The Big Thaw - Donald Harstad [112]
Lamar sighed, and stood up. “I gotta get back to the office.” And he walked out. Just like that.
Well. There was a pretty thick silence after he left. I broke it with “Looks like you better be right on this one.” I could say that. I’d been shot the last time Volont had made a mistake. In the vest, admittedly. What the hell, it’s the thought that counts.
“Confidence,” he said, blandly, “is high.” I thought of what Hester had said about a psychic. I caught her eye and grinned at her, but she was too worried to catch it.
We made tentative assignments, and the call went out to begin gathering reinforcements. I headed back to Maitland. Tomorrow was Sunday. Sunday was Bank Day. Time was getting short.
Twenty-two
Saturday, January 17, 1998, 1358
Volont stuck his head in the door. “TAC team commander will meet with you out here in a few minutes. He just landed.” He was gone as quickly as he’d appeared.
George had hardly had time to “pop to.” “We gotta plan, I guess.”
“Yeah.” I rummaged through the box, looking for another doughnut with little sprinkles on it. “I think this is as close as Volont ever gets to orgasm.”
George started to laugh, caught it, but still had a dribble of coffee on his chin. “Don’t say those things!”
“Oh, yeah, before I forget … Remember Nola Stritch?”
He sure did.
“Well, Cletus Borglan’s hired man and his family? The Grossmans?” He nodded. “Turns out that she’s Nola’s sister. Half sister, anyway. Neat, no?”
“Well,” he said, “I’m glad Volont finally told you.”
“He didn’t tell me, George. We found out on our own.”
“Oh, then you must be the one who told Volont,” he said, lamely.
“Well, I thought so … You know, George, I’ve been thinking about all this. You guys are really throwing a lot of resources at this. I mean, really. Surveillance for God knows how long. TAC team. It’s a lot like last time. Only more, you know?”
George smiled. “Just consider it part of the Peace Dividend.”
I thought that was a strange thing for George to say.
“I’ve been led to believe that this was sort of a vengeance thing between Gabriel and Volont,” I said, slowly. I looked at my empty coffee cup. “I’ve been buying into a cover story, haven’t I?”
Silence.
“Not blaming you, George. You bought it at first, too. But something’s different, and I think it’s that you know a lot more than you’re being allowed to say. Now.”
He smiled, ruefully. “I couldn’t tell you even if I did. Could I?”
I spoke very quietly. “The whole damned Bureau has just been relentless with this Gabriel dude. Obviously for several years, going back to before I ever knew about him. And still. Still at war with him.” I pushed my cup away, and my chair back. “It’s no vendetta, where he screwed Volont, and Volont is just screwing back. Is it?”
Before he could answer, I grinned and said, “Don’t tell me, you’d only have to kill yourself.” I was sort of kidding. He surprised me, though. He gave me an answer.
“No. It’s much more than that. Volont really doesn’t give a damn about Gabriel, at all. He just knows him fairly well.” He shrugged. “If it helps, I only found that out a few months ago, myself.”
We were interrupted by Sally, who knocked on the door frame and announced we had a guest.
The FBI TAC team leader was top-notch. Higher, in fact. Excellent individual, very precise, and completely without pretense.
“This could get to be a real zoo,” he said. “We really don’t have a lot of good data, do we?” Smart, too.
He knew damned well that I hadn’t called him in. I couldn’t. Neither could George. That being the case, he didn’t have to worry about hurting our feelings.
“Not a lot.” I handed him a cup of coffee, and our file on the banks, the schedules for deposits, and the plans of each building. “I do think the Frieberg bank is the main hit, though.”
He looked at the possible-banks sheet. “I agree.” He looked up, sharply. “You guys just found out about the cash on hand yesterday?”
We told him how that had happened. He grinned. “Always the last to know.”
We went over