It was mid afternoon when Nick arrived at the Post office to met Freddie. He still hadn’t heard from Kirk. Since he had to catch Freddie, Nick allowed Kirk to rush out of his apartment without giving up any information, and now he regretted it. Nick tried to call Kirk again, and again caught Kirk’s voicemail. He wanted to call Black and tell him, tell him what? That Kirk knew something, but I have no idea what? That I think it has something to do with the DEA? I don’t think so. Not after Black just asked me if I was a DEA agent. But he needed to run this by somebody and thought that since he wasn’t ready to tell Black that Wanda was the next best choice.
The night before, Wanda and Nick talked about his situation for about an hour at her office. After he explained his concerns about what Sally Fitz had told him, Wanda had to agree with him, but she had to ask a question before she said anything else. "Are you DEA, Nick?" Wanda asked with a smile
"No, Wanda, I am not DEA."
"Good for you, Nick. It would break my heart if you were," Wanda said in a somewhat flirtatious way, and then turned serious. "But I agree, you were right to move Monika. How is she doing anyway?"
"She’s doin’ fine, she just needs to rest. She should be back on her feet in a day or two," Nick told her.
"So do you think that telling Kirk about Shy was the best idea?"
Nick looked at Wanda.
"I’m just asking because I know that Mike will," Wanda said, but she did question the logic behind it.
Nick smiled. "You mean because he’s a cop?"
"Yes, Nick," Wanda said and laughed a little.
"That’s exactly why I told him. Look, Kirk hears things we never will. I think he does know something, so I took a chance."
"I hope it pays off, and at worst, doesn’t cause us any more problems than it already has. What’s bothering me is how Kirk would know or even care about a drug meeting in the Bahamas. Kirk is homicide," Wanda said and looked at the time. "Have you eaten yet?"
"I haven’t eaten a thing all day, so I’m starving."
"Well let’s go, I’ll buy you dinner," Wanda said and began to gather her things.
"Are you inviting me out on a date?"
"No, Nick, I said that I would buy you dinner. If this was a date you would be buying me dinner," Wanda said Nick followed her out of the office.
After dinner Nick and Wanda talked over drinks. They talked about business and how she thought Nick could fit in. They were having a good time reminiscing about old times and then Wanda noticed that it was getting late and she wanted to see P Harlem at Impressions. That’s when they found out about the robbery and about Paulleen’s murder.
Since the bandits only got away with a couple of grand, nobody was overly concerned about the robbery, although the fact that anyone would try it bothered Freeze. He saw it as another challenge to his running of their operation. The real concern was the attempted assassination.
Freeze was sure that D-Train was responsible and wanted blood, "I say we go over there now and kill ‘em all." But Mike was able to convince him to be sure that he was involved in it before they went to war. So, while Mike and Bobby continued to look for Shy, Freeze went off in search of the owner of a 73 Nova, and Nick went to meet Freddie.
When Nick arrived at the post office, Freddie was there waiting for him. He got out and began walking toward him. "How’s it goin’, Freddie?"
"First of all let’s get one thing straight. You never saw me. So I never talked to you, not today or yesterday. We clear on that?"
"That bad?"
"Are we clear, Nick?"
"I never saw you, Freddie, so we never talked. Now, what you got?"
"Nothing. That’s what I got, nothing. All my inquiries were met by a polite brush off or the word classified."
"You have anything for me?"
"Some advice, and this came from Walter."
"How is Walter?"
"Still pissed at you about Beirut. He sends his regards, and said to forget you ever heard any of this."
"Can’t do that, Freddie, but thanks anyway for your help. See ya." I started to walk away.
"Back off this one, Nick, it’s political."
I stopped in my tracks and walked back to Freddie. "How do you know it’s political, Freddie? You know something, Freddie. Give it up."
Freddie stood quietly and looked at Nick. "All right, Nick. Paris did some work for some people we know in Virginia. The word is that some white paper that Paris came in contact with but he was murdered before he actually got his hands on them."
"Shit, I knew that."
"Sorry you came all this way for nothing," Freddie said, and got back in his car. "Hey, Nick. You ever read a column by Tavia Hawkins?"
"Tavia Hawkins? Who’s that?"
"She’s a reporter for the Post."
"What’s she got to do with this?"
"I didn’t say she did. Understand. See ya, Nick." Nick watched Freddie drive away before returning to his car. He drove to the nearest public library and logged on to the Internet.
Nick went to the Post’s on line edition site and ran an archive search on Tavia Hawkins. He got ten pages of hits from his search. Nick began reading some of the articles and it wasn’t long before he noticed a pattern. A lot of the articles she’d written lately were about Martin Marshall.