Dead Watch

are not so quiet, so it must have been silenced.”
    “How do you know it was a .22?”
    “Took a slug out of a wall,” Parker said. “The base was intact, looks like a .22.”
    “Could be a .22 mag. The damage was pretty big,” Novatny said.
    “They were executed, then,” Jake said.
    Novatny brightened: “Not exactly. We think that the secretary tried to resist, tried to fight them off, went after somebody with her nails. She got some skin and a little blood, so we’ve got DNA. If we can find the guy, we can nail him.”
    “And Green . . .”
    “He took it right in the back of the head. He was executed. We think the secretary tried to resist, that’s when she lost her shoes, got her hands on someone, and Green just stood there and boom. ”
    “What now?” Jake asked.

    Novatny got a tape recorder, read Jake his rights, and got him to repeat the statement. Jake did, but insisted that most of what he said, other than the basics about Bowe’s sexuality and the cancer revelation, was speculation. “I just want out of this,” he said. “I’m a research guy, not a cop. I just want out.”

    Novatny talked to the Madison chief, but didn’t tell Jake the outcome. They did cut Jake loose, at seven o’clock. “Are you going back to D.C.?” Novatny asked.
    “Yes. But first, I’m going to check into a hotel and get some sleep,” Jake said. “I’m really screwed up.”
    “One thing,” Novatny said. “Do not go back to Madison Bowe. She’s going to be a critical witness. Don’t mess with her.”
    “Believe me. All I want is out,” Jake said.

    Jake walked down to State Street, through a couple of alleys, in and out the back of a pizza place, and found a phone near the restrooms in a sports bar and called Johnson Black, Madison’s lawyer. He got lucky, made the connection, talked to Black for a moment, then ordered a beer at the bar and stood next to the phone. Madison called him back twenty minutes later from a phone in an M Street lounge. “Listen to me,” he said. “There’s been a disaster.”
    He told her about it, then said, “So the feds are going to come to you. You confirm the homosexual angle and you tell them why you didn’t want that made public—that you were pushing the investigation into Goodman, and were afraid the homosexual angle would end it. You tell them that sexuality is a private matter, and you had no reason to think that it was involved in Lincoln’s death. You tell them that you had no idea that there was a setup . . .”
    “I didn’t,” she said. “But now you’re telling me . . . I caused this girl’s death somehow. If I hadn’t sent you there . . .”
    “You didn’t cause her death,” Jake said. “Somebody else did. You can’t anticipate the outcome of everything you do; you can go crazy trying. Somebody else killed them, not you.”
    “But if I hadn’t sent you . . .”
    “Madison, get a grip. It’s really critical right now. If you’re going to feel guilty, feel guilty about something you actually did.”
    “But you don’t know . . .”
    “Tell me later,” Jake said. “Not on the phone . . . Has anything happened there that I should know about? Is anybody pushing you?”
    “One thing, but . . . ah, jeez, I can’t keep the girl out of my head.”
    “Focus, goddamnit. What happened?”
    “I talked to Howard, I confronted him. He killed Linc, but it was essentially a suicide. Linc had already taken an overdose. He claims that Schmidt is in Thailand, working as a bartender. That Schmidt is obsessed by brown hookers. Those are Howard’s words. He says that they can bring him back anytime they need to.”
    “Ah, jeez. Listen, stay away from Barber. Stay away from him. He’s about to become the eye of a hurricane. He might be involved here . . .”
    “Jake . . .”
    “Tell the truth, but don’t tell them about the package,” Jake said. “Not yet. Just omit it. Don’t tell them what Barber said. And don’t tell them about this call. This never happened.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “I’ve got to think. Listen, call me tomorrow, on my cell phone, from a public phone. At noon. If anything’s happened, I’ll let you know then. I can’t call you , because if there’s an investigation, they’re going to pull the phone records to see who was talking to whom.”

    Off the line, Jake walked back to his car, found a Sheraton hotel, checked in, and began working Green’s cell phone. He’d