Lucid Intervals

35

Felicity took a sip of her Rob Roy. “Turns out that the records of the Parachute Regiment at the time Hackett alleges he was a member are stored in an army warehouse in Aldershot, south of London.”

“So?” Stone asked. “Are they available?”

“They are available,” she replied, “but they are a sodden, mold-infested mess, having been placed in a corner of the warehouse that has been flooded twice by huge rainstorms in the past two years.”

“What can you do about that?”

“I’ve been able to spare two document specialists who are trying to dry and extract the relevant pages,” she replied, “but quite frankly, if I had a dozen people to spare for a year, that might not be enough manpower or time to find Hackett’s and Timmons’s records.”

“In this country,” Stone said, “if you are fingerprinted for anything-military service, for instance-your prints end up in the FBI database. Is the same true in Britain?”

“Yes, and we’ve already been to the police, but that far back, none of the records have been computerized, so a search of paper records has to be done by hand. The problem that arises is that hardly anyone with the police is old enough to know how to accomplish such a search, as opposed to a computer search. We are being defeated by the lack of old skills among younger employees. What’s more, the records from that time have also been stored in a warehouse in boxes that were poorly labeled.”

“So you have no hope of finding a record of Hackett’s fingerprints?”

“Very little hope. It’s just barely possible that we might get lucky.”

“I have a suggestion,” Stone said.

“Please make it a good one.”

“Hackett is a naturalized American citizen,” Stone pointed out. “He would have been fingerprinted at the time of submitting his application for citizenship, and the State Department would have his application on file.”

Felicity brightened. “That is a very good suggestion, Stone. I’ll have the ambassador make inquiries tomorrow.” She wrinkled her brow. “I wonder what the State Department would make of a foreign ambassador inquiring about the fingerprints of an American citizen.”

“Good point,” Stone said. “It might be better to have your police make the request through the FBI.”

“Perhaps so,” she said. “I’ll phone the commander of the Metropolitan Police tomorrow and make the request.” She took another sip of her drink. “Why do you suppose Hackett wants you to learn to fly a jet aeroplane?”

“I can only guess,” Stone said. “When he was trying to persuade me to come to work for him he told me that, in a year, I’d be able to afford my own jet.”

“That must be very alluring for you,” Felicity said.

“It’s interesting, but not alluring.”

“I’ll bet you’ve had little-boy fantasies for years about flying your own jet.”

“I’m afraid you’re right,” Stone admitted.

“Then why don’t you go to work for him?”

“That’s what I’m doing right now; Woodman and Weld has assigned me to Hackett.”

“So what’s the difference?”

“The difference is, if you can prove that Hackett is Whitestone, you’re going to do something terrible to him, and Strategic Services would probably come crashing down without him to run it. Then where would I be?”

“Not at Woodman and Weld.”

“Exactly.”

“If that happened,” Dino pointed out, “you could sell your hypothetical jet and live on the proceeds.”

“Sell my hypothetical jet?” Stone asked. “Never!”

Felicity managed a laugh.

“You should do that more often,” Stone said. “You’ve been working too hard.”

“No harder than usual.”

“Who’s minding the store in London while you’re here?”

“I have a very competent deputy who handles the administrative side. The rest I am doing from the office here.”

“Don’t you ever have to make an appearance?” Dino asked.

“Eventually,” Felicity replied. “It’s not as though I’m the prime minister or some other public figure. I don’t have to appear in the newspapers or on television every day or be interviewed by anyone.”

“How much longer can I count on having you as my houseguest?” Stone asked.

“At least until we get to the bottom of the Hackett/Whitestone riddle,” she replied.

“Then I’ll have to work more slowly,” Stone said.