Point Blank

did and, of course, find him. Naturally, I have no clue where he is, Agent Ruth.”
    Dix said, “So I gather Gordon won’t be coming for a visit anytime soon. If he does, I think we’ll have to notify the Justice Department about a fake passport, won’t we?”
    Dix rose together with Ruth. “Chappy, you never cease to surprise me. I’d like to bring the boys over sometime soon. This has been a difficult time for them. Would that suit you?”
    “That would be nice, Dix,” Chappy said. “Real nice.”

CHAPTER 39
    GREYHAVEN INN GREAT BEAR ROAD MAESTRO, VIRGINIA MONDAY LUNCHTIME
    “SORRY WE’RE LATE, guys, but we had a little business with Chappy, Tony, and Cynthia.”
    Sherlock grinned up at them and Savich rose to hug Ruth and shake Dix’s hand.
    “You two look like you could use a little more sleep,” Dix said. “You had a wild time last night.”
    “True enough,” Savich said. “We slept in this morning.”
    “At least until Sean jumped on the bed and began a war dance,” Sherlock said. Once they were all seated and had ordered, Dix looked around the large room with a huge quarried gray stone fireplace at one end and beams overhead.
    “This is one of the best-kept secrets for lunch in Maestro. Wait till you taste the vegetarian minestrone, Dillon.” He raised his coffee cup. “To a conclusion, of sorts, to the trouble in Maestro.”
    Ruth grinned. “We solved it, Dix, so don’t sound so down in the mouth.”
    Savich sat back and looked from one to the other of them. “All right. So tell us about this business at Tara.”
    Dix nodded. “Well, when we spoke earlier, I told you how surprised we were at how well Gordon stood up to us. We really hoped we could break him down but it didn’t happen.”
    Ruth sighed. “We hoped to get a confession, and I swear we hit him with everything we had for maximum impact.”
    Dix said, “You could see it in his eyes when we told him Helen was responsible for Erin’s and Walt’s deaths. He knew, Helen had told him all right.”
    Ruth said, “Dix, I’m thinking now it was Chappy who told him how to handle us. Gordon never seemed that strong to me.” She shrugged. “It’s Chappy’s doing. And it’s possible Chappy did more than get Gordon out of town.”
    “It wouldn’t surprise me if Chappy has somehow covered up any evidence there was, too,” Dix said.
    “You’re certainly giving Chappy a lot of credit, Ruth,” Savich said. Ruth said, “I’m just saying Chappy’s helped him more than once. Chappy helped him escape.”
    “It’s not just Chappy,” Dix said. “When Ruth and I went to see the family this morning, it turned out to be all of them.”
    When Dix finished explaining, he waved a carrot stick at Ruth. “And that’s why,” he said, “our FBI agent here is convinced Chappy is behind Gordon’s great escape. We’ll be patient,” he added, “but you know, as far as I’m concerned, unless we find proof, Gordon can stay gone.”
    Savich thought Dix wanted Gordon to stay gone, proof or not.
    Their food arrived, and talk turned to the boys. Over a dessert of warm fresh apple pie Ruth said, “
    Okay, guys, tell us exactly how you managed to track down Moses Grace and Claudia.”
    Sherlock looked over at her husband. “Well, it’s like this. What Dillon did wasn’t quite what you’d want to get out. In fact, the lid is on as tight as we can make it. So consider yourselves privileged.”
    Dix’s eyebrow shot up. “Whatever did you do, Savich? If it needs to stay among the four of us, you’ve got my word on that.”
    Savich nodded, set his fork on his plate. “You know that when someone calls nine-one-one, the dispatcher gets the callback number and the location of the person almost instantly, regardless of the carrier. Bottom line, we reprogrammed all the cell towers in the Washington, D.C., area to switch any call to my cell phone to the Hoover Building as a nine-one-one call. We fastened MAX to the dashboard, all ready for Moses to call. When he did, we had a nice dancing yellow dot showing us exactly where he was.
    “The programming was manageable, but getting permission to work with the cell phone providers to reprogram their networks was the hard part. But Moses helped us out. When he bombed the Bonhomie Club he became a domestic terrorist threatening the nation’s capital. Some very important people in the executive branch wanted him stopped immediately, and that turned out to be quickly fatal for him.”
    Dix