Chapter 16: Getting More Than One invitation – Jane I .3 – Sunday

It was Sunday and I had the day off. I couldn’t get the cases involving these women out of my head. The cases seemed open and shut, but something about the women’s behavior and attitude, especially the girl Daphne. I had the impression she was in charge. Which just didn’t add up. So, on a whim, I decided to stake out the women’s condo building. My cop intuition wasn’t sounding any alarms, but it wasn’t letting me ignore it either. Arriving about seven in the morning I expected a boring day. I never realized how wrong I was. Ten minutes after I arrived, three of the women, Kate, Daphne, and Janice, drove out from the parking garage. Following, I was more than a little surprised when they parked and exited the car. They were dressed in what I would call their Sunday best and coincidentally they were actually heading to church. They appeared to be regulars because several other individuals and couples of all ages greeted them. It wasn’t long before Rachel met up with them outside the church. I was a little shocked. From my limited interactions with the women, they never gave off what I would call a church vibe.

When they entered the church, they greeted and were greeted by even more people. They did seem to be introducing Rachel to everyone. This was probably her first time here. I debated going in, but thought, what could they get up to in a church. Almost an hour later they left, still attracting a small crowd. I was left with my mouth open, scratching my head and thinking “who are you people?” Eventually, Rachel went off on her own, while the other three went back to their car.

They went directly back to the apartment. I parked and decided to walk around the building. Get a view from the water side and look up at their balcony. The trouble was, you really couldn’t see anything. It was too high up and there were no good angles. Looking around, it appeared there weren’t any good views of their balcony from other nearby buildings. If someone leaned out from the balcony you could see them, but that was it. Just as I was thinking that Daphne leaned out over the balcony. Breaking out my monocular, I looked up, and I swear she was looking right at me. I half expected her to wave at me. I stood there frozen, thinking there was no way she could see me from the fifty-first floor, not without binoculars. A minute later, I think she actually smiled slyly in my direction before moving away from the edge and out of view.

The only other thing that caught my attention was the girl, Daphne, handing what I thought was a big plate of cookies to the front desk. The man at the desk and the doorman seemed to appreciate the gesture. There were two men there now. I wondered if it had anything to do with yesterday. Both men you could tell were there for security reasons. I questioned the competence after letting two attackers in two weeks. But I had to admit, this was a condo building, not a nuclear missile site.

It was evening now and nothing else happened the rest of the day. I was getting ready to leave thinking today was a waste of time, when the three drove out of the parking area, I followed. They didn’t drive far and quickly parked. I had slowed and eventually parked well away from their car. They went into a pizza parlor. I contemplated leaving again, thinking the day was a total waste of time. I was following a group of church-going, cookie-baking women.

I was sitting there looking over my shoulder at the restaurant thinking I should just leave, but also thinking I was hungry and pizza sounded good. When a girl came out of the pizza parlor. She caught my attention because she seemed to be looking for something and focused on me. She walked right up to my car while smiling at me. I opened my window, she started talking like we were both inside and I was at a table, “Good evening, my name is Sydney and I will be your server tonight.” She stuck a menu through the window. I didn’t take it, I just stared at her. She did not draw back the menu. She politely asked if I wanted anything to drink. I closed my eyes and said, “No thank you.” As politely as I could through gritted teeth.

She then drew back the menu and said, “I am supposed to tell you...” She paused, making sure she got the wording correct, “Daphne is very sorry for letting you sit in your car all day, but Kate and Janice needed to get some work done and she didn’t want to disturb them. She also said you spelled her name wrong in your report. It’s ‘o-u-l-o-u’.” I was still finalizing the report and had been working on it while watching their building. She continued, “Daphne also said you are more than welcome to come and join them. You can bring your computer and they can all help with your report. They all wanted to thank you for all you’ve done. And buying you dinner seemed the least they could do.” After a second, she added, “I’d come in. That girl, Daphne, told the others if you didn’t come in. They were all coming out here and would sit in your car and have dinner. I think she is dead serious.”

I let out a groan and banged my head once against the steering wheel. As I got out of my car, I asked if they had ordered yet. The waitress smiled saying, “No, they were waiting for you.”

As we walked to the entrance, there was a black Tahoe parked down the street. I thought I’d seen it before, outside the condo building. It only stood out then because the last time I was at the condo building and black SUV seemed to catch Sergeant Barrington’s attention. There were literally thousands of them around, but this one stood out because the front plates was dented. I made a note of the plate number. It happened to be my birth month and day, but the letters were random. All the windows were heavily tinted, so it wasn’t possible to determine if anyone was inside. I made a mental note to check it out later.

The waitress followed me in. The second I entered the door I heard a loud voice call out, “Jane! Over here.” I saw Daphne talking with an older couple. The waitress told me as she guided me in their direction, those were the owners. When I got near, Daphne grabbed my hand and started saying something. It took me a moment to realize she was speaking, what I assumed, was Italian. I heard my name ‘Jane Venus Robins’, but that’s all I could make out. I looked at the waitress, she just shrugged and gave me an I have no idea look. The couple each gave me a hug. Noting the look of confusion on my face, the man said, “Miss Daphne just said you are a dear friend and your middle name describes you perfectly. I agree.” They exchanged a few more words before the couple each gave Daphne a longer hug. They went into the back and Daphne took my hand again and led me to a table toward the back of the restaurant, followed by the waitress. Daphne then introduced the waitress as Sydney, a good friend of Janice.

When we got to the back, Kate was sitting on one end, Rachel on the other with Janice in the middle. Daphne led me to Rachel’s end, she scooted over to make room. I slid in and said to Daphne, “You speak Italian. Where did you learn that?” She actually gave me an are-you-serious look, saying simply, “Italy.” Before I could ask anything else, Kate put up a hand saying, “Don’t, just don’t.” Janice put a big smile on her face, but Rachel gave a little smile too. Thinking it was an inside joke with the three, I let it drop.

Sydney asked if we’d like anything to drink. Daphne said, “We’ll start with a bottle of your best Chianti. Get Jane a big glass, it looks like she needs one.” That’s when I realized I had my badge on my belt and Sydney probably saw it when I opened my blazer and sat down, because she asked Daphne, almost apologetically, “ID?” I think Kate was about to say something when Daphne pulled a license out of her back pocket. She handed it to Sydney, who looked at it quickly and said, “Thank you, Mister Tanaka. Nice picture.”

Janice blurted out a laugh.

Kate quickly reached and pulled the ID from Sydney’s hand as she was handing it back to Daphne. She looked at it and frowned at Daphne saying, “When did you get a driver’s license?” Before Daphne could answer Kate, still talking to Daphne asked while pointing at Sydney, “When did you recruit her?” Sydney said smiling, “I was not recruited, I’m a willing disciple and follower.” Then gave a little bow. With a big smile she looked at Janice saying, “You’re right they are a hoot. I can’t wait to see them liquored up. I’ll get the wine.” Sydney walked away chuckling.