survival instincts.
I therefore answered honestly, but selectively. 'I find her highly competent, professional, and effective. Margaret Barnes was a hostile witness, a practiced liar, and totally confused. A few hours ago, I watched Agent Margold cut through thirty years of lies, evasions, and camouflage so dense the witness was lost in it. It was an impressive sight.'
'Is that right?'
'Yes sir.'
'And do you have any views regarding her overall management of this case?'
'I thought George Meany was managing this case.'
'Meany is in charge of this case. But Agent Margold seems to have uncanny instincts for where to be, and when. De facto, she appears to be managing this case.'
He looked me in the eye and said, 'I ask, because I'm getting conflicting reports about her. Some sources are telling me she is not competent, nor is she a team player. This Bureau operates effectively only when it functions collectively, and unfortunately, my D.C. Field Office appears to be experiencing teamwork issues. Do you understand? At this moment, on this case, I cannot afford this problem. But the source of this problem is eluding me.'
It wasn't hard to guess the source of the conflicting reports. George Meany has a lot of bad habits, an aversion to frontal assaults among them.
But generally speaking, I make it a practice not to rat out my peers, or even my bosses, to the bigger bosses. They get paid the big bucks because they're supposed to possess the intuition and insight to sort the sycophantic idiots from the nondescriptly competent. That's the theory. Of course, there is another theory, called the Peter Principle.
I did not think this applied here, however, and said, 'Sir, I don't believe you got where you are by listening to subordinates tell you how to think. You should rely on your own instincts and judgment.'
He changed the subject, sort of, and suggested, 'Also, I think you and Agent Margold are becoming attached to one another. So perhaps I shouldn't be asking you. Perhaps you've developed an emotional bias in this matter.'
I must have blushed, because he immediately commented, 'Nothing wrong with it, Drummond. I met my own wife on a case. She was a forensics specialist, and I was the case agent. A murder and castration case, and the wife was our chief suspect.' He ended this tale, saying, not for the first time, I'm sure, 'You could say we fell in love over a pair of detached testicles.'
'I thought that came after you said, 'I do.''
He laughed. 'Twenty-seven years… not once have I even considered cheating on my Joan.'
'I'll bet.'
He glanced at his watch, and this brief moment of bonding was over. He began walking to the door, then he stopped and faced me again. He asked, 'Did you know George Meany prior to this case?'
'We worked a case together once.'
He nodded, but did not amplify that thought. But it was apparent that George's whispered insights had not been limited to Agent Margold. Wouldn't it be interesting to know what George had to say about yours truly? Or maybe not.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
At 5:00 a.m., Jennie was already seated at the table, thumbing through a clutch of papers, when I followed Townsend into the conference room. The only regulars missing from this gathering of greats were Director Peterson, still enjoying his prerogative to stay miles away from this thing, and Mr. Gene Halderman, who was enjoying a night's sleep, proving he wasn't a total idiot.
George, looking the worse for wear, opened the meeting. 'Let's begin with a wrap-up of the progress we've made over the past six hours. Keep it brief.' He pointed at his watch and added, as if we needed a reminder, 'The morning witching hour is almost here.'
He directed a finger at Jennie, who led off with an interesting, albeit slightly technical assessment of both Margaret and Jason Barnes's mental states, a concise summary of the Barnes family history, and a wrap-up of the connections that bound Calhoun Barnes to Phillip Fineberg and indirectly, to Jason Barnes. At this point Phyllis raised her hand and asked a reasonable question. She said, 'Why would he lift a finger to avenge a death I would have thought he celebrated?'
From the expressions around the table, everybody shared this same frame of inquiry So Jennie offered an abbreviated version of the explanation she had earlier provided me. She let this sink in a moment, then advised us, 'Love and hatred are the most intense and direct human emotions. When they become confused, the individual becomes a psychosexual mess.'
I suggested, 'So he's nuts?',
'I prefer the clinical expression' she replied. 'Completely bonkers.' Which got a few chuckles. She then cautioned all of us, 'The point is, whatever wobbly equilibrium existed inside Jason's head is totally gone. In Jason's mind his father was a towering, monumental figure. He believes we drove and hounded him to death, and he now intends to punish us.'
I'd heard enough about Jason Barnes's loopiness and, thankfully, nobody asked another question.
So Jennie brought us back to the present, saying, 'But at this point, Sean and I were confronted with a number of holes. We were forced to make some educated guesses about what happened here-in Washington.' She looked at Townsend. 'Sir, it's very important to confirm some of those deductions.'
He nodded.
Jennie asked, 'Was it Phillip Fineberg who provided the canceled checks?'
'It was.'
'Could you explain what circumstances led to that?'
'Yes… well, Fineberg had been feeding me charges for weeks. Usually over the phone, and he requested anonymity, which is fairly common in background checks. He had many disparaging things to say about Calhoun Barnes, some of which might be factual, and some of which sounded frivolous, even questionable. Eventually I told him we needed evidence to corroborate his charges.'
'And how did he respond?'
'He promised to get back to me.'
'And he did.'
'At a cocktail party in Georgetown about a week later, he pulled me aside and gave me the canceled checks. I handed them over to your office.'
'That was before my time. Who in my office, and how did my office respond?'
Townsend thought about it a moment. 'John Fisk, your predecessor. First, John assigned some agents to verify the authenticity of the checks.'
'And the checks were verified?'
'That's correct.'
'And the checks were drawn from Calhoun's family account?'
'Also correct. And with that to go on, a second team was assigned to run down the three judges whose names were on the checks. Two were dead, from natural causes. The third was found in a retirement community in Florida. Advanced Alzheimer's. Completely senile.'
'Then you carried the packet to the White House?'
'No. I carried the evidence to the Attorney General. Meade Everhill from his office was present. We reviewed what we'd gathered, and it was Everhill's legal judgment that we had enough to at least proceed with a criminal probe.'
'Then the White House?'
'Only then.'
'In addition to the President, the President's legal adviser, the White House Chief of Staff, the Attorney
