tougher than Patsy O’Connor. Now, he was a fat old man who huffed when he came up the stairs.
He was almost sixty-eight now. He had put on a lot of weight and was showing the tell tail signs of a long-term drinker. He had thick bags under his eyes and tiny purple veins lining his cheeks and bulbous nose. The middle drawer of his desk looked like a pharmacy. He lined up the pills every morning and choked them down with a cup of coffee and a shot of whiskey.
I found it amusing and a little sad that he was so concerned that Boozie’s transition from secretary and mistress to woman of leisure in Tampa cause her as little trouble as possible.
“I’m calling an agency now,” I said as I set my coffee cup on the desk and switched on my computer. “I’ll get someone in as quickly as possible.”
“Make sure they’re legit,” dad said, wagging a thick finger at me. “Check references, do a background investigation.”
“Dad, she will answer the phone and type,” I said, holding out my hands. “She will not be privy to your secrets the way Boozie was.”
“Does that mean I can’t bone her?” he asked, grinning at me. Dad always had a gap between his front teeth that he stuck his tongue in when he grinned.
“Mom probably wouldn’t like that,” I said, fingers tapping computer keys to pull up my contact list. I had an associate who owned a staffing agency. I’d call him to send over a few women to interview. I looked up at him and smiled. “Besides, your days of boning the help are over. That’s my job now.”
He chuckled at me. “Yeah, like you have to time to fuck the help here.”
I picked up my coffee cup and gave him a frown. “What does that mean?”
He let his round shoulders go up and down. “I hear rumors.”
“Such as?”
“Word is you’re turning The White Rabbit into your own little playground,” he said. He brought the cup to his lips and blew a cooling breath across the steaming surface and judged me with his eyes. “Fucking girls in the restrooms. Blowjobs under the VIP table. Big bar tab every night.”
I gave him a smile. “So? Is that wrong? We do own a piece of it, you know.”
His bushy eyebrows furrowed over his dark eyes. “Irish Dan owns a bigger piece of it,” he said, referring to Dan Reardon, one of his old pals who truly fit the notorious Irish gangster mold. “He would appreciate it if you found another place to hang out if all you’re there for is to fuck the paying customers.”
“I’ll keep that in mind the next time I’m butt-fucking Irish Dan’s daughter in the men’s room,” I said, picking up the phone.
“Jesus, boy, I hope you’re joking,” he said, shaking his head and making the sign of the cross on his chest. “You don’t fuck with Irish Dan. If he thought you were screwing his daughter he would personally chop off your dick and shove it down your throat.”
“I’ll remember that the next time she asks me to come to the restroom with her,” I said, offering him a smile. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to find you a new secretary.”
Claire
“What’s up?” I asked as I walked into Ed’s office and took a seat in front of his desk. Lou, Lester, and Joanie were already there, as was Danzig, who was standing next to Ed’s desk with his thick arms crossed over his chest. I caught Danzig eyeing by boobs as I sat down. I was wearing an open-collared white blouse beneath a short black jacket. I guess his vantage point gave him a quick look down my shirt as I sat down.
Danzig was such a perv. A young, very hot perv, but a perv nonetheless. I liked the way he looked in his tight t-shirts and often admired the bulge in the front of his tight jeans, but that was as far as the attraction went. He was not my type. Too many muscles, too much ego.
“Have a seat,” Ed said, sitting behind his desk, stapling his fingers to his chin. He directed Danzig to shut the door. “We might have a way into O’Connor’s organization.” He looked at me and smiled. “Do you still have that old outfit you wore during your Vice undercover days?”
“Oh lord,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Let me guess. You want me to be a dancer at The White Rabbit.”
“Close, but no,” Ed said with a contagious smile. The others grinned like they were all in on a joke I wasn’t privy to. “Remember in yesterday’s meeting, we talked about Boozie Hamilton wanting to retire? According to Lester’s source on the inside, she’d headed to Tampa for good this weekend.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, our wiretap picked up a call this morning,” Ed said, leaning his elbows on the desk and lacing his fingers together. “Sean O’Connor placed a call to a company called Allied Staffing and asked them to send out a few candidates to replace Boozie.”
I frowned at Ed. “Why would he do that?”
Ed frowned back at me. “What do you mean?”
“I mean why would he be so careless as to just hire her replacement from a staffing agency?” I asked. I glanced over at Lester, who was sitting on the other side of Lou picking at his fingernails. “According to your source, Lester, Boozie was a key advisor to Patsy O’Connor and knew every nuance of the business.”
“We don’t think Boozie’s replacement is going to have the same level of access,” Ed said. “This is just a straight secretarial position, someone to answer the phone and do some typing. I guess Sean O’Connor isn’t too worried about this new person getting into anything they aren’t supposed to, although they probably would have access to files, computers, emails.”