Numb3rs Fic: Leaving Las Vegas
Written for numb3rs_het Summer Challenge 2009 - 36. Law Enforcement Officer, 8. Mexico, 3. High Heels
Title: Leaving Las Vegas
Series/Universe: Not Leaving Las Vegas
Pairing/Characters: Billy/OFC
Rating: PG13
Spoilers: Man Hunt
Summary: Billy meets the woman who will one day become his wife
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
"The Sky Hotel and Casino is always happy to help our local LEOs." The security manager was overly solicitous as he pressed the elevator button for the executive floor of the hotel. "And of course the FBI."
"The Bureau appreciates your cooperation, Mr. Uhl." Billy was trying hard to be on his best behavior. His fugitive might not show up here at the casino for days - but he'd show, that he was sure of - so he needed to stay on good terms with the staff so they would give him the access he needed to surveil the premises. "Hopefully I'll be out of your way in a day or two."
"Please, call me Frank." The elevator doors opened and he gestured Billy to the right. "Comforting as it is to have a Federal Agent on premises, I'm sure we'll all sleep better once your felon is back behind bars." He used a card key to open a door merely marked 'Authorized Personnel Only' and gestured Billy into the surveillance room. "Welcome to the eye in the sky..."
Banks of closed circuit television monitors were arrayed in front of workstations where security staff sat, dressed in identical navy blue blazers with Sky's light blue logo embroidered on them. They wore headsets and watched the casino floor, switching cameras as they coordinated with security staff on the ground.
"Nice setup," Billy said, nodding.
"All brand new," Frank boasted. "State of the art cameras with variable zoom and a digital storage system that allows us to roll back footage on the fly." He looked apologetic for a second. "I tried to talk the owners into facial recognition technology, but they said it was too expensive."
"Guess I'll have to do this the old fashioned way," Billy said, hands on his hips as he took in the dozens of monitors in front of him.
"Just ask any of our staff who aren't on a call for help and they can switch cameras, rewind footage, even show you the feeds from outside the building if that's helpful. Whatever you need..."
Billy looked around. "I could use a chair."
"Yes! Of course!" He spoke into his comm unit. "Iverson, bring another office chair into the surveillance room, will you? One of the good ones. Thanks." He stepped behind where they'd been standing and pulled a rolling office chair over from a table where it had been set up, offering it to Billy. "There you are! I'll be back shortly with a card key for you that will give you access throughout the hotel including the employee cafeteria. It will save you the long wait in the public restaurant lines," he added graciously.
"Much obliged," Billy said with a nod, pulling the chair over where he wanted it. "Here's hoping I won't need to take advantage of that much."
"I'd be happy to arrange a room for you here, if you'd like," Frank offered.
"That's okay," Billy waved him off. "My folks live in town so I'm good. Thanks."
"Very well. You have my card with my cell phone on it should you need anything more." Frank headed for the door only to have it open as a young man rolled in another chair, putting next to the table behind Billy where Frank had taken the chair from in the first place. "Happy hunting," he said with a pleased little smirk as he ushered his assistant out.
Billy settled into his chair and started skimming the monitors as they flipped from table to table. With way more cameras than monitors the staff rarely left any monitor static for long. It only took about fifteen minutes to spot the dealer he was looking for: an Asian woman with long hair dyed an unusual shade of honey light brown.
He tapped one of the staff members on the shoulder. "The feed on monitor 38... Can you keep that one up for me?"
"Sure," the man answered. "But let me move it off to the side first." The feed was soon duplicated in the monitor on the lower right corner of the bank then flicked off as monitor 38 moved to another table.
"That works," Billy said, shifting to get the best view of that corner monitor. "Thanks."
What he hadn't told the staff was that one of their dealers had ties to his fugitive. Before Saul Benz was going to leave the country he was coming back for his woman - and his money.
+
The door opening naturally drew Billy's eye, but the woman who entered certainly held it.
She wore a classy black suit with a crisp white shirt - very corporate - yet her long wavy hair coursed dark over her shoulders and down her back in an almost wild mane. Growing up in Las Vegas it seemed there were two kinds of women who worked for casinos - those who wished to benefit from their sexuality and those who stomped it down with tight buns and stern glasses so they could play in the boy's club of the boardroom, as divorced as possible from the flashy showgirls the casinos were well known for. Billy found this ironic and amusing since most of the showgirls had to wear their hair pulled back tight for the insane headdresses they wore on stage. This woman though, she seemed confident enough to look any way she wanted to and that was appealing and oddly refreshing. She headed over to the console area, leaning over to share a few hushed words with one of the employees posted there, giving Billy an eyeful of lean tanned legs ending in black high heels.
One thing Billy and his former partner Don had had in common from the beginning was an eye for women with dark coloring. Much of their Fugitive Recovery work had been in the Southwest and Western states so they certainly had some very attractive scenery to distract them on stakeouts.
She straightened, accepting a clipboard which she studied on her way back to the table behind him, sitting in the chair placed where Frank had stolen his from.
With her sitting behind him, he couldn't see her, but - as he reminded himself - he was on a hunt and didn't need the distraction. Still, each time she left her table - to return a clipboard or get a new one - his eye gravitated to her: watching a delicate hand brush her hair back over her shoulder, noticing the arc of her well-toned calves or delighting in the body language that spoke of a woman strong and proud, confident in her skills.
He never caught her eye as she passed since she was always absorbed with the data on the clipboards as soon as she received them, but he indulged in examining her face each chance he got. Her features weren't subtle: an angular jawline, a strong chin, large round eyes and high cheekbones, but they were still very feminine, accented by just enough makeup to look professional.
Billy had never told Don, but after seeing as many waitresses and other blue collar workers as they did on the road, he had grown to crave a more polished, dressier, look. His mother's work in real estate put her in the public eye constantly so she'd always taken great care with her appearance, but not so much that she became fake or plastic looking like many of her colleagues. Her appearance was a sign of self-respect, a way of making her professionalism overt without denying who she was as a wife or mother.
He caught himself wishing this hunt would take a while, hoping he'd have a chance over the next few days to get an in, to... But then he shook himself back to reality. Once this hunt was over he'd be leaving Las Vegas. It wouldn't be fair to her to start something he couldn't finish.
Even as he'd been musing on thoughts of her, his eyes had been glued to his reserved monitor. A face he recognized appeared at the dealer's table - not his mark, but a known associate, one who might lead him to Saul's location.
He bolted out of his chair so fast it rattled loudly and a tiny gasp behind him let him know - even as he ran for the door - that he'd startled her.
"Sorry," he called back, honestly penitent, risking a split second glance back and meeting her eyes in apology.
Following the man once he left the casino led to a stakeout that went nowhere that night, but when Billy finally crashed in his parents' guest room at 3AM he had a lovely face in his memory to keep him company into slumber.
+
The next morning was spent rewinding through the previous night's footage of the dealer's table and following the dealer, Lina, through her breaks as she walked through the hotel into the employee lounge where there were no cameras - at least not any the head of security was willing to admit to - and finally out to her car when she left at the end of her shift. The local field office had an agent on her house who followed her to and from work as well so he didn't have to worry about her except while she was in the casino. She'd moved in the last three months so odds were Saul didn't know where to find her, save at work. That made the casino the best location for a meetup.
The workstation one of the surveillance room staff members had set him up at allowed him to go back to midnight of the night before he'd arrived, where he caught a glimpse of Lina lingering after she'd apparently surrendered her table to another dealer, but he could rewind no further.
He glanced over and all the navy jacketed employees were talking on their headsets. He waited, hoping to catch one of them ending a call so he could ask for assistance, but then noticed the woman from yesterday - this time in a deep chocolate brown suit, matching high heels peeking out from beneath her slacks. She dropped off a clipboard and picked up another one as he rose and approached her.
"Excuse me," he said in his most polite voice. "Could you help me with accessing archival footage?"
"Actually, no," she told him. "I don't work here." Now that she was standing right in front of him he could tell just how petite she was. Even in tall heels she barely came to shoulder level. "You'll have to ask one of the employees."
"You don't work here?" Billy asked, realizing only belatedly how inane that had to sound.
"Okay," she admitted, a little embarrassed. "I am working and I am here, but I don't work for the casino so I'm not authorized to give you access to anything. That make more sense?"
She flashed a wide smile, looking more friendly than flustered.
"A lot more," he told her, returning the smile with his most charming roguish grin, the one Don had always told him to use when they wanted to sweet talk information out of someone. "Because I figure anything that involves that many clipboards can't be something you do for fun."
She laughed, a light and airy sound yet uncontained and natural.
"Oh yes!" she mocked. "I live for checkboxes!" She gestured to the employee behind Billy. "It looks like Roman's free now."
Billy glanced and found that Roman had fallen silent and was busy just typing.
"Thank you," he told her, then turned - albeit reluctantly - to tap Roman on the shoulder.
"Yes, Agent Cooper? What can I do for you?"
"Can I get access to the last three days of footage on camera 317, the one I've been reviewing? What I've got right now only goes back to midnight the day before yesterday."
"That's our cutoff for the live system, the older stuff gets archived," Roman explained. "I'll submit a request for the archival footage, but it might take a while to get the footage loaded for you. Maybe twenty minutes? Could be as long as a half hour."
"That's fine. I can take a break while I'm waiting. Thanks."
He'd been at it long enough he could justify an early lunch, plus his eyes needed a rest from all the rewinding. He glanced over at the woman at the back table, but she was talking on her cell phone while referencing something on her laptop so she clearly looked too busy to interrupt.
Yet again Billy had to remind himself to stay hands off. He wasn't sticking around; he wasn't a stick around kind of guy despite Don's repeated assertion that he was going to settle down one of these days.
Still, he'd put on a white button up shirt this morning and a nice pair of khakis instead of the t-shirt and jeans he'd road into town wearing yesterday. He might have told himself it was because he had a whole closet full of clothes to choose from at his parents' house rather than living out of his duffle bag or that he thought he'd blend in better if he had to go down to the floor, but some tiny part of him had to acknowledge he'd gotten dressed up for her.
+
The employee cafeteria was actually fairly impressive. There were plenty of already plated items - easy for dealers on short breaks to grab and go - and a menu on the wall showing entrees that could be ordered including the day's specials.
The fare wasn't high class - more spaghetti and meatloaf than foie gras, but then the Sky was known more as a nice mid-range casino and hotel, not a four star resort like Bellagio or the Venetian.
It was too early for most of the day staff to have lunch so the room was fairly empty, enough that Billy was surprised to hear a voice come up behind him.
"Get the cheeseburger," came a conspiratorial whisper. He turned to find the woman in the chocolate brown suit had come down as well. "It's amazing."
"Oh really?" he said, arching an eyebrow at her. "I've had some pretty spectacular cheeseburgers in my time. You sure this one's good?"
