"Of course."
"If you do decide to turn this into something more than a gig in between bartending jobs, go and get those tats lasered off. Especially the ones that say you used to affiliate with the Confederation. I doubt the state Democrats would appreciate those."
She stood up and smiled at me, but there was no warmth in that smile, just the bared teeth of a shark that knew it was circling prey. "Good day, Councilman. I'll be in touch."
I watched Berkowitz go, and drained the rest of my Jolt in one long pull. I looked at the bottle she had left unopened on the table, and with a sigh put it back in the mini fridge. I had to before I sucked the whole bottle down. I couldn't be cruising on caffeine that night, I had work to do, and couldn't afford a caffeine crash at one in the morning. Sighing, I sat back down at my computer, then pushed the keyboard away.
"Fuck this," I muttered to myself. Reaching for my phone, I at the same time pulled out the card that Tabby had given me with her phone number written on the back. Dialing quickly, I wondered if the increased heart rate I was feeling was due to fear from Berkowitz's visit, the caffeine going through me from the Jolt, or nervousness from talking to Tabby again.
"Hello?" a slightly musical, sexy as hell voice said in my ear. Damn, I hadn't noticed that the last time.
"Hello, Miss Williams?" I said, trying to be professional. "It's Patrick McCaffery."
"Oh, hello Councilman," Tabby replied. "Please though, just call me Tabby. What can I do for you?"
The potential answers that ran through my mind were staggering, but I kept it professional. "Well, I kind of need your help."
"What with?" she asked. "If you don't mind, I'm going to put you on speaker. I'm heading home early today, taking some work with me. I'm in my car."
"All right, I wouldn't want you in an accident," I replied.
“Okay, so what's up?"
"I'm drowning in e-mails, and I’m in serious need of an assistant," I said, hoping my real life need would lead to a reason to see her again. "Now, you've been on your job just about as long as I have here at City Hall."
"About three weeks longer actually," Tabby replied, "but yes, I'm pretty new at this too. You don't have any staff?"
"None at all," I replied honestly, “but apparently I have the budget for two staffers. I asked one of my new colleagues, one of the ones who will talk to me, and he said that by tradition, the old staff is supposed to help with handover or even fill in until the new staff is hired, but they kind of just quit when Harry Vickers was arrested. A lot of people think they ran out of town before the District Attorney got to them as well. So I've been doing this by the seat of my pants."
"Ouch. Well, I don't know a lot about it, but I'll talk to my assistant. She's a real pro at this sort of thing, and she probably knows someone in the city who you can bring in quickly. Although if I'm not careful, she'd possibly just quit working for me and go over to you. She's into the crusader types."
"Crusader types, huh? Is that what I am?" I asked with a laugh. "Well, I've been called worse. All right. Also, while I have you on the line, would you mind if we got together for a working lunch to discuss this project? I had a visit from a certain union leader, and I think you'd like to be brought in on the loop."
"Of course," Tabby said without missing a beat. "How about my office the day after tomorrow? I know I'm asking you to come to me, but there's a place nearby that does great delivery, and you'd love it. If you do, I promise you my assistant will be able to help you with finding some staff for you too."
"Deal. So, it's a lunch date then. Day after tomorrow. Say, twelve thirty?"
"Date, huh? Why, Councilman, you do move fast," Tabby said with a laugh, and I had to admit I blushed. She had a very sexy laugh. "But yeah, twelve thirty is fine. See you then."
Chapter 5
Patrick
That night, just as the clock of St. Timothy's Church in the distance tolled, I stood up from the roof of the convenience store I was crouched on in the Filmore Heights district. It's confusing to newbies to our city that there are two areas of town called Heights. On one hand there is The Heights, a very rich neighborhood that had been through gentrification about twenty years ago. With lots of big, expensive homes and a few McMansions, The Heights was bordered by Tabby's house, Mount Zion, although some would argue that Zion was actually included.