Roses Are Red

maybe even remorse. “I don’t want to disappoint my family, or myself. It’s just the way I’m built. Maybe I don’t have much of an imagination.”
    Smoke drifted through his fingers. “You asked me what I wanted? It was the right question. I always act out of self-interest, always have.” He sighed out loud. “All right, let me tell you what I’m looking for.”
    I knew enough to listen, not talk.
    “First of all, nobody got hurt from MetroHartford. We’ve never hurt anybody on any of our jobs.”
    “What about the Buccieris? James Bartlett? Ms. Collins?” I asked.
    Macdougall shook his head. “I didn’t do those jobs. You know I didn’t do them.
I know you know.
”
    He was right; at least I didn’t believe they had done the earlier jobs. The style was different for those. Plus, the detectives’ attendance logs showed they had worked on several of the days when robberies took place. “Okay. So where do we go from here? You also know that we want to get the person who set up the jobs. That’s what we care about now.”
    “I know that. So here’s my offer. It’ll be hard for everybody to swallow, but it’s nonnegotiable. I want the best deal that
I ever saw as a cop.
That means witness protection inside a country club like Greenhaven. I’m out in ten years maximum time. I’ve seen that same deal on counts of murder one. I know what can be done and what can’t be.”
    I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t have to. Macdougall knew I couldn’t make the deal by myself. “Let me hear the punch line,” I said. “What do we get from you?”
    He stared into my eyes. His look was unwavering.
    “In return —
I’ll give him to you.
I’ll tell you how to find the guy who planned the jobs. He’s called the Mastermind. I know where he is.”

Part Five
    ALL FALL DOWN

Chapter 90
    THE FBI, THE NYPD, AND THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT were holding a series of high-level meetings to try to frame the best possible response to Brian Macdougall’s offer. I was fairly certain that nothing decisive would happen with Macdougall until at least Monday.
    At four-thirty I took the shuttle back to Washington. Betsey Cavalierre and Michael Doud stayed in New York, just in case something happened.
    I had some important business myself. That night, the kids, Nana, and I went to see
Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.
We had a good time, though we’d hoped to see more of Samuel L. Jackson in the film. I had been noticing a subtle change between Jannie and Damon. Since she’d been sick, Damon was much more patient with her. Jannie was also pulling some punches with her brother, torturing him less. They had grown up a lot in the past few weeks. I figured they were becoming friends, and that would last for the rest of their lives.
    Early on Saturday, I decided to have a heart-to-heart with the kids. I had already taken some good counsel from Nana about what needed to be said to them. Her own response was typical Nana: She was sorry as could be about what had happened between Christine and me. As for little Alex, she said she couldn’t wait for him to come. “I love babies, Alex. This will
add
ten years to my life.” I almost believed her.
    “This is not good,” Damon proclaimed as he stared across the breakfast table at me. “Is it?”
    I grinned at him. “Well, that’s only half true. Where do I begin with this?” I said, stumbling a little out of the gate.
    “At the beginning,” Jannie suggested.
    The beginning? Where exactly was the beginning?
    I finally just dove into the subject matter. “Christine and I have been very close for a long time. I think you both know that. We still are, but things have changed lately. After the school year, she’s going to move away from the Washington area. I don’t know exactly where she’s going yet. We won’t be seeing her as much, though.”
    Jannie’s jaw dropped, and Damon spoke up. “She’s different in school, Dad. Everybody says so. She gets mad easy. She always looks sad.”
    It hurt for me to hear that. I felt it was partly my fault. “She went through a very bad, very scary thing,” I said to him. “It’s hard for anyone to imagine what it was like for her. She’s still recovering from it. It might take a while longer.”
    Jannie finally spoke, and her voice was surprisingly small. Her eyes were full of concern and worry. “What about the Big Boy?” she asked.
    “Little Alex is going to come live with us. That’s the good news I