‘And what was that question?’
‘Perhaps you’d like to hear for yourself.’ The Deputy Director pressed the ‘Play’ button on the tape recorder and sat back.
‘Me too. Black, no sugar.’ Footsteps could be heard walking away. ‘Joan, I’ve never asked you to break a confidence before, but there’s something I have to know.’
‘I hope I can help, but as I’ve already explained, if it concerns Connor, I’m probably as much in the dark as you are.’
‘Then I need the name of someone who isn’t in the dark.’
There followed a long silence before Joan said, ‘I suggest you look at the guest-list for Connor’s farewell party.’
‘Chris Jackson?’
‘No. Unfortunately, he’s no longer employed by the Company.’
There was another long silence.
‘That smooth little man who left without saying goodbye? The one who said he worked in loss adjustment?’
Gutenburg flicked off the tape.
‘Why did you ever go to that party?’ snapped Dexter.
‘Because you instructed me to find out if Fitzgerald had landed a job that would keep him in Washington. Don’t forget that it was his daughter who gave us the lead that made it possible to convince Thompson that it might not be wise to employ him. I’m sure you recall the circumstances.’
The Director frowned. ‘What happened after Mrs Fitzgerald left the Café Milano?’
‘Nothing significant until she returned home that night, when she made several calls — she never makes personal calls from the office — including one to Chris Jackson’s cellphone.’
‘Why would she do that, when she knew he’d left the Company?’
‘They go back a long way. He and Fitzgerald served in Vietnam together. In fact, it was Jackson who recommended Fitzgerald for the Medal of Honor, and who recruited him as an NOC.’
‘Did Jackson tell her about you?’ asked Dexter in disbelief.
‘No, he didn’t have a chance,’ replied Gutenburg. ‘I gave an order to block his cellphone the moment we discovered he was in Russia.’ He smiled. ‘We can, however, still identify who’s been trying to call him, and who he’s been trying to call.’
‘Does that mean you’ve found out who he’s reporting back to?’
‘Jackson has only dialled one number on that line since he landed in Russia, and I suspect he only risked that because it was an emergency.’
‘Who did he call?’ asked Dexter impatiently.
‘An unlisted number at the White House.’
Dexter didn’t even blink. ‘Our friend Mr Lloyd, no doubt.’
‘No doubt,’ replied Gutenburg.
‘Is Mrs Fitzgerald aware that Jackson is reporting directly to the White House?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said Gutenburg. ‘Otherwise I suspect she would have tried to contact him herself some time ago.’
Dexter nodded. ‘Then we must make certain that she never finds out.’
Gutenburg showed no emotion. ‘Understood. But I can’t do anything about that until I’ve got my hands on the family video.’
‘What’s the latest status on that?’ asked Dexter.
‘We wouldn’t have progressed an inch if we hadn’t picked up a clue in an intercepted phone call. When Joan Bennett rang Mrs Fitzgerald from Langley at two in the morning to say she’d be with her in an hour, one of my people checked what she’d been calling up on the reference library’s computer. It soon became clear that she must have stumbled on something that made her suspect it was her old boss who was in prison in St Petersburg. But, as you know, she never kept her appointment with Mrs Fitzgerald.’
‘A little too close for comfort.’
‘Agreed. But when she failed to turn up, Mrs Fitzgerald drove out to the GW Parkway and waited for the police to dredge up the car.’
‘She probably saw a report on TV, or heard about it on the radio,’ said Dexter.
‘Yes, that’s what we assumed — the story led the local news that morning. Once she knew for certain it was Bennett in the car, she immediately phoned her daughter at Stanford. If she sounds a little sleepy, that’s because it was only five o’clock in the morning in California.’ He leant forward again and touched the ‘Play’ button on the tape recorder.
‘Hi, Tara. It’s Mom.’
‘Hi, Mom. What time is it?’
‘I’m sorry to call so early, darling, but I have some very sad news.’
‘Not Dad?’
‘No, Joan Bennett — she’s been killed in a car crash.’
‘Joan’s dead? I can’t believe it. Tell me it’s not true.’
‘I’m afraid it is. And I have a terrible feeling that in some way it’s connected to the reason Connor hasn’t returned home.’
‘Come on, Mom, aren’t you getting a little paranoid? After all, Dad’s only been away for three weeks.’
‘You may be right, but I’ve still decided to move that video you made of his farewell party to a safer place.’
‘Why?’
‘Because it’s the only proof I have that your father ever met a man called Nick Gutenburg, let alone worked for him.’
The Deputy Director touched the ‘Stop’ button. ‘The conversation continues for some time, but it doesn’t add a great deal to our knowledge. When Mrs Fitzgerald left the house a few minutes later carrying a videotape, the officer listening in realised the significance of what he’d just heard, and tailed her to the university. She didn’t go straight to the Admissions Office as usual, but dropped in at the library, where she went to the computer section on the first floor. She spent twenty minutes searching for something on one of the computers, and left with a printout of about a dozen pages. Then she took the elevator down to the audio-visual research centre on the ground floor. The officer didn’t want to risk joining her in the elevator, so once he knew which floor she’d stopped at, he went to the computer she’d been working on and tried to call up the last file that had been opened.’
‘She’d erased everything, of course,’ said Dexter.
‘Of course,’ said Gutenburg.
‘But what about the printout?’
‘Again, no clue as to what was on it.’
‘She can’t have lived with Connor Fitzgerald for twenty-eight years and not picked up something about the way we work.’
‘The officer left the library and waited in his car. After a few minutes Mrs Fitzgerald came out of the building. She was no longer carrying the tape, but she was...’
‘She must have deposited it in the audio-visual centre.’
‘Exactly my thought,’ said Gutenburg.
‘How many tapes does the university store in its library?’
‘Over twenty-five thousand,’ said Gutenburg.
‘We don’t have enough time to go through them all,’ said Dexter.
‘We wouldn’t have, if Mrs Fitzgerald hadn’t made her first mistake.’
Dexter didn’t interrupt this time.
‘When she left the library she didn’t have the video, but she did have the printout. Our agent followed her to the Admissions Office, where I’m happy to say her principles got the better of her.’
Dexter raised an eyebrow.
‘Before returning to her office, Mrs Fitzgerald called in at the recycling centre. She’s not the Vice-President of GULP by accident.’