Choppy Water

22

When Elizabeth arrived at her desk on Monday morning, there was an encrypted e-mail waiting for her. She ran the app, then read the message. Alfresco lunch today? 12:30? She responded: OK.

She bought a deli sandwich at noon, then drove to Rock Creek Park and left her car in a legal space. She walked down a trail and found a picnic table; he was already there.

He rose to greet her, a cool handshake. “Have a seat,” he said.

They both opened their bags and began eating their sandwiches.

“Is anything wrong?” she asked.

“I’m concerned by your lack of progress,” he said.

She frowned. “What more do you expect me to do?”

“I want you to tie Sykes and his cohorts to the shootings of the Secret Service agents in Maine.”

“Well, I know that, but I can’t find a provable connection.”

“Have you found a connection that you can’t prove?”

“No, no connection at all; only the visit to the Georgetown house.”

“That’s breaking and entering with a deadly weapon at best,” he said.

“Do you think I don’t know that?”

“I know you know it.”

“There’s something else you should know about, though.” She handed him the passage from the Barker file, and he read it.

“So what?” He handed it back to her.

“I may have made an error in judgment,” she said.

“How so?”

“My hope was that reading it might jolt Sykes into talking about her, telling me more. Instead, it may have set off something that could be difficult to control.”

“Tell me everything.”

She did, and when she was finished neither of them said anything for a while.

“You’re right,” he said. “This could open a can of worms we don’t want to go near. That guy, Wimmer, is a rumor machine. This will end up on Fox News as a conspiracy theory that could be difficult to handle, and for years to come.”

“I had hoped that you might be able to think of a way to turn this around on Sykes and Wimmer before they can propagate it,” she said.

“Have you thought of anything?”

“Yes, but I don’t have the contacts to pull it off.”

“Pull what off?”

“I had thought we might get this story out in some more conventional medium, maybe a newspaper interview.”

“You mean if Barker brings it up in an interview, and it’s published, it might negate Wimmer’s efforts?”

“Yes, then she could say, ‘That’s hardly a surprise. I already spoke with a journalist about it in an interview. It doesn’t surprise me that Wimmer would try to twist it, though.’”

He thought about that for a moment. “Disarm their weapon, so to speak?”

“Exactly. Do you know someone, a journalist, who could help?”

“I know someone who could accomplish that, as long as she didn’t know we were using her as a counter to Wimmer.”

“Who’s that?”

“Do you know Peg Parsons?”

“I read her column, but I’ve never met her. I take it you have.”

“Yes, we had a thing for a few months in college, but it was a long time ago, and it didn’t last.”

“Would she be glad to hear from you?”

“That’s the thing. I don’t know.”

“It couldn’t hurt to try, could it?”

“I don’t know that, either. If it went wrong, it might make things worse.”

“Well, I don’t have any other ideas nearly as good as this. It’s worth trying.”

“If I can handle it.”

“Look, why don’t you just swear her to secrecy and tell her the whole story?”

“That might screw it up.”

“Wouldn’t it be worse to lie to her, then have her catch on?”

“She’d be furious, in that case.”

“I say it’s worth a try.”

“That would amount to recruiting her.”

“I think she’d think it amounts to a scoop,” Elizabeth said.

“Let me think about it. There’s my wife to consider, too.”

“How does your wife come into it?”

“If she that heard Peg and I saw each other, she’d go right through the roof. I made the mistake of telling her that we had been fucking at Georgetown, and she sort of grinds her teeth when she hears Peg’s name.”

“Then you’re going to have to be up front with your wife, too,” Elizabeth said.

“That’s easier said than done,” he replied.

“Tom, are you afraid of your wife?”

“You’re damned right I am. You don’t know her; she has a bad temper when she’s riled, and a violent streak, too. She broke one of my teeth with a wine bottle once.”

“Well, if you’re contemplating divorce, here’s your chance,” Elizabeth said.

“Maybe,” he said, “if I can convince her up front that it’s a matter of national security...”

“Tom, how did you ever get to be an assistant director of the FBI? You’re afraid of your own wife!”

“I can’t deny that,” he said.

“Look, here’s how to handle her.” Elizabeth outlined a plan.

“And part of it is, I have to be mad at her?”

“You’ll be mad at her, because her attitude is forcing you to tell her about a top secret op, just to placate her in advance.”

“I’m not sure I’m that good an actor,” he replied.

“Well, there’s no time to send you to the Actors Studio for training.”

“They didn’t cover this at Quantico,” he said.

“They covered undercover, didn’t they?”

“Yeah.”

“Look at this as if you’re going undercover as yourself.”

He burst out laughing.

“Is it such a crazy idea?”

“It is a crazy idea, but it might work.”

“Don’t overthink it. You have to be real.”

“She’s real enough for both of us,” he said.

“Just get it done.” She wadded up her paper bag and took aim at a waste bin.

Tom took it out of her hand. “I’ll dispose of this,” he said.

“We’re leaving no trace, huh?”

“Exactly.”