Murder in Foggy Bottom - Margaret Truman [92]
“These ATF and Washington State choppers have also gone into action. The SWAT teams seem to be spreading out along the front perimeter of the ranch. Officials here won’t confirm whether they’re poised to make a move on Jasper and his people, but something’s up. Back to you, Ray, in the studio.”
Potamos heard his name being yelled through the receiver. “See that, Gil,” he said, bringing the phone back to his mouth, “we’re watching a major scandal in progress.”
“Who else have you told?” Gardello asked.
“Nobody, but I’m about to. The FBI, the attorney general, hell, maybe the president himself.”
“Come in, Joe. We can call from here.”
“We?”
“You’re still an employee of this newspaper, damn it.”
“If I heard right, former employee. Look, Gil, I know I’ve been a pain and you’re one of the white hats, and I appreciate you’ve been saving my ass and all that, and I don’t have a beef with you. But here I am sitting on the kind of scoop I’ve wanted all my professional life, Gil. Every journalist worth his salt looks for this break, getting inside, digging out the truth with his fingernails, not the way the spin doctors want the truth to appear to be, but the real truth.” He looked to Roseann, whose satisfied grin and emphatic nod of her head were energizing— as if he needed it.
“Look, Joe, why don’t we sit down and—”
“Gil,” Joe said, slowly and without the passion of his previous words, “I’ve got some sorting out to do, got to figure what to do with this. Yeah, I owe you and the paper, and I’d love sticking it under Bowen’s pompous, WASP nose, but give me some time. I need some time.”
“Do your thinking here in my office,” Gardello said.
“Maybe I will. I’ll get back to you.”
He hung up and let out a sustained sigh.
“Joe, please, come down to earth and tell me what’s going on,” Roseann said.
“Okay.” He joined her at the table. “Connie Vail works for Craig Thomas, but you already know that. Everything she said here at the apartment three days ago panned out. By the way, there’s more to their relationship than just working together. They’ve had a thing going for years, according to Thomas. Anyway, I don’t blame her for being afraid for his life—hers, too, if the same creeps who killed Wilcox in the park find out she knows what’s been going on.” He leaned across the table and covered her hand. “Roseann, Wilcox and maybe a few others in the Canadian embassy have been conduits for Russian arms sales to North America for a couple of years now. Nice deal they had going. Our government keeps a pretty tight lid on ships and planes coming into the country from other places, especially the obvious ones—Middle East, South America, Greece, Turkey, the Balkans. But we don’t take as hard a look at stuff crossing the border from Canada. Hell, they’re our best friends, right? Allies, neighbors, we talk the same language, look the same. You know that fishing treaty we just signed with the Canadians? Man, the trade group Wilcox was involved with pushed hard for that. Guess why.”
“To have easier access to American ports.”
He blew a kiss across the table. “Right you are, Rosie, my beautiful, bright, and talented friend.”
“You know I don’t like being called Rosie.”
“Yeah, sorry. Where was I? Right, so your friend Mr. Craig Thomas gets wind of what’s happening and decides to blow the whistle, but subtle-like, leak it to the American press, aka Joseph Potamos, son of Frank Potamos, deceased Greek diner owner, rising star at The Washington Post until he punched George Alfred Bowen’s lights out, and who happens to be in love with a ravishing piano player named Roseann Blackburn, who happens to have her picture in the Washingtonian and this Joseph Potamos is mentioned, which sends Mr. Craig Thomas in search of the disgraced journalist through this beautiful and talented Ms. Blackburn.”
He sat back and recaptured his breath.
Another report could be heard from the TV: “It looks like troops at the Jasper ranch are ready to go in behind armored vehicles, including Washington State National Guard tanks that have been added to the arsenal.