“I’m just saying-”
“Hey, it’s okay,” Dan said. “No need to have family strife over this. I know the layout. I’ll figure out how to get myself in on the tracks. But those two over there”-he nodded toward Bridget and Trevor-“should go in the front door to make it believable.”
“And me,” Melanie said.
“Who said you were going in?” Dan asked.
“Bernadette. She wants me to vet the ops plans, make sure nothing gets screwed up. It’s sensitive stuff, and she doesn’t trust Bridget or Trevor.”
Dan took her by the elbow and pulled her aside, out of Linda’s earshot.
“You got to be fucking kidding me,” he said. “Even if the Bureau let prosecutors review our ops plans, which we don’t, and even if we let prosecutors ride along on buys, which we totally don’t, I wouldn’t let you put yourself in harm’s way.”
“Well, thank you. I appreciate your concern. But this is not your call. Bernadette wants it done this way. This is an ENTF case, not a Bureau case, and Albano’s in agreement with her. So you’re outvoted.”
He shook his head in disbelief. “Craziest thing I ever heard. And don’t pretend you don’t agree.”
“Hey, what’s the big deal? I’ll keep out of the way. With you there I’m not so worried about things going wrong, but still, I’m the one who looked Trevor in the eye and promised he’d be safe. Remember what happened to Rosario Sangrador,” Melanie said, and at the very mention of Rosario’s name, her eyes welled up. She’d never forgive herself for that.
Dan’s face softened. “It means that much to you?”
“Of course it does.”
“Okay, I’ll go along with you, but listen up, sweetheart. You step out of line and get crazy on me, I’m pulling the plug on the drug buy. We clear on that?”
“Dan-”
“Just say yes. That’s the only answer I’ll accept.”
“I’m not planning to do anything risky. I promise.”
He looked at her quizzically, then broke into a grin. “Don’t think you’re getting over on me here. I see what you’re doing. Jeez, you lawyers, always with the sneaky language.”
“If you’re done scolding me, can we go over the plan?”
“What do you want to know?”
“First off, is Trevor wired?” she whispered, glancing around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. With the noise level in here, not much danger of that.
“Not until we get the lay of the land,” Dan said. “Who knows, they could be doing pat-downs at the door. Besides, with the club underground in the subway tunnel, it’d be tough to pick up a signal anyway.”
“Has Trevor been searched?”
“Yes, ma’am. I go by the book, every time.”
Before making a controlled buy, a careful agent searched the cooperating witness to prevent him from sneaking in his own drugs and claiming he’d bought them from the target. For the price of a few Baggies and a little perjured testimony, many a drug dealer had bought himself a nice sentencing reduction without doing the heavy lifting of actually infiltrating the target’s organization. Dan was too thorough to let an informant scam him like that.
“What’s the ops plan once everybody’s inside?” Melanie asked.
“Bridget sticks with Trevor every step of the way. He makes the contact with Expo’s people, but she does the hand-to-hand. She tries to buy dime bags. We recorded the serial numbers on the buy money in advance ’cause that’s procedure, but prob’ly we let the money walk this time. Don’t make any arrests, try to build to something bigger. Ideally get a cell number or something, see if we can work up a wiretap.”
Melanie had been listening with great attentiveness. Now she looked over at Bridget and Trevor, who were laughing together conspiratorially. Bridget was wearing tight jeans, a black T-shirt, and boots, and she’d made up her eyes. She actually looked cute in a butch sort of way, but very young.
“You really think she’s up to this?” Melanie asked.
“Only one way to find out.”
“Seriously, Dan.”
“Look, she was on the mark with that text message before. I think we’re underestimating her. Weren’t you the one who said to give her the benefit of the doubt?”
Melanie sighed. If something got screwed up here…man, she couldn’t even stand to think about it. Still, there wasn’t much more she could do. In fairness to Dan, ops were really his baby.
“Okay,” she said, nodding.
He signaled to the rest of their group. “We ready?”
Linda looked at her watch. “Yeah. Fab D should be at the station by now.”
“Let’s go,” Melanie said.
FABULOUS DEON KNEW how to command a room. Resplendent in a calf-length mink coat, orange trousers, and patent-leather spats, he sported short, bleached-blond braids that stuck up all over his head like horns. His brown face was plump and sweetly feminine, his eyes sparkling with silver glitter eye shadow, so that the wispy little soul patch on his chin came as a surprise. His dubious gender and wild attire drew amused looks from some passersby in the subway station, while most others simply ignored him. This was New York, after all. Still, Melanie thought, they weren’t sneaking in under the radar with this dude as their escort.
Deon waved excitedly to Linda, who rushed up to him.
“Hello, gorgeous!” Deon cried, double-air-kissing Linda while looking past her at Melanie. “Don’t tell me this is your gorgeous sister! So much fabulousness in one family is just too much to bear!”
“Don’t worry, D,” Linda said. “She’s not really fabulous. I just dressed her up tonight.”
“She has to make a comment,” Melanie said, smiling broadly. This guy was a trip. No wonder Linda liked him.
“Really, mee-ow. Don’t listen to her, sweet sister! You’re absolutely beyond. The problem won’t be getting you into Screen, it’ll be fighting them off.”
“Thank you! This is my new best friend,” she said to Linda, as Fabulous Deon air-kissed her, too.
“Those are her buds over there. What do you think?” Linda asked Deon, pointing to where Bridget and Trevor stood, beside a grimy pillar, going over some last-minute instructions.
“Rest easy,” Deon said. “The pierced boy with dreadlocks will fit right in. Blondie’s no problem either. If she were a bit scrawnier, she’d even look heroin chic.”
Heroin-he doesn’t know how right he is, Melanie thought. “So, Deon, did Linda fill you in on what I do? I want you to have your eyes open. Because there’s some risk-”
“Oh, pshaw! I bring people to clubs all the time without the teensiest clue who they are. That is par for the course. Nobody would ever dream of holding it against me if somebody turns out to be a narc.”
“Still, a drug bust in Expo’s club would reflect badly on him, and he’s no pussycat.”
“Funny you should mention that. The fact is, I have a bone to pick with Jay Esposito. The man owes me over three thousand dollars for work I’ve done for him and never been paid for. And when I tried to collect, he blackballed me at several other clubs. You have no idea how helpless I felt until La Linda called me up tonight. You’re doing me a big favor by putting me in a position to exact some payback.”
“If you’re sure,” Melanie said.
“I’m sure.”
“Oh, and it’s okay to use Linda’s real name. They’ll probably recognize her from TV anyway. But you and Linda only just met me and these others guys at a club earlier tonight, okay, and you don’t know us very well.”
Deon nodded. “Smart idea, precious. Do you have a favorite alias?”
They worked out fake names for everybody on Melanie’s team.
“Ah, here’s our train, my chickens!” Deon exclaimed, as a southbound six rumbled into the station.
They all got on.
“Come, children. We have to go to the first car,” said Fabulous Deon.
They’d gotten on about five cars from the front, so they slowly made their way forward through the moving train. Heavy sliding metal doors at both ends of the cars opened onto narrow platforms. Melanie stepped carefully across the couplings as the train bucked ahead, wary of tripping in the borrowed stiletto heels, holding her breath against the acrid fumes and ricocheting sparks in the open tunnels. When they reached the first car, it was relatively empty, and they all found seats on a bench across from the conductor’s booth. Within minutes the train pulled into the Brooklyn Bridge station, opening its doors and turning off its lights to indicate it was going out of service. An announcement came on, telling everybody to exit.