"Trust me," she stressed. "Best thing on the menu. Plus they give you more fries - good ones at that - than a human being can consume in a single sitting." He took in her petite stature with a doubtful glance and she chuckled. "Yeah, I know, but I can put away quite a few fries for someone my size."
"That I'd like to see." Before he could ask her name, the attendant at the counter came to check on them.
"Have you decided what you'd like?" he asked.
"Yeah, we'll take two cheeseburgers - one with fries and one without."
"Ah... Smart..." he heard her murmur her approval at his side.
"Be just a few minutes."
"So..." He turned to face her as she continued, eying him with a mischievous air. "I heard Ramon call you Agent Cooper. You got a badge to go with that title? And maybe even a first name?"
"One of each." Billy fished out his badge and ID and showed them to her.
"Hmm... FBI..." She read off the ID. "William Cooper..."
"Usually Billy," he corrected. "My Dad's the William in the family. I get called Coop a lot."
She shuddered. "My grandparents had a chicken farm back in Mexico. Trust me, you do not want to be associated with any memories of chicken coops - especially at lunchtime. Blech." She made a face, wrinkling up her nose.
"Beats being called Junior," he said with a chortle, putting his badge and ID away. "I ponied up," he told her playfully. "Do I get a name in return?"
"Lots of them," she said proudly. "Try this on for size: Maricela Alejandra Nunez Gutierrez."
"Please tell me there's a 'for short' in there somewhere," he pleaded.
"Mari with an I," she told him, gesturing over to the beverage area. "Let's get some drinks while we're waiting."
They both bypassed the soda machine and jockeyed for position, chuckling, as they filled their glasses with ice and water.
"I can carry these," he told her, picking them both up. "If you can grab some ketchup and napkins."
Mari pointed out a table by the window. "How about there?" she suggested, grabbing a bottle of ketchup from the condiment bar.
"Works for me."
They carried their items over and set them down, each making a second trip - Billy because the salt shaker was empty and Mari to the salad bar, returning with a little paper cup full of thousand island dressing which she put between them.
"They serve the burgers bare here," she explained. "I suggest ketchup on top and thousand island dressing beneath with the tomato and lettuce."
"Okay, now you've got me hungry," he said. "Which is saying something given that I had a pretty monster breakfast only three and a half hours ago. Whenever I'm in town," he explained, "my mother tries to lure me back by cooking all my favorites."
"So you're not out of the local field office?" Mari asked, sipping her drink.
"No, I'm out of D.C. technically. I work Fugitive Recovery so I go where the fugitives go." He tipped his glass at her. "Most people don't even know the FBI has a field office in Vegas."
She shrugged. "I work in security. I make it a point to stay up on the FBI's most wanted list and the local LEOs' sketches and such. One of my co-workers spotted a kidnapper based on a sketch on the news a few years back, so we've all been pretty observant since then."
"On behalf of the federal government - and as someone who has family in Vegas," he raised his glass to her, "you have my appreciation."
A server approached carrying a tray with two plates on it, which they put down on the table. One plate had just a thick cheeseburger wrapped in paper on it. On the other plate the cheeseburger was buried in an avalanche of french fries, some of which had fallen off the plate onto the tray. As the server put the loaded plate down - in front of Billy - a few more tumbled from the stack.
"I told you!" Mari said with a laugh.
Once the server departed, Billy spilled half the fries from his plate onto Mari's, leaving both of them with a gargantuan portion.
"Okay, I figured we'd avoid wasting food if we only got one order, but I'm not sure we can finish these between us!"
Mari bit into one and her face transformed into an expression of bliss. "Oh, but I'm sure going to try."
+
"Palo Verde High? You guys slayed us in Track and Field!"
"You ran Track?" Mari asked, finally pushing her plate away even though it had a fair amount of french fries still on it.
"Mile and two mile," Billy told her. "I'm not the fastest guy out there in a hundred yard dash, but I've got stamina, which is good in this job because you have to be able to run fast and far." He dipped a french fry in ketchup. "So tell me about this company you work for."
"Well, Echelon Security was started by three of us. Geoffrey was head of security at Luxor until he took early retirement and Aleem is an electronics whiz kid he recruited out of MIT. Geoffrey stole me from a larger security company where I was their Director of IT and one of three systems designers at the firm. He recruited me as CTO and chief designer of the security systems we install for our clients. We target mostly mid-range casinos in Vegas and Reno and we're thinking of expanding past Nevada into at least Atlantic City."
"Business is good then?"
"Plenty of crooks to keep both of us in business," she said with a wink.
"Ain't it the truth," Billy said with a sigh. He dropped the tail end of his partially eaten fry on his plate and shoved it away. "Jeez, even with us splitting the fries we still couldn't finish them! Good burger though."
"Best ever?" Mari asked slyly.
"Top ten," Billy countered. "You've got to remember, I've eaten in diners in most of the lower 48, so I've had some pretty impressive burgers over the years."
"Well, then." She leaned forward, a little sparkle in her eye. "How about some top ten pie?"
"This place has a top ten burger and top ten pie?" Billy asked, incredulous.
"Not here," she admitted. "But there's a place..." Her cell phone rang in her purse and she fished it out with a mumbled apology. "Sorry..." Opening it, she answered. "Hello." Pausing to listen, she spoke again in just a few seconds. "On my way." She rose, and Billy rose as well, her expression apologetic as she put her phone away. "My installers just arrived to replace some of the cameras that are having trouble. I need to go oversee the work."
"Not a problem," he told her. "I'll take care of clean up here. You go on ahead."
"Thanks." She flashed him a brilliant smile as she shouldered her laptop bag. "I owe you a slice of pie."
"I'll hold you to that," he said, cocking his head to the side. "You tell me when it's coming and I'll bring the best coffee in all of Vegas to drink with it."
She bit her lip, giving him an appraising glance. "You're on."
She turned and headed out and Billy busied himself with busing their table, noting the dim shadow of deep red lipstick on her glass. Billy had always been good with faces - it was one of the things that made him a good agent. Now he had her face in his head: the tawny caramel skin, the warm brown eyes, the flash of a not so shy smile with tastefully red-painted lips drawing up at the corners into subtle dimples.
Once he finished he headed out of the cafeteria, opening his cell phone and dialing as he walked.
"Desert Splendor Realty, Evelyn Cooper's office. This is Lucy. How may I help you?"
"Hey, Luce. It's Billy. Is my mom free?"
"Hey, Billy. She's just getting off a call. Let me flag her down before she picks up the phone again." After a pause his mother's assistant came back on the line. "Transferring you now."
"Thanks." The phone picked up and Billy heard his mother's voice on the other end of the line.
"Is this my surprise 'guess who's going to make it to dinner after all' call?" she teased.
Billy chuckled. "Sorry, Mom. No such luck. I'm still on duty at the casino nights until my guy shows up."
"Breakfast it is then," she said with a feigned sigh. "It will take a bit of work to come up with something more impressive than this morning's strawberry topped pancakes, but I seem to recall someone really liking the sausage and home fries skillet I made with the sausage from Niedermann's."
Billy groaned at the thought. "Mom, you're going to kill me with all this good food."
"Just my little campaign to get you to stay in Vegas. They do have..."
"A field office, yes Mom, for the thousandth time I know. Listen," he said, changing his tack as he headed outdoors for a brief moment of sunshine before he tucked himself away in the surveillance room for the night. "Is Ti Amo Coffee Roasters still in business? Please say yes and please say their coffee is still the best."
"Absolutely!" Evelyn exclaimed. "Hands down best coffee ever. They're even selling online now! Judith's son Steven built their web site for them! You should see it! Do you want me to pick some up for you?"
"No, that's okay. I'll pop by there myself when I'm ready. I don't want to buy it too far in advance. It's got to be fresh." He turned into the sun, a pleased little smile on his face. "It's got to be perfect."
+
Although Mari wasn't in the surveillance room with him, she wasn't far. From time to time he'd spot in her and her crew in the other monitors. Lina wasn't on shift yet, but he had Saul's known associates to keep an eye out for so he could justify scanning all the monitors even if there was no reason save this growing attraction he felt to linger on any one with her in it.
Just before Lina was due to arrive on shift, Billy asked for her table's camera to be set up for him as before - static on the edge of the monitor bank. It was inevitable that word would get back to Frank at some point, but it was only a few minutes before he appeared, gesturing to Billy to talk privately out of earshot of the others.
"I noticed you were focusing your efforts on one of our dealers: Lina Akana? Is she involved with anything we should know about? I mean if she's in league with this Benz character..."
"Lina's not guilty of anything." Billy was always willing to stretch the truth a little to smooth things over and technically Lina had never been convicted of any crime, so it wasn't really a lie. "Except perhaps bad taste in men a long time ago. Saul's got a thing for her and even though that's based in the past, the Bureau thinks it's likely he might try to contact her again, fan the old flame if you will."
"Have you said anything to Lina - warned her that she might be in danger?" Frank asked, subtly wringing his hands.
"If anyone says anything to Lina," Billy stressed this as strongly as he could, "that could put her in danger. For now she's fine. We're hoping to stop Saul elsewhere before he even gets to her, so just consider me her quiet bodyguard in case he shows up. Nothing to worry about."
"But if she knew..."
"If she knew," Billy interrupted, "her impulse would be to act strange as soon as she saw him - frightened. Saul's a pro. He'd read the situation in a heartbeat and know there was law enforcement watching. Once you corner someone like that they're likely to take hostages and I know that you and Lina and even your bosses don't want a hostage situation in your casino."
Frank shook his head, clearly thrown. "No, no... We don't want that at all."
"So if Saul were to show up, Lina would probably just tell him she'd meet up with him after her shift was over. He'd leave, none the wiser and I'd grab him in the parking lot without any of your guests noticing. That's how smoothly this can go - as long as Lina knows nothing."
"All right then." Frank took a deep breath. "I've already told the staff that nothing you do here is to be discussed with anyone. We'll keep it like that."
"You probably should avoid seeing Lina yourself," Billy suggested. "She's a dealer, trained to read body language. If she sees you looking at her she's bound to read you and know something's off."
"Excellent idea." He nodded again. "I'll be sure to stay clear of her table."
"Like I said, good chance we'll catch him somewhere else, but just in case he shows up here..." Billy didn't want to admit the best chance of catching Saul was here, but he was sure Charlie could come up with some sort of math to add up all the chances to catch him elsewhere so that, combined, they were enough to be called 'good'.
"Yes, we can hope," Frank said, heading to the door. "Thank you."
Frank left with just enough time for Billy to catch Lina's car arriving in the lot.
Working with one of the surveillance room employees, Billy followed her with the cameras: locking up her car, walking to the employee entrance, heading to the employee lounge and then later getting set up at her table.
Mari didn't come back to the surveillance room that night, but Billy did get one last glance at her as a nearby monitor switched to one near an exit.
