The Four Corners of the Sky_ A Novel - Michael Malone [180]
She laughed. “On whom?”
“On me, for one. Don’t con me.”
She raised her eyebrow. “Ditto.”
Dan waved for a waitress. “I’m starving.” He took a piece of Annie’s toast, which he ate with a grimace. “Cardboard. Also, did you know your husband checked into the Hotel Dorado last night and was there looking for you at one in the morning?”
She asked who’d told him that.
“Juan Ramirez. Relative of Rook’s. He’s the piano player in the bar.”
“That man should have his own talk show.” She felt her neck flush. “Did ‘Juan’ tell you Brad was in there hitting on your ex-wife?”
“Melissa would hit on a mannequin if he wore nice enough clothes. I guess your husband would too.” Dan opened his arms in a comic gesture. “God’s speed and God bless.”
“Please stop calling him my husband,” Annie sighed, rubbing her head. She was thinking that she’d been an idiot to promise Brad not to sign any divorce papers for a month; she didn’t want to have to admit to Dan that she’d done so. “I’ve really got a hangover.”
“That’s no excuse. If you’re not divorced, you’re married.” He chewed on a piece of bacon from her plate. “If they told you this was bacon, they lied. Me, I’m officially legally divorced. Trust me, Annie, you’ve got to pull the trigger.” He tasted her scrambled eggs and made a face.
When their waitress paused at their table with a pot of stale coffee, Dan asked her if their eggs came from chickens.
She was too tired to joke. “Yeah, probably.”
“Go find out where the chickens came from.”
“Wise guy.”
Dan pointed out the window. “Uh oh. There goes your friend Rafael. Looks like the Feds are picking him up.”
Annie stood to look outside. A stolid man wearing a tropical shirt was strong-arming the disconsolate Rafael Rook through the steamy-hot asphalt parking lot while a thin man in a straw porkpie hat trotted ahead to open the side door of a white van. Dan pulled her back to her chair.
She resisted him. “I want to tell Raffy I’ll get him a lawyer.”
“Yeah, looks like he’ll need one. Don’t worry. I’ll call somebody. He’s safer with the FBI than with Diaz picking him up. You should know, the Feds want me to bring you in too.”
“I don’t think so.” She watched as the FBI men placidly lowered Rafael’s head into the van. His hair worked loose from his glossy black ponytail when he struggled against them. The agent in the straw hat walked over to the restaurant, tapped on the window, and gestured at Dan to come outside.
A frown narrowed Dan’s eyes. It was like a fast cloud hurrying over the sky, graying the blue for an instant. “That’s the agent that grilled me about your dad. If I’m not back in ten minutes, call this number. My partner.” He pulled a card from his wallet. “Okay, now I need you to put on a show. Right now.”
She looked at him suspiciously.
Dan turned his back to the window. “It’s for your dad. I want you to act as if I’d just made you really really angry. I mean it. Slap me.”
Immediately she slapped him hard in the face.
He rubbed his bright-red cheek. “Damn, you’re fast.”
“Don’t ask for things you don’t want.” She raised her hand again.
He grabbed her wrist. “I’ll remember that. Now wait here. Trust me.” He hurried outside. “We’ll get you out of this.”
“Out of what?”
As she watched from the window, Dan approached the FBI agent, listened to him talk for a few minutes, then walked with him to the van and vanished inside its side door.
Ten minutes later, Annie lost patience and hurried from the log-cabin restaurant; she was crossing the parking lot toward the van when Dan hopped out of it and grabbed her by the arm, leading her away. “Hang on. I worked something out. You’re going to Key West for questioning.”
Annie was taken aback. “I’m not about to go to Key West!”
“This isn’t an invitation you can RSVP. If you don’t believe me, get in touch with your Commander Campbell in Annapolis. FBI’s already talked to him.” Reaching his vintage truck, he tilted his head in the direction of