these people was appalling, their stupidity worse. They had no compunction about delving into his life, sneaking into his home, bugging his phones, and paying people to destroy his reputation and his life. Yet they had no idea, not even a suspicion, that the same things could be done back. He had tapes going back seven months of Eva huddled in Mitch’s office, making her reports and seeking fresh instructions. He particularly enjoyed listening to Mitch offering her tips on how to seduce Jack.
He removed the tape, carefully affixed the date, time, location, and names of the subjects, then placed it on top of his growing stack. He inserted a fresh tape, stretched his back, then went to the kitchen to make supper.
Best to call his lawyer on a full stomach.
The time had come for him to make his move.
29
Less than twenty-four short hours after Harvey Crintz committed his first burglary, the gang of FBI agents showed up in his office. Three in all, grim-faced men in a mixture of nice blue and gray suits, holding a warrant and arresting Harvey in front of his coworkers. The agents weren’t in a conversational mood.
Harvey’s supervisor rushed out of his cubbyhole and began barking questions but got no answers. They flashed the warrant, pinned Harvey’s arms behind his back, slapped him in cuffs, and marched him out. Harvey tried making noise about calling his lawyer and was rudely told to shut up. He had no right to a lawyer until he was booked, charged, and processed, they told him with menacing frowns. In any event, he was informed, he didn’t need a lawyer, he needed a priest.
An hour later, after the three agents gave Harvey a glimpse of the ten photographs displaying his face and his body rifling through Mia Jenson’s safe-apparently it had been wired and connected to a tiny camera of some sort, a camera he had triggered in his clumsy search the day before-he agreed with them.
A priest was his only hope.
At almost the same instant, another group of Feds conducted a much larger raid on the offices of TFAC. They burst through the entrance, waving subpoenas and warrants, barking at employees to line up against walls and spread them.
Accompanying them was a large forensics team that raced upstairs and jumped on the firm’s computers and preserved everything on the hard drives. After another few minutes, the moving men with boxes showed up and began hauling out loads of papers, spy equipment, virtually anything not nailed to the walls and floors.
Martie O’Neal was hiding in his office when Special Agent Danny Ryan, an old pal from Bureau days, burst through the door.
“Hey, Danny, what’s up?” he asked, trying to stifle his shock. He was leaning back in his chair, legs crossed on his desk, trying hard to look and act cool rather than terrified.
“How ya doin’, Martie?” Ryan answered as if they were regular golf partners. Ryan’s eyes shifted around the office-what a dump.
“You tell me.”
“I’d say not well, buddy.”
“I’m assuming you got a warrant or a subpoena to justify this unwarranted intrusion into private premises. I wanta be sure I sue the right folks.”
“Can the big threats, Martie. Makes you sound silly.”
“Like that, huh?”
Ryan nodded. “You’re so totally screwed I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
“Oh.”
“You remember the procedures or do I need to explain them?”
O’Neal slowly eased out of his chair. In his early days in the Bureau he’d been a field hand; how many times had it been him on the other end of this process, watching the weird mixture of emotions on their faces, often wondering how he’d react in their place. He placed his hands on his desk and bent forward with his legs spread apart. He made a silent vow to himself that he would remain calm and unaffected. There would be no cracks in the hard veneer. He would show his old Bureau buddies how a real badass behaved. “Yeah, yeah,” he said, “I got the right to remain silent, blah, blah, blah. Should I call my mouthpiece now?”
“It’d be a waste of time.”
“Can I least call my wife and tell her I won’t be home for dinner?”
“She knows, Martie. Another van of agents is at your house with a search warrant. I’m sure she gets the message.”
Martie was suddenly fighting back an almost unstoppable urge to cry. His knees went weak, his voice thick and whiny. He squeezed his eyes shut and muttered, “When will I get home for dinner?”
Ryan understood the question. “Assuming sterling behavior and an Emmy performance in front of three absolute chumps on a parole board, about twenty years. Sorry, Martie, no deals. Don’t need ’em. We got the burglars who hit Jenson’s home. They all talked. We got Crintz and he’ll talk, too. We got a burglary in a private home up in Jersey seven months ago, and… hell, truth is, we got more evidence and charges than we know what to do with. You’ve been a very bad boy.”
As Ryan patted him down, it was dawning on Martie that he had been sucker-punched. All these months, somebody had been pulling the strings, jerking him around like a fool dancing at the end of a long, tight noose.
“At least tell me who turned you on to me,” he asked, almost a croak.
“If I knew the whole story, I still wouldn’t tell. But you definitely screwed with the wrong people. Now shut up and let me finish.”
When the senior agent in charge of the FBI’s Washington field office sends an invitation, even the Pentagon’s inspector general and the director of the DCIS respect the summons.
The meeting was set for five, the witching hour. Both senior Pentagon officials, along with a small retinue of aides, arrived five minutes early in a matched pair of black government sedans at the downtown Judiciary Square field office. A junior flunkie was at the curb and escorted them through security, then up a short flight of stairs to the SAC’s domain.
Special Agent Mia Jenson and a tall man who looked vaguely familiar but none of them recognized were waiting in the hallway. Mia walked directly up to Margaret Harper, director of the DCIS. “Agent Mia Jenson,” she said by way of introduction. “I work for you.”
The eyebrows lowered with curiosity. “I’ve heard your name,” Harper offered, shorthand for, because I recently booted you off the Capitol Group case.
Without hesitation or further explanation, Mia handed her a piece of paper. One page, neatly typed and signed. “My resignation,” she announced without elaboration.
“I don’t understand.”
“It’s effective immediately. Approve it and it’s done.”
“What’s this about?”
“You’ll find out in a few minutes. Any possible questions will be answered, I promise. For now, it’s strongly in your interest that you approve this resignation.”
“I’ll do no such thing, Jenson. I don’t know how long your obligation is, or what sort of trouble you’re in.”
“I’m not in any trouble, and my obligation’s irrelevant. I’m about to hand you the biggest case of the decade. Release me, or I can’t.”
The crowd around them was now listening in to this fascinating conversation. Harper pondered this strange request for a minute, then replied, “I don’t make deals with my own agents.”
“That’s the whole point. Release me and I’ll hand you the biggest case you’ve ever seen. Otherwise, forget it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Think about where we’re meeting. I’ll hand it off to a different investigative agency and you’ll stand on the sidelines with mud on your face and watch the action. Trust me, it’s strongly in your interest to avoid that.”
