Texas Tango: A Flint Rock Novel (6 page)

Flint hung up,
then
said to his phone that he wanted Laura Syms.
 
She answered on the second ring.

"Flint.
 
I was thinking of calling you.
 
How did you get on with Dr. Milan?"

"Well enough I think.
 
I understand you gave her my number last night."

"Yes, always trying to help.
 
I gather you have talked with her.
 
What do you think?"

Flint ignored Laura's query.
 
"I have a question for you."

"Ask.
 
No let me guess.
 
You wonder if I can still get us a room at the Menger."

Flint smiled and said, "
actually
I need to know if you told anyone about you and me meeting at the Menger yesterday."

"No.
 
I was in San Antonio for a meeting which ended sooner than expected.
 
It was warm enough out to have coffee on the River.
 
I did that at the Hard Rock Cafe.
 
Sitting there watching tourists float by, I decided to call you to see if you wanted to relax.
 
After you and I agreed to meet, I had an hour and a half to kill.
 
I did a little after Christmas shopping.
 
I didn't talk to anyone except you and two store clerks.
 
My chats with them were perfunctory, no important content.
 
Incidentally, seeing you
was
a treat, even if you didn't stay as long as I wanted.
 
Why do you ask?"

Flint explained, telling her about the stolen truck and the two wrecks.

"Wow!
 
How exciting!
 
Hey, I hope you don't mind that I gave your number to Dr. Milan."

Flint said he didn't mind.
 
"How well do you know our waitress, he girl who calls herself Shana?" he added.

"Well enough to know that Shana is not her real name, but . . . not very well.
 
I don't know her family name.
 
I think her real given name is Margaret.
 
She got angry at a customer who called her Maggie.
 
She has waited on me a couple of times in the last three months.
 
I paid her $10 to chase you down and give you Ava's card.
 
Where did she catch you?"

"In the high rise garage where I was parked.
 
She walked in the rain.
 
Were you still in the bar when she returned?"

"I don't remember her getting back.
 
I was in the bar for another hour.
 
I was flirting with a computer salesman and then with a cowboy guitar player from Mexico.
 
What makes you ask?"

Flint explained, telling her about the throw away phone found in his car."
 
Laura understood
,
asked what he planned to do next.

"I'm on a fight to Dallas and then to Heathrow in London and on to Rome.
 
From there I'll take a train to the Bristol Hotel in Sorrento just outside of Naples.
 
It's been years since I was there."

"Hey, want company?"

"Sounds nice but we are already taxiing."

"The Bristol, eh.
 
Don't be surprised if you look up and see me.
 
I'm a lobbyist, remember.
 
The politicos are all with their families for a few more days.
 
I am already bored."

They hung up.
 
Flint's oversized wristwatch told him it was 2:39 as he heard the gear go from down and locked to up and clean.
 
DFW was busy and efficient as always.
 
Heathrow was bleak and cold early morning January 2.
 
His British Airways code share flight to Rome, due at 2:05
P.M
.
,
was five minutes ahead of schedule.
 
Rome was 54° F and sunny.

Flint changed dollars to lira, jumped on a train to the central station, got to it a minute after the 3:00
P.M.
fast train departed.
 
No sweat.
 
He reserved for an hour later, ordered a café
della
casa and lemon tart.
 
His ultra smooth, ultra fast bullet train departed on time, cushed in to Naples an hour and ten minutes after leaving Rome.
 
The local to Sorrento took fifty minutes more.
 
A taxi dropped him at the Bristol Hotel well before 7:00
P.M.
local time.

Chapter 6

Freddy Gambini had trouble rescheduling an appointment with Ava Milan because he was calling from the airport.
 
Gambini was on a cell
phone ,
said he was uncertain of his return date.
 
He would call when his schedule was firm.

Gambini, 5' 9" when he stood tall, weighed a little over 200 pounds.
 
He worked out, preferred dark clothing, liked tailor made suits and shirts, and had business cards that read "Financial Consultant."
 
He had introduced himself to Ava six months after she opened her practice.
 
He came at the suggestion of his first cousin, Signora Gina Lezioni.
 
He suffered from chronic pain in his right shoulder and from sleeplessness.
 
His consultation of a sleep apnea physician had not brought a cure.
 
He had also not found relief with a board certified internal medicine specialist nor with a sports medicine practitioner.
 
He did not have insurance but he paid promptly in cash.
 
He was relaxed and cordial with Dr. Milan because she knew his cousin in Italy.
 
He cancelled appointments from time to time because his investment work took him out of town to examine businesses where ever they were located.
 
After a few weeks he reported much improved sleep and only sporadic shoulder pain.
 
He kept up the weekly sessions, saying that he wanted to lose weight.

Freddy Gambini hung up with Ava and walked onto Lufthansa Flight 9078 leaving Austin eight minutes after noon.
 