She was looking right into the camera and to Billy, it felt like she was looking right at him. He liked it; it felt like her saying goodnight.
+
The evening shift was completely uneventful and the next day Mari was back, only with clearly less to do as the clipboards were often empty.
"Stuck here?" Billy asked, smirking, as she tapped her pencil on the tabletop.
Mari rolled her eyes, exasperated. "I'd say 'can it be lunch now?' but that would just mean more hours for me to sit here after I get back if I go this early."
"Let's go to lunch anyway," Billy scoffed. "Maybe you'll get lucky and come back to new and exciting out of focus cameras!"
"I'd hope for that if I wasn't part owner of the company." She did rise though, stretching like a cat. Today her suit was a pale tan with a short skirt that bared quite a bit more leg than the first time. It had a tiny slit, no more than an inch or two, just over her left thigh and Billy felt his eyes helplessly drawn to it over and over again, enticed by the subtle sexuality of it in the otherwise professional suit. She leaned over, logged out of her laptop, then closed the lid before picking up her purse. "One would hope this would be safe left in a security office of all places, right?" She flashed him a bemused smile and he followed her to the door, moving quickly to get ahead of her and open it for her.
"So, cafeteria again?"
"Actually..." She pressed the elevator button and turned back to him, an impish grin on her face. "Can I steal you away from your post? Take you somewhere off the strip?"
"Sounds good to me." He gestured her into the elevator then joined her, pressing the button for the lobby. "I could use some sunlight. Being cooped up indoors isn't my style."
"Excellent!" When he gave her a questioning look, she explained. "They have patio seating so good food and sun. Oh, and how about pie tomorrow? Since things are so slow now I'll have a chance to pick it up on my way in."
"You're on. I'll bring the coffee."
"Looking forward to it." They met each other's eyes, both smiling widely, then looked away when it was clear they were both looking too long. "So, I know you grew up here, but I don't know if this place was around before you left."
"I've been back off and on so I might know it anyway. Where are we going?"
"Rojo's Taqueria."
"Oh! Rojo's!" Billy nodded in appreciation. "Yeah, one of my buddies from high school dragged me there on a visit. Said I had to go there, what with the red hair and all." He shook his head at the memory. "But it was good, damn good."
"It's gotten even better." The elevator opened and they headed out to the parking lot. "Rojo's son took it over and he's done wonders with the place." She glanced around once they got outside. "Whose car? I'm happy to drive if you're supposed to keep civilians out of your official FBI vehicle." She stressed the word civilians, more teasing than anything. "Plus I'm parked right here." She pressed her remote and the lights flashed on a silver Lexus parked a few spots over.
"Lead the way."
They were in the car, out of the parking lot and part of the way down the block before Mari cast a glance at him at a stoplight.
"You know, most guys like you would be too macho to let a woman drive them anywhere."
Billy held her gaze.
"I'm not most guys."
"No," she mused, holding his eyes, almost defiantly not looking away. "You are most certainly not."
"Light's green," he taunted, pointing to the signal.
She turned to drive on, but he kept watching her, taking in every little detail: the manicured nails resting lightly on the leather steering wheel, the tasteful earrings and watch that were expensive yet subtle and the notable lack of a ring on her left ring finger.
He'd trained himself to look for that in bars in the early days of manhunting, but this was the first time he'd been profoundly relieved that when he looked, there wasn't one there.
+
"So I see him up ahead of me and I'm chasing him for all I'm worth..."
"Billy Freaking Cooper!" Billy's storytelling to Mari was interrupted by a familiar face walking up to their table out on the patio at Rojo's. "How the hell are you, man?"
"I'll be damned!" Billy rose and greeted the man with a handshake half-hug. "Marty Zalinsky! Jeez, it's been years!" He turned to Mari. "Mari, this is Martin Zalinsky. Only guy I know who went into college with a major already picked out who actually graduated with that same major." He turned to Marty. "Marty, this is Miss Maricela Alejandra Nunez Gutierrez," he pronounced mock formally. "And you're to behave yourself with her or I'm calling your wife."
"A pleasure to meet you," Mari said to Marty.
Marty laughed and bowed low, kissing Mari's hand with a flourish. "The pleasure is all mine." As he rose, he eyed Billy. "That's not worth ratting me out to Carol, is it?"
"I'll let it slide this time," Billy told him with a smirk, sharing a playful glance with Mari as well.
"So, is our brave FBI agent regaling you with one of his many stories from the field?" Marty rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Tales of danger and suspense? Good versus evil? Or just one of his 'this one time, on stakeout' stories?"
"Actually we were talking about the Mint 400 dune buggy races they used to have back in the 80s. Billy was telling me about the year he entered."
"I was never going to win or anything." Billy made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "But it was a hell of a lot of fun, that's for sure."
"So what do you do?" Mari asked of Marty.
Marty winked at her. "I'm a drug dealer." At her surprised look he laughed and continued. "I'm a pharmacist - a legal drug dealer. I just like messing with people."
"And you do it so well," Billy drawled.
"So, you in town for a while?" Marty gave Billy a nudge.
Billy's eyes flicked to Mari who seemed equally interested in the answer.
"Hard to say. I am on the job though, so depends on how long it takes to catch the bad guy. Of course if my mother has a say in the matter I won't ever make it back to D.C."
"You're a desert rat, through and through," Marty said, acting sage. "You'll be back. Give it time." He checked his watch. "Hey, I'm just here to pick up a to go order. Stop by the hospital if you've got time for a drink or something."
"I'll see what I can do. Give my best to Carol.'
Marty bowed again and kissed Mari's hand again. "Delighted to make your acquaintance, Miss Maricela." He rose and eyed Billy. "Mum's the word to Carol."
Billy and Mari laughed and waved him off as he headed indoors to the restaurant.
"So he's a pharmacist at a hospital then."
"A nuclear pharmacist," Billy told her. "He's known since he was like twelve what he wanted to do with his life. Scary..."
"I've known since I was thirteen I was going to wind up a computer geek."
Billy gave her a pointed once over. "You, Miss Maricela Alejandra Nunez Gutierrez, are the least geeky looking geek I've ever met."
"I like that," she admitted shyly, tucking her hair back behind her ear.
"That I don't think you look geeky?" Billy asked.
"That you remembered all my names after only hearing them once."
Billy leaned forward, feeling his heart rate quicken just getting into her personal space as he lowered his voice to a near whisper. "Well then, maybe tomorrow over pie and coffee, you can teach me how to actually spell them."
+
Mari didn't show up at the surveillance room the next day until later in the morning and when she did it was empty handed, which was unusual given that she normally had a purse and laptop bag at the very least.
She approached Billy with a secretive grin on her face, bending down to whisper in his ear.
"Do you hear that? It's the siren call of pie..." She drew out the final word before straightening up. She gestured to the security employees behind their back, holding a finger to her lips to let him know this was between her and him.
"It's too faint," he teased, eying her empty hands. "I can't seem to hear it."
"Then you'll have to follow the Pie-d Piper," she taunted, beckoning with a crooked finger as she headed for the door.
He rose, grabbing the bag he'd brought with him, and followed her out into the hall. "Ahh... I might just hear a whisper."
She stopped a couple doors down and pulled out her card key. "We're using this spare room for our installation work," she explained. "And since there are no installers in right now, it seemed a safe place to leave my laptop." She lowered her voice to a playful whisper. "And the pie." She ushered him in to what looked like a basic conference room - the long tables littered with equipment and wire save one which was bare except for Mari's purse, laptop bag and a large pink bakery box, next to which was laid out forks and napkins. "Voila! Pie! As promised." She opened up the box to reveal a number of pie slices, each in a clear plastic carryout container.
"Wow! A variety!" he mused, looking inside. There were at least six at first glance, all different. "Where can I set up the coffee? I just need to plug in."
"Plug in?" She eyed his bag. "This should be interesting." She selected a power strip from one of the equipment tables and plugged it in the wall nearest their table and set it where Billy could get to it.
He put the bag on the table and started unloading the contents. Mari laughed, delighted, as he pulled out a tiny single cup espresso machine, a coffee grinder, coffee beans, a small carton of cream, a bottle of spring water, two disposable coffee cups with lids and a plastic bag of sweeteners and stirrers.
"Oh my goodness! You weren't kidding! You went all out!"
"I did promise the best cup of coffee in Vegas," Billy said with a bow. "What good are the best beans unless you prepare them correctly?"
"Where did all this come from?" she asked, marveling.
"My mom's office. She hates the crappy office coffee machine so I got her this setup for Christmas last year to keep in her own office. We've been going to the same coffee roasters, Ti Amo, for years so now she gets her daily jolt of caffeine in the most optimal manner possible."
With skilled hands he went through the familiar process, grinding the beans, loading the espresso machine, measuring out and pouring the water and soon the air was redolent with the aroma of fine coffee.
"Oh, that smells heavenly," she enthused.
"Cream and sugar?" he asked.
"Cream and fake sugar," she admitted, plucking a few packets from the plastic bag. "It's hard enough to work off the pie as it is. But real cream? Hell yes."
"You don't want to live a little?" he taunted. "Go for the real sugar?"
She shrugged. "I think I've gotten too used to the fake stuff and weirdly I like the taste of it, so it's what I expect coffee to taste like now."
"Fair enough." He pulled over one of the cups and poured piping hot water and fresh espresso in it. "One Americano with room for cream!" He opened the cream carton for her and let her pour, fishing out a stirrer for her and waiting for her to take the first sip.
"Oh my god." Her eyes went heavenward in bliss. "This is the best coffee ever."
"As promised," Billy said proudly. He quickly prepared a cup for himself as she pulled out all the pie slices and opened the tops on the clamshell containers.
"So, not sure how you want to do this. We can pick three each, try to cut each in half or just..."
"I'm cool with sharing them," Billy said, waving a hand at them. "Let the forks fall where they may," he joked.
"Great." Mari sat down and waited for him to sit in the chair next to her before pushing over one of the pies. "I didn't know what kind of pie you like so I got a mix of mostly cream and fruit pies - chocolate cream, banana cream, lemon meringue, triple berry and fresh strawberry - but you have to start with this one. It looks like a simple apple pie," she said as Billy stabbed a forkful and put it to his mouth. "But it's like..."
"Crack!" Billy exclaimed with his mouth full. "Oh my god, this is the drug of pies!" He scooped a larger forkful up and this time it was his turn to have a blissful expression on his face. "I think I'm addicted," he told her. "And I haven't even tried the others yet."
Mari beamed, clearly satisfied with herself, and raised her cup. "To top ten pie and top ten coffee!"
Billy raised his cup, mock clinking them together in salute as their eyes met and they shared a smile where neither felt the need to hide their interest.
"Can't wait to see what top tens come next," he said with a wink.
+
Mari's boss Geoffrey, a man in his fifties on the suave side of Vegas slick, showed up for a walk through and she packed up and left with him.
