“Yep.” He leaned in slightly, but not too much. “You come across as very put together.”
“That’s a compliment?”
“For me, it is.”
She smiled. Maybe the real Brad Pitt was better looking, but Brian Stewart certainly was charming. Reason enough to keep the conversation going for a while.
“Tell me, Brian, what’s waiting for you in Boston today?”
“A dozen venture capitalists. And a pen.”
“Sounds promising. I take it the pen is for your signature.”
“Something like that.”
Nora was expecting him to elaborate, but he didn’t. She grinned. “To think I revealed myself as a stacker, only to have you turn bashful on me.”
He shifted in his window seat, clearly amused. “For the second time, you’re absolutely right. Okay, last year I sold my software company. This afternoon I’m about to launch my new one. Bor-ing.”
“I don’t think so. Anyway, congratulations! And those venture capitalists—they’re investing in you?”
“The way I see it, why put up your own money when others are willing to put up theirs?”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
“Now what about you, Nora? What’s waiting for you up in Boston today?”
“A client,” she said. “I’m an interior decorator.”
He nodded. “Is your client’s home in the city?”
“It is. Except that’s not the one I’m decorating. He recently built a villa down in the Cayman Islands.”
“Beautiful place.”
“I’ve yet to go myself. But I will shortly.” Nora opened her mouth as if to say something else. She stopped.
“What were you going to say?” he asked.
She rolled her eyes. “It’s silly, really.”
“Go ahead, try me.”
“It’s just that when I mentioned this client to one of my girlfriends, she said the reason he was building down in the Caymans was probably so he could keep his eye on the money he was hiding from the IRS there.” She shook her head with a convincing naïveté. “I mean, I don’t want to get mixed up in anything I shouldn’t be.”
Brian Stewart smiled with a knowing look. “It’s really not as sinister as you may think. You’d be surprised at how many people have offshore accounts.”
“Really?”
He leaned in closer, his face inches from hers. “Guilty as charged,” he whispered. He picked up his champagne glass. “We’ll make that our secret, okay?”
Nora picked up her glass, and the two of them clinked. Brian Stewart was shaping up to be someone she might want to get to know better.
“To secrets,” she said.
“To stackers,” he said.
Chapter 39
“WHAT CAN I GET for you?” she asked.
I looked up at the flight attendant—tired, bored to tears, trying to be nice anyway. She and her drink cart had finally made it back to me. “I’ll have a Diet Coke,” I said.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I ran out of those about ten rows ago.”
“How about ginger ale?”
Her eyes darted around the open cans on top of the cart. “Hmmm,” she muttered. She bent down and began pulling out one drawer after another. “I’m sorry, no ginger ale, either.”
“Why don’t we try this the other way around,” I said with a forced smile. “What do you have left?”
“Do you like tomato juice?”
Only with a lot of vodka and a celery stalk sticking out of it. “Anything else?”
“I’ve got one Sprite.”
“Not anymore, you don’t.”
It took her a second to realize that was my way of saying “yes, please.”
She poured about half of the Sprite and handed it over with a small bag of pretzels. As she wheeled the cart off I held up my plastic cup. If I squinted enough at the bubbles, it almost looked like the champagne Nora was probably drinking up in first class.
I popped a minipretzel into my mouth and tried to move my legs. Wishful thinking. With my tray table down, they were wedged in from every angle. Complete loss of circulation to all lower extremities was only a matter of time.
Yes, indeed. It was right about then that I realized what the common thread of this assignment was so far. In a word, cramped.
Cramped office, cramped apartment, cramped seat in the last row of coach that had me breathing in the odors of the cramped bathroom directly over my shoulder.
Not that all was lost.
The one good thing about tailing people on an airplane is that you never have to worry about losing them during the flight. At 35,000 feet, no one is about to slip out the side door.
I glanced up at the royal blue curtain way, way, way down the aisle. While the odds fell somewhere between slim and none that Nora would have any reason to venture back and mingle with us poor slobs in coach, I still had to stay on my toes.
Not that I could feel them anymore.
Earlier at the Westchester airport, I was sure Nora hadn’t spotted me before the flight. Well, she might have seen me, but for sure, she didn’t recognize me. Besides my Red Sox baseball cap, dark glasses, jogging suit, and gold chain, I’d broken out the fake mustache. Throw in a Daily News that was never farther away than twelve inches from my face and I’d pretty much cornered the market on incognito.
No, Nora had no idea she had company on the flight. That much I knew. Of course, what I didn’t know was the question of the day.
What’s in Boston?
Chapter 40
I FOLLOWED NORA and her smart little suitcase on wheels down an escalator and past the baggage claim area. As always, she looked good, front and rear view. She had this way of walking—and a great smile when she needed it. She never once looked up at a sign for directions. Safe to say, this wasn’t her first trip to Logan Airport.
She walked outside and came to an abrupt stop—looking around. What for became clear after a few minutes.
It wasn’t a cab and it wasn’t a friend’s car. It was the shuttle bus for Hertz.
As soon as she hopped on, I made a dash for the cab line.
Taxi!
“Take me to the Hertz lot!” I barked at the back of the driver’s head.
He turned around, an old-salt type, his face a road map of wrinkles and creases. “What?”
“Take me—”
“No, I heard you just fine there, pal. What I’m saying is, they have shuttle buses for that.”
“I don’t like waiting.”
“Neither do I.” Jabbing his finger, he pointed out the back window. “You see that line of cabs behind me? I didn’t wait in it for no three-dollar fare.”
I looked up ahead at Nora’s shuttle bus getting farther and farther away. “Okay, give me a number,” I said.
“Thirty bucks. That’s my final offer.”
“Twenty.”
“Twenty-five.”
“Deal. Drive.”
Chapter 41
THE GUY SPED OFF and I immediately began to work my phone. I had the number for every airline, hotel chain, and rental car company already programmed in. It was a job prerequisite.
I called Hertz. After suffering through a minute of automated prompts, I got ahold of an available agent.
“And when will you be needing the car, sir?” she asked.
“In five minutes. Maybe less.”
“Oh.”
She promised to do the best she could. In case it wasn’t good enough, I told the driver he might be spending some more quality time with me.
Thankfully, it didn’t come to that.
Nora’s shuttle driver had a helium foot. With him puttering along, we actually passed the bus before we got to the lot. By the time Nora climbed into a silver Sebring convertible, I was behind the wheel of my minivan. That’s right, a minivan. I mean, who’d ever expect to be followed by someone driving one of those?