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‘‘I’ll take some coffee too,’’ he said.

There was a short silence.

‘‘Can I put my gun away?’’ asked Hester.

Just before the dessert came, Volont said, ‘‘What is the problem? Seriously, I want to know.’’

‘‘Well,’’ I said, ‘‘it’s this.’’ A brief interruption as the dessert was placed on the table. ‘‘You have no jurisdiction in the murders. Okay. You have an interest, though, and not just the weapons charges. Okay. You have lots of information that you obviously can’t share. That’s not okay, but I could probably live with that. But you seem to think you can actively interfere with my obtaining that information myself. That’s what I don’t appreciate. You are a narcotics man, with that as your chief area of interest. I understand that. But your primary interest isn’t the murders.’’

‘‘I see.’’ Volont sipped his coffee, and took a bite of the cheesecake. ‘‘Not bad,’’ he said. ‘‘What you don’t see, Deputy Houseman, is that you are getting into a very sensitive and dangerous area.’’

‘‘Tell Lamar and Bud,’’ I said. Unfair, maybe. But true.

‘‘Point well taken,’’ he answered.

‘‘You know what I want.’’ I looked at him. Were we doomed to repeat this conversation every day until the case was solved?

‘‘Yes.’’

‘‘You also know that,’’ I said evenly, ‘‘aside from his involvement in the shooting of a narc cop, DEA couldn’t give a damn about what Gabriel does with his life.’’

‘‘Very true.’’

‘‘You should also know that I have a very deep interest in who he is, and what he does, and whom he associates with. Not to mention where he is.’’

‘‘I know that too. Yes,’’ said Volont. ‘‘I don’t doubt it.’’

‘‘What you obviously don’t know is that I am also able to differentiate between intelligence data and prosecution data.’’

‘‘Oh, no,’’ said Volont. ‘‘I don’t doubt that. Not at all.’’

‘‘Then,’’ I asked, ‘‘what’s the problem? Why won’t you brief us, Hester and George and me, and let us get on with the business at hand? With George to play watchdog for you. We have no problem with that.’’ Well, just a little bit of a lie, but I didn’t want George to get in any more trouble than he was already in.

‘‘There are things I’m not allowed to disclose.’’ He looked at both of us. ‘‘I simply can’t. You know that.’’

‘‘So,’’ I said, ‘‘the identity of Gabriel is one of those, right?’’

‘‘I shouldn’t even say that,’’ said Volont, and a small smile flickered over his face. ‘‘But, yes.’’

‘‘Do you have to obstruct our efforts, though?’’ asked Hester.

‘‘I’ll have to ask,’’ said Volont. Very serious. Wow.

‘‘I’ll tell you,’’ I said, ‘‘I’d rather go through you than have to try other approaches. And I’d think you, or your boss, or whoever would agree with that.’’ I forced a grin. ‘‘Better the devil you know . . .’’

He smiled. ‘‘I agree . . . Just who do you think my boss is, by the way? Nichols at the DEA?’’

‘‘Well, yeah,’’ I said, realizing that I really didn’t have any idea who his boss was.

‘‘I don’t believe I ever said I was in narcotics,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m a counterterrorist agent. I do counterintelligence. I have no interest in narcotics-specific cases.’’

Well, damn. Pieces clicked furiously. I began to feel we were right about the right-wing extremists, then. If that was it, then that was Volont’s interest in the whole thing.

‘‘I don’t think you’d have any connection with my boss,’’ he said.

‘‘Well,’’ I said, playing the only trump card I could think of, ‘‘I was thinking of a man I know with Mossad. One with Shin Beth. I even know a guy with GSG 9, for God’s sake. And I’ve got a friend with a connection with the SAS, now that I think of it. Could they know him?’’

‘‘What,’’ he said, ‘‘no CIA connections?’’ He smiled again.

He thought I was kidding. ‘‘I don’t know anybody in CIA,’’ I said. ‘‘I did attend a lecture by Admiral Bobby Inman once. But I sure wouldn’t want to imply that he’d even talk to me.’’

Volont was silent.

‘‘Your guys were the ones who brought the Mossad agent to our office to talk with us.’’

That got him. It was true. The Israelis had been checking on possible Nazi