“What the hell, Nick? What are you doing?”
He looked straight at me-his expression tense and apprehensive as I did the obligatory struggling gesture with my cuffed hand. The cushioning may have been past its comfort date, but the metal frame was rock solid.
“Nick,” I blurted. “Don’t do this.”
“I’m sorry.” He was quite deliberately echoing my earlier reply.
“I’m getting closer,” I rasped. “The shooter who followed me to Kirby’s house must be working for Corrigan. And they don’t want me to find out the truth about my father. Why else would they act now? They could have killed me anytime.”
“Sean, listen to yourself. ‘CR’? That could be anyone.”
“What about Azorian? I told you. I saw it on his desk-”
Nick exploded. “That was a zillion years ago, for Christ’s sake! How can you possibly be sure you remember it right? And anyway, say there is this big conspiracy, say you find out something bad happened to your dad? What then? Then you have to find out who was involved. And why. And then you need to punish them. Just like with Alex. There’s no end to that journey, Sean. And you want to do it all by yourself. Without me, without the Bureau. On the sly. That’s just nuts, Sean. How in God’s name can you not see that?”
I was about ready to explode myself, but I took a breath and looked my partner right in the eye. The whole set up was so absurd that I’d resolved not to share it with anyone, but the time had come for full disclosure.
“Look, there’s… there’s something else. I didn’t tell you because he said not to tell anyone. So they don’t get killed.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Some guy called me. I don’t know who. Electronic voice modulator, prepaid, the works. He told me he had information about my dad. He said he would tell me the truth. We arranged to meet but he didn’t show.”
“Are you actually hearing yourself? And this ‘deep throat’… you’re saying he didn’t show up. Meaning you went to the meet alone. Without me to back you up. And maybe grab the guy and bitch-slap the truth out of him. That’s just-that’s great, Sean. Just real clear thinking there.”
“I didn’t want to get you sucked into this.”
Nick raised his hands and shook the air with them. “So you decide to head down to DC to blackmail Kirby into getting you that information. Just like that. You see what I’m talking about, right? This isn’t an investigation, Sean. It’s one burnt-out, revenge-obsessed agent on a mission to self-destruct.” The veins popped on his neck as he yelled it. “So this is my intervention, OK? I’m not going to let you do it. Not for my sake-I mean, forget me. I’m irredeemable. But for Tess and Kim. And Alex. Hell, and for you, ’cause I love you, you dumb fuck.” He held my gaze, then plunked himself back down heavily on the sofa across the room from my armchair.
He pulled out his phone. “You’re going to hand yourself in.”
I shook my head. “No, Nick. Don’t…”
“You’re giving yourself up. Right now.”
I watched him unlock his phone. “No. Listen to me. You think I’ll be safe with the cops? These guys want me dead. Put me in some holding cell and they’ll get to me.”
“We’re not going to the cops. We’re keeping this in house. I’ll take you down to Federal Plaza. We’ll go over the whole thing with Gallo, step by step. Then we’ll decide what the hell we’re going to do.”
“They’ll get to me. Anywhere in the system and they’ll get to me.”
“Not on my watch.”
He took out his phone and hit dial. He waited for several seconds, then said, “Boss? Sorry to wake you. Yeah, it’s about Reilly.” A beat, then he rolled his eyes. “Let me get a God damn word in and I’ll tell you.”
I could hear his teeth grinding as he listened to the Assistant Director in Charge ream him out.
“He’s here, with me,” he finally put in. “He wants to hand himself in, but only if you can guarantee FBI custody.” A pause, then, “OK. We’ll be waiting.”
He ended the call.
I felt like someone had unloaded a cement mixer in the pit of my stomach. “What have you done, man?”
“I’m saving your life.”
I shook my head with despair. “You think Gallo, of all people, will honor that?”
“You’re one of his. I think the ADIC will do whatever it takes to give the Bureau a chance of containing this cluster fuck. And I’ll be here to make sure of it.”
“They won’t give us Corrigan. Without him, we’ve got nothing.”
“You saved the president’s life, Sean. Maybe it’s time we called in the big guns.”
“Even then, you’ll come up empty handed, trust me.”
“You should have a little faith, Sean.”
“I’m all out.”
There was nothing left to say. We just sat there in silence and waited for the callback from Gallo. We were both clearly running different scenarios through our rattled brains, because Nick then broke the silence and said, “If the Bureau doesn’t get anywhere, we go to the press.”
I shrugged. “If I’m not dead by then.”
“Let me worry about keeping you alive. You think about what you’re going to tell Tess.”
Her name hit me even harder than the pistol whipping. Everything frittered away as my head filled with images of my family. Maybe Nick was right. Maybe my resolve to find out what happened to my dad so I could let go of the past was stopping me from seeing what effect the present was having on Tess and our kids and putting our future at risk.
Either way, I’d be dealing with it from inside an FBI interview room.
Nick’s phone rang. He picked up, listened, then said, “OK. We’ll meet you there in an hour.”
He turned to me. “Gallo’s coming in.” He then reached over and handed me his phone. “You need to call Tess. Then you need to find yourself a good lawyer.”
15
Washington, DC
“Sean, what the hell’s going on? The FBI says you’re wanted for-”
I heard some shuffling movement on the other end of the line, like someone was taking the phone from her, then a male voice said, “Agent Reilly? This is Tom Murray. DC field office. Where are you?”
So they were there already.
I was fully expecting it, but still. It was an easy trail. My gun. My prints. My rental car, in my name. Train tickets bought together. A quick call, maybe to the house or to the office, would have shown us being in DC for the big dinner. A hotel check would have kicked up our reservation.
The dinner. I wondered when they’d got to Tess. Before, after or-ouch-during.
“I’m in FBI custody in New York. I’ve handed myself in to Special Agent Aparo. Can you please put Tess back on the phone?”
Saying it there and then-it felt odd that I couldn’t say what my instinct would have made me say, which was, “put my wife back on the phone.” I felt a small tug at the pit of my stomach about that. Maybe it was something I ought to fix. Assuming she wanted it. Assuming it would be still be relevant. Assuming we still had a life together to look forward to.
“You’ll pardon my being a bit of a stickler about this, but I’ll need some confirmation of that first.”
“Hang on.”
I passed the phone to Nick, told him what he needed to do. He spoke to Murray for a minute or so, explained the situation. Gave him the reassurance he needed. Then he handed it back to me.
“Sean?” It was Tess’s voice. “What’s going on?”
Hearing her like that, weary and worried-not easy.
“It’s… complicated.”
“Don’t give me that. What’s going on?”
I had to smile to myself. She was tough, and I needed to remind myself that, whatever happened, she’d be in my corner. “I’ll tell you the whole story when I see you. Long story short, someone got shot and they’ve made it look like I did it.”