Mortal Faults

51

Abby’s stomach was strongly advising her that it was breakfast time when the door finally opened and Tess came in.

“Thought you folks forgot about me.”

Tess smiled a little-a tight, nervous smile. “We didn’t forget.” She took out a handcuff key and released Abby from the manacle.

“So what’s it’s gonna be?” Abby asked. “Lethal injection or firing squad?”

“Come with me.”

Abby stood up, massaging her wrist, though it wasn’t really sore. It just seemed like the right thing to do. “Come where?”

“The director wants to see you.”

“J. Edgar himself, back from the dead?”

“The ADIC. Michaelson.”

“About what?”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, girlfriend, level.”

“I really don’t know, Abby. They pulled me off the case after I arrested you. I was in the interrogation room with Michaelson only because he thought you might talk more freely with me present.”

Abby shot her a cool glance. “’Cause we’re such good buds.”

“That was probably the idea. Anyway, I haven’t been privy to any new developments in the investigation. I have no idea what’s going on.”

Tess led her out of the room and down a series of hallways. Abby tried to ignore her hunger and fatigue, and the fear that had been growing inside her since her arrest.

“You know,” she said as they rounded a corner, “at some point I really am entitled to see a lawyer.”

Tess nodded. “I’m aware of that. Most of the sworn agents in the Bureau have law degrees. We’re all very much aware of your rights.”

“Then how come I spent the night in solitary? I mean, I assume it was the whole night. What time is it?”

“Seven a.m. To be honest, I think they were trying to figure out what to do.”

“With me?”

“With us. This is a delicate situation. You have to appreciate that.”

“Oh, I’m very appreciative. My sore ass is especially grateful. Not to mention my empty tummy. What makes the situation so delicate, anyhow? You’re guilty of misconduct, and I’m a menace to public safety. It’s open and shut.”

“I’m sure that’s how Michaelson sees it.”

“But…?”

“I don’t know if Washington has the same perspective. Especially given the way the story is playing in the media.”

“How is it playing?”

“To our advantage-I hope.”

They reached a corner office and entered the anteroom, where Tess started to announce herself. Michaelson’s secretary cut her off. “Yes, he’s expecting you. Go right in.” Abby noted that the woman regarded them both with an unmistakable look of disapproval. She expected to be seeing a lot more of that look in the months ahead.

She followed Tess into the assistant director’s inner office. Michaelson was lodged behind his desk, apparently talking to himself, a worrisome sign in a man in his position. Then-mystery solved-Abby saw a woman seated on the sofa opposite the desk.

She rose to greet the new arrivals. Abby was mildly shocked to recognize Nora Reynolds.

Nora seemed to recognize her, as well. “Do I know you?” she asked.

“You may have seen me at the barbecue yesterday. I’d, uh, arranged to talk with your husband there.”

“Oh, yes, of course.” Nora showed the practiced smile of a political spouse. “Working undercover, I imagine?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, I hope you tried the food.”

“It was excellent, thanks.” Abby didn’t think this was the right time to mention that the chicken had been overcooked.

Tess evidently had never met Mrs. Reynolds. “You’re Congressman Reynolds’ wife?” she asked.

Nora smiled again-a genuine smile this time. “Not for long. I wanted to meet you, Special Agent McCallum. I wanted to shake your hand.”

“Shake my hand?”

Nora already had Tess’s fingers in an unbreakable clasp. “You got the son of a bitch. It was more than I was able to do.”

Tess’s expression changed. She had understood something. “You’re the insider we were working with.”

“I am.”

“But… how?”

“A few weeks ago I overheard my husband making a phone call. He was trying to track down someone named Bethany Willett. The name sounded familiar to me. I ran an Internet search and discovered that she was a key figure in an old murder case. The MEDEA case. I remembered it from the news coverage.”

“Must have been quite a surprise,” Abby said, drawing a cool glance from Mrs. Reynolds.