Billy watched them on the monitors as they went through the casino and hotel, surveying the work they'd done. There was no audio, but Mari's body language was easy to read: she was proud of the work they'd done there. Geoffrey was less overt, but Billy could tell he seemed proud in an almost paternal way.
Frank joined them after a while and he spotted them one last time with two Italian men in bespoke suits - the brothers who owned the place most likely - and the general manager, whom he'd met on his arrival. Hands were shaken all around and then Billy lost sight of them.
Billy paced, restless - always a sign the hunt was near an end. When it was time for Lina to come to work Roman already had the monitors reserved for him - made static in a line down the edge so he could follow her without losing a precious second to monitor switching. He clapped a hand on the man's shoulder in gratitude, not wanting to interrupt him on a call.
On schedule, Lina showed up and parked her car in the employee lot. Roman ended his call and gave his full attention to Billy.
"Just let me know if you need me to zoom or anything," he told Billy.
"Thanks. For now keep it a wide shot - I want to see who - if anyone - is nearby."
"You got it."
As Lina approached the employee entrance a man emerged from amidst the tall bushes there, putting out a cigarette; he'd clearly been laying in wait for her.
"That's him!" Billy bolted from the room, popping his comm unit in his ear as he ran. "Eyes on Benz at the employee entrance of the Sky Casino! All units converge!"
"Two units, ETA 2 minutes!" Billy heard back from his local FBI liaison. "LVPD on their way too!" He was almost to the employee entrance - taking the back stairs by threes - when the voice returned. "Sky security staff reporting Benz still at employee entrance - no weapons sighted."
As he bolted the final yards he barked out a response. "About to engage, going radio silent." He hid the comm unit and pulled out a packet of cigarettes.
Covering his slight breathlessness with a faked hacking cough, he opened the door to the outside, shaking a cigarette out at the same time as if he was going out for a smoke.
"Lina, listen to me..." Saul was about four feet away from Lina, probably because she was inching away from him despite his pleading voice. As long as she was close enough for him to grab, she was in danger and he had to play this out carefully.
"Hey..." He directed a casual greeting at Lina, acting as if they were co-workers. "I left my matches in the employee lounge." He stalled for a few seconds with another faked cough. "You got a light?"
"Can't you see we're talking here!" Saul snapped, turning his attention to Billy briefly, giving Lina time to back away further.
"Jeez, sorry I asked." Billy made to put the cigarettes away as Saul shifted his focus back to Lina, who'd finally gotten out of arm's reach. Out of the corner of his eye Billy saw two black SUVs enter the parking lot - his backup. In a flash, Billy drew his weapon, putting his body between Saul and Lina to protect her. "FBI, hands in the air!"
Saul dove through the bushes and Billy all but shoved Lina towards the door.
"Get inside! Now!" He ran around the bushes, shoving his comm back in his ear as he ran. "He's in the East parking lot!
The squeal of tires came in unison as both SUVs maneuvered to cut Saul off. He ran, darting between parked cars to evade capture, forcing Billy to counter his moves in order to gain ground.
The distance between them lessened and Billy tightened his grip on his gun as he prepared to shift to hand to hand.
He tackled Saul around the knees, knocking him to the ground. Saul's hand went to a pocket and Billy knocked what he removed away - a switchblade based on the sound of it skittering away on the asphalt.
His gun was pointed at Saul's chest in a heart beat.
"Do not move!" he ordered, all but sitting on Saul to keep him down.
Two more agents from the SUVs emerged, guns all pointed at Saul.
Defeated, he finally put his hands up, scowling.
"That bitch gave me up, didn't she?"
"That lady," Billy stressed as he holstered his gun, "didn't know we were here any more than you did." He pulled out his cuffs, slapping them on Saul's wrists as he shook his head at him. "It's always the woman," he muttered. "Gets them every time."
+
"No, mom, really. I don't..." Billy let out a sigh as his mother piled his plate with seconds.
"Your father can't enjoy my cooking anymore," Evelyn huffed. "But you're young, you don't have to worry about your cholesterol."
"Yet," William scoffed. "He's got the Cooper genes." He leaned forward, mock whispering to his son. "Enjoy bacon while you can - it's the first to go."
"So..." Evelyn sat back down, watching Billy get to work on his freshly refilled plate. "When are you coming home to stay?"
Billy paused, taking a drink. They'd had this conversation so many times they both had it memorized, and ran through it as a kind of in joke, like their own personal 'Who's on First?' routine.
"Actually..." He saw his mother blink in surprise and his father even put his fork down - their full attention on him. "There's been talk, you know with all the budget cuts, about regionalizing Fugitive Recovery into smaller areas so the agents can be backup to nearby field offices. They're supposed to be giving it a trial run to see if it's a good allocation of resources. If it works out, it might be possible to get myself assigned to the western states exclusively, but that also means I'd have to occasionally help out at the field offices instead of going back to D.C. between hunts."
"That sounds promising." Evelyn nodded her approval. "You might even get to work out of the Vegas field office sometimes."
"Might," Billy admitted, going back to his plate and doing his best to ignore the looks being exchanged between his parents as he finished his meal.
"Well! On that note, how about dessert?" William looked around the table then rose. "I'll go make the coffee."
"Sounds good," Billy said between bites.
Once his father had disappeared into the kitchen, his mother leaned over the table, whispering. "He'd never say it, but he wants you to come home too. He's been all gloom and doom since the doctor put him on that silly heart healthy diet, acting like he hasn't got that many years left."
"Dad's in great shape." Billy frowned. "Are you guys not telling me something? Has the doctor said..."
"No, it's just your father worrying. You know your grandfather barely made it to sixty so your father thinks he's not going to last long either." She rolled her eyes. "He's conveniently ignoring the fact that your grandfather smoked like a chimney and your father hasn't touched a cigarette since he left for Basic Training all those years ago."
"But he's fine, right? Just the high cholesterol and the high blood pressure?"
"Pretty much." She let out a wistful sigh. "We're just old, hon. Things fall apart. But at least we have each other." She reached over and patted his hand. "It would just be nice to have our son too."
"This is the real thing," William said, returning with a glazed pound cake on a platter. "Real pound cake with real butter." He put the platter on the table with a little flourish. "Haven't had this since your last visit," he added before heading back into the kitchen for the coffee.
"I'll clear the dinner plates," Billy said, rising.
"I'll take care of the plates." Evelyn waved him off. "You can wash and slice some strawberries to go with the pound cake. You have much more steady hands than I do."
Billy came around the table and kissed his mother on the cheek. "You got it."
As he headed to this kitchen his mother spoke again.
"She must be pretty..." Blinking, he turned, forehead wrinkled in confusion, and she continued, gesturing to him. "Every day you look nice, you come home whistling and you've got that little smile on your face when you think I'm not looking..." She smirked, taking him in. "She's pretty, isn't she?"
Billy huffed out a laugh. His steady hands he'd gotten from his military father. His sharp observational skills? Clearly came from his mother.
"Yes," he intoned, more playful than annoyed. "She's very pretty. Are you happy?"
Evelyn beamed, acting a little smug at being right.
"If you're happy? I'm happy."
+
The call came in at 7:30 in the morning: prison break in Utah overnight, two inmates still at large.
He rush packed his duffle bag, accepted a coffee for the road with a tight hug from his mother and was in his SUV on the road by eight, leaving Las Vegas.
Once he was settled on the highway, the city in his rearview, his thoughts turned to Mari. He didn't even have her phone number to let her know he was leaving. It felt wrong to go without saying goodbye. It felt worse to think he might not see her again.
He slipped his Bluetooth headset onto his ear just seconds before his cell phone rang.
"Cooper."
"Coop, it's Dexter."
"Dex!" Billy liked his boss; it was always easy to tell when he was calling with good or bad news in just two or three words. "Are you calling again to tell me to forget Utah? They've found those two numbskulls already?"
"Not quite, but I do have an offer for you."
"Shoot."
"The Vegas field office apparently got a visitor late last night: a mob underling begging for protection. He's offering to testify in return for immunity and witness relocation so they're gearing up for some serious arrests in the next couple of days."
"So?"
"They called and asked if we had any agents in the area we could spare. After I called you Holtz called in from Wyoming. He's got his fugitive in custody and could make it to Utah just as fast as you could. Since your folks are in Vegas I thought you'd rather have the local gig and give Holtz the Utah prison break."
With a wide grin he just couldn't fight back, Billy pulled off at the nearest exit and started the process of getting back on the highway returning to the city.
Apparently he wasn't supposed to leave Las Vegas - not yet anyway.
"Tell the Vegas field office I'll be happy to help."
"Damn..." Dexter mused. "Your mother's cooking must be really good. You're definitely inviting me over for dinner next time I'm in Nevada."
"It is good. Top ten even," he joshed, already thinking about seeing Mari again. "Who's my contact?"
"Belverde in Organized Crime. I'll call her and tell her to expect you shortly."
"Call soon or I might beat you there," he warned, spying the Federal Building as he drove through the outskirts of the city, hued golden in the morning desert sun.
"Calling now." Billy disconnected as Dexter hung up and then made a call of his own to Information.
"What city please?"
"Las Vegas, Nevada."
"What listing?"
"Echelon Security."
"One moment. Connecting you now..."
The call went through and was answered by what sounded like an incurably perky receptionist.
"Echelon Security! How may I help you?"
"Is Maricela in?"
"She's on another line. Would you like her voicemail?"
"I'll hold." Billy's mind raced with what he'd say when she finally picked up.
"This is Mari."
"Miss Maricela Alejandra Nunez Gutierrez..."
"Agent Billy Cooper..." Billy smiled, pleased she'd recognized his voice. "I heard you caught the bad guy last night. Congratulations."
"All in a day's work," he said blithely.
"So you're heading out of town I take it?" He could hear a tinge of regret creep into her voice and it made him even more glad to be calling to tell her the opposite.
"Actually, it looks like I might be sticking around for a while."
"Oh really?" The register her voice dipped into sent a thrill through him. If he had any doubts at all, the shift in her tone once he told her about staying confirmed it: she was just as pleased as he was.
"And I was thinking we might try for another top ten," Billy ventured.
"Oh! What this time?" Mari asked, perking up. "Best takeout Chinese? Top ten New York style pizza? Or are you a Chicago deep dish fan?"
Billy screwed up his courage. It had been a while since he'd done this, but there was no way he was going to blow this second chance and not ask her out. He'd almost forgotten what it was like to feel this way about someone and now that he did, he didn't want it to end.
"I was thinking more along the lines of top ten dates ever."
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line.
"All right," Mari said, her tone playful. "You're on. But I've got to tell you, my existing top ten's going to be hard to beat."
Billy laughed, his voice rumbling into the phone as a warmth spread through him, infusing him with a feeling he could only label as simple happiness.
