“Well, I never really thought about it. He works for Jonathan . . . is his everything man— walks his dogs, runs his errands, they go way back to when they grew up.” Anita looked at Zachary. “Why?”
“So, this guy gave you the name of SWAT International?”
“Yeah . . .”
“But when I came back from sweeping the route to the limo, he was really trying to talk you out of using Lowell’s firm, right?”
Anita nodded. “I guess he thought I’d never go through with it.”
“Not to get into your past business . . . but did you ever discuss any of this directly with Jonathan?”
This time she stared at him without blinking.
“No,” she said, quietly, “by the time this all went down, we were on the outs.”
“Okay, then I need you to do me a favor and lay low for a couple of days when we get back to the city. I want to make sure your place is secure and get you tucked in there, then I have to do a couple of things. Something about this doesn’t smell right.”
EXTRICATING HIMSELF FROM Anita and allowing another bodyguard to stand in for him was a challenge, not just because she wanted him to stay, but it was such a core need of his too right now. However, he had to get to the hospital. Lowell was up and talking. The only person he’d met from the client side was Anita, and she definitely hadn’t poisoned the man.
Zachary passed through the minimal hospital security and found Lowell’s floor, reading the numbers until he found his room. Anne Marie was sitting in the chair watching television with him, and she jumped up with a squeal as soon as Zachary poked his head into the door.
“You are a sight for sore eyes!” she exclaimed, hugging him and pulling him into the room.
“Hey, man, how’d it go?” Lowell said, his voice still a little weak.
“Without a hitch,” Zach said, coming over to give him a man hug.
“Did that Queen B give you the blues for ten days, man?” Lowell laughed and coughed, but Zach bristled.
“She’s not that way— is really good people, Lo. And I need to talk to you about what probably put you here.”
Lowell and Anne Marie gave each other a look.
“I’m serious, man,” Zach said. “You met with her, and then the same day you got sick, you only had an in-house meeting with your partners— Mike Epps and Vernon Knox, right?”
“Yeah,” Lowell said slowly. “Mike had been to Philly and had brought back some Philly cheesesteaks for me, him, and Vernon . . . that’s probably where I got that mess from— food poisoning . . . cops are thinking that maybe some pesticides they were spraying at the store or some flea-and-tick stuff they had around there for the guard dogs got in the food . . . those places are filthy and just my luck, I got the steak with some bull in it.”
“That’s why it was so bad, the doctors said,” Anne Marie interjected. “They said it doesn’t dissolve in water or liquids, only in oil and fatty solutions . . . so if some got in a cheese-steak, Lord have mercy.” She fanned her face and shook her head. “Probably had them nasty pit bulls as guard dogs running around in the back of the store, folks don’t wash their hands, and what ever was on the dog or near their grills got in my Lowell’s food . . . but at least they’re not trying to blame me and tear our family apart. I told ‘em I’d take a lie detector test. They know I’d die for that man, puh-lease.”
Lowell smiled. “But I’m cool, now— after what you did, man, we’re on Straight Street. Can’t thank you enough.”
Zachary pounded Lowell’s fist, but didn’t smile. “Let me ask you this. How did you get to Anita Brown? Who was the contact? It’s not every day you can run up on a heavy-weight celeb like that.”
Lowell’s smile widened. “I told you. Mike had a contact inside her organization . . . and it was through him that we got the hookup. Everybody’s got some family from the old neighborhoods, man— Mike had some that came up with the big boys and worked us in.”
Zachary nodded. “Cool. You get some rest.”
ZACHARY’S VIBE WORRIED her. It was what he didn’t say as much as what he said. Anita reached for the telephone and called the number that she swore she’d never call again in life, and then opened up the other extension and began recording when Jonathan Evans answered the phone.
“So, ten days helped you clear your head?” Jonathan murmured, trying to sound sexy and failing miserably.
“A little,” Anita said. “I just wanna make sure we’re cool since we have to work together.”
“Why wouldn’t we be cool, baby? I know we went through a thing about that chick at the last awards ceremony, but you know that didn’t have anything to do with me and you, right? That was purely physical . . . what we have is deeper than that.”
Anita just looked at the telephone, wondering how she had allowed herself to stay with a man like him for so long. “I figured the money problem would have pissed you off though.”
Silence crackled on the line.