The Narrows

years."
    "Probably. But the director won't get hit with any blowback on it. He'll be safe."
    We were silent for a few moments thinking about that. I could understand the director's decision but it certainly helped him more than it helped the investigation.
    We were on the 15 and I was pulling into the exit lane for the Blue Diamond Highway.
    "What happened at the nine a.m., before the director's meeting?"
    "The usual round-robin. Updates from every agent."
    "And?"
    "And there's not a lot that is new. A few things. We talked about you mostly. I'm counting on you, Harry."
    "For what?"
    "For a new lead here. Where are we going?"
    "Do they know we're riding together, or are you still supposed to be watching me as in watching me."
    "I think they would prefer the latter-in fact, I know they would. But that would be boring and besides, like I said, what are they going to do to me if they find out I'm riding with you, send me back to Minot? BFD, I got to like that place."
    " Minot might not be a big fucking deal, but maybe they'll send you someplace else. Don't they have bureau offices in Guam and places like that?"
    "Yes, but it's all relative. I heard Guam isn't that bad-a lot of terrorism angles, which is all the rage. And after eight years in Minot and Rapid City, a change like that might not be bad no matter what the investigations are about."
    "What was said about me at the meeting?"
    "It was mostly me, since you are my assignment. I told them I ran a check through the L.A. field office and got your pedigree. I gave them that and told them you went behind the wall last year."
    "What do you mean, that I retired?"
    "No, Homeland Security. You ran afoul of them, went behind the wall and came back out again. That impressed Cherie Dei. Made her more willing to let you run a little."
    "I had been wondering about that."
    Actually, I had been wondering why Agent Dei had not simply put the clamps on me.
    "What about Terry McCaleb's notes?" I asked.
    "What about them?"
    "Better minds than mine must have gone to work on them. What did they come up with? What was their take on the triangle theory?"
    "It is an established pattern with serials that they commit what we call 'triangle crimes.' We see it often. That is, the victim can be traced through three points of a triangle. There is their point of origin or entry-then-home or in this case the airport. Then there is what we call the point of prey-the place where killer and victim come into contact, where they crisscross. And then there is the point of disposal. With serials the three points are never the same because it is the best way for them to avoid detection. That is what Terry saw when he read mat newspaper story. He circled it because the Metro guy was going the wrong way with it. He wasn't thinking triangle, he was thinking circle."
    "So is the bureau working on the triangle now?"
    "Of course they are. But some things take time. Right now there is a higher emphasis on crime scene analysis. But we've got somebody in Quantico working the triangle. The FBI is effective but sometimes slow, Harry. I am sure you know this."
    "Sure."
    "It's a tortoise-and-hare race. We're the tortoise, you're the hare."
    "What are you talking about?"
    "You're moving faster than us, Harry. Something tells me you figured out the triangle theory and are taking a shot at the missing point. The point of prey."
    I nodded. Whether I was being used or not didn't matter. They were allowing me to stay in the hunt and that was what was important to me.
    "You start with the airport and you end with Zzyzx. That leaves one more point-the intersection of predator and prey-and I think I've got it. We're going there."
    "Then tell me."
    "First tell me one more thing about McCaleb's notes."
    "I think I already told you everything. They're still being analyzed."
    "William Bing, who is that?"
    She hesitated but only for a moment.
    "That's a no-go, a dead end."
    "How so?"
    "William Bing is a heart transplant patient who was in Vegas Memorial getting a checkup and some tests. We think Terry knew him and when he was over here he visited him in the hospital."
    "Did you people talk to Bing yet?"
    "Not yet. We're trying to track him."
    "Seems odd."
    "What, that he would visit a guy?"
    "No, not that. I mean that he would write that on the file if it wasn't connected to the case."
    "Terry wrote stuff down. It's pretty obvious from all his files and notebooks that he wrote stuff down. If he was coming over here to work on