disease. By the time I got to high school, she had left him. Since then, the few guys I could have been serious about couldn’t pass the fidelity tests I ran by them. So here I am, career woman. Hear me roar.”
“What kind of test?”
“If I let that out, then someone could cheat it. Besides, I’ve come to realize that if I’ve got to give someone the test, he’s already failed.”
“So it’s going to wind up just you and your retirement check, a little too much of which will go for cat food.”
She smiled, trying to deny the tiny flicker of sadness in her eyes. “If the cats will have me.”
Vail said, “You were probably wondering why I’ve never been married.”
Kate burst out laughing, launching a small bite of her taco into the air.
“Then again,” he said, “maybe not.”
VAIL DROVE BACK to the office, and when they pulled into the garage, Kate asked, “You are coming to the meeting, right?”
“I don’t know if you saw the look on Kaulcrick’s face when he came out of that bomb van, but I’ve seen it before. This case is wrapping up. I’m just a matter of hours away from being two thousand miles east of here with a brick trowel back in my hand. Me being at that meeting will just make everyone uncomfortable. My presence has a way of getting in the way of a good rationalization, which several people in that room are going to need. Besides, it’ll be best for you to be seen in public without me tagging along.”
Kate knew she was probably wasting her time trying to convince him. “I’m sure the director will want to thank you personally.”
“Which will make it even worse.”
“You mean for me. Any credit you get will be less for Don, and he’ll see me as part of that.”
Vail gave her a half smile. “We burned up two million dollars today. Any credit being passed around may not be the kind you’re expecting.” Vail pulled up in front of the federal building.
“When the dragon’s slain, no one asks how many federal dollars it cost,” she said and pivoted toward him. “Why won’t you stay with the Bureau?”
“I guess because it is the Bureau.”
“We’ll have dinner tonight?”
“Does that mean you’re giving me one last shot at the brass ring?”
Kate leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. “What makes you think you had any shot, bricklayer?” She got out and disappeared through the door.
THE MEETING STARTED at a few minutes before two o’clock. Tye Delson asked, “Where’s Steve Vail?” Everyone was sitting around the table in the SAC’s conference room.
Kaulcrick turned to Kate. “Where is he?”
“To tell you the truth, I have no idea. You know Vail.”
“I’d be surprised if anyone knows Vail.”
The phone rang and Kaulcrick hit the Speaker button. “Don Kaulcrick here.”
“Hello, Don.” It was the director. “Please tell me who is present.” The assistant director first introduced Tye Delson. “She’s been with us through this whole thing, giving legal opinions and making sure our search warrants were valid.” The director thanked her, and then Kaulcrick went around the table, naming the SAC, Kate, and the two ASACs. Finally he introduced Mike Henning as the sergeant in charge of the LAPD bomb squad unit that had helped at the tunnel and again today at the steam cleaners. “Mike has the technical savvy about the robot and what happened with the money, sir.”
“Mike, as always, the FBI is indebted to a local police department. I know your chief fairly well, and he’ll hear from me about your assistance. I cannot thank you and your people enough. Can you give me a rundown on what happened out there today?”
Henning detailed the attempt to recover the two million dollars, and how the electrical booby trap set by Radek detonated the thermite device accidentally.
Lasker said, “How do we know there was two million dollars in the box?”
“Before I tripped the device, we saw the stacks of banded hundred-dollar bills, and the box was full. It was the general consensus, based on the three million recovered, that it was about the right size to contain the missing two million dollars.”
“Where is the box now?”
“Your Evidence Recovery Team is packing it up. There’s not much of it left.”
“What about the contents?”
“Just a fine ash now, sir.”
The director said, “Don, I want everything carefully preserved. There are two agents from the lab on their way. They tell me that with microanalysis and spectroanalysis they can determine what was burned