “Yeah. Me, too,” she said, but she knew that wasn’t the reason.

  Marvelli picked up his gym bag. “I’m gonna go find my room and call the local Marshals Office. Maybe these guys will be more cooperative than the ones in Jersey.” He reached for the doorknob.

  “You want to have dinner?” she asked quickly. He looked over his shoulder and laughed. “I always want to have dinner.”

  “With me, I mean.”

  “Well, who else? I just assumed …”

  “I thought you might be doing something with Jennifer tonight.”

  He shook his head. “She’s working till eleven.”

  “Oh.” But did that mean he would have had dinner with her if she were free? Loretta wondered. Or had he planned on having dinner with his partner all along?

  “I’ll call you later. I’m gonna try to take a nap.” He opened the door and let himself out.

  She stared at the back of the door and let out a long, slow breath. “What the hell am I doing here?” she muttered. “What the hell am I doing here with him?”

  She unzipped her garment bag and hung up her clothes in the closet, then put her socks and underwear in the top dresser drawer. All the while she mulled over her situation—not just with Marvelli, her whole life situation. She felt as if she were just barely treading water and that it wouldn’t take much of a swell to put her under. Working on the Jump Squad was the end of the line for her. At one time she had been an assistant warden at a women’s correctional facility, but that seemed like a hundred years ago. She was still in her twenties back then, and her star was rising. But then fate stepped in. The first riot ever to take place in a women’s prison in the state of New Jersey happened under her watch, and instead of cracking down fast, she’d tried to negotiate with the rioters and ended up being taken hostage. That had been the beginning of her downslide. She lost that job, and from then on her career path just kept going down, down, down, like a Slinky going down a long flight of stairs.

  Loretta unbuttoned her blouse and stepped out of her slacks. She felt gritty and annoyed; she needed a long, hot shower. She pulled off her socks, unhooked her bra, and pulled down her panties. As she turned toward the bathroom, she noticed herself in the mirror over the dresser, and she glared at what she saw. Thrusting out her arms to the side, she gave herself the full frontal nudity shot. She jiggled her boobs, pinched her love handles, and slapped her rump.

  “Like it or lump it, Marvelli,” she growled
as she headed for the bathroom. “I am what I am.”

  As she turned on the shower, she felt like a fool for feeling the way she did. She was still pining away for Marvelli, and that wasn’t good. Yeah, she was grouchy and a little woozy from caffeine depravation, but her big problem was really Marvelli. She’d thought that she’d gotten over him, but that was just denial. She’d been trying to convince herself that she really wasn’t interested in him because she knew he wasn’t interested in her. It was rejection protection.

  She felt the water spraying from the shower head and adjusted the temperature, making it hotter. She had to get with it, she told herself. She had to stick to her original plan. The Jump Squad was just a stepping-stone. She was going to get into law school and take classes at night. The way she had it figured, it would take four, four and a half years to finish up. In the meantime she would try to get herself transferred out of the Jump Squad so she could be just a regular parole officer with a regular caseload, none of this chasing-down-jumpers crap. But even if she had to stay with the Jump Squad, she’d make do. Because in her mind the Jump Squad was only temporary. It was not going to be her life.

  And neither was Marvelli.

  She glanced into the mirror over the sink to see how convincing she looked, but the mirror was all steamed up. She wiped away a patch with her hand so she could see her face. Men are not necessary, she told herself. Marvelli is not necessary. My heart will keep on beating; the blood will keep on pumping. A man is not necessary to sustain the life of a woman.

  She stared at herself for a moment, then drew an X across her face. “Yeah, right.”

  She parted the shower curtain and stepped into the pulsating stream. The water was just a little too hot, but she endured it until it was tolerable. She let the spray douse her hair and drip down her breasts, then turned around so that it pounded into her shoulders and melted the tension. She wanted to melt herself down to a puddle of goo and remold herself, come out of the shower a new person. Not someone else, she thought, just an improved version of herself.

  But as the hot water drilled into her shoulder blades and flushed the skin on her back, the pinprick sting triggered a sudden memory. The heat, the bumps, and the burns she’d endured. The spinning, the nausea. When the rioting prisoners had taken over the Pinebrook Women’s Correctional Facility, Loretta had tried to negotiate with one of the leaders of the riot, a lifer named Brenda Hemingway. Brenda was a gorilla of a woman who had a lot of anger pent up inside of her and nothing to lose. Brenda also had four inches and sixty pounds on Loretta. She had roughed Loretta up and humiliated her, stripped her, tied her up with electrical cord, and tried on her clothes. But that wasn’t the worst of it.

  Brenda Hemingway had forced Loretta into an oversized industrial clothes drier in the prison laundry and turned it on, then laughed like a jackal, peering through the small round window as Loretta spun round and round, the perforated metal heating up and scorching her bare skin, the metal fins banging into her elbows, knees, and head. Loretta remembered being terrified that she’d throw up and make the ordeal even worse. She felt sick to her stomach just thinking about it.

  She clenched her jaw and swallowed to keep from upchucking, gritting her teeth as those old feelings of anger and humiliation reemerged, like a sickening odor that just wouldn’t go away. She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing there were some kind of operation that could suck Brenda out of her head. A Brendaectomy or Brenda-suction. Brenda’s boulder head, her fat pink tongue, and her rows of yellow teeth spun through Loretta’s memories, boring into her and coring out her insides. Her eyes snapped open. This had to stop, she thought. She was not weak, she was not afraid, and she refused to let her life be ruined by something that had happened a long time ago. She was better than that.