“Indeed. I spoke to a personal friend in the FBI. He got me involved in the investigation. I was to observe from inside.”

“You must have known,” Tess said, “that whatever you found out might incriminate your husband.”

“I wanted him incriminated. I wanted out of our marriage.”

“Because your husband had broken the law?”

“Because my husband is a sadist. And an increasingly violent sadist. He had become quite demanding in his, mmm, intimate conduct. I wouldn’t cooperate with him, so he stopped approaching me. I was reasonably sure he was going elsewhere. He had found someone who would go along with his… tastes.”

“I see,” Tess said quietly.

“When I learned he was somehow involved in the MEDEA case-well, I just couldn’t stand to be with him any longer. I wanted to see him brought to justice. That’s why I was keeping tabs on my husband. Unfortunately, I don’t think I learned anything useful.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, Nora,” Michaelson said patronizingly. To her credit, she ignored him.

“As it turns out, my testimony isn’t needed, anyway. We have enough evidence to put my husband away for years.” She turned her smile on Tess. “And I have you to thank for it.”

“Me?”

“You’re the hero. Everyone knows it. It’s in all the papers and all over TV. They say you saved the day single-handedly.”

Tess fidgeted. “Not exactly.”

“She’s just being modest,” Abby said.

Tess shot her a glare.

Nora didn’t notice. “Well, I’ll leave you to your meeting. I stayed around only to express my gratitude. Thank you again.”

She clasped Tess’s hand a second time, then left the room, forgetting to say goodbye to Abby.

Tess looked after her. Abby said quietly, “I guess the media coverage is advantageous-for one of us.”

“If you think-” Tess began, but Michaelson interrupted.

“Be seated, both of you.”

Tess took the space on the sofa vacated by Mrs. Reynolds. Abby sat next to her, feeling like a little girl in the principal’s office. Only, in this case she was facing the prospect of twenty or thirty years of detention.

Michaelson focused on her, ignoring Tess for the moment. “First of all, Ms. Sinclair, you’ll be pleased to know that your purse was recovered at the crime scene.”

“I’ll be even more pleased if my tape recorder was inside.”

“It was. The tape has been played. It does substantiate your version of events with regard to Congressman Reynolds’ appearance at the hotel, and his subsequent abduction.”

“Would it be wrong for me to say I told you so?”

Michaelson regarded her without friendliness. “It would be ill-advised.”

“Just asking.”

“The tape has been brought to the attention of the congressman, who is recuperating from his gunshot wound at California Hospital. He is, by the way, expected to make a full recovery.”

Abby blew out an exaggerated whew. “That’s a relief. I don’t know how our democratic republic would manage without him.”

“It will have to try. Reynolds will not be returning to Congress. He will, in fact, be spending the next decade in a federal prison.”

“For ordering the murders of Andrea and her children?”

“And for ordering the hit on Andrea last Friday.”

“He didn’t confess to that on the tape.”

“He didn’t have to. We have two very good sources. One is the driver of the van, Mr. Ronald Shanker, who is also recovering at the same hospital. Recovering from wounds you inflicted, Ms. Sinclair.”

“In self-defense.”

“I understand that. He’s permanently lost the use of his right hand, by the way.”

“I hope he’s a lefty.”

“He isn’t.”

“He is now. So who is this Shanker guy? One of Reynolds’ Scorpion pals?”

“As a matter of fact, he’s the president of the Santa Ana chapter of the club.”

“I wouldn’t have expected a guy like that to turn state’s evidence.”

“Fortunately we were able to apply pressure to Mr. Shanker. The congressman’s campaign manager has proven most helpful in that regard. I believe you’ve met Mr. Stenzel.”

Good old Kip. Abby almost smiled at the predictability of it. “Yeah. He’s a weasel. I’m not surprised you turned him.”

“We didn’t have to turn him. He called us. He was very eager to talk. The information he supplied is what persuaded Shanker to deal. And the combined effect of Stenzel’s and Shanker’s statements, plus the tape recording, motivated the congressman to make a deal of his own.”

