The Big Thaw - Donald Harstad [104]
“If you gentlemen will excuse me for a short while, I have some other business to attend to.”
We did.
Just like so many other times, that little interruption broke the train of the meeting, and everybody just about simultaneously decided to take a break.
I took George aside out in the kitchen, when I went out to make a pot of coffee and he tagged along for the exercise. “What did you interview Nancy and Shamrock for?”
“Mostly to find out what they knew, and to tell them they couldn’t use anything they had learned about a particular individual.”
“George, damn it, it’s our murder. We can deal with the press if we want to.” The coffeepot had stopped gurgling, and was in the hiss-and-steam phase, which meant the water reservoir had emptied. The flavor was best then, before all the water had dripped through. I turned the pot off, and pulled the basket.
He shrugged. “We mostly wanted to shut down anything about Gabriel. They seemed to understand. Including the film.”
“‘The film’?” I stood there with the pot in one hand, and a cup in the other, and nearly poured the contents on the floor.
“Shamrock’s film. I asked her to let us keep the strip of negatives that contained the photos of Gabriel. Two frames.”
I chuckled. “You mentioned Gabriel?”
“Volont specifically told me to. As Nieuhauser, of course. Not Gabriel. But this Nancy is pretty sharp. She picked up on it right away.”
“Yeah.” I poured my coffee, and put the pot down. “So, you don’t think you pissed them off totally, then?”
“Oh, no. They were very nice.” He poured his own, adding fat-free milk and sugar substitute.
“How is that shit?” I asked.
“Awful. Milk and sugar are good, though.”
“Thanks.” I took a sip. “Doesn’t Volont realize that he just drew Nancy’s attention to Gabe?”
“I’m sure he does,” said George. “I’m just not clear as to why.”
He sipped his coffee, looking a bit worried. “Can I trust you with something?”
“You betcha.”
He closed the door. “This is supersecret, and you never heard it. I’m deadly serious about this.”
He sure appeared to be. “Fine. I’m good for it,” I said.
“Okay … here you go. Don’t ask how I know this, either, by the way. I can’t tell you.” George took a deep breath. “Okay. First, Gabriel is supposed to be leading Volont to some ‘big man’ in the antigovernment movements. Really big man. Gabe was Volont’s snitch. At some point in the past. For sure. Volont squeezed him a few years ago, over some arms sales or something. But Volont’s lost control of him. As if you hadn’t figured that part out.”
I just nodded. I figured this was not the time to demonstrate ignorance.
“Volont’s pissed. ’cause now old Gabe is simply getting ready to make a hit to fill his own pockets, and run away to somewhere. Not for the ‘movement.’ That’s all phony as hell, now.” George looked around, just checking, I guess. “None of this ‘five banks’ thing is for anything other than Gabe. All his associates don’t know this, but he’s just using them for his own purposes.”
“And Volont knows all this?” I asked.
“And a hell of a lot more,” said George. “He’s got people on the inside, I’m certain.”
“I’ll be damned.” I thought for a few seconds, wondering who that could be. “And he’s probably known this for a while now, hasn’t he?”
“You could say that,” said George.
“I know what that Spook stuff’s like, George. Are you sure Volont is right about him not doing this for the ‘movement,’ or anything like that? Could he have misled Volont?”
George grinned. “Wheels within wheels. Just know what I’ve been told,” he said.
“Sounds true,” I said. “You know what they say about ‘doing it for the movement.’ Just means you don’t have to pay the help.”
Fascinating. Unfortunately, it didn’t change a thing as far as murder and bank burglary were concerned. Ideology aside, we still had the same problems going on.
“Thanks, George,” I said. “A lot.” He’d taken a large risk to tell me that. I just wished it had been something I could have used to stop the “five banks” stuff, or to have prevented the deaths of the Colson