After stops in Washington, D.C. and Frankfurt, he was at the gate in Athens new international airport on Sunday not long after noon.
 
He caught a taxi to downtown Athens, walked into the Ochre and Brown Hotel.

The hotel described itself as in the heart of the historic center, in one of the "most authentic and upcoming neighborhoods" and in one of the "liveliest and hip spots of the metropolitan city."
 
In other words, a tacky neighborhood in process of revitalizing itself.

Fred spoke briefly to the desk clerk, left a small package.
 
He slipped into a chair in the hotel's all day breakfast area.
 
He watched as an Indian man approached the desk, took the package from the clerk.
 
Gambini waited until the man disappeared behind elevator doors.
 
Then he drained his coke, left a United States twenty dollar bill on the table,
accepted
an envelope from the clerk who had passed along the package, walked out and into a taxi.
 

By late afternoon, Gambini’s Alitalia plane was on approach to Rome.
 
From there he had a flight to Naples.
 
He got to his cousin's mansion an hour after Flint walked up to the front desk at the Bristol.

Chapter 7

Gina Lezioni's phone rang as the American Airline’s 737 Flint took to DFW left the ground in Austin.
 
Ava Milan called her to ask if a visit would be convenient.
 
Signora Lepiozi said she would be honored and delighted, but it would need to take place no later than Sunday evening—that is, tomorrow
 
Ava hung up, went online to check airline schedules, then called an ex client, a geologist named Mary Simpson who had been on hard times and deeply depressed when they met.
 
She could not afford Ava's fees.
 
Her insurance had lapsed.
 
Ava took her anyway.
 
After ten hypnosis sessions, Mary was a new person.
 
Still later by a few months, her self-defeating beliefs were gone and she was making money again.
 
That had been two years back.
 
She had made Ava promise if Mary could ever return the favor that Ava would let her know.

Mary answered her phone on the fourth ring.
 
Ava explained her problem.
 
She needed to be in Naples more quickly than any regular airline schedule made possible

"If you don't mind flying with a woman pilot, my Sabreliner 80SC can get you there in about ten hours after we leave Austin," was Mary's reply.
 
"I can have the tanks
topped,
a flight plan filed, and be ready to taxi in an hour.
 
And don't worry about the fuel cost.
 
It's a half million dollar airplane that I was able to pay cash for because of you.
 
It would fulfill a dream for me to do this as a way of saying thanks for saving my life."

Ava packed in ten
minutes,
Mary picked her up and parked at the Sabreliner's hangar by a quarter to four.
 
Thirty minutes later Mary had completed the check list, told Bergstrom tower that Sabreliner Four Six Texas Tango was ready to roll at Runway One Seven Right.
 
Air traffic control declared that Four Six Tango Tango was cleared for takeoff, gave wind direction and velocity followed by the barometric pressure reading.
 
With the mic still keyed open, the male ATC voice dropped its fast paced, evenly spaced professional atonal delivery to add, "y'all have a nice flight, ma'am."

Mary was headed straight down runway seventeen before the tower controller finished speaking.
 
As her right hand pushed both throttles smoothly all the way open, her left thumb pressed the mic button on her control yoke:
 
"Thanks Austin.
 
Have a good afternoon."

Houston Center assigned Sabreliner 46 TT a cruising altitude of 43,000 feet.
 
Mary and Ava talked through their voice activated headsets for an hour.
 
Then Ava nodded off.
 
Four and a half hours later, she awakened with her ears reacting to a cabin pressure change.
 
They were at 18,000 feet, indicating 400 knots.
 
Mary was talking to Azores approach control on São Miguel, one of nine islands that make up the Portuguese territory in the middle of the Atlantic between Europe and North America.
 
The Sabreliner is one of the best regarded business jets flying, but it does not carry enough fuel for a nonstop to Naples from Austin.

Half an hour later, Mary shut the engines down as a fuel truck topped the tanks.
 
Both women made restroom stops and Mary paid for the Jet
A
fuel.

Less than forty minutes after landing, they were back in the cockpit and the APU had the fans twirling for engine start.
 
Mary lit the fires, taxied, went through the check list,
got
the tower's blessing to climb toward Europe.
 

Sabreliners were designed to cruise at Mach .75—depending on altitude, that is approximately 430 nautical miles per hour.
 
Mary and Ava had an unusually strong tail wind which got them on the ground in Naples eight hours and forty-three minutes after they had started the takeoff roll in Austin.

Ava negotiated with a taxi driver who said he would have to charge them $300 to the Bristol Hotel in Sorrento.
 
Ava said she had a relative she would call instead.
 
The price came down to $100.
 
She dialed her smart phone.
 
The driver said, "
okay
you are both so beautiful—for you it is only $70."
 
He settled for $50 and no tip.