Call to Treason - Tom Clancy [123]
Something that has to do with the USF. That is, if you're still interested in working with us."
Rodgers looked at her. Her bright eyes were sad as she shut the door.
He started toward his own room. He noted the stairwell was right beside his room with a security camera above it. He wondered if Link had put him here on purpose, so the admiral could watch him.
Rodgers hoped not. He hoped a lot of things. He hoped he was wrong about Howell. Maybe the Metro Police detective was just sucking up to someone in power. That was prevalent in D.C. But then why would he have been watching McCaskey? Professional jealousy? A turf war? Or maybe he was just watching Kat's apartment and happened to see McCaskey go in. Howell may have known about the reporter being at the hotel that night.
Chances were good he would not be able to talk to McCaskey. Instead, Rodgers went to his room, sat on the bed, and entered a stored number on his cell phone. There was only one person he trusted to figure this one out.
The other man of principle Rodgers knew.
* * *
FORTY-THREE
Washington, D.C. Wednesday, 3:44 p.m.
Bob Herbert was delighted to hear from Mike Rodgers. It was the only familiar aspect in a suddenly surreal situation, and for a moment, just a heartbeat, it sounded and felt like old times.
"How am I?" Herbert said in response to Rodgers's question. "I'm sitting in the parking lot, breathing non-machine-filtered air, which I happen to prefer to that dry, metallic-tasting crud in the Tank, working on a laptop I borrowed from get this the head cook in the Andrews commissary cafeteria. I had to create my own files between the Tuesday lunch menu and the recipe for Brigadier General Chrysler's favorite pie. Which is cherry, if you were wondering. My calls are being routed to a cell phone belonging to Jason Shuffler in accounting.
He was parked outside the hit zone, and it was in his car. A bonus to being a peon."
Herbert was rambling, and he knew it. But it had been a long, rough day with no time to vent. Under the best of circumstances there was no one he felt completely comfortable with other than Mike or Darrell, and Darrell was not available. So Mike got the first big hit. Herbert took a short breath to calm himself, sucked his self-styled debriefing back down, and went to the above-the-fold news.
"Meanwhile, the cops have Darrell and Maria at the precinct," Herbert told Rodgers. "They were arrested for breaking and entering."
"I heard."
"Darrell made his one call to Paul, who shipped Lowell over there to get him out. Paul briefed me. Anything new out there?"
"My sixth sense is tingling," Rodgers said. "I need to know more about Detective Robert Howell."
"Funny you should ask."
"Why?" Rodgers asked.
"I happen to have his dossier on the computer," Herbert said. "I was looking for something in his background, something we might use to help get Darrell and Maria out of the cooler."
"What possible tie could he have to Link or the senator?"
"Maybe he's just a senate groupie," Herbert suggested.
"That's what Kat said," Rodgers told him.
"But you don't believe her because?"
"She said it."
"Great. But do you have a better reason?" Herbert asked.
"No. Like I said, just a feeling."
"Okay," Herbert said. He adjusted the screen so it was angled away from the sun. "The detective is not married, he did not come from Texas, he has a record that would make Baden-Powell jealous. He served in the coast guard and "
"Not married," Rodgers said. "Is he divorced?"
"No."
"Girlfriend?"
"There's nothing in the file," Herbert said.
"Shit," Rodgers said.
"What?" Herbert asked.
"I wonder if it could be blackmail."
Herbert scowled. "That's a pretty big leap."
"I've been told I make a lot of those," Rodgers said. "Is there anything in the dossier that is listed as eyes only?"
"No."
"So it may not be part of his civilian record. Can you get Howell's military records?