Call to Treason - Tom Clancy [46]
"That's a potential problem," Hood admitted. "But we're in this thing now, and that's a real problem."
"How do you position it so that Senator Orr doesn't appear to be a suspect?" Rodgers asked.
"I'm not going over there to find out what he did, only what he might have seen and heard," McCaskey said. "We can even say he asked for the meeting. That would make him seem eager to cooperate."
Rodgers considered the proposal. "I'll call him," he said after a moment. "Kat told me that Senator Orr is going to do Nightline. That may be a good platform to announce something like this."
"It would help everyone," McCaskey agreed.
The general excused himself. Hood and McCaskey exhaled.
"That was strange," McCaskey said, after searching for a better word but not finding one.
"Yeah."
"I guess we're the enemy now."
"I didn't get that," Hood said.
"Oh? I heard a serious threat with Ken Link's name attached."
"That was an advisory," Hood said. "Mike is hurting, but he's looking out for Op-Center. My head is the only one that might interest him."
The men discussed other Op-Center business until Rodgers returned. He looked like a catcher who disagreed with an jump's call but knew better than to say so.
"I just had a conference call with Senator Orr and Admiral Link,"
Rodgers said. He regarded Hood. "The senator has declined to see Darrell but said he would meet with you as a courtesy."
"As a courtesy!" Hood declared.
"This is a criminal investigation, not a press conference," McCaskey said.
"The senator does not want to give the impression that he is being interrogated," Rodgers replied. "He told me he will gladly answer Paul's questions about the case but insisted that he does not have much to say."
"Right. And when I go there, this immediately becomes more about us than about him," Hood said. "It looks like I'm making a personal headline grab, which will call into question our motives which Link has already done and undermine everything Op-Center has or will contribute to the investigation."
"Mike, I just don't get it," McCaskey said. "I damn near agreed to exonerate the senator and back away. Why wouldn't he want that?"
"My guess is he isn't guilty of anything," Rodgers said.
Hood rested his elbows on his desk. He dug his palms into his eyes. "I think it was Twain who said that when all else fails, do what's right."
He looked up. "Gentlemen, we were justified getting into this, and we have a valid reason to see it through. Mike, please thank the senator for us and tell him we hope it won't be necessary to accept his generous offer when the investigation is further along."
Rodgers did not respond. He looked at McCaskey, gave him a half-smile, and left the office.
"Not 'strange," McCaskey said when Rodgers was gone. "That was disturbing. How did we end up on different sides of the barricade?"
"I'm not even sure how the barricade got there," Hood said.
"I swear, I should have just ignored the goddamn wound under Wilson's tongue," McCaskey said.
"No!" Hood replied, a hint of anger in his voice. "That would have been a lot worse than disturbing, Darrell. When it becomes wrong to seek justice, we should all turn in our suits."
Darrell could not dispute that. But he was not ready to agree that the goal was more honorable than what it might take to get there: going to war against an old friend.
* * *
SEVENTEEN
Washington, D.C. Monday, 7:22 p.m.
It was not supposed to happen the way it did. The death of William Wilson was supposed to be news for a day or two and then go away. It was supposed to be recorded as a heart attack, not a homicide. Now it was not going to go away, and she had to change the focus.
She dressed the same as last time, only this time she wore a scarf instead of a wide-brimmed hat. And big, dark sunglasses, pure Audrey Hepburn. All the fashionable people wore them at night. She went to another fashionable hotel, the Monarch on M Street NW, in the upscale West End district. She sat by a courtyard fountain, her back