“You made contact with him at the college yesterday,” Epstein said. “And this morning he was here for about forty minutes.”
“Your guys are pretty good,” I said. “I didn’t make them yesterday, and I was looking for them.”
“We have our moments,” Epstein said. “What’s the story?”
“Off the record,” I said.
“Off what record?” Epstein said. “You been watching television again. I didn’t send a couple agents down to bring you in. I came here alone. In your office.”
“I need your word,” I said, “that we’ll do it my way.”
“No,” Epstein said.
“Don’t equivocate,” I said.
“I can’t give you my word blind,” Epstein said. “I can’t let you decide what’s bureau business. Maybe I never could, but the rules have changed since nine-eleven.”
I nodded. Epstein didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything. We had gotten to the bridge we were going to cross when we got to it. And we both knew it. The muffled sound of traffic drifted up from Boylston Street. The sound of someone in high heels walking briskly came from the corridor outside my office.
“You asked me to trust you,” Epstein said. “I can’t do that. But what I can do is ask you to trust me.”
I waited.
“Bureau business comes first,” Epstein said. “That stipulated, I’ll cut you as much slack as I can.”
My office refrigerator cycled on quietly. Susan had decided I needed a refrigerator. It was a small one, next to the file cabinet. I kept milk in it, for coffee, and beer, for emergencies. I opened my middle drawer and took out the tape recorder. I had rewound it to the beginning when Alderson left. Now I had only to punch the play button. Which I did. Epstein listened to the whole tape without saying anything. When it was through he said, “Got a dupe?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll take that one,” Epstein said.
I took the tape out of the recorder and handed it to him.
“Okay,” Epstein said. “Talk to me.”
I got us each some coffee, sat in my chair, put my feet up, and took a sip.
“I edited that tape down to the stuff Doherty had to hear to know she was cheating,” I said.
“Why not play the whole thing?”
“He was going to have enough trouble hearing her cheat,” I said. “I didn’t want to make him sit through it all.”
“And?” Epstein said.
“The next day she came here and begged me for the tape.”
“So Doherty confronted her.”
“Yes,” I said.
“Played her the tape.”
“I assume so.”
“That must have been pretty,” Epstein said. “So why’d she want it?”
“Wondered the same thing,” I said. “She offered money. She offered sex. A combination of both. Whatever I wanted. She said if she didn’t get the tapes it would ruin her life.”
“Doherty know there was more on the tape than you gave him?” Epstein said.
“Yes.”
“So she probably remembered that when they weren’t talking blow jobs,” Epstein said, “they were saying things that might draw attention to Alderson.”
“I would guess,” I said. “The day she came to see me, that evening she went to Alderson’s condo with an overnight bag. She was in there maybe an hour and came out with the bag and checked into the hotel next door.”
“She probably told him about the tapes,” Epstein said.
“Probably.”
Epstein drank a little of his coffee.
“And,” he said, “she probably expected to move in with him now that her husband had kicked her out.”
“Probably.”
“And he said no.”
“And they had a fi ght,” I said. “And he gave her the boot.”
Epstein got up, carrying his coffee, and began to walk around my offi ce.
