“No,” Matt said, firmly, handing over his American Express card. “The one drink-between friends-we’ll take with thanks. The rest we pay for.”
Charley shrugged, but took the card.
Matt signed the receipt, looked at it, and said, “Mother, your half comes to fifteen-fifty, with tip.”
She dug in her purse and came up with a five and a ten and handed it to him.
“I owe you fifty cents.”
“I’ll remember,” he said.
He put out his hand to Charley.
“Thanks a lot,” he said. “You’ve been more helpful than I think you understand. I’ll probably come by again tomorrow, or Mother will. Okay?”
“Any time,” Charley said.
“What we’ll do, Mother, is go by the Roundhouse. I’ve got to get a property receipt for the sales slip I got in New York, and I want to pick up my car,” Matt said when they were in the Porsche. “You can take it home after we meet with Joe D’Amata.”
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Olivia said.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m not sure I should be driving. I’m not used to three drinks of scotch in forty-five minutes, and that third drink was really a double.”
He looked at her and smiled.
“Mother, are you plastered?” he asked, amused.
“Tiddly, not plastered,” Olivia said. “And I’m not your mother.”
His eyebrows rose.
“I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” she said, and he saw that she was blushing.
“In vino veritas,” Matt said, softly.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Matt said, and moved his head the six or eight inches necessary to kiss her.
She didn’t pull away.
“I really didn’t want that to happen,” she said, softly a moment later.
“Are you sorry?”
“Just drive the goddamn car, will you, please?”
He put the Porsche in gear and started off.
ELEVEN
As Matt approached Liberties Bar on North Second Street, he saw Martha Washington’s Mercedes parked in front, beside Peter Wohl’s Jaguar and a half-dozen unmarked cars.
Well, so much for Joe D’Amata’s noble attempt to bring me up to speed before Washington asks what I’ve been doing on my first day as a Homicide sergeant.
He pulled the Porsche to the curb beside one of the unmarked cars, turned off the key, and turned to Olivia.