'Them or yourself?'
'Both,' he said.
'Since my word is not good enough, what gets me an acquittal?'
'First, what happened to the Groveburn bag?' he asked.
'I left it at the office for Lucy.'
'Why? The night you had it, you told me your Nikes were in it.'
'They were,' Kat said. 'I also told you it contained a gift. Lucy wanted me to hold it so her boyfriend didn't find it. They live together.'
Rodgers could not remember if she said it contained a gift. Maybe she had. 'Is it still at the office?'
'I'm in San Diego,' Kat said. 'How the hell would I know?'
'You can call,' Rodgers said.
'Right now.'
'Yeah.'
Kat's jawline tightened as she took out her cell phone. She called the senator's receptionist and asked about the bag. A moment later, she hung up.
'Lucy came by for it shortly before nine this morning,' Kat said.
'After you left the apartment,' Rodgers said. 'She could have put it inside.'
'Right. She just flew in the window like Peter Pan,' Kat said. 'Was there anything else?'
'Yes. When we get to the hotel, I want to be there when you empty your luggage,' Rodgers said.
'Boy, you're pushing this.'
'Sorry. I need to know that the dress is not here.'
'I could have put it somewhere else, like a safe-deposit box.'
'If necessary, we'll get to that later.'
'And when you don't find anything anywhere, Op-Center will come up with some other idiotic notion to implicate me,' she said. 'The admiral is right. Your people are good at that.'
That was it. Now she had gone too far. 'Our people? You don't know us at all, Kat,' Rodgers said. 'We're good Americans, part of Senator Orr's America. We have died so people like you can shoot off your mouth. I asked for your help before, and you didn't want to give it.
So, yes. We went behind your back. We found a problem, and I presented it to you. And by the way, it looks like someone ratted out 'my people.' The police apparently followed them into your apartment.'
'Do you think the police were watching them?' Kat asked.
'Doubtful,' Rodgers said. 'They know McCaskey is former FBI and that he might have spotted a tail. More than likely they were watching your place.'
'Why? How would they have known?'
'I'm guessing that whoever may have put the dress in your freezer, then removed it, tipped them off. Presumably, that someone is Lucy.'
'So Lucy O'Connor picked the bag up, put the dress in the ice compartment so it would stain the ice, then re moved it,' Kat said.
'Just so your guy would find the dye and blame me.'
