No, he had something up his sleeve. And it wasn’t long before it became apparent.
“I’m glad we had this little chat,” he said when we were done. “Because now I can fill you in on one last thing you don’t know. See, now you feel good. You think you have the truth, you’ve got it all on tape on that silly little camera. You think you’re going to go back home, be a big hero and live happily ever after with that woman of yours.”
“That’s the plan,” I told him.
He laughed. Weakly, barely-he was still in bad shape. “You have no idea. All this, everything that happened? It’s not us. It’s bigger than me, bigger than Eddy and the others. You really have no idea. But I can tell you one thing. You’re not even going to make it to breakfast tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, the next day. That tape of yours? No one’s going to see it. Go on, put it out on the Internet. Upload it right now. No one’s going to take it seriously. You’ll see. Well, you won’t-you won’t be around that long.” He turned to look at Deutsch. “You neither, honey.”
“You mean there were others?”
“Of course. Others who can’t possibly let this come out. Not now. Not ever. But especially not now.”
“Who?”
He chuckled his wheezy, grotesque chuckle again. “You’re just going to have to wait and see about that.”
I nodded to myself, knowing what was ahead of us. “I wish you hadn’t said that. I really do, Gordo. For your sake.”
It took another hour.
The cold, more water. And other stuff.
And then he talked.
And he was right.
It was going to be a problem.
I thought about it for a minute or two. Deutsch was standing back, in the cold, watching me in silence.
“Reilly,” she finally called out. “We have him. We have it all on tape. It’s done. Let’s take him in. It’s over. Let’s go home.”
It wasn’t over. Not with what he’d just told me.
“You heard what he said,” I told her. “He’s too connected. This thing’s too big. They’ll work out a deal.”
“We have enough to make sure they don’t.”
I thought about it some more.
Then I said, “I can’t take that chance.” I turned to her. “If not for you, or for me, then… for Nick. And all the others.”
I went over to the camera, made sure it was off. Then I pulled out my gun, went right up to Roos, and put a bullet through his head.
71
The next two days were intense.
Deutsch and I hadn’t gone public with the tape. We’d shared it with our boss-the first part of it, anyway-and he’d shared it upstream. Needless to say, it kicked up quite a shitstorm. The immediate result was that the FBI and the CIA got Arlington PD to drop any inquiries about me regarding Kirby’s murder and cleared my name, for the record. The rest-well, they all needed to figure out how they were going to handle it. There was a potential political, legal and public relations tsunami brewing, and I had little doubt a whole bunch of national security honchos and a few select politicos were having long, heated debates about what to do with Roos’s revelations.
What they ultimately decided wasn’t really up to me, nor would I be able to influence it. To be honest, I didn’t really care. Roos and Tomblin were dead, and I was just happy to be reunited with my family. It felt terrific to be back home with Tess, Kim and Alex. I was ready to sleep for a week, and the bureau obviously had no problem with me taking the next couple of weeks off. It was going to be a great Christmas, just hanging out at home enjoying my family. Enjoying the best things in life, right?
Kurt and Gigi had managed to hack into Orford’s computer and had found his notes relating to Alex. It made for some pretty shocking reading. I’d be passing it all on to Alex’s shrink in the New Year, right after the holidays, certain that it would help finally eradicate any lingering traces of everything they did to him.
All of which, of course, left one last thing to deal with. The thing we hadn’t shared with Gallo: the video recording we’d kept for ourselves.
The last part of Roos’s testimony.
The biggie.
I told Tess about it, of course. We’d spent hours talking about it, after I’d had the whole house swept twice for any hidden mikes or cameras. And the simple conclusion was that I couldn’t leave it alone.
For one thing, it wasn’t safe to do so. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my time looking over my shoulder. Or needing a taster to check anything I was about to put in my mouth, for that matter.
Besides, I couldn’t let it lie. No way.
I had to tackle this head on.
Which was why I was now being ushered into the Oval Office for a private audience with the president.
Yorke greeted me with a hearty handshake and a big slap on the shoulder. “My God, Reilly, I knew it had to be important for you to miss out on dinner with us like that, but dear Lord-from what I hear, you’ve been through a real wringer.”
“It’s been… intense,” I said flatly.
“Sit down, sit,” he said as he guided me to one of the armchairs by the twin sofas.
I wasn’t in the mood to sit down, but I felt I might as well. This wasn’t going to be easy.
“Tess, the kids-everyone excited about Christmas? Have you had time to do your shopping yet?”
“I’m not here to talk about that, sir.”
“No, of course you’re not. Well, let’s get right to it, then, shall we?”
I just nodded.
“Obviously, what you’ve uncovered… I’m still having a hard time processing it. We all are. And I’ve got to say, you did a great job getting to the bottom of it, a great job. It’s one hell of an achievement, son. But at the same time, it’s a huge headache. A monster of a migraine, in fact. We’re going to have to think about what we do with it very, very carefully. Revelations like that-they could cause the kind of damage our country might not recover from for years.”
I didn’t say anything back. I just fixed him squarely, trying to get a read of the man.
The problem was, I liked him. Up until that miserable evening in the Blue Ridge Mountains, up until I’d heard what Ross had to say about him, I liked our president. I’d always thought Hank Yorke was a good guy. He was reasoned, he was smart, he was respected. He’d guided our country through four decent, stable years. He wasn’t a polarizing figure, and the raging wars of partisanship had somewhat calmed down under him. I was proud to have saved his life and I would have been voting for him next year.
Not any more.
“It’ll take a while,” he continued. “In the meantime, I hope you’re going to take some time off and enjoy the holiday season with your family. You sure as hell deserve it.”
“That’s the plan,” I finally offered. “But before we do that, there’s something else we need to deal with.”
“Yes, of course,” he said, leaning forward. “You asked for this meeting. What can I do for you, Reilly?”
“I think it’s more about what I can do for you.”
He looked perplexed. “What do you mean?”
“There was a second part of Roos’s testimony. One I haven’t shared with the Bureau.” I paused, gauging him.
His eyes narrowed just slightly, but it was there. “Oh?”
I nodded. “Roos told me about Viking. About you and the Janitors. I know everything there is to know about that.”
His expression clouded, but being the consummate politician that he was, it wasn’t the jolt you would expect to follow me saying something like that.
“And I’ve got to say,” I added, “whoever came up with your code name-they should have been fired.”