“So all the dominos fell in a neat row.” Abby tried to see ahead to the conclusion. “And the result is… no trial? For any of them?”

“No trials. Reynolds and Shanker are going away for a while. Stenzel escapes with probation.”

“It figures he’d land on his feet. Weasels always do.”

Tess spoke up beside her. “That’s cats. Cats land on their feet.”

“Weasels, too,” Abby said. “It’s a little-known fact. How about Andrea Lowry? Is there a courtroom in her future?”

Michaelson shifted in his seat. “She is certainly guilty of kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. She doesn’t even contest it. But there are extenuating circumstances.”

“I’ll say.”

“She’s been released, and no charges are pending.”

“Well, it seems like everything is all wrapped up. Except I can’t help wondering about a little detail I like to call… me. Where’s yours truly in all this? Still facing a murder rap for Dylan Garrick?”

Michaelson got up and moved to the windows, which provided a nice view of the city in the morning light. “You didn’t kill Garrick. We already have the killer in custody.”

Abby let out another sigh of relief, with no need to exaggerate it this time. “Let me guess. Shanker.”

“Very good. You get a gold star.”

“I don’t deserve it. It’s obvious. If Shanker was running the Santa Ana organization, he’d be held responsible for the screw-up at Andrea’s house. He would’ve been sucking heavy heat from Reynolds. He blamed Dylan for the failure of the operation, so it only makes sense that he would go after Dylan. And he would do it personally. No middleman. No more delegating.”

“That’s essentially the line of thought we followed.” Michaelson studied her coldly. “You have a good head for these things.”

“Next you’ll be recruiting me for the Bureau.”

“I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for that offer.”

“I’m not really cut out for the cubicle farm, anyway.” She was starting to enjoy herself, but then Tess had to ruin it.

“I don’t get it,” Tess said. “Why would Shanker confess to killing Garrick? We had nothing on him for that crime.”

Abby turned to her, irritated. “Tess, that kind of question is called looking a gift horse in the mouth.”

“At first, naturally, he wouldn’t own up to it,” Michaelson said, “even though, for all the reasons you suggested, we were starting to think he was the likely suspect. So we got creative. We’d heard your story about what happened to Dylan Garrick. We used it against Shanker. Told him there was a witness. We described everything Shanker had done, from finding the door unlocked to picking up the gun and the pillow on the floor. By the time we were through, he must have thought we had a hidden camera in Garrick’s apartment. It broke him. When he started talking, he wouldn’t stop.” He turned his gaze on Tess. “He even informed us about ordering a hit on Agent McCallum, to be carried out by the bartender she interviewed.”

Abby was surprised. “Tess, have you ever come to L.A. without someone trying to kill you?”

Tess ignored her. To Michaelson she said, “It was nothing. The guy put some moves on me, and I busted his chops for it.”

“A detail you omitted when you related the encounter to me.”

“I made a deal with him. He ID’d Abby from a six-pack, and I forgot about his momentary misjudgment. Now, if you want to bring him in on the basis of Shanker’s testimony, which I had nothing to do with

…”

Michaelson nodded. “We’re trying, believe me. After Shanker was taken, word got out to the rest of the club. All the Scorpions have crawled under rocks for the moment.”

“Excuse me,” Abby cut in. “Not that I’m uninterested in the fate of the homicidal barkeep, but am I getting the right impression here? Am I off the hook?”

The sigh that escaped from Michaelson’s lips was a profound expression of frustration. “Ms. Sinclair, there are a dozen things for which we could prosecute you. None of them would be as sensational as homicide, but the sum total would be more than enough to put you away in a maximum security facility for many years. However…”

“I like that word ‘however.’”

“However,” he repeated, “to put you on trial would mean opening up the details of this case to the public, and since the major players have already plea-bargained, we’re not sure a trial would really be in anyone’s best interest.”

