'Ironically, you're going to need to loan me out for a couple of days.'
'What's up?'
'I think William Wilson was murdered.'
Hood's smile evaporated. 'Jesus.'
'Yeah. This is going to be a big one.'
'How did you get involved?'
'Scotland Yard asked me to bird-dog the autopsy,' McCaskey said. 'I went to the Georgetown medical center and had a look at the body. The ME missed an injection in the root of the tongue. We sent a skin sample to the lab. There was a concentrated trace of potassium chloride, a drug that can be used to stop the heart.'
'That's damned impressive, Darrell.'
'Thanks.'
'Have you informed the Yard?' Hood asked.
'I did,' McCaskey said. 'They're going to work through the British embassy to get their own people involved. Until then, they asked if I would be their point man on the investigation.'
'What are we looking at, time-wise?'
'Three or four days,' McCaskey told him.
'That's when media attention will be at a saturation peak,' Hood said.
'I know. The good news is, public attention got us more money after the North Korean incident,' McCaskey said.
'That was a very different time, when Congress regarded the old institutions as tired, not blue-chip solid,' Hood said. 'This is going to be a big, public investigation. If Op-Center is on the news every night, the CIOC may see that as a ploy for fund retrocession.'
'Please. The CIOC can't be that naive.'
'Not naive, Darrell. Suspicious.'
'Of what? They know we have to help other agencies if we want their assistance,' McCaskey said.
'You're assuming that we're supposed to survive,' Hood said. 'The CIOC and our older brothers may have other plans.'
'Staggered dismantling,' McCaskey said.
'It's possible,' Hood said.
'Okay,' McCaskey said. 'Assume the other agencies are leaning on the CIOC to cut us back '
'I don't have to assume that,' Hood told him. 'They are. Senator Debenport told me.'
'In that case, we should not get locked into a siege mentality,'
McCaskey said. 'We should lean back, put our assets in peoples' faces.
Senator Debenport will probably be thrilled to take a corner of the spotlight. What politician wouldn't want to be seen as a crusading crime buster?'
'He'll say 'Cheese' and maximize the benefits of that exposure,' Hood agreed. 'And when the lights go off, he'll turn to me and say prodded hard by the other agencies that there is obviously too much fat on Op-Center's bones. He may ask for additional reductions.'
'The electorate wouldn't stand for that, especially if we're working on a high-profile case.'
'The voters might surprise you,' Hood said. 'They want to know that government agencies are doing their jobs. Our job is crisis management. Finding the killer is a Metropolitan Police matter, not a hostage situation or terrorist
