inside that box and how much there was of it. I just want to be sure the money is gone when I explain this to the White House. I know they’ll ask.”
“I’m sorry about the money, sir, but I don’t see any way that it could have been prevented,” Henning said.
“There’s absolutely nothing to be sorry about. You’ve all performed impressively during an impossible situation. You’ve recovered more money than you’ve lost, and two million dollars does not make a dent in what we would have had to spend if this went on any longer. We would probably have offered a million-dollar reward for Victor Radek alone.”
Kaulcrick leaned back. “That’s very generous of you, sir.”
“And, Mark,” Lasker said to SAC Hildebrand, “I’m going to try to get out to L.A. next month. I’d like to meet with all your people who were involved.”
“They’d be honored.”
“So where’s Steve Vail?”
Kaulcrick hesitated, and Kate said, “Oh, you know how much he likes to be thanked, sir.”
“Take me off speaker, please, Kate. Again, everyone, well done.”
Kate picked up the handset. “Yes, sir.”
“Where is he really?”
“It’s like I said, he really doesn’t like to be made a big deal of. I think it embarrasses him.”
“From what I’ve been able to read between the lines, he’s mainly responsible for putting this group out of business. Am I correct?”
She glanced at Kaulcrick and then carefully said, “A good deal of it, yes.”
“He’s too valuable to this organization to let go. I want you to offer him this permanently. He can go off anywhere he wants and work any case he wants. He can work directly for me.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Everything considered, it looks like you already have. You, too, have my appreciation. How are your injuries?”
“I’m fine, sir.”
“And tell Vail, even if we can’t figure out a way to keep him aboard, I will find some way to thank him.”
“I’ll threaten him with that.”
The director laughed. “How much longer will you and Don be out there?”
“I would guess we’ll be done with the evidence and reports in three to four days.”
“Come see me when you get back.”
TOM DEMICK had provided Vail with a rarely used alcove in a remote corner of the office’s technical services section. He was wearing evidence gloves and going through the trash container from the building on Ninth Street. It seemed too pat that the extortionists had advertised themselves as a pentad. Now five people, including Pendaran, had been identified, and everyone was assuming that because the body count had reached that number, there could be no one else involved. Why would they give away their strength up front?
He had started listing all the container’s contents on a pad of paper. Maybe he could, through content, fingerprints, or DNA, separate them by the person who had deposited them, allowing him to determine that there were more than five people. After processing a few items, he realized it would be an impossible task. It was time to cut the Gordian knot.
He reached in and shifted the contents around until he found the source of the garlic odor. It was an order of linguine with red clam sauce in a foil carryout container with a plastic top, which was in a paper bag stapled closed with the receipt attached. The top of the bag had been torn open and the lid pushed to one side. It appeared that the meal hadn’t been touched. Vail leaned a little closer and sniffed the sauce. There was far too much garlic in it for anyone’s taste. Now fascinated, he set it on a dusty desk beside him.
There was a good chance that whoever had set the meal in the trash did it so it would be noticed. But why? Would he have noticed it if he hadn’t smelled the odor of garlic so prominently the night before? Was this meant to lead the FBI away from something again? Or to something?
He dug around in the old desk and found a staple puller. He eased out the fastener and unfolded the receipt. Unbelievably, it was dated the afternoon before and was paid for with a credit card. It was for two orders of linguine. The restaurant, Sargasso’s, was located on Seventh Street, less than three blocks from the building where the shoot-out the night before had occurred, and less than two miles from the building they had searched this morning.
Vail wondered if he was supposed to follow another investigative chain from the staged meal. Then it occurred to him