Closing the Circle by Frank Zafiro

Author:Frank Zafiro
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down & Out Books

EIGHTEEN

John

I sat in the corner of the restaurant, pretending to do the crossword in the morning paper. My back was to their table, but if I focused, I could pick up snatches of conversation. Mostly, though, one of them was flirting with the hostess.

As I scratched meaningless words into the small blocks on the newsprint, my ears strained to catch as many words as I could from their discussion. The two of them chattered about women and the weather. At one point, they lapsed into Polish. When the food came, it was mostly eating and grunting.

Once lunch ended, there was more about the hostess. I listened carefully, hoping for a break.

“That one likes you very much, my friend. Maybe when this is over, you can come back here and rescue her from the drudgery of this job.”

“I don’t know if she needs rescuing, boss, but I’d like to try.”

“Bah. There is no try. There is only choice. You do it, or you do not.”

A pause.

Then, “What is so funny, Jan?”

I reached to my cheek to feign scratching it, turning my head as I did so. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the big men actually chuckling. The other one, the boss, was watching him with a mixture of confusion and irritation.

“Why are you giggling like a little dziewczyna?”

Jan took a deep breath and let it out, still chuckling. “You sound like the Polish Yoda, that’s all.”

“What is Yoda?”

“From Star Wars?”

Another pause.

Then, “What, with the lightsabers and the Darth Vader, you mean?”

“Yeah. Yoda was the little green guy.”

“What does that—”

“He said almost exactly the same thing you did. ‘Do or do not. There is no try.’”

The boss was silent for a few moments, then he grunted and rose. “What does your Yoda say about blonde women in red Miatas, Jan?”

“Do. There is no do not.”

“Very funny. Let us go and find this dziwka.”

I reached for my coffee and sipped it while scratching Red Miata on my newspaper crossword. I waited until the two men had left the restaurant before I signaled for the check.

It made no sense to tail these two any further. Neither of them knew where Ania Kozak was right now. But they had a lead, and now I had it, too.

She drove a red Miata.

Not the most solid of leads because she could have stopped driving it at some point. Sold it, parked it, got a rental, something. But I didn’t think so.

She didn’t know she was being tracked. Or at least, there was no reason to believe she did. Maybe someone like her, a grifter, a con artist, had a sixth sense that told them when the hunt was on. Maybe she could sense when the circle was closing in around her. I didn’t know for sure. But I thought the odds were good that she was still driving the red Miata that the Polish goons were also looking for.

The waitress brought the check, and I laid the company credit card on top of it.

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