'Just got the call. We have him,' he said directly to Maggie. 'He's alive and safe.'
'Thank God.'
Nick glanced around. Seemed Maggie was the only one who knew what Ceimo was talking about.
'Some of the bomber's cohorts kidnapped Henry Lee's grandson earlier today,' Ceimo explained.
'Dixon?' Patrick shot up. 'Becca was with Dixon.'
'She's still with him. She's safe,' Ceimo told him. 'They had them locked up in the basement of a vacant office building. They must have been using it as a makeshift command center. Had computers, cables, wireless equipment?the works.'
'Was there anything left behind that might tell us where the next attack is planned?' Wurth asked.
'Everything was smashed. The kid?Dixon, said they had portable drives on the computers that they bagged up and took with them. The basement reeked with gasoline. They started a small fire in one of the hallways. Probably expected the whole place to blow up. And it would have had the SWAT team gotten there a few minutes later.'
Nick watched Maggie. She wasn't surprised by any of what Ceimo was telling them. This must have been the favor she'd asked of him.
'How did you know where they were?' Nick asked.
He noticed the look Ceimo and Maggie exchanged before Ceimo answered, as if he were getting permission.
'Dixon had his grandfather's cell phone. The kidnappers left it on for Mr. Lee to call. We were able to track their location by using the cell phone's internal GPS signal.'
'Son of a bitch,' Kunze muttered.
'Outsmarted the assholes,' Ceimo said with that same smile that he had on his face when he came into the room. 'They thought they had Mr. Lee under their thumb, so they got a bit cocky leaving the cell phone on. The boy said they taunted him with its ringing. They had no intention of returning him to his grandfather. Or the girl. Unfortunately, the kidnappers were gone before we got there.' He pointed to the police sketch artist. 'The kids are giving us descriptions.'
'And Mr. Lee?' Maggie wanted to know.
'I've sent someone over to the hospital to let him know. He won't be able to see Dixon until after this is over. They're probably still having him watched.'
'Wait a minute. Henry Lee? Is that who we're talking about?' Nick asked Maggie. 'The head of HL Enterprises, the owner of United Allied Security, he was your informant?'
She glanced around the room, then nodded.
CHAPTER 70
Maggie gave one of her hotel room key cards to Patrick.
'Go get some sleep,' she told him. Actually it didn't take much convincing once Ceimo promised to let him talk to Rebecca.
Charlie Wurth recommended they all go get a few hours of sleep. There was nothing more they could do here. As soon as Wurth informed Senator Foster about a second plot, he offered the use of his jet, but it wouldn't be ready to take off for Phoenix until late afternoon. Wurth, himself, didn't leave, continuing to work the phones, a landline and his cell phone, all the while punching keys on his laptop computer.
Before Maggie could pack up her own laptop, Nick was at her side.
'I can't believe you didn't tell me your informant was Henry Lee.'
He sounded upset. She checked his eyes. He was hurt.
'I told you I couldn't. At least not until we knew his grandson was safe.'
'But Ceimo knew.'
She took a deep breath. Is that what this was about? A spark of jealousy between two old football rivals. Just when she thought Nick Morrelli could actually be a grown-up. Back in her hotel room, for a minute or two, she thought perhaps he had changed.
'He was able to help,' she explained, 'using the governor's influence.'
'If you honestly trusted me, you would have told me it was Henry Lee. But because I work for one of his companies?what'd you think, I would run off and tell my boss, Al Banoff?'
'Wait a minute,' Maggie said, putting up her hands in surrender. 'I didn't even know Mr. Lee was the majority owner of UAS.'
'Yeah, that's what you said.' He didn't believe her.
'Why would I lie? Is that what you're insinuating? That I lied?'
'I don't know, did you? You could trust Ceimo, but not me. Maybe you thought I was somehow involved in all of this?this ridiculous plot to strong-arm malls and airports to upgrade their security?'
'Of course not.' She was getting impatient. 'If anything, they sent you to make sure their plot wasn't revealed.'
That stopped him. As soon as she saw his jaw clench tight and twitch with tension, she knew she had said the wrong thing.
'I didn't mean it that way,' she started to apologize. 'I only meant that they may have taken advantage of sending someone new.'
'Someone green. Someone who didn't know what the fuck he was doing.'
'Nick.'
'Forget about it.' He waved her off. 'There're more important things to worry about right now.'
But she could tell he was still upset as he turned to leave, jaw still tight, shoulders squared. He didn't just walk away from her, he left the room.
When she turned back, A.D. Kunze was there.
He pointed with his chin at the exit. 'Don't worry about it. He'll get over it.' He lifted a file folder he had in his hand. 'I have something I want you to see.'
'What is it?'
He looked around the room. Ceimo had left. Patrick and Nick were gone. Wurth was the only one and he was busy multitasking in the corner. Still, Kunze motioned for her to sit down at one of the tables in the opposite corner.
'It's a debriefing file.' He handed it to her. 'From Oklahoma City.'
'An agent who worked the scene?'
He nodded.
'How did you get it?' Usually debriefing files weren't easily accessed. Sometimes debriefings, especially in cases with gruesome casualties, were done more for the mental health of the agent than as a source of information.
'Never mind that. I downloaded a copy. Take it back with you. Sift through it.'
She opened the file folder. At first glance, the blacked out names, an assortment of inked-in rectangles, were what caught her attention.
'We had 43,000 lead sheets,' Kunze told her. 'Interviewed 35,000 witnesses. It was overwhelming. You can't even imagine. Some of the witnesses?' He shook his head, remembering. 'I did some of the early interviews. I can tell you about them as if the interview was last week. Rodney Johnson. The guy was in a parking lot across from Fifth Street. He saw two men running from the federal building, in step, one behind the other. Couldn't figure out why they were running. A minute later the blast blew out the windows in his pickup.
'He gave a description of both men. One fit Tim McVeigh. The other had an olive complexion, dark hair, muscular build, Carolina Panthers' ball cap. Not even close to being Terry Nichols.
'Same thing in Junction City, Kansas, where McVeigh got the Ryder truck. Joanna Van Buren at the Subway shop said there were three men who came in for lunch. She remembered because she had to break a fifty-dollar bill for McVeigh. She called us almost immediately when the story broke. Another agent and I went to Junction City. Interviewed her and two other clerks. They ID'd McVeigh, gave vague descriptions of the other two. Again, one of
