Dark Rivers of the Heart

A.T.F. But what exactly did this nameless agency cover up? It was an ugly, very public mess for the government. Seems like they did a bad job making the A.T.F look good in this."
        "Oh, but they were brilliant at concealing the most explosive aspect of the case. An element in A.T.F loyal to Tom Summerton instead of to the current director intended to use Koresh as a test case for applying assetforfeiture laws to religious organizations."
        As Utah rolled under their wheels and they drew nearer to Modena, Spencer continued to finger his scar while he thought about what she had revealed.
        The trees had thinned out. The pines and spruces were too far from the highway to cast shadows across the pavement, and the sword dance of sunlight had ended. Yet Spencer noted that Valerie squinted at the road ahead and flinched slightly from time to time, as though she was threatened by her own blades of memory.
        Behind them, Rocky seemed oblivious of the sobering weight of their conversation. Whatever its drawbacks, there were also many advantages to the canine condition.
        At last Spencer said, "Targeting religious groups for asset seizure, even fringe figures like Koresh-that's a major bombshell if it's true.
        It shows utter contempt for the Constitution."
        "There are lots of cults and splinter sects these days, with millions in assets. That Korean minister-Reverend Moon? I'll bet his church has hundreds of millions on U.S. soil. If any religious organization is involved in criminal activity, its tax-free status is revoked. Then if the A.T.F or FBI has a lien for asset forfeiture, it'll be first in line, even ahead of the IRS, to grab everything."
        "A steady cash flow to buy more toys and better office furniture for the bureaus involved," he said ruminatively. "And help to keep this nameless agency afloat. Even make it grow. While lots of local police forcesthe guys who have to deal with real hard-core crime, street gangs, murder, rape-they're all so starved for funds they can't have pay raises or buy new equipment."
        As Modena passed by in four blinks of an eye, Valerie said, "And the accountability provisions of federal and state forfeiture laws are dismal.
        "Just vanishes into the pockets of some of the officials involved."
        "Legalized theft."
        "No one's ever caught, so it might as well be legal. Anyway, Summerton's element in A.T.F planned to plant drugs, phony records of major drug sales, and lots of illegal weapons in the Mount Carmel Center-Koresh's compound-after the success of the initial assault."
        "But the initial assault failed."
        "Koresh was more unstable than they realized. So innocent A.T.F agents were killed. And innocent children. It became a media circus.
        With everyone watching, Summerton's goons couldn't plant the drugs and guns. The operation was abandoned. But by then there was a paper trail inside A.T.F: secret memos, reports, files. All that had to be eliminated quickly. A couple of people were also eliminated, people who knew too much and might squeal."
        "And you're saying this nameless agency cleaned up that mess."
        "I'm not saying they did. They really did."
        "How do you fit into all this? How do you know Summerton?"
        She chewed on her lower lip and seemed to be thinking hard about how much she should reveal.
        He said, "Who are you, Valerie Keene? Who are you, Hannah Rainey?
        Who are you, Bess Baer?"
        "Who are you, Spencer Grant?" she asked angrily, but her anger was false.
        "Unless I'm mistaken, I told you a name, a real and true name, when I was out of my head, last night or the night before."
        She hesitated, nodded, but kept her eyes on the road.
        He found his voice diminishing to a softness barely louder than a murmur, and though he was unable to force himself to speak louder, he knew that she heard every word he said. "Michael Ackblom. It's a name I've hated for more than half my life. It hasn't even been my legal name for fourteen years, not since my grandparents helped me apply to a court to have it changed. And since the day the judge granted that change, it's a name I've never spoken, not once in all that time.
        Until I told you."
        He fell into a silence.
        She didn't speak, as though in spite of the silence, she knew that he wasn't finished.
        The things that Spencer