Edge

get fired, sir. I can’t. I love my job.”
    “I understand, Rudy. We’re simply relieving you of this detail. I’m not going to write you up. What happens to your career is between you and Agent Fredericks. Now get your things together. My associate outside’ll take you to your wife and kids.”
    “Yessir. Thanks for not being a hard-ass, sir.”
    He didn’t know that my generosity was rooted in simple self-interest. I couldn’t afford to have a disgruntled former employee—one who knew the location of my principals, even if he was in lockdown. Not until the job was over. After that, I didn’t care if he got booted or not. I’d recommend to Freddy that he should be fired.
    Efficiency. Rational strategies.
    A moment later Joanne burst into the hallway. She walked up to me, blinking at the smell and what I supposed was the soot on my skin. She blurted, “My stepdaughter. How is she?” Ryan joined us too, eyebrows raised.
    I’d called them from the car, of course, to tell them about the successful escape from Carter’s and that both he and Amanda were now safe. But the parents would want more details and reassurance. I told them what I’d done, putting Amanda in detention.
    Joanne was saying, “I wanted to talk to her. I tried the phone but it wasn’t working.”
    “For the time being I don’t want anybody in communication with her. I want to keep her location completely secret.”
    “What’s the problem with me talking to her?”
    “She might mention where she is.”
    “Why can’t we know?” Ryan asked.
    “Loving recognizes her value as an edge over you. I don’t even want a hint of it on the airwaves. We know she’s completely safe. Carter’s with her and they’re in lockdown.”
    “I thought you didn’t want to use a slammer,” Joanne said.
    I noted how quickly she’d caught on to the terms of our art.
    “Normally, I wouldn’t. But circumstances changed.” To reassure them I added, “She seemed to be doing better than Carter. What he said about her, having grit, that’s true.”
    Ryan was drinking coffee. I couldn’t smell liquor. I said to both him and his wife, “We can eliminate the Graham case.”
    “What’d you find?”
    I explained about Graham’s son forging the check, adding, “Because he didn’t want to go back to college.”
    Joanne shook her head, dismayed, perhaps, at the dysfunction of a family that required the children to engage in such tactics.
    Massaging his game leg, Ryan said, “Most kids just drop out. They don’t commit felonies across state lines. It’s still a crime, even if he withdraws. I could go after the kid anyway.”
    I hesitated for a moment. Then asked, “You met Graham. What did you think of him?”
    “A prick.” Kessler seemed to get what I was saying. He nodded. “I don’t blame the boy for doing his own thing. I think I’ll just let it go.”
    Joanne wondered aloud, “Who called to pressure Ryan’s department not to pursue the case?”
    Somebody powerful . . .
    “Probably one of Graham’s bosses at the Department of Defense. Doesn’t matter at this point. It’s a nonissue.”
    Without a glance my way, Rudy Garcia left. I walked to the door and watched him get into the car and gestured Tony Barr inside. I introduced the quiet, unsmiling FBI agent to my principals and Lyle Ahmad, who—with a nod from me—gestured him aside to give him the details of the procedures we followed in the safe house. He caught on right away and I was pleased Freddy had recommended him.
    I then said, “Ryan, I need you to do me a favor.”
    “Sure, what?”
    “All the files on that administrative matter you’re handling?”
    “The . . . you mean that accounting crap?” He waved his hand toward the dining room table, covered with police department files.
    “Exactly. I need copies sent to a U.S. attorney.”
    Joanne said, “You mean you think that’s the reason somebody wants Ryan? He’s uncovered something illegal, something within the department?”
    “No,” I said.
    “Then . . . ?” Joanne asked.
    I thought how best to describe my strategy with Westerfield. I came up with, “I need to toss a dog a bone.”

Chapter 39
    THOUGH NEITHER WAS aware of it, Joanne and her husband frowned in identical ways.
    Normally I don’t share much of my strategy with my principals. But now I thought it was prudent to let them know what was going on.
    I explained to them that when I’d been talking to Claire duBois about the trackers,