She then turned to me and said, “I have an idea.” She grabbed my hand and led me to the edge of the trail. She stepped right over the rope marking...the outside of the trail. I had no choice but to follow her, to be honest, I was so turned on I would have pretty much followed her anywhere. We walked for a minute or two stumbling over uneven ground and passing trees. Finally, I realized where we were. Julie had led us to an overlook in the park. It was well off the path. From the sounds of. I told him he didn’t have to, but he said he really didn’t mind.He was gone a really long time. I started to get a little worried. By the time he found me again with drinks in hand, the band had already started playing. I reached for my wallet, but he put his mouth close to my ear and said, “You can buy the next round.”The drinks were really strong, and I could feel my inhibitions starting to dissolve. The music was loud, so every time we wanted to talk to each other, it required leaning in. Where have I heard it before?"James cleared up the mystery when blurted into my ear, "Is that RoccoTortelli? You never told me you were mixed up with him!"Rocco Tortelli! Suddenly it hit me. He was heavily involved with themob, and his fingers were sunk deep into a lot of pies in theWashington DC area. I'd heard rumors about him a number of years agowhen I'd been investigating some thefts of union money. I'd foundenough evidence to have the man who'd actually embezzled the moneyconvicted and. And I picked a two-year period so they wouldn't know that I was concentrating on last year's trip." And you actually confirmed that this Tricia Linney got on the plane in D.C. last year and flew with him to Texas?"I smiled. That part had been easy. I had found Ms. Linney's picture prominently featured on the website of Amalgamated's main lobbyist. A retired airplane maintenance man in D.C. had had no trouble remembering her boarding the Amalgamated plane last spring."That was one hot-looking.