milling around, standing at the bar, or sitting at tables. It was a little after four in the afternoon. Henry and Danni settled in at the bar.
“What’ll you have?” the bartender asked Danni. She looked to be about twenty-one herself, dressed in short-shorts and a bikini top.
“Gray Goose on the rocks. Make it a double. I’m celebrating life, or at least the continuation of my life thanks to my friend here. What are you drinking, Henry? It’s on me.”
Henry ordered a Red Stripe.
“I like beer,” Danni told him. “But I don’t drink it. Women my age with beer guts are not a pretty sight.”
“I don’t think you’ve got much to worry about in that regard,” Henry told her.
“I’ll take that as a compliment. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now is the case against Julian Reardon officially over?”
“As soon as I get back it is. I’ve got to talk to my boss and the state attorney, but that’s just a formality. We no longer have a witness. However, I haven’t put this all together yet, Henry. I know it’s Collins’s modus operandi to hire women to get close to athletes, and I’m sure that’s what he did with Sandra. I mean the woman is beautiful. But how do we go from there to the rape charge? I mean, I see the connection, but I haven’t followed it through step by step.”
“I’ve been thinking about it for a little longer,” Henry said, “and I think I can connect the dots. Collins hires Sandra to get close to Julian. Maybe they will start dating. Maybe Julian will think he’s in love. That’s when Sandra will introduce Julian to Collins.”
“I get that part,” Danni said.
“Stay with me now. So Sandra meets Julian, tries to get close to him, but Julian rebuffs her. She tells Collins and they come up with plan B. She accuses Julian of rape. Collins comes in to represent Julian for free. Sandra drops the rape charge. Julian is indebted to Collins and makes him his agent.”
“It sounds logical.”
“The only thing I don’t get,” Henry said, “is why a sports agent would go through so much trouble to get one client.”
“I think I can answer that,” Danni told him. She’d already finished her first drink and had ordered another. “Collins is in trouble and he has been for a long time. The guy has a very lavish lifestyle and he’s not his own man, if you know what I mean.”
“I think I do. He has silent partners.”
“Exactly! And this business is about millions and millions of dollars. Collins was probably on thin ice with his partners. He needed this score.”
“It’s amazing what people will do.”
“It is.” Danni was feeling her liquor now. “And by the way, you did great work on this, Henry. You saved my life. I’ve been a homicide detective for a lot of years and I walked into that situation like it was my first day on the job.”
“What you did probably works where you live. You can usually put pressure on people and get them to talk. Down here they’re all crazy. They’ll shoot you as soon as they look at you.”
“Well, I was lucky to have you there today, and Jack is lucky to have you.”
“We take care of each other.”
“When Jack told me you guys were close friends, that struck me as odd.”
Henry noticed that she was almost done with the second double vodka. She was obviously shaken up by what had happened earlier and rightfully so. Henry wouldn’t have taken odds against the fat man shooting her. Drug people were unpredictable and that crew was obviously running a small-scale drug operation out of that apartment.
“Why? Because he was my lawyer?”
“I guess.”
“Jack is different from most people. He didn’t just represent me. He got to know me. And after I was released from jail, he invited me to come live with him and his wife.”
“His wife?”
“Yeah. Her name was Pat. She was a great lady.”
Danni could see Henry start to tear up at the memory of this woman.
“What happened to her?”
“She died of cancer a few years ago.”
“That must have been devastating for Jack.”
“You have no idea. For a year he just drifted in and out. I thought I was going to lose him a couple of times, but he finally pulled out of his funk.”
“I wish I could do that.”
“Do what?”
“Get over things. They seem to linger with me.”
“Everybody has their own coping mechanisms. I still wake up some mornings thinking I’m back on death row.