Roses Are Red

Chapter Ninety-Three

"All right, let's try that approach. Simple questions and simple answers. I met with the so-called Mastermind three times. Always down in Washington. Each time I saw him, he gave us what he called' traveling expenses," That was fifty grand a trip, which made it well worth our while, and also caught our attention, piqued our interest.

"He was very, very buttoned-up. Thought everything through. Knew all the angles. Knew what he was talking about. And he told us right off that our cut of the action would be fifteen million dollars. He was very credible when he talked about Metro Hartford He had a concept and a plan that was extremely detailed. We felt it was workable, and it was."

"How did he know about you?" I asked. "How did he contact you?" Macdougall liked the question, or made it seem as if he did. "There's a lawyer we use sometimes. "He looked at the lawyers on either side of him. "Not these two gentlemen. He contacted our other lawyer. We don't know exactly how he knew about us, but he knew what we did, how we worked. That's useful information, Detective Weiss. Make yourself a note. Who would know about us? Somebody in law enforcement? A cop? One of ours, Detective Weiss? An agent with the FBI? A cop from DC? Maybe somebody in this room? It could be anybody."

Weiss couldn't control himself. His face was red. The collar of his button-down white shirt looked a couple of sizes too small. "But you already know who it is, Macdougall? Isn't that right?"

Macdougall looked at Betsey and me. He shook his head. He couldn't believe Weiss either. "I'm coming to that, to what I know, and what I don't know. Don't underestimate the information that he knew about us. He knew about Detective Cross. And about Agent Cavalierre. He knew everything. That's important."

"I agree with you," I said. "Go on, please."

"All right. Before we agreed to the second meeting, we were doing our best to find out who the hell this so-called Mastermind was. We even talked to the FBI about him. We made whatever contacts we could make. We found out nothing. He left no trail.

"So we get to meet number two. Bobby Shaw tries to follow him after he leaves the hotel. Shaw loses him."

"Which makes you think he might be some kind of cop?" I asked.

Macdougall shrugged. "It definitely crosses our minds. Meeting number three is about whether we are in or out. Half of thirty million dollars we already know we're in. He knows we're in. We try to negotiate a better cut. He laughs, says absolutely not. We agree to his terms. It's his way or we're out.

"He leaves the hotel after the meet. We've got two men following him this time. He's tall, heavy, dark beard but we think it's probably a disguise. Our two guys almost lose him again.

"But they don't lose him. They're very lucky. They see him go into the Hazelwood Veterans Hospital in DC. He doesn't come out again. We don't know what he looks like, but the Mastermind went in there and he stayed. He didn't come out."

Macdougall stopped talking. He let his eyes go slowly down the line from Weiss to Betsey to me.

"He's a mental patient, guys and girl. He's at Hazelwood Veterans Hospital in Washington. He's on the mental-health ward. You just have to find him in there."