"I like a challenge. So give me some time to plan? And I'll be your new number one."
=
Title: Leaving Las Vegas
Series/Universe: Not Leaving Las Vegas
Pairing/Characters: Billy/OFC
Rating: PG13
Spoilers: Man Hunt
Summary: Billy meets the woman who will one day become his wife
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
"The Sky Hotel and Casino is always happy to help our local LEOs." The security manager was overly solicitous as he pressed the elevator button for the executive floor of the hotel. "And of course the FBI."
"The Bureau appreciates your cooperation, Mr. Uhl." Billy was trying hard to be on his best behavior. His fugitive might not show up here at the casino for days - but he'd show, that he was sure of - so he needed to stay on good terms with the staff so they would give him the access he needed to surveil the premises. "Hopefully I'll be out of your way in a day or two."
"Please, call me Frank." The elevator doors opened and he gestured Billy to the right. "Comforting as it is to have a Federal Agent on premises, I'm sure we'll all sleep better once your felon is back behind bars." He used a card key to open a door merely marked 'Authorized Personnel Only' and gestured Billy into the surveillance room. "Welcome to the eye in the sky..."
Banks of closed circuit television monitors were arrayed in front of workstations where security staff sat, dressed in identical navy blue blazers with Sky's light blue logo embroidered on them. They wore headsets and watched the casino floor, switching cameras as they coordinated with security staff on the ground.
"Nice setup," Billy said, nodding.
"All brand new," Frank boasted. "State of the art cameras with variable zoom and a digital storage system that allows us to roll back footage on the fly." He looked apologetic for a second. "I tried to talk the owners into facial recognition technology, but they said it was too expensive."
"Guess I'll have to do this the old fashioned way," Billy said, hands on his hips as he took in the dozens of monitors in front of him.
"Just ask any of our staff who aren't on a call for help and they can switch cameras, rewind footage, even show you the feeds from outside the building if that's helpful. Whatever you need..."
Billy looked around. "I could use a chair."
"Yes! Of course!" He spoke into his comm unit. "Iverson, bring another office chair into the surveillance room, will you? One of the good ones. Thanks." He stepped behind where they'd been standing and pulled a rolling office chair over from a table where it had been set up, offering it to Billy. "There you are! I'll be back shortly with a card key for you that will give you access throughout the hotel including the employee cafeteria. It will save you the long wait in the public restaurant lines," he added graciously.
"Much obliged," Billy said with a nod, pulling the chair over where he wanted it. "Here's hoping I won't need to take advantage of that much."
"I'd be happy to arrange a room for you here, if you'd like," Frank offered.
"That's okay," Billy waved him off. "My folks live in town so I'm good. Thanks."
"Very well. You have my card with my cell phone on it should you need anything more." Frank headed for the door only to have it open as a young man rolled in another chair, putting next to the table behind Billy where Frank had taken the chair from in the first place. "Happy hunting," he said with a pleased little smirk as he ushered his assistant out.
Billy settled into his chair and started skimming the monitors as they flipped from table to table. With way more cameras than monitors the staff rarely left any monitor static for long. It only took about fifteen minutes to spot the dealer he was looking for: an Asian woman with long hair dyed an unusual shade of honey light brown.
He tapped one of the staff members on the shoulder. "The feed on monitor 38... Can you keep that one up for me?"
"Sure," the man answered. "But let me move it off to the side first." The feed was soon duplicated in the monitor on the lower right corner of the bank then flicked off as monitor 38 moved to another table.
"That works," Billy said, shifting to get the best view of that corner monitor. "Thanks."
What he hadn't told the staff was that one of their dealers had ties to his fugitive. Before Saul Benz was going to leave the country he was coming back for his woman - and his money.
+
The door opening naturally drew Billy's eye, but the woman who entered certainly held it.
She wore a classy black suit with a crisp white shirt - very corporate - yet her long wavy hair coursed dark over her shoulders and down her back in an almost wild mane. Growing up in Las Vegas it seemed there were two kinds of women who worked for casinos - those who wished to benefit from their sexuality and those who stomped it down with tight buns and stern glasses so they could play in the boy's club of the boardroom, as divorced as possible from the flashy showgirls the casinos were well known for. Billy found this ironic and amusing since most of the showgirls had to wear their hair pulled back tight for the insane headdresses they wore on stage. This woman though, she seemed confident enough to look any way she wanted to and that was appealing and oddly refreshing. She headed over to the console area, leaning over to share a few hushed words with one of the employees posted there, giving Billy an eyeful of lean tanned legs ending in black high heels.
One thing Billy and his former partner Don had had in common from the beginning was an eye for women with dark coloring. Much of their Fugitive Recovery work had been in the Southwest and Western states so they certainly had some very attractive scenery to distract them on stakeouts.
She straightened, accepting a clipboard which she studied on her way back to the table behind him, sitting in the chair placed where Frank had stolen his from.
With her sitting behind him, he couldn't see her, but - as he reminded himself - he was on a hunt and didn't need the distraction. Still, each time she left her table - to return a clipboard or get a new one - his eye gravitated to her: watching a delicate hand brush her hair back over her shoulder, noticing the arc of her well-toned calves or delighting in the body language that spoke of a woman strong and proud, confident in her skills.
He never caught her eye as she passed since she was always absorbed with the data on the clipboards as soon as she received them, but he indulged in examining her face each chance he got. Her features weren't subtle: an angular jawline, a strong chin, large round eyes and high cheekbones, but they were still very feminine, accented by just enough makeup to look professional.
Billy had never told Don, but after seeing as many waitresses and other blue collar workers as they did on the road, he had grown to crave a more polished, dressier, look. His mother's work in real estate put her in the public eye constantly so she'd always taken great care with her appearance, but not so much that she became fake or plastic looking like many of her colleagues. Her appearance was a sign of self-respect, a way of making her professionalism overt without denying who she was as a wife or mother.
He caught himself wishing this hunt would take a while, hoping he'd have a chance over the next few days to get an in, to... But then he shook himself back to reality. Once this hunt was over he'd be leaving Las Vegas. It wouldn't be fair to her to start something he couldn't finish.
Even as he'd been musing on thoughts of her, his eyes had been glued to his reserved monitor. A face he recognized appeared at the dealer's table - not his mark, but a known associate, one who might lead him to Saul's location.
He bolted out of his chair so fast it rattled loudly and a tiny gasp behind him let him know - even as he ran for the door - that he'd startled her.
"Sorry," he called back, honestly penitent, risking a split second glance back and meeting her eyes in apology.
Following the man once he left the casino led to a stakeout that went nowhere that night, but when Billy finally crashed in his parents' guest room at 3AM he had a lovely face in his memory to keep him company into slumber.
+
The next morning was spent rewinding through the previous night's footage of the dealer's table and following the dealer, Lina, through her breaks as she walked through the hotel into the employee lounge where there were no cameras - at least not any the head of security was willing to admit to - and finally out to her car when she left at the end of her shift. The local field office had an agent on her house who followed her to and from work as well so he didn't have to worry about her except while she was in the casino. She'd moved in the last three months so odds were Saul didn't know where to find her, save at work. That made the casino the best location for a meetup.
The workstation one of the surveillance room staff members had set him up at allowed him to go back to midnight of the night before he'd arrived, where he caught a glimpse of Lina lingering after she'd apparently surrendered her table to another dealer, but he could rewind no further.
He glanced over and all the navy jacketed employees were talking on their headsets. He waited, hoping to catch one of them ending a call so he could ask for assistance, but then noticed the woman from yesterday - this time in a deep chocolate brown suit, matching high heels peeking out from beneath her slacks. She dropped off a clipboard and picked up another one as he rose and approached her.
"Excuse me," he said in his most polite voice. "Could you help me with accessing archival footage?"
"Actually, no," she told him. "I don't work here." Now that she was standing right in front of him he could tell just how petite she was. Even in tall heels she barely came to shoulder level. "You'll have to ask one of the employees."
"You don't work here?" Billy asked, realizing only belatedly how inane that had to sound.
"Okay," she admitted, a little embarrassed. "I am working and I am here, but I don't work for the casino so I'm not authorized to give you access to anything. That make more sense?"
She flashed a wide smile, looking more friendly than flustered.
"A lot more," he told her, returning the smile with his most charming roguish grin, the one Don had always told him to use when they wanted to sweet talk information out of someone. "Because I figure anything that involves that many clipboards can't be something you do for fun."
She laughed, a light and airy sound yet uncontained and natural.
"Oh yes!" she mocked. "I live for checkboxes!" She gestured to the employee behind Billy. "It looks like Roman's free now."
Billy glanced and found that Roman had fallen silent and was busy just typing.
"Thank you," he told her, then turned - albeit reluctantly - to tap Roman on the shoulder.
"Yes, Agent Cooper? What can I do for you?"
"Can I get access to the last three days of footage on camera 317, the one I've been reviewing? What I've got right now only goes back to midnight the day before yesterday."
"That's our cutoff for the live system, the older stuff gets archived," Roman explained. "I'll submit a request for the archival footage, but it might take a while to get the footage loaded for you. Maybe twenty minutes? Could be as long as a half hour."
"That's fine. I can take a break while I'm waiting. Thanks."
He'd been at it long enough he could justify an early lunch, plus his eyes needed a rest from all the rewinding. He glanced over at the woman at the back table, but she was talking on her cell phone while referencing something on her laptop so she clearly looked too busy to interrupt.
Yet again Billy had to remind himself to stay hands off. He wasn't sticking around; he wasn't a stick around kind of guy despite Don's repeated assertion that he was going to settle down one of these days.
Still, he'd put on a white button up shirt this morning and a nice pair of khakis instead of the t-shirt and jeans he'd road into town wearing yesterday. He might have told himself it was because he had a whole closet full of clothes to choose from at his parents' house rather than living out of his duffle bag or that he thought he'd blend in better if he had to go down to the floor, but some tiny part of him had to acknowledge he'd gotten dressed up for her.
+
The employee cafeteria was actually fairly impressive. There were plenty of already plated items - easy for dealers on short breaks to grab and go - and a menu on the wall showing entrees that could be ordered including the day's specials.
The fare wasn't high class - more spaghetti and meatloaf than foie gras, but then the Sky was known more as a nice mid-range casino and hotel, not a four star resort like Bellagio or the Venetian.
It was too early for most of the day staff to have lunch so the room was fairly empty, enough that Billy was surprised to hear a voice come up behind him.
"Get the cheeseburger," came a conspiratorial whisper. He turned to find the woman in the chocolate brown suit had come down as well. "It's amazing."
"Oh really?" he said, arching an eyebrow at her. "I've had some pretty spectacular cheeseburgers in my time. You sure this one's good?"
"Trust me," she stressed. "Best thing on the menu. Plus they give you more fries - good ones at that - than a human being can consume in a single sitting." He took in her petite stature with a doubtful glance and she chuckled. "Yeah, I know, but I can put away quite a few fries for someone my size."
