Invasion of Privacy

off, but I told her the rotten apple still might be the management company or the condo complex, not Dees himself. So I go up to the university yesterday and try to get a copy of the guy’s college records with a nicely worded letter of authorization.”
    “Which the college notices is forged,” said Hendrix. “Because a lifer in the registrar’s office knows the real Dees wouldn’t be signing current correspondence. And that gets me an introduction to Deputy Marshal Braverman’s—what is he, your father?”
    I hoped Braverman would like the way I covered for him. Robinette’s eyes went up behind me briefly, and Braverman said, “Close enough.”
    I returned to Robinette. “Only problem is, there had to be some failure of communication between Vermont and Marshfield yesterday too, because you guys didn’t know I was interested in Dees himself after I saw the chief.” Hendrix said, “What makes you think we didn’t?”
    I spoke to him. “Because if you did, either you tell Dees his cover is blown, which seems to me the right thing to do, or you don’t tell him squat and watch his movements, waiting to see what happens next.”
    Hendrix said, “Or we just have you put under surveillance.”
    “I don’t think so. I might not have noticed right away, but I left Chief Braverman yesterday afternoon, and I’ve been taking precautions ever since Kourmanos and Braverman here paid me their first visit the day before. Nobody from your end’s been watching me. So what happened when the chief finally got you the word that I was after Dees personally? Did you tell Dees or stay on the sidelines?”
    Robinette said, “Why do you want to know?”
    She seemed genuinely curious. In a very even voice, I said, “Because my client has disappeared.”
    Hendrix looked around at everybody. Kourmanos looked back at him, Robinette didn’t, and Braverman I couldn’t see.
    Robinette said, “Since when?”
    “Yesterday afternoon, when she left her bank.”
    “To do what?”
    “She didn’t say.”
    Robinette’s eyes went down toward the table top, trying to work the problem through.
    I said, “You didn’t tell Dees anything, did you?”
    No answer.
    “You just let him twist in the wind after he saw me at his photocopy place on Wednesday, let the man wonder who I was and what I was doing.”
    Hendrix said, “And if we did? How’s that any different from the scam you and your client—his gi/7-friend—were running on our witness?”
    I looked at Hendrix. “We didn’t know Dees wasn’t who he claimed to be. You did.”
    Robinette raised her head. “I will tell you some things, Cuddy. I am not sure you need to know them, but it seems to me you have been ahead of us on this.” She paused. “My husband was in DEA, where we met, but I took a leave of absence after getting pregnant with Jamey. My husband was killed a few years later, and they let me transfer agencies, be a watcher for the Marshals’ Enforcement Operations. Specifically, witnesses cooperating with the FBI on Italian-American mob operations.”
    Hendrix said, a little theatrically, “Tange, this isn’t a good idea.”
    Robinette never looked away from me. “And sending two of our people as Mafia muscle after this citizen was?” She paused again, but Hendrix didn’t reply. Then, “As a woman born in Haiti , I was a good risk. Not likely that anybody from the mob searching for a cooperating witness would see me connected to him.”
    I said, “And Dees, whoever he really is, cooperated with the government in an organized-crime case.”
    “In exchange for immunity from prosecution himself. So we did a relocation, gave him a new identity. Usually we use small towns, even rural areas, anywhere the hunters— what we call the other side, ‘hunters’—are not likely to search because there are just too many such places to search.”
    “With you so far.”
    “A witness gets accepted into the program, he buys an all-or-nothing approach. He must give up any contact with the old ‘danger zone’ of hometown and people he came from, assuming his new ID completely. We give him a package of documents—birth certificate, social security card—”
    “College diploma, so long as nobody looks too closely.” Robinette said, “Even letters of recommendation, though those are trickier, and we did not use any here.”
    “How about seed money?”
    “ Dees had his own.”
    “And you didn’t wonder just a bit about the source of his