‘I just about live in this room. Sorry about the crumbs on the table.’
‘We have those at our office too,’ Raveneau said. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
‘I’ll go get the coffee going.’
The chairs were leather, a type la Rosa called man-club style. They were comfortable and Fine’s life looked very comfortable, though la Rosa told him Fine paid his dues as a journalist and started the blog in desperation after his newspaper downsized him. Now the blog had strong advertising support. Still, being married to someone in the financial arts couldn’t hurt.
He looked at la Rosa. ‘Is it what you pictured?’
‘Not exactly.’
‘Nicer?’
‘Very nice.’
The decision to be a cop is a decision to be middle class. It meant you could never be sure about the future. Fire and police pensions were about to get cut, if not this year, next year. California’s unfunded pension funds were a five hundred billion dollar time bomb and San Francisco had its own problems. Fine didn’t appear to have those problems. He returned carrying a tray with a modern, insulated silver coffee pot and three chipped mugs to keep it casual.
‘Sorry to keep you waiting.’
‘Sorry we surprised you,’ la Rosa said. Raveneau who couldn’t think of anything to be sorry about didn’t say anything.
‘So what can I do for you?’
‘We’re part of an investigation that you wrote about yesterday,’ la Rosa said. ‘It’s a joint investigation with Federal agencies, but we’re very much a part of it.’
‘Are you here to ask for my source?’
‘We’re here to talk with you about your source,’ she said. ‘As I think you’re aware, this is a very significant threat.’
‘I don’t understand. You’re homicide inspectors. It’s a terror plot investigation.’
Raveneau believed there was a larger truth in the continuing polarization of politics in the country. Access to information tied into privilege. Fine was among the privileged, yet at the same time Fine obviously prided himself on his empathetic connection to the underprivileged and downtrodden. He wrote his belief in democracy with those threads and Raveneau figured Fine couldn’t help but notice right now that before him were two of the middle class. Not lower class but still they were probably pretty good stand-ins this morning. La Rosa’s clothes were from Target. His shoes cost less than the slippers on Fine’s feet. Fine’s desk alone was at least a ten thousand dollar sculpture of glass and steel.
‘It’s a complex and organized plot,’ Raveneau said. ‘We followed a lead in a homicide investigation and came into it from a different angle.’
Fine turned to him.
‘I understand FBI teams were sent to Pakistan. Is that true?’
‘It might be true, but I think they were probably doing just what the plotters wanted.’
‘You do?’
Raveneau nodded. Fine held Raveneau’s gaze then looked at la Rosa again. Raveneau knew from la Rosa’s tutorial that Fine graduated from Stanford, worked in New York then Washington for many years before returning to the Bay Area. He built his blog when competition was still thin and the postings sporadic. He brought a competitor’s discipline hardened from years of deadlines.
‘Who is most at risk?’ Fine asked, and la Rosa was ready. ‘We don’t know but we do know from the weapons where the real casualties will be.’
That was like soft-pitching him one to hit out of the park. ‘On the street?’
‘Yes.’
Fine leaned forward and poured himself more coffee. ‘Anybody else?’
‘I’m good,’ Raveneau said and then, ‘How much do you know about the bomb threat?’
‘If I tell you am I putting my source at risk?’
‘No.’
‘Not even if the source is inside your department?’
‘It’s not.’
‘That’s true, but how could you possibly know that?’
‘No one in our department would care about a shakeup at the FBI. But another federal agency might and someone within that agency might have personal ambitions that could jeopardize our chances. I’m not talking about the public being alerted and aware. Frankly, I’m for that.’
‘So am I, Inspector.’
‘Your source must be too.’
But that wasn’t necessarily the case and Fine seemed to acknowledge that.
‘There’s a point,’ la Rosa said, and paused, her lips briefly pursed, ‘a point where information can be useful to the plotters.’
‘You’re not going to try to sell me that old saw, are you?’
‘Worse,’ Raveneau said. ‘We’re going to tell you this time it’s different.’
‘How?’
‘There’s no proof and you can’t print it, but you could ask your source if there’s any chance of this. We’d like you to ask and gauge the response.’
‘OK.’
‘Your source will dismiss the idea but we see a pattern that suggests the plotters are getting help from inside law enforcement. That doesn’t mean it is local help.’
‘And you say my source will dismiss that?’
‘I’m betting he or she will.’
Fine looked down at his coffee and Raveneau got the feeling Fine’s source might not be local.
‘You are asking me to say something I can’t say credibly. I can tell you my source is very bright and if I throw out an idea like this that I can’t possibly know about, I’m going to get questions. I may lose my access.’
‘Don’t lose your access.’
‘What’s it to you?’
‘Just hear us out. We’re going to give you something but we can’t give you much because we don’t know how much the other side knows or doesn’t know about the investigation. You’ll have to be oblique.’
Fine nodded, barely, but it was a nod.
‘Reference the quadruple slaying at Khan’s cabinet shop and the subsequent murder of Khan and his wife.’
‘The burglar?’
‘It wasn’t a burglar. That’s very vague but can you work with that?’
‘Yes.’
‘In return we’d like to know what you learn.’
‘OK, but is the public going to get warned soon?’
‘That will probably come soon in a joint press conference with SFPD and the FBI. It might happen today. It might happen tomorrow, but it will happen because we’re not sure where this thing is at.’
‘So they’re covering their asses.’
Raveneau left that alone and added, ‘Your source can’t know you were visited by homicide inspectors. That’s very important.’
Fine’s eyes half closed and he was obviously skeptical. He was quiet then surprised Raveneau, saying, ‘That has implications I don’t even like to think about.’
‘It does and we need to ask one question about your source.’
‘I thought we agreed you weren’t going to.’
‘FBI or Secret Service?’
‘Who will know I told you?’
‘We’ll keep it to ourselves.’
‘For how long?’
‘For as long as we possibly can.’
‘My credibility depends-’
‘We’ll protect you.’
He looked at la Rosa and back at Raveneau. ‘It’s an old connection. It’s someone I went to school with years ago. He’s moved steadily upward in all that time. He’s not in the FBI or Secret Service, and you’ll never touch him. He worked for the CIA and he’s in some offshoot now that doesn’t even have a name.’ He looked past Raveneau at the wall behind then said, ‘I’ll call you.’
FORTY-ONE
‘ You still get to read,’ Brooks said, ‘but the situation has changed. You can sit at my desk and read what was sent to me, but I’m not going to print anything for you. And I have to tell you we’ve had a long-standing good relationship with SFPD and people here are angry we were bypassed the night the bomb casings were lost. It wasn’t our ineptitude but it’s going to fall on us. The field office here doesn’t look very good right now.’
‘I was in Hawaii.’
Brooks was close enough for Raveneau to smell his aftershave. He was too close and too urgent.
‘This wouldn’t have happened if we’d been involved or if your CIU team was on them. The FBI lost them. They added agents. They brought in people that don’t even know the area. They’re arrogant. They are endlessly stupidly fucking arrogant, but it’s going to land here when the White House cancels the President’s visit and after everybody and his brother learns what happened. Some blogger has already written about them. I’m angry. I’m very angry.’