obviously felt the same way. What they’d shared in the Southampton mansion had been too intense, both intimate and redolent of mortality, and neither of them wanted to relive it just yet. So Reggie went to work and ran the East End station, still in her position of interim chief, and Justin stayed home, sleeping and thinking and listening to music.
On the third day, he called Gary Jenkins and asked him to bring over some reports that Justin had been keeping in his desk at the station. Gary asked if there was a rush, he was heading out to lunch, and Justin said no rush whatsoever. So Gary showed up around two and handed over the folders.
Justin read through the report he wanted to focus on. When he was done, he took a bath, filling the tub with only a few inches of water-his bandages still prevented him from showering-and got dressed. Then he drove toward the East End airport, turning onto a side street about half a mile before the airport entrance. The street had been cut into the surrounding woods. A strange location, Justin thought. It didn’t look natural. It seemed as if nature should close back in on the new, pristine houses and swallow them up.
He pulled into the driveway of the third pristine house on the left and knocked on the door. He spent fifteen minutes inside talking to the owner, had a glass of water, and asked a few questions. All very easy and pleasant. Then he left.
At five o’clock he knocked on the door to Leona Krill’s office.
“Justin,” she said, “this is a surprise.”
He gave her the friendliest smile he could muster.
They chatted for a few moments, he gave her some of the details of what had transpired in Guantanamo. Attorney General Stuller had called the mayor to tell her that Justin had been cleared of any and all accusations, that he had, in fact, acted in heroic fashion. She told Justin that she’d been asked not to talk about the matter further with him, so instead they discussed the arrest of Ted Ackland-the entire country was discussing the arrest of Ackland and the emerging scandal-but Justin gave no indication that he knew anything more than he’d read or seen on television. Leona asked when he’d be returning to work and he told her he thought it might be as soon as tomorrow. She said she was glad.
Justin said good-bye, stood up, and then said, “Oh, by the way, I do have one question for you.”
He asked it, a question he should have asked a long time ago, and she gave him the answer. He told her he’d definitely be returning to work the next day.
He had one last thing to do before nighttime.
Justin called Wanda, said he was cashing in the favor he’d requested. He could hear the shame in her voice, her awareness of the way she’d crossed the line and altered their relationship forever, but all she said was, “Okay, what do you want to know?”
“I want the ME’s report on Hubbell Schrader.”
“What the hell for, Jay? Christ, you saw what happened. Your girlfriend saved your bacon.”
“You want to fax it to me or e-mail it?” he asked.
She sighed. “Check your e-mail in ten minutes,” Wanda told him. And after a brief hesitation, she said, “And Jay. I. . I. .”
“I know,” he said. “You were doing your job.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“I might have done the same thing,” he told her.
Neither of them said anything after that, they both wondered in silence whether what he said was true, and then they hung up.
That night, Reggie came over for dinner. He was staggered when she walked in the door. She wore a short black dress that clung tightly to her body. Instead of her scuffed boots or heavy work shoes, she wore an elegant pair of high heels. Despite the cold, she wasn’t wearing stockings. He could see little shivers of goose bumps running down her legs.
She kissed him before she even took her coat off, and he responded. They sat together on the couch and he poured a glass of red wine for each of them. He’d had the bottle for quite some time, a ’90 Haut-Brion.
“What’s for dinner?” she murmured.
He answered, “It depends.”
She smiled and said, “On what?”
And Justin said, “Tell me about Ray Lockhardt.”
Her eyes squinted in confusion. “You want to talk about that now?” she asked.
He nodded.
“I was thinking this was going to be a little more romantic than that.” When he didn’t answer, she shrugged and said, “Okay. What do you want to know?”
“You interviewed a witness who saw a car parked on the road to the airport.”
“I’d hardly call him a witness. He bicycled past a car on his way home.”
“Your report says he ‘turned off the road on his way home.’”
“Okay. It probably does. So what?”
“It’s just odd phrasing. ‘Turned off the road’ is something you’d say if you saw it happen. It’s not a usual way of describing something.”
“I’m sure that’s just the way he told it to me. What are you trying to say, Jay, that I didn’t do my investigation properly?”
“No,” he said. “You did a really good job.”
The silence lingered between them. He broke it by saying, “I spoke to the witness, Reggie. It wasn’t exactly the way you wrote it up.”
“What did I get wrong?”
“He had a pretty good memory of the car he saw.”
“Did he?”
“The way he described it, it could have been your car.”
“What?”
“I talked to Leona today, too. I realized I’d never asked her who gave you such a good recommendation for the job.”
The expression on Reggie’s face didn’t change all that much. Just a little. “Oh?”
“I never would have thought to ask. Except when I met with Ted Ackland he said something that struck me.”
“What was it?”
“He was talking about possibly getting the vice presidential nomination. He said, ‘Not bad for a cop from Wisconsin.’ Just made me think. Suddenly I knew two people from Wisconsin.”
Reggie didn’t speak or move.
“Leona didn’t speak to him directly, she told me. But it was someone from Ackland’s office who recommended you. Who called her out of the blue and urged her to hire you. They needed someone on the inside. Someone to keep an eye on me.”
“Jay. .”
“It was Schrader who gave it away. It happened so fast and I tried to drive it out of my mind, but. . he was so damn confident that you weren’t going to shoot him. At first I thought he was too arrogant, or he was bluffing, or maybe he thought it because you were a woman. Then I realized no, he was way too much of a pro to take things that lightly. It was because he knew you. It was because he’s the one who told you to kill Ray Lockhardt.”
“Jay. . you have to listen to me. .”
“I went over the timing and it all worked out. You could have done it before you came over here that first time. Maybe it’s one of the reasons you were so upset. Killing can do that to some people. Then I got the FBI forensic report back, for the work done on Schrader. You shot him with a.38. The same gun that was used to kill Lockhardt.”
The silence was stifling. Reggie raised a finger to her eye. Justin wasn’t sure if it was a nervous response or if she was brushing away a tear. “I was recruited by the FBI,” she said quietly. “By Ackland. When I was still in Milwaukee. I didn’t know what was going on, I swear to God. They told me it was a question of national security. . I was working for the FBI and doing my job. That’s what I thought.”
