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She stood out on our balcony with me. She leaned in close and rested her head on my shoulder as I wrapped an arm around her. We stood at the railing and stared out at our quiet Upper West Side neighborhood. Mary Catherine said, “No matter what, you need to be careful.”
“I always am.”
Mary Catherine let out a snort. “I know you don’t tell me everything you do as part of your job. But don’t take me for an idiot. I’m aware of the risks you take. I’ve heard others talk about things you’ve done. And even though it scares me, it’s also part of the reason I fell in love with you. I just want you to look out for yourself as you are looking out for everyone else.”
I decided it was time to change the conversation. I said, “Speaking of taking care of yourself, anything new develop with your fertility pre-treatments? I know it was making you tired at first. How do you feel now?”
“I don’t know if I’m feeling better or adjusting to feeling tired all the time. I’m starting to feel the stress of the decision. I swear, Michael, I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do. Seeing you work on cases like this scares me. It scares me for the safety of the ten children we have already. Even if three of them are essentially adults. It scares me to think about caring for an infant. The constant attention. The enormous amount of time. What happens to my time with the other kids?”
“All good questions.”
“Any chance you want to give me some good answers?”
“The best answer is what you usually tell me: ‘Follow your heart.’ Or as Seamus would say, ‘Trust in faith.’ This is not a decision you need to rush.”
She squeezed me, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed me on the lips. “How is it you know just what to say to me and the kids when we’re feeling our worst?”
“Practice.”
I smiled at her laughter. When she rose on her tiptoes again, I was ready for a longer kiss. And I was definitely not disappointed.
Chapter94
USING OUR HIGHLYtrained NYPD technicians, Terri and I arranged to have clones of The Girlfriend Experience phone set up at Allie’s apartment and our office. The explanation of how the electronics worked made my head spin. But I trusted our tech people. I was confident the phone would alert us to any calls coming in.
That’s why on Thursday afternoon, when the phone sitting on my desk beeped, I jumped to listen in on the conversation. Allie handled it perfectly. And although I couldn’t be sure, it sounded like Perry Martin’s voice on the other end of the line. He was also insistent that he meet one of the girls that night. There wasn’t a function; they didn’t have to dress up. He just wanted someone to “cuddle with” tonight.
He didn’t hesitate to jump at the chance to meet Allie at The Hockey Stick in the Bronx. The call set the entire squad into motion. The fact that we were using a civilian, let alone a college-aged girl, would make our cautious command staff uneasy. Harry Grissom’s job was to keep them calm.
Undercover operations like this are generally used in narcotics investigations. Often, a defendant in one case is trying to get a more lenient sentence by cooperating against another drug dealer in a different case.
Police occasionally use ordinary citizens in operations like this. But it would be foolish to think that there is no risk involved. Police work is almost nothing but risk, from pulling a car over for speeding and hoping the driver isn’t armed to stepping into a dark alley at night. A police officer’s life is all about mitigating risk.
I managed personal risk fine. But the idea of placing Allie Pritz in danger made me nervous. Really nervous.
Terri was with me and said, “How many people do we want on this caper?”
“The easy answer is everybody. The practical answer is we’ll use a tac team outside for the arrest, Harry and a couple of detectives from the squad for surveillance. And the two of us inside the bar. That should cover most of the angles. I’m open to other suggestions if you have any.”
Terri shook her head. “You’ve used me undercover a couple of times. I never felt at unnecessary risk.”
“For a cop, not a college student.”
“Aformercollege student who’s been running a high-priced dating service. Allie is pleading to be in on this deal. It’ll work out.”
“But what if it doesn’t?”
“If Martin is our guy, this is the most efficient way to stop him. If we wait, it might mean someone else dies. It’s a terrible choice, but the kind we have to make every day.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
“No, it means we have tomakethe choice. What do you want to do?”
I sighed, trying to buy time. I wanted to run the variables through my head again. And again. And again.
Terri nudged me.
“Okay, okay. Let’s do it. But if there are any snags, we cut off the operation right then. No questions asked.”
