In the Company of Liars

Jane McCoy stands, silently, over the body of Sam Dillon.Owen Harrick walks out of the kitchen. “It’s clean,” he says. “We swept thewhole place. The wire is gone.”

“Positive?” McCoy whispers.

“Positive. It’s clean, Jane.”

Other agents, two men and a woman, emerge from other partsof the house, all standing around the body of Sam Dillon.

“So we’re clean here,” McCoy confirms.

Every agent nods.

“Okay,” she says, her voice above a whisper for the firsttime-far above a whisper. “Then can someone tell me how the hell thishappened?”

“Nobody thought he’d kill him,” says Owen Harrick. “He nevergave any indication. You saw Haroon’s e-mail, Jane.”

Yes, she did. Since he first arrived in the U.S., Ram Haroonhas had an e-mail address set up- pakistudent@interserver.com. WheneverHaroon needed to communicate with the U.S. government, he sent an e-mail tohimself, secure in the knowledge that the government was monitoring the siteand reading the message, too. He would have to be careful with the text, in theincredibly unlikely event that the Liberation Front was hacking into the site,too, but he would be able to get his message across to the feds.

It had been through this e-mail address that Haroon informedthe FBI, a few months ago, that he had made contact with a front man who wasnow calling himself Larry Evans. It was through this e-mail address that Harooninformed them, last week, that Larry Evans was carefully watching two people,Sam Dillon and Allison Pagone, because there was some fear that Dillon hadbecome wise to the operation at Flanagan-Maxx and had told his girlfriend,Allison, about it.

“Haroon said Evans was going to watch and wait,” Harrickagrees. “Not kill.”

“You guys didn’t see him come in?” McCoy asks, looking atthe trio of agents assigned to watch the house.

“No. He slipped in when the food was delivered aboutsix-twenty.”

They know this now. The Bureau has been watching andmonitoring, by video, the property surrounding Sam Dillon’s house. Larry Evanswas good. He snuck into the house when Sam Dillon was answering the front door.The problem is, Larry Evans not only escaped Sam Dillon’s attention; he fakedout three federal agents.

“We saw him leaving, which was when we called you,” one ofthe agents says.

Yes, and then they went to the video and hit rewind, sawLarry Evans pick the lock through the back entrance at six-twenty-just as SamDillon was answering the front door-and saw him leave again about ten minutesafter seven.

“I can’t believe this,” McCoy mumbles to herself. She looksat Harrick. “We’re good on Allison Pagone?”

“Yeah. We’ve got her covered.”

“Make sure of it, Owen. No one else is dying tonight.”

“What do we do now?” Harrick asks.

McCoy walks around the room delicately. “We don’t doanything, is what we do. We can’t be seen here. We have to go.”

“We leave this body here?” Agent Cline asks.

“Hell yes, we do. What do you suggest? We call the police?Maybe we should just call up Larry Evans and tell him we’re interested in him.”

“Okay, okay.” Harrick waves his hands. “Let’s get out ofhere, everyone.”

McCoy is the first to walk out. A voice comes through herearpiece.

“Agent McCoy?” It’s one of her team, watching the perimeterof the property.

“Yeah,” McCoy says into her collar.

“Someone’s driving down the street. A Mazda two-door coupe.I’ll run the plates.”

“How close?” McCoy asks.

“Very. You guys better clear out. Looks like it’s stoppingat Dillon’s house.”

7:24P.M.

“Jessica Pagone?” McCoy says into her collar microphone.“The daughter?”

“Affirmative,” the voice comes back through her earpiece.“Allison Pagone’s daughter was just in his house. Less than three minutes. Justdrove away.”

McCoy looks at Harrick, who is also listening through anearpiece.

“Go back in there in one minute,” McCoy says into hermicrophone. “Rear entry. Look around. Out.”

“Out.”

McCoy looks at her partner. “What the hell is that about?”

Harrick shakes his head. “Allison’s daughter? She knowsDillon?”

“Shit, I don’t know.” McCoy’s legs squirm in the car. McCoyand Harrick are parked the next street over from the street on which Sam Dillonlives, orlived, past tense.

“She was only there two minutes,” Harrick says. “She saw himlying there on the carpet and flipped out, presumably. But where’s she goingnow?”

“Who knows?”

“Do we do anything?” Harrick asks. “I’m not sure we do.”

“There’s nothing to do,” McCoy agrees, trying to calmherself. “So she found him dead. Someone was going to. It’s not like we’regoing to hand Larry Evans over to the police or anything.”

“I wonder if Jessica called the cops.” Harrick pats thesteering wheel.

McCoy shrugs. “Probably. Who knows? I’m sending our teamback in, just to look over the place. I doubt Jessica did anything in there.She didn’t have the time. She probably saw him, wigged out, and got the hellout of Dodge.”

“That’s what I’d do,” Harrick agrees.

“Let’s just sit tight and wait a while. We’ll keep our guysin position after they look the place over. Sooner or later, the police will becoming, and you and I will have to get out.”

“We don’t tell them anything?”

“There’s nothing to tell them, Owen.” The windows in theircar are fogging up. McCoy recalls a time, years ago, when the windows fogged upfor a much more enjoyable reason. “We can’t let them in on this.”

“They won’t come up with Larry Evans as a suspect,” Harricksays. “His prints aren’t on any database, and I’m sure he was smart enough notto leave any, anyway.”

“Yeah, he’s smart. A clock? A trophy? This thing looks like anythingbut a professional hit.”

“But what I’m wondering,” Harrick says, “is whether thepolice will come up with someone else as a suspect.”

“I don’t know,” says McCoy, her voice trailing off.

“We can’t let someone else go down for this, Jane. LikeJessica Pagone, for one. She could have left ten different clues in there,pointing back to her.”

McCoy pats her partner’s arm. “Let’s jump off that bridgewhen we come to it, okay?”

7:56P.M.

Yes. She will call Jessica, Allison decides. She will meetwith her and explain all of this. She will admit that it was she who demandedthat Sam make that phone call and fire her. She will apologize for hermisbehavior and use the apology as a segue, a bridge to fixing things betweenthem. Telling Jessica about Sam will be a way of reintroducing herself as thesame woman she’s always been, the same mother who loves her daughter dearly,but who now is single and has a new man in her life.

Jessica’s an adult now. She has to be ready for this. Shehas to accept that people-even her own mother and father-sometimes drift apart,and it’s not one person’s fault. It’s not a question of fault at all.

She hears the doorknob rattling and pops out of her chair,moves into the hallway. This is a relatively safe part