Samuelson held his hand up. “We learned about that in our investigation. What’s important now is that Mr. Fish confirmed his identity.”
“I don’t like this,” Mason said. “If Avery asks Webb to hide his money, Webb will know that his identity is blown. He killed one man to fake his death. I don’t want Avery to be next.”
“We don’t know that he killed anyone,” Kelly said.
“What about the body?” Mason asked.
“All we know is that the paramedics found a man’s body in the water. We don’t know whose it was. A lot of people drown accidentally. Because the body was cremated, we can’t prove there was a murder.”
“That’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“We’ll do everything we can to protect Mr. Fish,” Samuelson said. “Besides, Webb won’t be able to resist a million dollars.”
“I thought it was only a hundred thousand,” Mason said.
“That’s the bait,” Fish said. “Am I right?”
Samuelson nodded.
“Make it a million one-hundred sixty-seven. Nobody has exactly a million bucks lying around. I’ll tell him that I’ll let him handle the balance if he can take care of me on the hundred. He won’t try anything until he gets the rest of the money. That’s the way these things work. You always bait the hook first.”
“And we nail him before he tries anything with Mr. Fish,” Samuelson said.
Mason looked at Kelly, who coolly met his gaze, silently telling him she would do her best but that she’d leave the guarantees to Samuelson.
“What about Rockley’s murder?” Mason asked. “Your scheme does nothing for him with the cops and Patrick Ortiz.”
Samuelson cleared his throat. “We’ll make certain the state authorities are aware of Mr. Fish’s cooperation.”
“That’s just terrific. But we need something more than a letter of recommendation for the judge to read at his sentencing.”
“That’s the best we can do,” Samuelson said. “Our case against Webb has nothing to do with Rockley’s murder. We can’t interfere with that investigation.”
“I still don’t like it. Webb, or McBride or whoever he is, won’t take the chance that Avery isn’t setting him up. He’ll figure Avery needs something to offer the cops and the FBI to stay out of jail. He’ll want to know how Fish got to him. There’s no story Fish can tell him that won’t make him suspicious.”
“I’ll call Sylvia,” Fish said. “She knew it wasn’t Wayne’s body they fished out of the lake. She was crazy in love with him. She has to know that Wayne is still alive. I’ll tell her I need her help hiding the money. I won’t have to mention Wayne’s name. He’ll find me.”
Samuelson beamed. Kelly looked at Fish with newfound respect and permitted herself a small grin. Mason shook his head.
“How was your relationship with Sylvia?” Kelly asked.
“Like brother and sister. She was always after me to lose weight.”
“Don’t do this,” Mason told Fish. “It’s too dangerous. They can’t make the murder charge against you and we can beat the mail fraud.”
Fish put his arm around Mason’s shoulder. “Such a good lawyer I’ve got. He tells me to take the deal before he knows what it is. Then he tells me not to take it after he finds out what it is. And I’m paying for this advice.”
“You told them you’d cooperate as long as it wasn’t dangerous. This is too dangerous.”
Fish shrugged. “Danger is a relative thing. When you’re an old man like me, there’s nothing as dangerous as going to sleep at night. Who knows if you’ll wake up the next day? I’m not so worried about my former partner. He likes money too much. And, when Miss FBI Holt says she’ll take good care of me, I believe her.”
“You don’t think Webb will be suspicious?”
“Of course he’ll be suspicious. People in my business are always suspicious. We don’t trust anybody. He’ll think I’m conning him, but he’ll go along to see how it plays out.”
“And you? Why are you doing it?”
“It’s what I do.” He turned to Kelly. “I assume you have Sylvia’s phone number.”
“She’s in the book,” Kelly said as she wrote the number on a napkin and slid it across the table to Fish. He studied it and grunted.
“Same old Sylvia.”
“What do you mean?” Kelly asked.
“She liked to play a lottery where you had to pick seven winning numbers. She’d always pick three pairs of two numbers. Each pair added up to the same number and the seventh was that number. Like sixty-three, twenty- seven, fifty-four, and nine. Each pair adds up to nine. Get it? Now, look at her phone number. It’s 445-3628. Break it down-forty-four, fifty-three, sixty-two, and eight. It’s the same pattern.”
“What’s your point?” Samuelson asked.
“Sylvia never won the lottery, but she’s still playing her system. I’ll bet she even requested the phone number. When I call, she’ll think she finally won.”
FORTY-NINE
Samuelson agreed to be at Fish’s house Tuesday morning at seven-thirty to place the call to Sylvia McBride before she left for work. He objected at first, wanting to use his office. Fish patiently explained that Sylvia probably had caller ID and would be suspicious if Justice Department flashed across the readout on her phone.
They left together, Samuelson helping Fish with his coat as if he were wrapping a fragile package. Fish played along, winking at Mason and letting Samuelson guide him by the elbow through the crowd. For effect, he added a deep cough that echoed like a parent’s worry on Samuelson’s furrowed brow.
“Fish will have that kid washing his car and cutting his grass before this is over,” Mason said to Kelly.
“Cut him some slack. He graduated first in his law school class.”
“Then I’m sure he’ll do a great job with Fish’s lawn. Buy you a beer?”
Kelly crinkled her nose. “Long day. Maybe we can catch up when this is over.”
Mason shook his head. He was more interested in their present than in their past. Detective Griswold’s warning about Kelly may have been nothing more than the usual collegial backstabbing between cops and feds, but that didn’t mean he was wrong. Kelly had left the FBI under a cloud, though the Bureau wouldn’t have taken her back if there was any doubt. Mason was certain of one thing. Their past was past. He couldn’t count on any favors from Kelly, especially if she was playing him in an elaborate game in which his client’s life was a chip to be tossed into the pot.
“I wasn’t thinking of catching up. We weren’t going to make it and we both knew that. You did the right thing breaking it off.”
Kelly leaned against the booth, her hands folded together on the table, her face cool. “I’m glad you feel that way, especially now that we both have our jobs to do.”
“I am a little curious about one thing.”
Kelly’s mouth twitched in a quick smile. “Really? Only one?”
Mason shrugged. “Maybe one or two. Why did you go back to the Bureau?”
“Unfinished business, I suppose. I didn’t leave on my own terms the first time. I’d been accused of something I didn’t do. I thought I could leave the accusation behind. But it didn’t work that way, even after I was cleared. It was like I could hear them whispering about me no matter how far away I was. I had to go back to show them they were wrong.”
Mason could have closed his eyes and imagined Judge Carter making the same speech. She wanted to silence the whispers too, except she was guilty, even if Mason had entrapped her.
“Are they still whispering?”
“A few of them always will. I just don’t listen anymore. Besides, the Bureau moves me around a lot and that