  She picked up a small plastic bottle of hotel shampoo and poured some into her hand. Gonna wash that woman right outta my head, she thought. Let her go down the drain.

  One of these days.

  11

  “This is a wild-goose chase, Marvelli.” Loretta was behind the wheel of a rented forest-green Ford Taurus, heading south on Route 5. She felt slightly woozy and a little disoriented, and she was on the verge of losing her patience with him. It was caffeine withdrawal, she told herself. At least most of it was. Marvelli was being a real pill.

  “I don’t think this is a wild-goose chase at all,” Marvelli said. He had his nose in a crumpled map of Seattle spread out on his lap. “Take this exit right here.”

  Loretta flipped the directional stick, checked the rearview mirror, and pulled into the right lane. “We’ve been to five bookstores already. What do we do next? Hit the libraries? This is insane.”

  “No, it’s not,” Marvelli said. “Sammy called Jennifer this morning, and he told her that he was gonna check out the bookstores in town. Sammy loves bookstores. Remember, he’s got a Ph.D. in English lit.”

  “I know. You told me,” Loretta said, doing nothing to hide how annoyed she was. She steered the car down the exit ramp. “Now where do I go?”

  “Hang on one second.” Marvelli studied the map.

  The ramp merged with a busy access road lined with old redbrick factory buildings, some with ornate turn-of-the-century carved stone facades. “Which way, Marvelli?” she said impatiently.

  “Take it easy,” he said, still studying the map. “If you can take a right at the next light, do it.”

  “And if I can’t?” “Then take the next right.”

  “We’re gonna get lost,” she muttered. “I know it.”

  Marvelli looked at her. “I tried calling Agent Springer again, but she hasn’t returned any of my calls.”

  “Why do you bother with her? She obviously doesn’t want to help us. She thinks we’re dirt.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Marvelli said. “She may come around.”

  Loretta rolled her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re sweet on her, too.”

  Marvelli frowned. “What do you mean, ‘her, too’?”

  Instantly Loretta’s face flushed. “Nothing.”

  “No, say it. I can tell something’s bothering you. Spill it.”

  Loretta gripped the wheel with both hands and kept her eyes on the road. She was tempted to tell him what was really on her mind.

  “Come on, Loretta,” Marvelli said. “Don’t clam up on me. You’re not shy.”

  She glanced at him sideways, wanting to say something but not wanting to get into it with him. “You really want to know what’s bothering me?”

  “Yeah, I do. Is it Springer?”

  Loretta shook her head. “It’s your sister-in-law. In case you haven’t figured it out, she’s after you.”

  Marvelli made a face. “What’re you talking about?” “Jennifer. She wants you.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “It’s as plain as day.”

  “Get out.”

  “All right, don’t believe me.”

  “You’re dreaming.”

  “Fine.”

  Silence filled the inside of the car like fog as they cruised down the busy avenue, which quickly switched from industrial to commercial with fast-food restaurants and strip malls on either side.

  “Well, why should you care?” Marvelli suddenly blurted out.

  Loretta was suddenly embarrassed. She should have kept her mouth shut. “I don’t care,” she said, trying to cover her tracks. “It’s just that I don’t think it’s right, that’s all.”

  “What isn’t right?”

  “So soon after your wife’s death. You’re still in mourning, and Jennifer’s putting the moves on you. She ought to have a little more respect for her own sister’s memory.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Marvelli was getting mad. “Jennifer is not like that.”

  “Well, that’s the way it looked to me,” Loretta said, concentrating on the road so she wouldn’t have to look at him. She wished she had never brought it up.

  “Well, you’re wrong.” Marve
lli was glaring at her. He’d never glared at her before. If fact, he very rarely got angry. Was he angry now because he did have some real feelings for Jennifer? Why else would he be defending her so hotly?

  “There’s the bookstore,” Marvelli grumbled. “Up ahead on the left.”

  Loretta spotted a big blue-and-white sign perched on a pole at the side of the road—D&M Booksellers. She pulled the car into the left lane and turned into the parking lot. The store looked just like every other D&M bookstore she’d ever seen.

  “Don’t park by the front door and don’t slow down,” Marvelli ordered. “Take that space over there. That one.” He pointed to a space in the far corner of the lot in front of the store. “And back in so we can see who goes in and out.”

  She didn’t care for his brusque tone, but she did what he wanted. She turned off the engine, unbuckled her seat belt, and started to open the door. “I have to go pee.”

  “No. Wait,” Marvelli said, grabbing her forearm.

  She glared at him. Her skin tingled under his touch, but it wasn’t a good tingle. It was a resentful tingle.

  “See that guy walking toward the front door? He just threw away his cigarette.”

  “The skinny guy with the buzz cut and the horn-rimmed glasses?”

  Marvelli nodded. “That’s Sammy.”

  Loretta stared at him. Sammy wasn’t at all what she had expected. He was wearing a brown jean jacket, baggy khakis, and black Chuck Taylors. He looked like a slacker, a dweeb, a perpetual grad student, a loser. What he definitely didn’t look like was a hit man for the mob. Of course, the good ones never did.

  “Let’s grab him,” Loretta said, opening her door.

  Marvelli grabbed her arm again. “Hang on. He knows me, so you’re going to have be the one to approach him.”

  “No problem,” she said. Her purse was in her lap. Her .38 was in the inside pocket. The cuffs were somewhere on the bottom.