The Bishop decided to get some information from the political operative. “I understand you were not helpful to the FBI yesterday.”
“No, I wasn’t, not at all,” Connolly replied urgently. “However, you know the St. Paul detective working the case?”
“McRyan?”
“Yes, him. He has your name somehow, not your real name, but he knows there’s a man named the Bishop involved. How he knows I don’t know, but he knows.”
The Bishop grimaced. He had not learned this piece of information. And while he doubted anyone in the government knew ‘the Bishop’ meant him, with a moniker they could potentially work their way back to him. Few men alive knew of him as the Bishop. Connolly was one, Kristoff was another.
“What does your attorney have to say?”
“That the government has nothing on me really. They have a picture of me, Khrutov, Checketts and Domitrovich and those three are dead. Otherwise they have nothing to tie me to the DataPoint machines. I’m a dead end for them.”
“They could be watching you.”
“I suspect they are. They are probably watching the building but they certainly don’t have anything close enough to get some sort of search warrant or conduct any sort of wiretapping on me,” Heath replied. “We sat there for four hours last night and all they really have is the picture and nothing else.”
“They’ll come back at you again.”
“They will,” Connolly answered, the confidence growing in his voice. “But they have nothing and I will not give them anything and I want you to know that, I need you to know that.”
Connolly was worried about his life. The Bishop could sense it in his voice. It was the reason for the call, it was the reason he decided to take it. Connolly had his guard up and the Bishop would just as soon have it down. “You needn’t worry, my friend. We’ve been friends a long time. I know you’ll stay strong and you have to know that I will take care of you. Don’t worry about work or money. I can supply plenty of both. There will be other election cycles and we shall plot our comeback together. In the meantime, things will die down and the investigation will lead nowhere. Trust me.”
“I am glad to hear you say that,” Connolly replied and the Bishop, with the powerful binoculars to his eyes, could see a wave of relief wash over his face.
“No worries, Heath. We are good. I must go, but hang tight. I will be in touch.” The Bishop hung up and watched Connolly put the phone in his pocket, exhale and look to the sky in relief with a light smile on his face.
A minute ago his guard was up.
Now it was down.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
“I’ve seen that man.”
Mac and Wire enjoyed an early lunch at a small homey café in Arlington, a place she’d discovered four years ago and tried to make it to at least once per week when she was home. The food was tremendous, excellent coffee, even better iced tea, and it felt like a Saturday or Sunday back home when he and Sally would take the paper and go to Mac’s favorite place, the Cleveland Grille, to eat and relax.
They actually discussed the election for a good long while, Mac relating his conversation with Sally and the Judge. Wire said she’d spent a couple of hours watching the election news as well. They both knew their investigation would garner a lot of media attention in the days to come, particularly once tomorrow’s election was over. Neither of them really relished the thought of the media poking around in their lives.
“Trust me,” Mac said, “it’s not a lot of fun, but my advice is to find someone you can trust and talk to them, get it out and then politely refuse to talk to anyone else. If you say it all at once, people will lose interest pretty quickly.”
“That work for you?”
“Yeah, there’s this reporter, she’s actually with NBC News now, Heather Foxx.”
“Why am I not surprised,” Wire stated, rolling her eyes.
“What?”
“She’s kinda hot.”
“Yes she is,” Mac replied sheepishly. “But she’s also very good and I found she can be trusted.” Mac told Wire about the case where he crossed paths with Foxx, a double kidnapping that involved Chief Flanagan’s daughter and the daughter of a prominent lawyer. “In any event, Heather actually helped out our case a little bit. So in return, I gave her a sit-down one-on-one and she did it