The Four Corners of the Sky_ A Novel - Michael Malone [182]
“What else you gonna think?” the waitress said kindly. “Can I do something?”
Annie impulsively hugged her back. “Could you possibly keep my dog Malpy till tomorrow night?”
Without hesitation, Chamayra said, “Sure.” She held out her hands at different distances. “How big’s this dog?”
“Little,” Dan assured her. “Cute. Friendly. Wait right here. We’ll be right back with him.” He explained that Annie had been ordered to appear at the naval base in Key West and Dan was going to drive her there.
“If they’re sending you to Kuwait? Tell ’em no fuckin’ way. What did I say to my brother Luis?” asked the waitress. Angrily she crossed her arms, lifting her breasts. “I go, ‘Luis, don’t enlist!’ Now he’s got one leg.” She followed them to the elevator. “And Danny, soon as you find Raffy, you gonna call me, right? You got my number.”
“I’m gonna call you.”
“You call me.”
“I’ll call you.”
When Annie thanked her profusely, Chamayra made her imaginary Love sign in the air.
***
In the hotel room, Annie quickly packed, while Dan spoke with his former partner at the police department. The Peregrine case, the detective told him, had not only been taken over by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, other government agencies were also involved now, for unknown reasons. Rafael Rook was at this moment being transferred out of Miami to Sigsbee Naval Base in Key West. Meanwhile, the partner said, word was there was a mob contract out on Rook. That Feliz Diaz’s people had offered fifteen thousand dollars cash for Rook’s right hand, so no doubt the musician’s leaving Miami was a good thing.
As for Jack Peregrine’s whereabouts, some people in MPD seemed to believe that the con man had really drowned while trying to escape from the submerged Lexus SUV. But Dan’s partner had confirmed the rumor that a cop had spotted Peregrine today at a bus station. By the time this officer had called in the ID, Peregrine had given her the slip.
“His specialty,” said Annie.
“Soon as the FBI hears he was spotted, there’ll be a mega-search.”
There was a sharp rapping on the hotel room door. Holding Malpy, Dan motioned for her to keep quiet. After a check through the peephole, he yanked the door open.
Brad Hopper stood in the hallway, carrying a soft leather briefcase with the Hopper Jet logo on it. Shocked to see not Annie but Daniel Hart standing there, Brad made a series of faces, widening his mouth, squeezing his eyelids, apparently unable to assimilate the coincidence that the anonymous, annoying businessman whom he’d flown in his jet on the Fourth of July from Emerald’s Destin Airworks to St. Louis was the same man who was now standing in the doorway of his wife’s Miami hotel room.
Eventually Brad stopped trying to make sense of the disjunction and simply shouldered his way into the room. “What’s up, A? I’ve been looking all over hell and—” Thought caught up with him. “What the fuck is this guy doing in your room?”
“Brad, calm down.”
Malpy flew out of Dan’s arms at Brad, snarling madly.
“Get that dog away from me!”
Annie scooped up the Maltese, grabbing his muzzle. “Malpy, be quiet!”
Brad pointed a rigid arm first at Dan, then at the young woman he still thought of as legally his. “You know who this is? This is that businessman your bud D. K. made me give a ride to, back on the Fourth, the guy I flew from Emerald to St. Louis!”
Annie zipped up her packed bag. “Yes, I know that. Brad, I am really sorry but I can’t explain it all now, there’s no time. I should have called you but things are crazy, my dad’s disappeared again—”
“On the local news they’re saying your dad’s dead! I’ve been worried sick about you.”
“Don’t believe the news.” She gestured at Dan. “This man’s a police officer. I tried to tell you not to come to Miami, Brad. I tried to—” She stopped talking, since nothing made much sense even to her. She came to the abrupt decision that she would simply tell Brad the truth about Dan. And