General, Meade Everhill, and presumably the White House spokesman, who else was involved?'
Townsend pointed at Mrs. Hooper. 'Her.'
Mrs. Hooper squirmed in her seat. She insisted, 'But my presence would be known only to the other people in that meeting. I… Jason Barnes would have no reason to target me.'
To which Townsend replied, 'Don't presume that.' Turning to Mr. Wardell, he asked, 'Your people know who accesses the Oval Office. Correct?'
'Of course.'
'Is a written log kept?'
'Always, for scheduled meetings. Of course, during the day certain favored staffers, like Mrs. Hooper, pop in and out spontaneously.'
'There, you see-' Mrs. Hooper was saying.
'However,' Wardell spoke over her, 'in those instances, the agent at the President's door notifies the operations center. Those names are also entered into the log.'
'I thought they might be,' Townsend commented. 'Could Jason Barnes have accessed that log?'
'I can't rule it out. He had an ops center pass and plenty of friends who work there. He could have seen the log himself, or a friend could have checked it for him.'
I had the impression Director Townsend and Chuck Wardell did not particularly care for Mrs. Hooper, and this exchange was curious. When the big bosses clash, it's never a good idea to step in the middle. But Townsend did not strike me as small-minded or vindictive, and something seemed to be going on here. Jennie looked at me, and I raised my eyebrows. Jennie asked Townsend, 'Could you explain how the decision was made, for our benefit?'
Townsend said, 'All right. In my view, the evidence against Calhoun Barnes was problematic and the case was flimsy There were no living-at least no sensible-witnesses. There was no other physical evidence except the three canceled checks, and the personal word of Phillip Fineberg, who insisted he didn't witness the exchanges and only learned of them recently'
Asserting my lawyerliness I said, 'To admit otherwise would make him a party to the crime.' I then suggested,' I have the impression, sir, that you didn't trust Justice Fineberg.'
'I did not. It was obvious he was carrying a bitter hatred toward Barnes. So I was… disturbed by his allegations.'
'And about his motives?'
'In fact, yes. His initial claims were all over the map. Affairs with paralegals in their old firm, overbilling clients, and so on. It has been my experience with background checks, particularly for high-level positions, that some people use them as an opportunity to pursue private vendettas.'
'So you thought Fineberg was trying to assassinate Barnes?'
'Well, only later did he assert that Barnes had bribed these three judges. I found that suspicious.' He looked at our faces and added, 'It makes sense now, but not then. Nor would he tell me how he came into possession of the checks, which created certain problems from a legal standpoint. There was the obvious chain of custody issues… but I suppose it was his motive that I questioned. So this was what I reported to the President.'
Mrs. Hooper insisted, 'There was enough there… Look, people, this is Washington. Reality check. Barnes was a big boy He was warned he'd better be whistle-clean. Well… he wasn't.'
We all guessed there had been an argument in front of the President, and Mrs. Hooper had argued for the safer course, to immediately throw Barnes to the sharks. But at this stage it didn't matter whether Calhoun Barnes oozed with corruption or had the soul of a saint, though we now knew the latter was out of the question. What mattered-all that mattered-as Jennie knew, was who else had been involved in the decision, who else might be on Jason's list, and who might need a heavy dose of special protection.
Townsend of course appreciated this point and said to Jennie, 'So I think for your short list, you should include me, Mrs. Hooper, the Attorney General, the White House legal adviser, and Meade Everhill. Also, check your office records and see which agents were involved in the investigation.'
Jennie nodded.
Thinking two steps ahead, Phyllis said to Townsend, 'Mark, should we still be concerned about the bounty issue?'
Interestingly, he turned to Jennie, who said, 'We can't rule it out. We've confirmed that Barnes was informed of the bounty the morning after we discovered it. He had at least forty-eight hours to apply before the Internet site was shut down.'
I said, 'But he's acting out of rage, not greed. Right?'
'That's true. But why not kill two birds with one stone?' She added, 'Also, consider the possibility that he recruited his coconspirators using the bounty. They're probably mercenaries, and this would certainly explain where he got at least the promise of money.' She smiled at Phyllis and added, 'I'm sorry. The Agency's not out of this thing yet.'
Charles Wardell of the Secret Service announced, 'I have to make some calls. The President and Attorney General are already apprised. But I didn't know about Clyde Burns-the legal adviser-or Everhill. Somebody better… check on them.'
It was now 5:30 a.m. and we all wondered if the grim reaper had not already checked on Everhill and Burns. We'd been completely behind the curve, and it was a relief to play a little catchup. In fact, the mood in the room had begun to shift, and everybody thought we might even be getting a step ahead of Jason: We knew why and we knew who. What could go wrong?
Again, I had this ominous foreboding that I-that all of us- were overlooking something important.
Wardell stepped out of the room to make his calls. Moving to the next order of business, Townsend turned to George and asked, 'Where are we regarding the military munitions?'
George replied, 'The lab reported back. Traces of Composition A5 were found on Fineberg's corpse. That's the same propellant used in the Bouncing Betty mine, and apparently, it's a distinctive trace. We're still waiting for confirmation about the antitank weapon.' He paused a moment, then said, 'We're assuming the weapons were stolen. Procedurally, the military has to report all domestic weapons and munitions thefts and losses to us. So we've accessed those files going back six months.'
George paused again to look at the faces around the table. Like many self-important types, he had a lot of irritating habits, but we had to endure this moment of I-know-something-you-don't before he informed us, 'There have been a total of sixty-eight reported cases of theft and loss over this six-month period. So I ordered our people to screen all unclosed cases that included the theft or loss of both Light Antitank Weapons and Bouncing Betty mines.'
He then proceeded in laborious detail to describe this cross-examination, which was a curious waste of everybody's time, especially as it was George who had reminded the rest of us that we were running against the clock here. I began to wonder if he was running scared. Clearly, Jennie was the star of this show, and George was becoming like the supporting actor who speaks his lines a little too loud and overacts his limited scenes. Eventually, he wrapped it up, saying, 'In the end, we found three possibilities. But unfortunately, our friends in the military don't work the same hours we do, so I haven't yet been able to question the Army's CID, that is, the Criminal Investigation Division.'
Townsend looked a little exasperated. After a moment he asked George, 'Did you make an official request to CID?'
'I… yes. I spoke with a night duty officer over in the Pentagon. A major named-'
'When? What time?'
'Uh… about two hours ago.'
It suddenly became real quiet.
Phyllis looked at me and asked, 'Sean, is there a better way to handle this?'
I avoided George's eyes and replied, truthfully, 'CID does maintain a duty officer in the Pentagon. But CID headquarters is located at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. We should call Major General Daniel Tingle, the CID commander.'
Phyllis looked at George, then at Townsend. She suggested, 'Mark, it might be advisable to use Drummond on this.'
Townsend looked at me. 'You ever work with CID?'
