“At work,” she stated.
“You may need them elsewhere,” Planner suggested helpfully.
“Elsewhere? At home?”
“Or mail them to friends or family. Someone you can trust.”
“Like you?”
“I mean really trust.”
“Still you.”
Planner smiled. “Well, thanks. But, probably not me.”
“I’ve got to go. But we need to talk. How are you with ten year olds? Can you meet me at Rock Creek Park after lunch?”
They agreed to meet later. Planner walked over to an antique desk in his living room and opened the roll top shutter. His Amish desk had many individual storage compartments and drawers including a secret compartment. By sliding a block of wood, a drawer popped open on the side of the desk, which held a set of keys. He took the keys back to his workroom where he had his laptop, books and other assorted clutter, poorly arranged on shelves. Planner opened a filing cabinet and extracted a metal box. Within the box was his bug detection kit. This was standard issue equipment for the CIA operatives in covert missions. It was old equipment, surplus to requirements. Planner inherited the equipment when more sophisticated equipment was issued. Planner replaced the 9 volt battery and switched it on. He adjusted the sensitivity button and patrolled the house. It does not take long to scan for active bugs.
Planner found no active bugs. He was about to put the detector back when he decided to do another scan using the non-linear junction detector function108. By making it actively sweep at particular radio frequencies, the device can detect inactive bugging devices as well as active ones: those devices that are currently transmitting signals. Since this generates a lot of “false positives”, that is, alerts generated from ordinary pieces of equipment, it takes longer to perform the sweep. He checked out the TV, the laptop computer, the cell phone, the microwave cooker, the landline phone… Planner paused. That reading was not quite right. He checked the landline telephone again. The detector bleeped urgently when moved close to the receiver. Planner took a pocketknife from his desk and carefully prised the plastic handset apart. It popped open quite easily revealing the components and wires expected in such a device. But beside the receiver loudspeaker was a small, disconnected component no bigger than a quarter. It consisted of a hearing-aid-style, flat battery, an integrated circuit and a plastic blob, probably a microphone. This was a state-of-the-art, professionally made listening device, obviously left in the room some time ago. Planner knew from his own experience that the batteries could operate for between one month and three. So in all probability, Planner reckoned, the bug must have been installed around the time of his wife’s death. Planner used tweezers to pick up the item and placed it in a plastic bag. He reassembled his phone and wrote a note of date and time and stapled the note to the bag.
Planner resumed his search around the house but found nothing more.
* * * *
Planner and Katherine sat on a park bench at Rock Creek Park on a slope overlooking a baseball diamond where a team of young, uniformed girls were playing baseball under the supervision of some adults.
“So which one is Beth?”
“She’ll be coming into bat shortly.”
“That professional looking one?”
Katherine aimed a fake slap on Planner’s shoulder, “Oh, stop it.”
“So is that her?” he said as the new batter appeared.
“Yes, that’s my darling.”
Planner nodded.
“So, we’re here to talk about work? You were saying it wasn’t going well?” she said.
“There’s a situation at work,” Planner frowned.
“Can you tell me about it?”
“You’ll just think I’m paranoid,” Planner looked down.
“Try me.”
“A colleague died at work the other day. In a car accident. In the same way my wife died,” Planner said coldly.
“That’s shocking. It must been dreadful; digging up old wounds. The same way?”
“Uncannily the same,” Planner said.
“What a horrible coincidence,” said Katherine looking away.
“Coincidences rarely happen. In my job, they never do,” said Planner.
“Rarely? But…” said Katherine.
“Oh they are reported all the time in the newspapers. But coincidences are not part of police work. And not part of my work.”
“Hmm, so what sort of secret defence contract are you doing?” she said, restoring eye contact.
“Secret secret,” said Planner.
“Are you in some sort of trouble?”
“No. Quite the reverse,” sighed Planner.
“Ah… I don’t understand, of course. Are you saying your wife had enemies?” she said.
“No,” said Planner, but then, unusually, he changed his mind. “I don’t know.” Planner stammered and looked away.
“Can you tell me about her? You’ve hardly ever mentioned her. I understand that you don’t really want to,” cajoled Katherine gently.
“We met through a mutual friend. She was a wild child of a rich family. Disowned them. She loved life, animals, nature. She spoke her mind. Had lots of friends, no enemies that I can really think of.”
“So family? Were they out to get her?”
“No, all reconciled,” said Planner, finding eye contact hard.
“But you think there may be something, someone?”
“She campaigned for electric cars. The children’s health angle.109”
“Electric cars? Hardly radical!”
“That’s what I thought. But she was good. She knew people on the California Air Resources Board. They were the people that could say yes or no to electric cars. They made the laws. And when I said that she knew them, I meant she had real hold over them.”
“Blackmail?” Katherine whispered.
“Could be. Nothing too serious, I expect. Probably just making them remember why the legislation was required,” Planner smiled grimly.
“So someone on the board took a contract out on her?” gasped Katherine.
“Maybe a tip off. Or hinted. I don’t know. It’s just that I’ve seen what vested interests are prepared to do. And how easily triggered they are into drastic actions,” said Planner struggling with the words.
“Vested interests. Like what?”
“Like… just like what you’ve seen with Enron,” said Planner uncertainly.
“So, you think… maybe Big Oil is behind it?”
“Could be. I’ve no way of telling,” sighed Planner.
“And you’ve only just had this realisation?” she asked.
“I guess I’ve suppressed any suspicion until this recent colleague’s death. It flooded out, I kind of collapsed with the epiphany, and then, an hour later, I was effectively given a promotion… or at least a huge chunk of responsibility. But in the meantime, my confidence in my work, has vaporised.”
“Really? Oh no.”
“It felt… very bizarre. Sorry, I’m feeling like a fool,” he confessed.
“You say you’ve lost confidence? Has your boss found out?” she said.
Planner said, looking at the ground, “It’s not quite like that. There’s an unwritten pact between us. I do bad things, Katherine.”
“And you might lose your job?” she said, confused.
Still looking at the ground, he said, “No, I do bad things for my job. And they promote me for it. It’s kind of sick. I can justify my past actions; making omelettes by breaking eggs… Loyalty to colleagues; to a cause; my family. But my job has never been pretty.”
Katherine gulped.
“But the needs of many outweigh the needs of the few,” sighed Planner.
Katherine took this opportunity to break the gloom, “That’s from Star Trek, right?”
Planner smirked back at her, “Now I know I am cracking up,” he said grimly.
They made eye contact again and they both fell silent and looked at each other for a long couple of seconds. Katherine broke the spell and asked a more serious question, “You’re saying the end justifies the means, perhaps?”
Planner relaxed a little more, “Yes, I think the real philosophy is supposed to be the greatest good to the greatest number of people. But I’m thinking… there comes a point when the immoral becomes evil and actually poisons the well. So actually, the end doesn’t justify the means. And I’m used to being ruthless about such matters. Like you wouldn’t believe. Like a pilot sent out to bomb the enemy and finding out you’ve bombed refugees. I’ve done similar bad things and justified it for the sake of the mission or blamed it on war. But I hadn’t thought through the bigger picture.”