"That I'd like to see." Before he could ask her name, the attendant at the counter came to check on them.
"Have you decided what you'd like?" he asked.
"Yeah, we'll take two cheeseburgers - one with fries and one without."
"Ah... Smart..." he heard her murmur her approval at his side.
"Be just a few minutes."
"So..." He turned to face her as she continued, eying him with a mischievous air. "I heard Ramon call you Agent Cooper. You got a badge to go with that title? And maybe even a first name?"
"One of each." Billy fished out his badge and ID and showed them to her.
"Hmm... FBI..." She read off the ID. "William Cooper..."
"Usually Billy," he corrected. "My Dad's the William in the family. I get called Coop a lot."
She shuddered. "My grandparents had a chicken farm back in Mexico. Trust me, you do not want to be associated with any memories of chicken coops - especially at lunchtime. Blech." She made a face, wrinkling up her nose.
"Beats being called Junior," he said with a chortle, putting his badge and ID away. "I ponied up," he told her playfully. "Do I get a name in return?"
"Lots of them," she said proudly. "Try this on for size: Maricela Alejandra Nunez Gutierrez."
"Please tell me there's a 'for short' in there somewhere," he pleaded.
"Mari with an I," she told him, gesturing over to the beverage area. "Let's get some drinks while we're waiting."
They both bypassed the soda machine and jockeyed for position, chuckling, as they filled their glasses with ice and water.
"I can carry these," he told her, picking them both up. "If you can grab some ketchup and napkins."
Mari pointed out a table by the window. "How about there?" she suggested, grabbing a bottle of ketchup from the condiment bar.
"Works for me."
They carried their items over and set them down, each making a second trip - Billy because the salt shaker was empty and Mari to the salad bar, returning with a little paper cup full of thousand island dressing which she put between them.
"They serve the burgers bare here," she explained. "I suggest ketchup on top and thousand island dressing beneath with the tomato and lettuce."
"Okay, now you've got me hungry," he said. "Which is saying something given that I had a pretty monster breakfast only three and a half hours ago. Whenever I'm in town," he explained, "my mother tries to lure me back by cooking all my favorites."
"So you're not out of the local field office?" Mari asked, sipping her drink.
"No, I'm out of D.C. technically. I work Fugitive Recovery so I go where the fugitives go." He tipped his glass at her. "Most people don't even know the FBI has a field office in Vegas."
She shrugged. "I work in security. I make it a point to stay up on the FBI's most wanted list and the local LEOs' sketches and such. One of my co-workers spotted a kidnapper based on a sketch on the news a few years back, so we've all been pretty observant since then."
"On behalf of the federal government - and as someone who has family in Vegas," he raised his glass to her, "you have my appreciation."
A server approached carrying a tray with two plates on it, which they put down on the table. One plate had just a thick cheeseburger wrapped in paper on it. On the other plate the cheeseburger was buried in an avalanche of french fries, some of which had fallen off the plate onto the tray. As the server put the loaded plate down - in front of Billy - a few more tumbled from the stack.
"I told you!" Mari said with a laugh.
Once the server departed, Billy spilled half the fries from his plate onto Mari's, leaving both of them with a gargantuan portion.
"Okay, I figured we'd avoid wasting food if we only got one order, but I'm not sure we can finish these between us!"
Mari bit into one and her face transformed into an expression of bliss. "Oh, but I'm sure going to try."
+
"Palo Verde High? You guys slayed us in Track and Field!"
"You ran Track?" Mari asked, finally pushing her plate away even though it had a fair amount of french fries still on it.
"Mile and two mile," Billy told her. "I'm not the fastest guy out there in a hundred yard dash, but I've got stamina, which is good in this job because you have to be able to run fast and far." He dipped a french fry in ketchup. "So tell me about this company you work for."
"Well, Echelon Security was started by three of us. Geoffrey was head of security at Luxor until he took early retirement and Aleem is an electronics whiz kid he recruited out of MIT. Geoffrey stole me from a larger security company where I was their Director of IT and one of three systems designers at the firm. He recruited me as CTO and chief designer of the security systems we install for our clients. We target mostly mid-range casinos in Vegas and Reno and we're thinking of expanding past Nevada into at least Atlantic City."
"Business is good then?"
"Plenty of crooks to keep both of us in business," she said with a wink.
"Ain't it the truth," Billy said with a sigh. He dropped the tail end of his partially eaten fry on his plate and shoved it away. "Jeez, even with us splitting the fries we still couldn't finish them! Good burger though."
"Best ever?" Mari asked slyly.
"Top ten," Billy countered. "You've got to remember, I've eaten in diners in most of the lower 48, so I've had some pretty impressive burgers over the years."
"Well, then." She leaned forward, a little sparkle in her eye. "How about some top ten pie?"
"This place has a top ten burger and top ten pie?" Billy asked, incredulous.
"Not here," she admitted. "But there's a place..." Her cell phone rang in her purse and she fished it out with a mumbled apology. "Sorry..." Opening it, she answered. "Hello." Pausing to listen, she spoke again in just a few seconds. "On my way." She rose, and Billy rose as well, her expression apologetic as she put her phone away. "My installers just arrived to replace some of the cameras that are having trouble. I need to go oversee the work."
"Not a problem," he told her. "I'll take care of clean up here. You go on ahead."
"Thanks." She flashed him a brilliant smile as she shouldered her laptop bag. "I owe you a slice of pie."
"I'll hold you to that," he said, cocking his head to the side. "You tell me when it's coming and I'll bring the best coffee in all of Vegas to drink with it."
She bit her lip, giving him an appraising glance. "You're on."
She turned and headed out and Billy busied himself with busing their table, noting the dim shadow of deep red lipstick on her glass. Billy had always been good with faces - it was one of the things that made him a good agent. Now he had her face in his head: the tawny caramel skin, the warm brown eyes, the flash of a not so shy smile with tastefully red-painted lips drawing up at the corners into subtle dimples.
Once he finished he headed out of the cafeteria, opening his cell phone and dialing as he walked.
"Desert Splendor Realty, Evelyn Cooper's office. This is Lucy. How may I help you?"
"Hey, Luce. It's Billy. Is my mom free?"
"Hey, Billy. She's just getting off a call. Let me flag her down before she picks up the phone again." After a pause his mother's assistant came back on the line. "Transferring you now."
"Thanks." The phone picked up and Billy heard his mother's voice on the other end of the line.
"Is this my surprise 'guess who's going to make it to dinner after all' call?" she teased.
Billy chuckled. "Sorry, Mom. No such luck. I'm still on duty at the casino nights until my guy shows up."
"Breakfast it is then," she said with a feigned sigh. "It will take a bit of work to come up with something more impressive than this morning's strawberry topped pancakes, but I seem to recall someone really liking the sausage and home fries skillet I made with the sausage from Niedermann's."
Billy groaned at the thought. "Mom, you're going to kill me with all this good food."
"Just my little campaign to get you to stay in Vegas. They do have..."
"A field office, yes Mom, for the thousandth time I know. Listen," he said, changing his tack as he headed outdoors for a brief moment of sunshine before he tucked himself away in the surveillance room for the night. "Is Ti Amo Coffee Roasters still in business? Please say yes and please say their coffee is still the best."
"Absolutely!" Evelyn exclaimed. "Hands down best coffee ever. They're even selling online now! Judith's son Steven built their web site for them! You should see it! Do you want me to pick some up for you?"
"No, that's okay. I'll pop by there myself when I'm ready. I don't want to buy it too far in advance. It's got to be fresh." He turned into the sun, a pleased little smile on his face. "It's got to be perfect."
+
Although Mari wasn't in the surveillance room with him, she wasn't far. From time to time he'd spot in her and her crew in the other monitors. Lina wasn't on shift yet, but he had Saul's known associates to keep an eye out for so he could justify scanning all the monitors even if there was no reason save this growing attraction he felt to linger on any one with her in it.
Just before Lina was due to arrive on shift, Billy asked for her table's camera to be set up for him as before - static on the edge of the monitor bank. It was inevitable that word would get back to Frank at some point, but it was only a few minutes before he appeared, gesturing to Billy to talk privately out of earshot of the others.
"I noticed you were focusing your efforts on one of our dealers: Lina Akana? Is she involved with anything we should know about? I mean if she's in league with this Benz character..."
"Lina's not guilty of anything." Billy was always willing to stretch the truth a little to smooth things over and technically Lina had never been convicted of any crime, so it wasn't really a lie. "Except perhaps bad taste in men a long time ago. Saul's got a thing for her and even though that's based in the past, the Bureau thinks it's likely he might try to contact her again, fan the old flame if you will."
"Have you said anything to Lina - warned her that she might be in danger?" Frank asked, subtly wringing his hands.
"If anyone says anything to Lina," Billy stressed this as strongly as he could, "that could put her in danger. For now she's fine. We're hoping to stop Saul elsewhere before he even gets to her, so just consider me her quiet bodyguard in case he shows up. Nothing to worry about."
"But if she knew..."
"If she knew," Billy interrupted, "her impulse would be to act strange as soon as she saw him - frightened. Saul's a pro. He'd read the situation in a heartbeat and know there was law enforcement watching. Once you corner someone like that they're likely to take hostages and I know that you and Lina and even your bosses don't want a hostage situation in your casino."
Frank shook his head, clearly thrown. "No, no... We don't want that at all."
"So if Saul were to show up, Lina would probably just tell him she'd meet up with him after her shift was over. He'd leave, none the wiser and I'd grab him in the parking lot without any of your guests noticing. That's how smoothly this can go - as long as Lina knows nothing."
"All right then." Frank took a deep breath. "I've already told the staff that nothing you do here is to be discussed with anyone. We'll keep it like that."
"You probably should avoid seeing Lina yourself," Billy suggested. "She's a dealer, trained to read body language. If she sees you looking at her she's bound to read you and know something's off."
"Excellent idea." He nodded again. "I'll be sure to stay clear of her table."
"Like I said, good chance we'll catch him somewhere else, but just in case he shows up here..." Billy didn't want to admit the best chance of catching Saul was here, but he was sure Charlie could come up with some sort of math to add up all the chances to catch him elsewhere so that, combined, they were enough to be called 'good'.
"Yes, we can hope," Frank said, heading to the door. "Thank you."
Frank left with just enough time for Billy to catch Lina's car arriving in the lot.
Working with one of the surveillance room employees, Billy followed her with the cameras: locking up her car, walking to the employee entrance, heading to the employee lounge and then later getting set up at her table.
Mari didn't come back to the surveillance room that night, but Billy did get one last glance at her as a nearby monitor switched to one near an exit.
She was looking right into the camera and to Billy, it felt like she was looking right at him. He liked it; it felt like her saying goodnight.
