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approached close enough to speak without shouting. Jake had suspected from the dark hair, but now that she was close, he could see for certain that the woman was Asian. She was surprisingly good looking, in her late thirties, and obviously the senior agent since she’d asked the question.

“That’s right,” Laney agreed. “This is Special Agent Bob Trask,” he added without missing a beat. Jake felt the lie would be obvious, but the others accepted the announcement at face value. Jake had already slipped his Sig out of sight into its holster. There were enough guns here, and his .45 Sig was clearly not FBI issue and might raise questions.

“I’m special Agent Alisha Wang,” the woman said. “This is my partner Special Agent Nick Morely.” She indicated the man on her right with a slight nod of her head. Then she added, “The officer on my left is San Francisco Police Detective Terry Hudson. His partner over there talking to the patrolmen is Rudy Spangle.”

Everyone nodded acknowledging the names.

“We need to get someone up above to stop people from coming down here,” Laney said. “We’ve already had a family with kids come down the elevator.”

“We’ve got it covered,” Detective Hudson replied. “There are men up top, and both the garage entrance on Larkin and the entrance to the service area on Polk are sealed off for now. No one is getting in or out until we are done here.”

“What exactly happened?” Agent Wang asked.

“These two suspects were transporting a body from where they had hidden it in the restaurant to their vehicle when we intercepted them,” Laney explained. “We were waiting when they transferred the body from the trashcan into the van, and when we identified who we were, that one decided to go for his gun.”

“Who shot him?” Wang asked.

“I did,” Jake admitted.

Wang noted this. She was about to ask something else when Detective Spangle interrupted.

“How come you knew about this body and were watching for these two and we didn’t know anything about it?” he asked.

Wang and Morely seemed interested in this question as well. If the murder had happened sometime in the past, normal procedure would have required the FBI to inform the police of the fact. Wang knew that another group of police in Oakland had been sent to arrest a Charles Watson on an FBI warrant issued out of Washington D.C. earlier this morning. That was unusual as well.

“It’s an unusual situation,” Laney admitted. “When we discovered that a switch had been made, and that Charles Watson had replaced Henry Ray, that’s the victim in the back of the van, we checked back and found where he’d been hidden. We hoped that someone would come for the body, and didn’t want a large police activity to chase them away.”

“I see,” Detective Spangle said, but clearly he didn’t. “And why were you watching Mr. Ray in the first place?”

“He is suspected of being involved in a federal crime,” Laney replied. They had worked this out with Carlson yesterday.

“What crime is that?” Detective Hudson asked.

“Kidnapping,” Laney replied. That would explain why the FBI was investigating Ray, although it wouldn’t explain to Wang and Morely why agents from Washington D.C. had been involved. That was a task that should have been assigned to their office. Laney could see that Agent Wang was curious, but had wisely elected to delay any question she had until later.

“Kidnapping?” Detective Spangle asked. “I thought this Ray fellow was a reporter. Who did he kidnap?”

“That’s something we will have to talk with Washington about,” Laney replied. “For now, that is sensitive information.”

Detective Spangle wasn’t comfortable with the evasion and was about to pursue the matter when one of the medical technicians came over and indicated they were ready to take the wounded man to the hospital. Spangle stepped away to deal with the matter, arranging for a police escort and officers to stand watch at the hospital. While he was doing so, Detective Hudson was also pulled away to deal with the coroner who had just arrived to deal with Henry Ray.

“What’s going on?” Special Agent Wang asked once they were alone.

“It’s complicated,” Laney replied. “At the moment we’re not at liberty to explain. Suffice it to say, we need you to follow up with the San Francisco police. We need IDs on the two men, verification that Charles Watson is who he says he is, and also verification this is really Henry Ray. We also need the three of them questioned to

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