Silent Prey

CHAPTER
21

Most visitors came through O'Dell's office; when the knock came at Lily's unmarked office door, she looked over the top of her Wall Street Journal and frowned.

There was another light knock and she took off her half-moon reading glasses-she hadn't let anyone see them yet-and said, "Yes?"

Kennett stuck his head in. "Got a minute?"

"What're you doing down here?" she asked, folding the paper and putting it aside.

"Talking to you," he said. He stepped inside the door, peeked through a half-open side door into O'Dell's office, and saw an empty desk.

"He's at staff," Lily said. "What's going on?"

"We've papered the town with the female Bekker picture," Kennett said, dropping into her visitor's chair. Small talk. He tried a smile, but it didn't work. "You know Lucas got it, the cross-dressing thing. It wasn't Fell."

"I thought maybe he did," Lily said. "He wants Fell to do well."

"Nice," he said, his voice trailing off. He was looking at her as though he were trying to see inside her head.

"Let's have it," she said finally.

"All right," he said. "What do you know about this Robin Hood shit that O'Dell is peddling?"

Lily was surprised-and a small voice at the back of her head said that was good, that look of surprise. "What? What's he peddling?"

Kennett looked at her, eyes blinking skeptically, as though he were reevaluating something. Then he said, "He's been putting out shit about Robin Hood, the so-called vigilantes. I've got the feeling that the fickle finger is pointed at my ass."

"Well, Jesus," Lily said.

"Exactly. There aren't any vigilantes. It's all bullshit, this Robin Hood business. But that doesn't mean he can't fuck me up. If they think they've got a problem…" He pointed a thumb at the ceiling, meaning the people upstairs, "And they can't find anybody, they might just want to hang somebody anyway, to cover their asses."

"Boy…" Lily shook her head. "I've got a pretty good line on what O'Dell's doing, but I don't know anything like that. And I'm not holding out on you, Richard. I'm really not."

"And I'm telling you, he's behind it."

Lily leaned forward. "Give me a few days. I'll find out. Let me ask some questions. If he's doing it, I'll tell you."

"You will?"

"Of course I will."

"All right." He grinned at her. "It's, like, when you're a lieutenant and down, you've got friends and lovers. When you're a captain or above, you've got allies. You're my first ally-lover."

She didn't smile back. She said: "Richard."

The smile died on his face. "Mmm?"

"Before I risk my ass-you're not Robin Hood?"

"No."

"Swear it," she said, looking into his eyes.

"I swear it," he said, without flinching, looking straight back at her. "I don't believe there is such a guy. Robin Hood is a goddamn computer artifact."

"How?"

He shrugged. "Flip a nickel five hundred times. The events are random, but you'll find patterns. Flip it another five hundred times, you'll still find patterns. Different ones. But the pattern doesn't mean anything. Same thing with these computer searches-you can always find patterns if you look at enough numbers. But the pattern's in your head; it's not real. Robin Hood is a figment of O'Dell's little tiny imagination."

Her eyes narrowed: "How'd you find out so much about what he's doing?"

"Hey, I'm in intelligence," he said, mildly insulted by the question. "The word gets around. I thought his little game was pretty harmless until my name started popping up."

She thought about it a minute, then nodded. "All right. Let me do some sneaking around."