+
The evening shift was completely uneventful and the next day Mari was back, only with clearly less to do as the clipboards were often empty.
"Stuck here?" Billy asked, smirking, as she tapped her pencil on the tabletop.
Mari rolled her eyes, exasperated. "I'd say 'can it be lunch now?' but that would just mean more hours for me to sit here after I get back if I go this early."
"Let's go to lunch anyway," Billy scoffed. "Maybe you'll get lucky and come back to new and exciting out of focus cameras!"
"I'd hope for that if I wasn't part owner of the company." She did rise though, stretching like a cat. Today her suit was a pale tan with a short skirt that bared quite a bit more leg than the first time. It had a tiny slit, no more than an inch or two, just over her left thigh and Billy felt his eyes helplessly drawn to it over and over again, enticed by the subtle sexuality of it in the otherwise professional suit. She leaned over, logged out of her laptop, then closed the lid before picking up her purse. "One would hope this would be safe left in a security office of all places, right?" She flashed him a bemused smile and he followed her to the door, moving quickly to get ahead of her and open it for her.
"So, cafeteria again?"
"Actually..." She pressed the elevator button and turned back to him, an impish grin on her face. "Can I steal you away from your post? Take you somewhere off the strip?"
"Sounds good to me." He gestured her into the elevator then joined her, pressing the button for the lobby. "I could use some sunlight. Being cooped up indoors isn't my style."
"Excellent!" When he gave her a questioning look, she explained. "They have patio seating so good food and sun. Oh, and how about pie tomorrow? Since things are so slow now I'll have a chance to pick it up on my way in."
"You're on. I'll bring the coffee."
"Looking forward to it." They met each other's eyes, both smiling widely, then looked away when it was clear they were both looking too long. "So, I know you grew up here, but I don't know if this place was around before you left."
"I've been back off and on so I might know it anyway. Where are we going?"
"Rojo's Taqueria."
"Oh! Rojo's!" Billy nodded in appreciation. "Yeah, one of my buddies from high school dragged me there on a visit. Said I had to go there, what with the red hair and all." He shook his head at the memory. "But it was good, damn good."
"It's gotten even better." The elevator opened and they headed out to the parking lot. "Rojo's son took it over and he's done wonders with the place." She glanced around once they got outside. "Whose car? I'm happy to drive if you're supposed to keep civilians out of your official FBI vehicle." She stressed the word civilians, more teasing than anything. "Plus I'm parked right here." She pressed her remote and the lights flashed on a silver Lexus parked a few spots over.
"Lead the way."
They were in the car, out of the parking lot and part of the way down the block before Mari cast a glance at him at a stoplight.
"You know, most guys like you would be too macho to let a woman drive them anywhere."
Billy held her gaze.
"I'm not most guys."
"No," she mused, holding his eyes, almost defiantly not looking away. "You are most certainly not."
"Light's green," he taunted, pointing to the signal.
She turned to drive on, but he kept watching her, taking in every little detail: the manicured nails resting lightly on the leather steering wheel, the tasteful earrings and watch that were expensive yet subtle and the notable lack of a ring on her left ring finger.
He'd trained himself to look for that in bars in the early days of manhunting, but this was the first time he'd been profoundly relieved that when he looked, there wasn't one there.
+
"So I see him up ahead of me and I'm chasing him for all I'm worth..."
"Billy Freaking Cooper!" Billy's storytelling to Mari was interrupted by a familiar face walking up to their table out on the patio at Rojo's. "How the hell are you, man?"
"I'll be damned!" Billy rose and greeted the man with a handshake half-hug. "Marty Zalinsky! Jeez, it's been years!" He turned to Mari. "Mari, this is Martin Zalinsky. Only guy I know who went into college with a major already picked out who actually graduated with that same major." He turned to Marty. "Marty, this is Miss Maricela Alejandra Nunez Gutierrez," he pronounced mock formally. "And you're to behave yourself with her or I'm calling your wife."
"A pleasure to meet you," Mari said to Marty.
Marty laughed and bowed low, kissing Mari's hand with a flourish. "The pleasure is all mine." As he rose, he eyed Billy. "That's not worth ratting me out to Carol, is it?"
"I'll let it slide this time," Billy told him with a smirk, sharing a playful glance with Mari as well.
"So, is our brave FBI agent regaling you with one of his many stories from the field?" Marty rubbed his hands together eagerly. "Tales of danger and suspense? Good versus evil? Or just one of his 'this one time, on stakeout' stories?"
"Actually we were talking about the Mint 400 dune buggy races they used to have back in the 80s. Billy was telling me about the year he entered."
"I was never going to win or anything." Billy made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "But it was a hell of a lot of fun, that's for sure."
"So what do you do?" Mari asked of Marty.
Marty winked at her. "I'm a drug dealer." At her surprised look he laughed and continued. "I'm a pharmacist - a legal drug dealer. I just like messing with people."
"And you do it so well," Billy drawled.
"So, you in town for a while?" Marty gave Billy a nudge.
Billy's eyes flicked to Mari who seemed equally interested in the answer.
"Hard to say. I am on the job though, so depends on how long it takes to catch the bad guy. Of course if my mother has a say in the matter I won't ever make it back to D.C."
"You're a desert rat, through and through," Marty said, acting sage. "You'll be back. Give it time." He checked his watch. "Hey, I'm just here to pick up a to go order. Stop by the hospital if you've got time for a drink or something."
"I'll see what I can do. Give my best to Carol.'
Marty bowed again and kissed Mari's hand again. "Delighted to make your acquaintance, Miss Maricela." He rose and eyed Billy. "Mum's the word to Carol."
Billy and Mari laughed and waved him off as he headed indoors to the restaurant.
"So he's a pharmacist at a hospital then."
"A nuclear pharmacist," Billy told her. "He's known since he was like twelve what he wanted to do with his life. Scary..."
"I've known since I was thirteen I was going to wind up a computer geek."
Billy gave her a pointed once over. "You, Miss Maricela Alejandra Nunez Gutierrez, are the least geeky looking geek I've ever met."
"I like that," she admitted shyly, tucking her hair back behind her ear.
"That I don't think you look geeky?" Billy asked.
"That you remembered all my names after only hearing them once."
Billy leaned forward, feeling his heart rate quicken just getting into her personal space as he lowered his voice to a near whisper. "Well then, maybe tomorrow over pie and coffee, you can teach me how to actually spell them."
+
Mari didn't show up at the surveillance room the next day until later in the morning and when she did it was empty handed, which was unusual given that she normally had a purse and laptop bag at the very least.
She approached Billy with a secretive grin on her face, bending down to whisper in his ear.
"Do you hear that? It's the siren call of pie..." She drew out the final word before straightening up. She gestured to the security employees behind their back, holding a finger to her lips to let him know this was between her and him.
"It's too faint," he teased, eying her empty hands. "I can't seem to hear it."
"Then you'll have to follow the Pie-d Piper," she taunted, beckoning with a crooked finger as she headed for the door.
He rose, grabbing the bag he'd brought with him, and followed her out into the hall. "Ahh... I might just hear a whisper."
She stopped a couple doors down and pulled out her card key. "We're using this spare room for our installation work," she explained. "And since there are no installers in right now, it seemed a safe place to leave my laptop." She lowered her voice to a playful whisper. "And the pie." She ushered him in to what looked like a basic conference room - the long tables littered with equipment and wire save one which was bare except for Mari's purse, laptop bag and a large pink bakery box, next to which was laid out forks and napkins. "Voila! Pie! As promised." She opened up the box to reveal a number of pie slices, each in a clear plastic carryout container.
"Wow! A variety!" he mused, looking inside. There were at least six at first glance, all different. "Where can I set up the coffee? I just need to plug in."
"Plug in?" She eyed his bag. "This should be interesting." She selected a power strip from one of the equipment tables and plugged it in the wall nearest their table and set it where Billy could get to it.
He put the bag on the table and started unloading the contents. Mari laughed, delighted, as he pulled out a tiny single cup espresso machine, a coffee grinder, coffee beans, a small carton of cream, a bottle of spring water, two disposable coffee cups with lids and a plastic bag of sweeteners and stirrers.
"Oh my goodness! You weren't kidding! You went all out!"
"I did promise the best cup of coffee in Vegas," Billy said with a bow. "What good are the best beans unless you prepare them correctly?"
"Where did all this come from?" she asked, marveling.
"My mom's office. She hates the crappy office coffee machine so I got her this setup for Christmas last year to keep in her own office. We've been going to the same coffee roasters, Ti Amo, for years so now she gets her daily jolt of caffeine in the most optimal manner possible."
With skilled hands he went through the familiar process, grinding the beans, loading the espresso machine, measuring out and pouring the water and soon the air was redolent with the aroma of fine coffee.
"Oh, that smells heavenly," she enthused.
"Cream and sugar?" he asked.
"Cream and fake sugar," she admitted, plucking a few packets from the plastic bag. "It's hard enough to work off the pie as it is. But real cream? Hell yes."
"You don't want to live a little?" he taunted. "Go for the real sugar?"
She shrugged. "I think I've gotten too used to the fake stuff and weirdly I like the taste of it, so it's what I expect coffee to taste like now."
"Fair enough." He pulled over one of the cups and poured piping hot water and fresh espresso in it. "One Americano with room for cream!" He opened the cream carton for her and let her pour, fishing out a stirrer for her and waiting for her to take the first sip.
"Oh my god." Her eyes went heavenward in bliss. "This is the best coffee ever."
"As promised," Billy said proudly. He quickly prepared a cup for himself as she pulled out all the pie slices and opened the tops on the clamshell containers.
"So, not sure how you want to do this. We can pick three each, try to cut each in half or just..."
"I'm cool with sharing them," Billy said, waving a hand at them. "Let the forks fall where they may," he joked.
"Great." Mari sat down and waited for him to sit in the chair next to her before pushing over one of the pies. "I didn't know what kind of pie you like so I got a mix of mostly cream and fruit pies - chocolate cream, banana cream, lemon meringue, triple berry and fresh strawberry - but you have to start with this one. It looks like a simple apple pie," she said as Billy stabbed a forkful and put it to his mouth. "But it's like..."
"Crack!" Billy exclaimed with his mouth full. "Oh my god, this is the drug of pies!" He scooped a larger forkful up and this time it was his turn to have a blissful expression on his face. "I think I'm addicted," he told her. "And I haven't even tried the others yet."
Mari beamed, clearly satisfied with herself, and raised her cup. "To top ten pie and top ten coffee!"
Billy raised his cup, mock clinking them together in salute as their eyes met and they shared a smile where neither felt the need to hide their interest.
"Can't wait to see what top tens come next," he said with a wink.
+
Mari's boss Geoffrey, a man in his fifties on the suave side of Vegas slick, showed up for a walk through and she packed up and left with him.
