Misunderstandings, coincidences, changes of plan or heart, made the complex business grist only for the man of intuitive genius. Highnote felt for the very first time in his career, that he might be in over his head.
He shoved his coffee cup away. “You’ve been in contact with him, then? He’s approached you?”
“No, nothing so dramatic as all that,” Alvan Reisberg said. He’d taken off his glasses and was polishing the lenses with his handkerchief. His eyes seemed naked.
“Then what in heaven’s name are you talking about? You say he told you that someone is trying to kill him?”
“I mean in addition to the three Russians we found in that car near your home.” Reisberg said. “The Mafia is now involved for some reason.”
“If you’re talking about the incident in New York, ballistics showed us that the murder weapon was Cariick’s own gun. We also have the testimony of the New York City cop. He saw McAllister with Carrick’s gun in his hand.”
“I’ll grant you that,” Reisberg said, putting his glasses back on. “But as I say, there is a Mafia connection here as well. A Ford Thunderbird was found parked outside our headquarters building two nights ago.”
“I don’t see what this has to do with anything,” Highnote protested, but Innes held him off.“Let him continue, Bob.”
Reisberg nodded. “We traced the car to a Jersey City Cosa Nostra family. Very big. One of our informants told us that two family members, contractors, hit men in other words, were missing after coming down to the Washington area on some assignment. He wasn’t very clear on that point. He’s frightened out of his mind that he’ll be discovered and will be murdered. But he was certain that he’d never heard the name McAllister before.”
“So what’s the point?” Highnote asked.
“McAllister’s prints were all over the car. He left it there for us to find.”
“Why?” Highnote asked. “Exactly my question,” Innes said.
“There is no doubt that he used the car on two separate occasions. We matched the tire prints in Janos Sikorski’s driveway, as well as in Langley Hill just below where he made entry onto CIA grounds.”
“Maybe he is working with them,” Highnote said. “It would explain how he’s been able to drop out of sight.”
“There were bullet holes in the side of the car,” Reisberg said. “The calibers match the casings we found on Sikorski’s property. We think McAllister went back out to Sikorski’s to talk to his old friend, and came upon the Mafia already there. Either that or the Mafia followed McAllister to Sikorski’s, though we’re betting on the former because of the arrangement of the tire tracks. The Thunderbird came first, and then another vehicle came after it. The one that was registered in Stephanie Albright’s name.”
“And you’re saying that there was a shootout there between McAllister and these Mafia people?”
“We found traces of blood-not all of them McAllister’s type and evidence that someone else had come out to clean up the mess.”
Highnote once again sat back in his chair. “Why wasn’t I told about this?” he asked. “We agreed to liaise on all aspects of this investigation.”
“The reports have been sent over to Dexter Kingman in your Office of Security,” Reisberg said. “We’re holding nothing back. His reports come to us as well, including the complete dossier on Ms. Albright.”
“We appreciate that you and McAllister are friends,” Innes said, his tone conciliatory. “We honestly do. But you must understand, Bob, what we’re dealing with here.”
“I don’t,” Highnote said angrily. “And I’m still waiting for someone in this room to explain it to me.”
“How do you see it?” Reisberg asked.
Highnote turned on him. “McAllister is a good man, one of the best.”
“I think we all agree with that statement,” the FBI cop said, his voice very soft.
“I think he was brainwashed in Moscow. I think they altered him and then sent him back here to do as much damage as he possibly could. And he’s done just that. But it’s not his fault, none of it is.”
“What is your recommendation?”
“We bring him in, of course, there’s no question of that. We must.”
“To help him?”
“Yes.”
Reisberg glanced at Innes and Quarmby, then spoke. “We’ve come to much the same conclusion, in that he must be brought in and helped, which is why the President has offered him amnesty. But we think the evidence shows something else may be occurring here. Something that has us… disturbed.”
“Go on,” Highnote said.
“First let’s go back to the beginning, if we may. To Moscow. What exactly was McAllister working on for you?”
“There were a number of ongoing projects,” Highnote said. “There always are. McAllister was a network man. His specialty has been setting up lines of stringers from scratch and then working them.”
“He is a people person,” Reisberg pressed.
“If you want to call it that, yes. He deals with personalities. With motivations.”
“What specifically was he doing the night of his arrest? What I mean to ask is, who was he seeing that night?”
“I don’t know,” Highnote said. “There was nothing on his day sheets, and of course he was never given a chance to tell us afterward.”
“Anything in his confession to the Russians that would indicate to you whom he had seen that night?”
“No,” Highnote said.
“Didn’t it strike you as odd that the Russians made no mention of why he was arrested on that particular night?”
“Yes, Alvan, it struck me as odd. It struck all of us as odd, but again, as I’ve said, Mac never had the chance afterward to tell us.”
“It never came up in the two conversations you had with him?” Highnote bridled. “I resent the implication. You’ve seen my reports.
“Nobody is implying anything here, Bob,” Innes broke in gently. “We’re trying to get at the truth, that’s all.”
“He’s a driven man.”
“Yes, we all agree with that. But the fact of the matter is, someone is trying to kill him. Not only the Russians, but the Mafia as well. The question is: If the Russians wanted him dead, why did they release him in the first place? And who has hired the Mafia to go after him, and why?”
“More to the point,” Reisberg interrupted, “what were the Mafia doing at Sikorski’s place… assuming we’re correct in our guess that they got there first?”
“If they were after McAllister, it would be logical that they would go after his old friends. People they might think he would try to contact.”
“Exactly,” Reisberg said. “Where are they getting their information?”
Highnote’s breath caught in his throat. “I see,” he said. “They also made the connection between you and McAllister,” Reisberg continued. “The Russians were at your house, waiting for him. And then when he ran to your boat in Dumfries they went after him there… someone did… and shot him and left him for dead. The blood we found was his type. And there was a lot of it.”
“You’re saying that whoever is after Mac is getting inside information?”
“It would appear so,” Reisberg said.
“We’re getting ahead of ourselves now,” Innes said, filling the sudden silence.
“Yes?” Highnote said, holding his temper in check.“When we first began to put this together, we came up with four areas of concern.”
“Who is we?”
“I approached Paul with this just yesterday,” Alvan Reisberg said. “Because you had questions for which there were no answers?”
“Yes.”
“The first, of course, was McAllister’s arrest and subsequent release by the Russians,” Innes said. “Naturally we weren’t involved in that business until the incident in New York.”
