Last Call by James Grippando Read Free Book Online

showed up on official business. It’s about—”
    “Jack, did you hide my cover-up?” said Rene. She was suddenly standing right behind him, wearing a white string bikini that showcased every square inch of her suntan.
    “Your what?” he said.
    “My swimsuit cover-up. It’s a tunic-style wrap, Hawaiian-print.
    Keeps the sun from turning me into a lobster.”
    He’d last seen it on the floor. Next to the bed. Jack looked at Andie and said,“We were just getting ready to take the boat out.”
    Andie was caught staring. Funny, Jack thought. If a man checks out another man in a bathing suit like that, he’s gay. If a woman checks out another woman, she’s—well, a woman.
    “Sorry,” said Andie,“but this is important.”
    “I’m sure it is,” said Rene. She was speaking to Jack but looking at Andie.
    Jack said,“I’ll catch up with you on the boat.”
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    James Grippando
    “How long are you going to be?” said Rene, as she slipped her arms around his torso and hugged him from behind.
    The affection wasn’t overdone, but it was still uncomfortable for Jack in front of Andie. “I’ll be quick. Just, uh . . . how about picking out some CDs?”
    Rene let go of him.“You two have any favorites?”
    For a split second he wondered how Rene could possibly have known, but how stupid was that? They always know.
    “Anything you like is fine,” said Jack, though he actually would have been more comfortable giving carte blanche to Andie.Weird, but Andie’s tastes were more in line with Jack’s than were Rene’s.
    “Leave it to me,” said Rene, as she left the living room and headed for the back patio. It wasn’t until he heard the California door slide open and then close that Jack realized he was being rude to Andie.“Would you like to come inside?” he said.
    “That’s okay. I can see you’re in a hurry.”
    “What’s the official business?”
    “Isaac Reems.There’s a joint task force led by the U.S. Marshals Service. I’m the bureau’s point person for the Miami field office.”
    Jack couldn’t hide his surprise.When he’d cut a deal with the state attorney to keep Theo’s name out of the manhunt, he would have thought that had also covered the name of his attorney.“And what brings you here?” said Jack.
    “You were Reems’s attorney of record during his first federal incarceration.”
    Jack reeled in his anger against the prosecutor. Suddenly, he—
    not Theo—was the tie to Isaac, but there was an even more surprising part of the equation.“The FBI chose you to come and talk to me?”
    “Uh, yeah,” she said. “My ASAC remembered that you and I got to know each other on that kidnapping case I headed when I first moved here from Seattle.”
    LAST CALL
    43
    “So you didn’t tell them that after the case was over we . . .”
    “No. I didn’t tell anyone.”
    Jack understood. That kind of personal history didn’t exactly spell career advancement at the bureau—an FBI agent crazy enough to date a criminal defense lawyer.
    Andie said,“So, you weren’t Mr. Reems’s lawyer?”
    “No.”
    “But your name was on his list of approved visitors when he was serving time in the early nineties.”
    “I’m sure he put it there when he heard that I got Theo Knight off death row. Half the inmates in Florida wanted me as their lawyer after that. The innocent half, anyway,” he said with a defense lawyer’s grin.
    “Did he know Theo?”
    Jack reeled in his smile, reluctant to involve Theo in anything that had to do with the FBI.
    “Did he?” she pressed.
    “They knew each other as teenagers. Basically, just two guys who grew up in the same neighborhood.”
    Andie pulled a pen and notepad from her pocket and jotted something down.
    Jack nearly groaned. “You’re not going to drag Theo into this, are you?”
    “I’m just following every lead.”
    Jack tried to fight it, but he could feel the personal emotions taking over the business profile. “When are you going to get off