Eric Hawkins looked around at the Rainford “wives,” the one who got away, and Slick. “Assuming he invites you to his home. What then? Are you all going to sit around and wait for him to write out checks. There’s something wrong with this picture,” he grumbled.

Sam stepped up to the plate, and said, “I think, Eric, this is one of those meetings where we’ll all wing it. Like Interrogation 101. You react to the person you’re interrogating. You go with the moment. We certainly don’t have anything to lose. As far as I know, there is no law against going out to dinner dressed as pretend nuns and priests. We can manage this if we all do our parts.”

The others agreed.

Joey opened the box and started to pull out black outfits. “They’re pretty much one size fits all.” Two dark suits with white clerical collars were at the bottom of the last box. The two men were checking the size when Joey’s Blackberry came to life. He moved off to the side as he listened and spoke quietly.

The time was five forty-five.

Joey rejoined the group, a worried look on his face. “That was Mike. It seems we have a small glitch. Mr. Panella just called Mike to tell him the senator called and said two old friends would be joining him for dinner and to say his mother wouldn’t be there. He ordered a dinner to be delivered to her home. Is this a problem? I don’t know if it is or not. Like Sam says, we’ll have to go forward and wing it. If it looks like there might be a problem, we’ll simply call it off and fall back to regroup. For whatever this is worth, Mike told me Panella said the senator has never brought anyone but his mother to the restaurant before. Whoever his dinner companions are, he must like them. Constituents visiting the capital would be my guess. Politicians always want to look good for the hometown boys, get their pictures in the local papers, that kind of thing.”

“Why is this guy Panella so cooperative with an ex-cop?” Slick asked suspiciously.

“Mike said Panella runs a small bookmaking operation out of his kitchen. Mike and his fellow officers looked the other way while they were on the force because Panella had six boys to put through college. He owes Mike.” Joey shrugged. “It’s not what you know, it’s who. Every cop has sources and snitches. Don’t you guys watch those crime shows on TV?” Joey groused.