Billy watched them on the monitors as they went through the casino and hotel, surveying the work they'd done. There was no audio, but Mari's body language was easy to read: she was proud of the work they'd done there. Geoffrey was less overt, but Billy could tell he seemed proud in an almost paternal way.
Frank joined them after a while and he spotted them one last time with two Italian men in bespoke suits - the brothers who owned the place most likely - and the general manager, whom he'd met on his arrival. Hands were shaken all around and then Billy lost sight of them.
Billy paced, restless - always a sign the hunt was near an end. When it was time for Lina to come to work Roman already had the monitors reserved for him - made static in a line down the edge so he could follow her without losing a precious second to monitor switching. He clapped a hand on the man's shoulder in gratitude, not wanting to interrupt him on a call.
On schedule, Lina showed up and parked her car in the employee lot. Roman ended his call and gave his full attention to Billy.
"Just let me know if you need me to zoom or anything," he told Billy.
"Thanks. For now keep it a wide shot - I want to see who - if anyone - is nearby."
"You got it."
As Lina approached the employee entrance a man emerged from amidst the tall bushes there, putting out a cigarette; he'd clearly been laying in wait for her.
"That's him!" Billy bolted from the room, popping his comm unit in his ear as he ran. "Eyes on Benz at the employee entrance of the Sky Casino! All units converge!"
"Two units, ETA 2 minutes!" Billy heard back from his local FBI liaison. "LVPD on their way too!" He was almost to the employee entrance - taking the back stairs by threes - when the voice returned. "Sky security staff reporting Benz still at employee entrance - no weapons sighted."
As he bolted the final yards he barked out a response. "About to engage, going radio silent." He hid the comm unit and pulled out a packet of cigarettes.
Covering his slight breathlessness with a faked hacking cough, he opened the door to the outside, shaking a cigarette out at the same time as if he was going out for a smoke.
"Lina, listen to me..." Saul was about four feet away from Lina, probably because she was inching away from him despite his pleading voice. As long as she was close enough for him to grab, she was in danger and he had to play this out carefully.
"Hey..." He directed a casual greeting at Lina, acting as if they were co-workers. "I left my matches in the employee lounge." He stalled for a few seconds with another faked cough. "You got a light?"
"Can't you see we're talking here!" Saul snapped, turning his attention to Billy briefly, giving Lina time to back away further.
"Jeez, sorry I asked." Billy made to put the cigarettes away as Saul shifted his focus back to Lina, who'd finally gotten out of arm's reach. Out of the corner of his eye Billy saw two black SUVs enter the parking lot - his backup. In a flash, Billy drew his weapon, putting his body between Saul and Lina to protect her. "FBI, hands in the air!"
Saul dove through the bushes and Billy all but shoved Lina towards the door.
"Get inside! Now!" He ran around the bushes, shoving his comm back in his ear as he ran. "He's in the East parking lot!
The squeal of tires came in unison as both SUVs maneuvered to cut Saul off. He ran, darting between parked cars to evade capture, forcing Billy to counter his moves in order to gain ground.
The distance between them lessened and Billy tightened his grip on his gun as he prepared to shift to hand to hand.
He tackled Saul around the knees, knocking him to the ground. Saul's hand went to a pocket and Billy knocked what he removed away - a switchblade based on the sound of it skittering away on the asphalt.
His gun was pointed at Saul's chest in a heart beat.
"Do not move!" he ordered, all but sitting on Saul to keep him down.
Two more agents from the SUVs emerged, guns all pointed at Saul.
Defeated, he finally put his hands up, scowling.
"That bitch gave me up, didn't she?"
"That lady," Billy stressed as he holstered his gun, "didn't know we were here any more than you did." He pulled out his cuffs, slapping them on Saul's wrists as he shook his head at him. "It's always the woman," he muttered. "Gets them every time."
+
"No, mom, really. I don't..." Billy let out a sigh as his mother piled his plate with seconds.
"Your father can't enjoy my cooking anymore," Evelyn huffed. "But you're young, you don't have to worry about your cholesterol."
"Yet," William scoffed. "He's got the Cooper genes." He leaned forward, mock whispering to his son. "Enjoy bacon while you can - it's the first to go."
"So..." Evelyn sat back down, watching Billy get to work on his freshly refilled plate. "When are you coming home to stay?"
Billy paused, taking a drink. They'd had this conversation so many times they both had it memorized, and ran through it as a kind of in joke, like their own personal 'Who's on First?' routine.
"Actually..." He saw his mother blink in surprise and his father even put his fork down - their full attention on him. "There's been talk, you know with all the budget cuts, about regionalizing Fugitive Recovery into smaller areas so the agents can be backup to nearby field offices. They're supposed to be giving it a trial run to see if it's a good allocation of resources. If it works out, it might be possible to get myself assigned to the western states exclusively, but that also means I'd have to occasionally help out at the field offices instead of going back to D.C. between hunts."
"That sounds promising." Evelyn nodded her approval. "You might even get to work out of the Vegas field office sometimes."
"Might," Billy admitted, going back to his plate and doing his best to ignore the looks being exchanged between his parents as he finished his meal.
"Well! On that note, how about dessert?" William looked around the table then rose. "I'll go make the coffee."
"Sounds good," Billy said between bites.
Once his father had disappeared into the kitchen, his mother leaned over the table, whispering. "He'd never say it, but he wants you to come home too. He's been all gloom and doom since the doctor put him on that silly heart healthy diet, acting like he hasn't got that many years left."
"Dad's in great shape." Billy frowned. "Are you guys not telling me something? Has the doctor said..."
"No, it's just your father worrying. You know your grandfather barely made it to sixty so your father thinks he's not going to last long either." She rolled her eyes. "He's conveniently ignoring the fact that your grandfather smoked like a chimney and your father hasn't touched a cigarette since he left for Basic Training all those years ago."
"But he's fine, right? Just the high cholesterol and the high blood pressure?"
"Pretty much." She let out a wistful sigh. "We're just old, hon. Things fall apart. But at least we have each other." She reached over and patted his hand. "It would just be nice to have our son too."
"This is the real thing," William said, returning with a glazed pound cake on a platter. "Real pound cake with real butter." He put the platter on the table with a little flourish. "Haven't had this since your last visit," he added before heading back into the kitchen for the coffee.
"I'll clear the dinner plates," Billy said, rising.
"I'll take care of the plates." Evelyn waved him off. "You can wash and slice some strawberries to go with the pound cake. You have much more steady hands than I do."
Billy came around the table and kissed his mother on the cheek. "You got it."
As he headed to this kitchen his mother spoke again.
"She must be pretty..." Blinking, he turned, forehead wrinkled in confusion, and she continued, gesturing to him. "Every day you look nice, you come home whistling and you've got that little smile on your face when you think I'm not looking..." She smirked, taking him in. "She's pretty, isn't she?"
Billy huffed out a laugh. His steady hands he'd gotten from his military father. His sharp observational skills? Clearly came from his mother.
"Yes," he intoned, more playful than annoyed. "She's very pretty. Are you happy?"
Evelyn beamed, acting a little smug at being right.
"If you're happy? I'm happy."
+
The call came in at 7:30 in the morning: prison break in Utah overnight, two inmates still at large.
He rush packed his duffle bag, accepted a coffee for the road with a tight hug from his mother and was in his SUV on the road by eight, leaving Las Vegas.
Once he was settled on the highway, the city in his rearview, his thoughts turned to Mari. He didn't even have her phone number to let her know he was leaving. It felt wrong to go without saying goodbye. It felt worse to think he might not see her again.
He slipped his Bluetooth headset onto his ear just seconds before his cell phone rang.
"Cooper."
"Coop, it's Dexter."
"Dex!" Billy liked his boss; it was always easy to tell when he was calling with good or bad news in just two or three words. "Are you calling again to tell me to forget Utah? They've found those two numbskulls already?"
"Not quite, but I do have an offer for you."
"Shoot."
"The Vegas field office apparently got a visitor late last night: a mob underling begging for protection. He's offering to testify in return for immunity and witness relocation so they're gearing up for some serious arrests in the next couple of days."
"So?"
"They called and asked if we had any agents in the area we could spare. After I called you Holtz called in from Wyoming. He's got his fugitive in custody and could make it to Utah just as fast as you could. Since your folks are in Vegas I thought you'd rather have the local gig and give Holtz the Utah prison break."
With a wide grin he just couldn't fight back, Billy pulled off at the nearest exit and started the process of getting back on the highway returning to the city.
Apparently he wasn't supposed to leave Las Vegas - not yet anyway.
"Tell the Vegas field office I'll be happy to help."
"Damn..." Dexter mused. "Your mother's cooking must be really good. You're definitely inviting me over for dinner next time I'm in Nevada."
"It is good. Top ten even," he joshed, already thinking about seeing Mari again. "Who's my contact?"
"Belverde in Organized Crime. I'll call her and tell her to expect you shortly."
"Call soon or I might beat you there," he warned, spying the Federal Building as he drove through the outskirts of the city, hued golden in the morning desert sun.
"Calling now." Billy disconnected as Dexter hung up and then made a call of his own to Information.
"What city please?"
"Las Vegas, Nevada."
"What listing?"
"Echelon Security."
"One moment. Connecting you now..."
The call went through and was answered by what sounded like an incurably perky receptionist.
"Echelon Security! How may I help you?"
"Is Maricela in?"
"She's on another line. Would you like her voicemail?"
"I'll hold." Billy's mind raced with what he'd say when she finally picked up.
"This is Mari."
"Miss Maricela Alejandra Nunez Gutierrez..."
"Agent Billy Cooper..." Billy smiled, pleased she'd recognized his voice. "I heard you caught the bad guy last night. Congratulations."
"All in a day's work," he said blithely.
"So you're heading out of town I take it?" He could hear a tinge of regret creep into her voice and it made him even more glad to be calling to tell her the opposite.
"Actually, it looks like I might be sticking around for a while."
"Oh really?" The register her voice dipped into sent a thrill through him. If he had any doubts at all, the shift in her tone once he told her about staying confirmed it: she was just as pleased as he was.
"And I was thinking we might try for another top ten," Billy ventured.
"Oh! What this time?" Mari asked, perking up. "Best takeout Chinese? Top ten New York style pizza? Or are you a Chicago deep dish fan?"
Billy screwed up his courage. It had been a while since he'd done this, but there was no way he was going to blow this second chance and not ask her out. He'd almost forgotten what it was like to feel this way about someone and now that he did, he didn't want it to end.
"I was thinking more along the lines of top ten dates ever."
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line.
"All right," Mari said, her tone playful. "You're on. But I've got to tell you, my existing top ten's going to be hard to beat."
Billy laughed, his voice rumbling into the phone as a warmth spread through him, infusing him with a feeling he could only label as simple happiness.
"I like a challenge. So give me some time to plan? And I'll be your new number one."
=