"Rose got a great job offer and is moving to New York. I think she is actually leaving tomorrow." Wentworth explained to Ramana in a hushed tone. "Garner is going to stay in town for a while longer and then join her. I invited them here for a drink to celebrate the new job. Of course, the real reason is so that you could get a look at Bullis and see if he is the same guy you ran into in Indianapolis. I asked Melanie, the manager to seat them at a table that we could see from over here."
"Do you think Rose is involved in this?" asked Gita.
I don't know," Wentworth replied. "I can't believe that she would be. On the other hand, I can't believe that Garner could do all this on his own. He was a computer illiterate just a year ago. He had to have some help. I just don't know if it was Rose or somebody else."
Gita leaned over and tried to get a better look. "Gee, I don't know," she said. "He looks like the guy. But I can't be sure. Same name and everything, but the guy I saw in court in Indianapolis was thirty or forty pounds heavier and not in very good shape. I suppose that if he dropped a lot of weight and worked out a lot that could be him. I also am having trouble imagining the guy I saw in court as a web guru."
"Well, Joe Wilson from DC PD says we can't get a warrant to search his offices and his computers unless we have reason to believe, that it is him working this con. Angel tried to trace the email back to him but there are so many blind sites, dark servers, and redirections that it would take months, if not years to sort it all out. We need to get into his computer. We can't do that unless the DC Police confiscate it and they can't do that without a search warrant."
"Too bad Maria couldn't come," Gita observed, "but she got pulled away on an assignment for a week. She did promise to get down her as soon as possible. She knew him when he was forty pounds lighter and would know if it's him in a heartbeat. Maybe Barney can tell."
"It's still not clear to me how this Milford guy fits into all this," Wentworth remarked, a little grumpy over how loose this case was getting.
"Barney Milford was the guy in Indianapolis who recognized Bullis from when he was a kid," Gita explained. "He saw him at thirteen and then was able to recognize him a dozen years later. I figured that if anybody could ID him Barney could."
"Where IS Milford," Wentworth asked looking around.
"He's at a table over by the kitchen," Gita said, pointing to a neatly groomed man in a tatter Sal shirt.
"Jesus, Gita," Wentworth exclaimed. "Just because your guys are having a hard time recognizing Bullis doesn't mean that he will have a hard time recognizing them."
"I know that," Gita replied with an edge in her voice. "I asked Milford to meet us here. He took it upon himself to get a table. I couldn't very well go over to his table and pull him back to this dark corner of the bar. That would have really screwed the deal."
"Quiet," said Wentworth. "It looks like Garner is getting ready to say something. Maybe we can overhear."
Gita looked at Wentworth as though he had just transported down from Mars. They were all the way across the dining room and the noise of silverware hitting plates would easily drown out anything Garner was saying. And she didn't particularly like being shushed. But Wentworth was focused on the table so there was no point in pursuing it.
"Well, here's to you," Garner said tapping the rim of his glass against Rose's glass. "It's a really good job and I wish you all the best."
The voice was coming out of a hand held device that Wentworth had just pulled out of his pocket.
"There's a wireless mike in the sweet 'n low," Wentworth explained. Its really amateur bug, but I wanted to hear what they are saying."
"And I suppose you took care of all the paperwork before you planted the bug," Ramana said accusingly.
"So I won't be able to use it in court," Wentworth admitted. "At least I'll know what's going on."
Wentworth's attention went back to the conversation. Gita just rolled her eyes.
"You should come with me," Rose remarked, "just like you came to Washington with me. It hasn't been so bad, has it? You can run your website just as well in Manhattan as you can here in Washington. That's one of the great things about the web. It doesn't matter where you are really located."
"No, it's been just great," Garner replied. "It's just that I can't just put the computers in the back of a car and relocate that easily. I need a few weeks, maybe even a couple months to break everything down, and rebuild it in Manhattan. You go ahead and I'll follow before you know it." He hated lying like this to Rose, but he couldn't tell her what he was really thinking. If he moved to Manhattan, he might run into one of his creditors from the Wall Street scam. On the other hand, he was raking in money from the web site so maybe he could just pay them off. He needed time to sort it all out, so it was better that Rose go ahead and start her new job while Garner figured out what to do next.
Garner was in the process of looking up at Rose and just on the verge of confessing his previous life to her. He thought if he told her how much she meant to him, they would somehow get through the deceit of his previous life. But as he looked up something caught the corner of his eye and the blood drained from his face.
A half a dozen tables away, Garner spied a familiar face. The man looked a little older than his years. His left hand was missing the ring finger and he nervously held it over a bright red tattoo on his other arm. Garner could not see the tattoo, but he knew what it said. It said, "Hazel".
"What the matter Garner," Rose asked as he stopped before any word got out of his mouth. "You look pale as a sheet. Are you feeling OK?"
"It's a long story," Garner began, "and I'll tell it all to you some day. But that man over there with the red tattoo on his forearm and the missing finger ruined my life once. And I'm afraid he has come here to do it again." Saying that, Garner pointed covertly at the table where Barney Milford was sitting.
Rose looked over at the table and a strange expression descended over her face. It was an expression of complete seriousness that Garner had never before seen. "Don't worry," she said in a voice that had a strange distance quality, "I won't let anybody ruin your life." With that she turned back to him and laughed her buoyant laugh as though musing over how silly it was that she would say something like that. But before Garner could begin his confession, Wentworth showed up at the table.
"Professor Wentworth, glad you could make it," Rose said as Wentworth pulled out a chair and sat on it backwards. Rose was smiling and the light was dancing in her eyes again.
"Well, I'm afraid I haven't quite made it," Wentworth apologized. "I wanted to buy you dinner to celebrate your new job, but I got an important business item that I have to attend to. I've spoken to Melanie the manager and she'll put your dinner and drinks on my bill. So have a good time and I'll take care of it." With that, Wentworth got up and kissed Rose on the cheek. Then he smiled warmly and shook Garner's hand. Even Garner could not see the wheels turning in Wentworth's head.
The food was extraordinary, as New Orleans style food tends to be. They had several courses, sampling this and that more than fixing on a specific entrée. Along the way they had several Dixie Blackened Voodoo beers and tapped their feed to the ragtime music that Pop Sanchez was pounding out on the piano.
"It was a perfect evening," Garner remarked. "I really like this place."
"Almost perfect," Rose replied glancing over at the table where Barney Milford was finishing off a batch of steamed crawdads. "I hope that man doesn't give you any trouble."
"Don't worry about him," Garner reassured. "He probably doesn't even know that I am here."
They got up and as they were getting ready to leave, Rose said, "Garner you go on home. I need to go by campus and wrap up a few things. I don't want to leave any loose ends when I leave for Manhattan in the morning. She looked at him and smiled, "Manhattan, the big city, it really makes you wonder."
"Wonder about what," Garner thought. But then he was used to the lapses in Rose's reasoning. At least he thought he was used to them.