Last Call

Harry said, "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I – I'm not sure. You think Rene's like that for me?"

"No – no," he said, making a face. "I'm talking about Andie."

Jack wasn't sure how to respond. Not since Jack's divorce had Harry Swyteck weighed in on the women in Jack's life. "Did Abuela ask you to say something about this?"

"Not at all. This all occurred to me months ago, when you first dated Andie. I never really got to meet the girl, but Theo told me you were pretty taken with her after just two or three dates. And then you broke it off, apparently for no good reason. I don't know what happened, but here's an old geezer's two cents. Andie's an FBI agent; you're a criminal defense lawyer. I was a police officer before getting into politics, and Lord knows you and I have had our differences over the years. Maybe that… that lawyer-cop incompatibility is in the back of your mind. But give some thought to what I'm saying about your mother and me. People don't have to be cut from exactly the same cloth to be right for each other."

Jack was speechless. He and his father were close now, but there was a time – back when Harry was Florida's law-and-order governor and Jack defended death row inmates – when they couldn't even speak to one another. The rift: went back much further than that, however, with roots in Jack's childhood and Harry's remarriage to a good woman with a terrible weakness for gin martinis. A lot of history with a sad bottom line: Jack and his father didn't have many moments like this one.

"Thanks," was all Jack could say.

Harry opened the door for him, seemingly pleased that Jack took his meaning. "You're welcome."

Jack went to his car and gave his old man a mock salute as he backed out of the driveway. He was less than half a block away, headed down Alhambra Circle, when he dialed Andie He

"I need your help," he told her.

"You mean the FBI's?"

"No," said Jack. "Just yours."

"What's wrong?"

He could have started with Uncle Cy, but again he was mindful of the kidnapper's warning about calling the cops. "It's Theo," he said.

"What happened?"

"I think he's on self-destruct."

"What does that mean?"

Jack wanted to explain, but he needed her sworn assurance that he was lining up her alone, not the entire FBI. That was a difficult maneuver by telephone. "I need to meet with you. Tonight. It's important."

She hesitated for half a second. "Okay. We can talk here at my place. You know the way."

That he did. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes. And just to give you a heads-up, you might want to start checking on something."

"What?"

"Dig up whatever you can on a guy named Fernando Redden."

Chapter 45

Twenty minutes later – traffic was worse than expected – Jack was in Andie's Coconut Grove apartment, seated on Andie's overstuffed couch. It still had the stain from the glass of red wine he'd spilled the first time they'd really kissed, but he held that thought for only an instant. He was about to tell her what happened to Cy, but she had some information of her own for him.

"Redden's quite a character," said Andie.

"In what way?"

"I made a phone call and hit the jackpot. Can't share everything I know. But I can tell you what will be all over the newspapers before long. The guy has taken millions of dollars in public money to build housing projects in low-income neighborhoods, and he's built absolutely nothing. Unless you want to count the four-million-dollar mansion he built for himself in the Ponce Davis area."

“Nice guy.”

Andie said, "But I didn't learn anything about him that couldn't wait till morning."

Jack took her meaning and realized that he owed her a pretty full explanation of what he was doing here at almost midnight. "Can you take off your FBI hat for one minute?"

"Only if what you want to tell me isn't illegal."

"Choosing not to report a kidnapping is not against the law," Jack said. And then he told her about Uncle Cy.

She listened without interrupting, and Jack could see that she was trying to show no emotion, though it was hard not to show feelings for Uncle Cy. She remained silent and pensive for at least a minute after he finished. Finally she said, "What would you like me to do?"

"You're trained in kidnappings. I need you to walk me through this. And I need someone to help me keep Theo from getting himself killed."

"You're putting me in a tough spot. You want the FBI, but you don't want the FBI."

"I want the expertise of the FBI. I don't want all the baggage."

"Then you need to hire a retired agent."

"And if I start looking right now, how long after Uncle Cy's dead do you think I'll find the right one?"

She looked away, obviously uncomfortable with the way he'd put it. Jack had struck a nerve.

Andie said, "I'll talk it out with you, okay?"

"Okay," he said with a thin but appreciative smile.

"What do you know so far?"

"Theo's on a mission to find the man who raped his mother. He's convinced it's the same guy Isaac Reems blackmailed to help him escape from jail, it's the same guy who tried to kill Theo after Reems escaped, and it's now the same guy who kidnapped his uncle. He loaded up a pistol and gave Reddens name to Trina before going out tonight. She was supposed to give it to me if something bad happened."

"Do you think Redden was the rapist in that frat film?"

"I think he was more than that” Jack said, as he took a computer-printed copy of a newspaper article from his pocket and laid it on the table. "I went online into the Tribune archives before I called you. This is from 1986, about a month before Theo's mother was killed. Fernando Redden was on the front page of the business section. He won the chamber of commerce award for Miami businessman of the year."

Andie gave the article a quick review. "Could Theo's mother have possibly known about this? She wasn't exactly the type to read the business section of the newspaper."

"I'm sure there was TV coverage, too. She could have seen that."

"Are you suggesting that she saw what an upstanding citizen Redden had become and tried to blackmail him about the rape?"

"That's one possibility. But I'm betting that after thirteen years, she saw the face of her attacker on television, she hated the cards life had dealt her, and she simply decided to do something about it."

"She decided to report the assault to the police?"

"Or at least go public with it," said Jack. "And a guy like Fernando Redden wasn't about to stand for that."

Andie retreated into thought.

Jack gave her a minute. "So, what's your take?"

"I think you may be right," she said, her expression turning very serious. "And I'm afraid Theo is walking straight into a whole mess of trouble."