I said nothing to that and went back to remote-accessing the cameras my associate had helpfully set up. I’d wanted to pack light in case we needed to blow the room fast, so all I had with me was a laptop and a pair of binoculars. It wasn’t perfect, but we could certainly see anyone coming or going, both the main entrance and the fire escape.
But the whole time I was fiddling with the tech, my mind was replaying his words.Maybe you can teach me. Was there a hint of flirtation there, a suggestion that whatever twisted sex games we were playing, I wasn’t in the lead position?
I should have got twin beds.
“Sure you don’t want anything?” Bax tried.
I shook my head. The next sound was the door opening and closing. Once I was sure he’d gone I went into the bathroom and took a long, hard look at myself in the mirror. “What,” I asked myself, “the hell are you doing?”
My reflection offered no explanations.
Chapter Twenty
Angelo
The day wore on without any action, except for Bax’s occasional ventures in and out of the room with take-out food and shitty bodega coffee. I wished more than once that I’d brought my French press, but I’d been hoping that the coffee in the area would be better—it was an Italian neighborhood. Occasionally I would see someone enter or exit Greco’s building and would leap up to alertness, looking closely at the monitor and then through the binoculars at the live person below. But it was never our guy. I knew he was in there, though; my associate had scouted the building before we’d arrived, and had confirmed, via buzzing the wrong apartment “by mistake,” that Greco was alreadyin situ.
The night rolled in fast, somehow darker here in Brooklyn than it was in Manhattan. Maybe the streetlights were dimmer out here across the bridge. Maybe it was my imagination.
“How long do you think it’ll take?” Baxter asked.
“As long as it takes.”
He shoveled noodles in his face, swallowed, and then said, “Yeah, but how long does it usually take?”
“You know, the time will pass more quickly if you don’t ask about it.”
“Aren’t you going to eat something?”
“I’m not really one for Chinese.”
“You should’ve said. I could’ve got something else for you. There’s an Italian place down on the corner—”
“Flynn, please. I know the boredom levels of stakeouts are new to you, but I’m going to need you to shut up.”
“Wow,” he said, and sounded genuinely hurt. “Okay, fine. Go hungry.”
He managed to stay quiet for fifteen full minutes. I timed him, because stakeoutswereinterminably boring and there was nothing else to do. And for some reason, I was acutely aware of his presence in the room. Usually I preferred surveillance alone or in shifts, or with another Family member who understood the importance of silence. But Baxter was like a puppy dog. He just couldn’t help himself.
“I can take first shift tonight if you like,” he blurted out. “I probably won’t sleep anyway.”
I said nothing, only shook my head.
“You know, you’re gonna have to talk to me sometime. Aren’t you? Don’t you ever get bored?”
On one of his coffee stops, Baxter had picked up a newspaper, and by now he’d read it back to front. We were still the main news story. It occurred to me that I should check in with the Boss sooner rather than later, at least let him know things were under control. He trusted me, and he knew why I was radio silent, but I was stretching the friendship.
And I still needed to explain about Flynn…although there I found myself at a loss.
“Why don’t you tell me why you went into psychology?” I said at last. “You seem like a smart enough kid. What was it about psychics and charlatans that appeal to you?”
Baxter shook his head with a wry smile. “Why do you want to know, so you can insult me more?”
“You’re the one who wants to talk.”
He came over to the window where I was seated on a chair looking out, and had been for much of the afternoon except for brief periods of stretching and one bathroom break, when I made Bax sit in the chair for me.
Truth be told, sitting in the chair for hours on end was pretty uncomfortable. But when Baxter leaned over me, looking down at the building entrance, all my aches and pains seem to die away. I was very conscious of his body heat, since the noisy heater never quite seemed to conquer the cold of the room.