“Certainly not mine,” Abby agreed.

Tess was watching him. “You’re not telling us everything, Richard. There’s a reason you don’t want to go public, and I think I know what it is.”

“I’m sure you do. You must have had your publicity mill in D.C. working overtime.”

“You know I didn’t have anything to do with that.”

Abby was getting lost. “To do with what? A little backstory for the exposition-impaired, please?”

“The story has generated national interest,” Michaelson said. “A sitting congressman, a twenty-year-old murder case that was notorious in its day, a shootout in a downtown parking garage…”

“It’s page one everywhere,” Tess added.

Abby frowned. “They haven’t mentioned me, have they?”

Michaelson shook his head. “Your name has been kept out of it. Actually, there’s only one person whose name keeps coming up.”

“I had nothing to do with it,” Tess said again.

“Well, regardless of how it happened, the spin on the story is that Tess McCallum, already famous for her earlier exploits in Los Angeles, foiled the abduction and took Andrea and the congressman into custody-all on her own.”

“Nice work, Tess,” Abby said warmly.

Tess regarded her with a sour look. “Shut up.”

“Witnesses saw a second woman with Reynolds in the hotel lobby. The second woman, we are told, was Agent McCallum, undercover. It was apparently Agent McCallum who pursued the congressman and shot it out with him and Mr. Shanker in the garage. It was Agent McCallum who made the arrest. Another triumph for you, Tess-though of course,” Michaelson added, “you weren’t responsible for leaking any of these details.”

“The leak originated in D.C. You said so yourself.”

“You have friends in D.C.”

“Not friends who could put that story in the pipeline.”

“Perhaps you have a guardian angel. How nice for you. The bottom line-”

“The bottom line,” Abby said, “is that you guys have got a story that makes the Bureau look all nice and shiny like a brand new car, and you don’t want to spoil it by revealing that some unlicensed civilian did the real heavy lifting.”

Michaelson’s distaste for her was becoming almost palpable. It exuded from his body like ectoplasm. “We are concerned with the Bureau’s reputation, yes. And there are certain benefits to the positive publicity accruing to Agent McCallum-”

Tess got it. “You can’t touch me, either. That’s right, isn’t it? You can’t even discipline me without risking a media inquiry.”

“No final determination has been made-”

“Don’t use Bureauspeak on me. You can’t suspend me, let alone fire me, let alone charge me with anything criminal. Not without opening the whole can of worms. And you know it.”

Michaelson’s eyes shut briefly, as if in anticipation of a headache. “You won’t be punished. But you won’t be going places, either. Any other agent who’d reaped a public relations bonanza like this would be headed straight to upper management.” He leaned in close to the sofa. “Not you, McCallum. You’re going to stay in that cow town of yours for the rest of your career.”

Tess stared back at him, a faint smile on her lips. “Believe it or not, Richard, that’s just the way I want it.”

He believed her. Abby could see it in the way he straightened too abruptly and turned awkwardly away. “Attach an administrative section to your report on MEDEA. For the director’s eyes only. Leave nothing out. I want the full extent of your misconduct on the record-even if it never sees the light of day.”

“Anything to oblige a friend.” Tess got up.

Abby followed her lead. “I guess I’m free to go, huh, Dick?”

He winced at her use of the nickname. “You can go. But remember, Ms. Sinclair, you’re not so low-profile anymore. We’re aware of you and your activities. And we will be watching you.”

“Remind me to shut my blinds.”

She and Tess didn’t speak again until they were out in the hall.

“Well,” Abby said, “that worked out better than expected.”

Tess looked at her, a confusion of emotions on her face. “Abby …”

Abby waved off whatever the next words might have been. “Sorry. I'm not in the mood for a heart-to-heart. I'm going to reclaim my belongings and get out of here.”

“I did what I thought was right.”

“That's the problem,” Abby said quietly.

She walked off, leaving Tess behind.