Hell's Corner

CHAPTER 40

It took the better part of three hours, but Stone finally brought them all up to speed on the case. Finn, Reuben and Caleb sat in chairs ringed around Stone’s desk while Annabelle perched on top of the desk. Alex Ford was not with them because he was on duty.

“So the bomber, at least one of them, has been caught,” said Caleb.

“Seems that way,” answered Stone.

“Only you don’t look convinced,” said Finn. He had on a dark blue windbreaker, jeans, dusty boots and his Glock.

“All the evidence is there,” said Stone. “In fact, too much.”

“FBI see it that way?” asked Reuben.

“I don’t know, seeing as how I’m a bit out of favor with them right now.”

“If not this tree guy, who then?” interjected Annabelle. “If you’re saying he was set up, it’s a hell of a setup.”

“Agreed.” Stone was about to say something else when someone knocked on his door.

It was Chapman. She stepped inside and saw the others.

Stone said bluntly, “I’ve finally come to my senses and asked my friends to help us out.”

Chapman looked around at them. “Help us how?” she said in a skeptical tone.

“In the investigation.”

“And what agency are they with?”

Caleb volunteered, “I’m with the Library of Congress.”

Chapman stared at him, openmouthed. “The bloody hell you are.”

He looked taken aback. “I beg your pardon?”

She turned to Stone. “What the hell is going on here?”

“I spoke with McElroy last night. He gave me the FBI file on the incident in Pennsylvania. I’ve gone through it. With them.”

“With your friends? Who are going to help us?” she said slowly, as though not believing her own words. “A bloody librarian!”

Caleb said with dignity, “I’m actually a rare book specialist. In my field that’s like being James Bond.”

Chapman drew her pistol with enviable speed and placed it against Caleb’s forehead. “Well, in my field, little man, that means shit.”

She put her gun away while Caleb looked like he might have a stroke.

“Do I have a choice?” asked Chapman.

“In what?” asked Stone.

“In working with them?”

“If you want to continue to work with me, you’ll have to work with them.”

“You lot do things a bit peculiarly over here.”

“Yes, we do,” agreed Stone. “So would you like me to fill you in on the FBI’s report? Unless McElroy has done the honors already?”

Twenty minutes later Chapman was fully informed both of the content of the report and Stone’s skepticism with its conclusions.

“So if Kravitz might not have done it, who did?” she asked.

“That’s what we have to find out. But I may be wrong and the FBI right.”

“And we’ll be doing this how, with the FBI’s knowledge and cooperation?”

“I would say with neither their cooperation nor knowledge,” Stone replied.

Chapman pulled Caleb from his chair and plopped down in it. “All right. Do you have any whiskey here?”

“Why?”

“Well, if I’m going to break the law and my oath of service I’d like to do it in a bit more relaxed frame of mind, if you don’t mind.”

“You don’t have to do it at all, Agent Chapman,” said Stone. “This is my plan and my responsibility. Your boss will understand fully once I talk to him. Then you can back out gracefully.”

“And then what, I get my arse shipped back to the good old UK?”

“Something like that.”

“I don’t think so. Unfinished business bothers the devil out of me.”

Stone smiled. “I can understand that.”

She sat forward. “So where do we go from here?”

“With a plan, an ever-evolving one, but one that involves no one else getting hurt,” said Stone firmly.

“I don’t think you or anyone else can guarantee that, Oliver,” said Annabelle.

“Then at least a plan that allows maximum protection for all of you.”

“Doesn’t sound all that much fun, really,” said Reuben.

Chapman eyed him with interest. “So you’re willing to die for the cause?”

He faced her with a defiant gaze. “I’m willing to die for my friends.”

“I like your way of thinking, Reuben,” said Chapman, giving him a wink.

“Well, there’s a lot more of me to like, MI6.”

Caleb had watched this exchange with growing frustration. He turned to Stone. “So is there something we can do now?”

“Yes,” Stone said. “I actually have something for each of you to do that will utilize your strengths.”

Caleb looked at Chapman. “I usually get the dangerous stuff.”

“Really?” she said, looking bemused.

“It’s my lot in life, I suppose. You should take a drive with me sometime. I think that will explain everything. I’m a real daredevil. Just ask Annabelle.”

“Oh yeah,” said Annabelle. “If you want to drive yourself nuts spend a couple days zooming around country roads with Mr. Speedy while he drones on and on about some dead writer no one but him has ever heard of.”

“Sounds delightful,” replied Chapman. “Sort of like gnawing off one’s arm for sport.”

“Caleb,” said Stone. “I’d like you to research at the library all events to be held at Lafayette Park over the next month.”

Chapman’s lips twitched as she stared at a red-faced Caleb. “I’d go in with at least two machine guns for that one, mate.”

Stone proceeded to give out the rest of the assignments to the others. Before they left, Annabelle gave him a hug.

“Good to be back where we belong.”

Chapman was the last to leave.

Stone said, “I’ll meet you at the park in three hours.”

“Do you really trust these people?”

“With my life.”

“Who are they? I mean really.”

“The Camel Club.”

“The Camel Club? What the hell is that?”

“The most important thing in my life,” answered Stone. “Only I forgot that for a little bit.”