“Drink your coffee,” said Robie. “It’ll help calm your nerves.”
She took a sip and set the cup back down, her hand shaking.
Robie sat back, studied her. “Who told you to lie?”
“I can’t talk to you about this.”
“You’ll either have to talk to me or the FBI. Which do you prefer?”
“I can’t talk to the FBI.”
“Why?”
She exclaimed, “Because they’ll kill him, that’s why.”
“Kill who?”
“My husband.”
“What’s he got to do with this?”
“Gambling debts. He’s way over his head. But someone approached him and told us there was a way out. All debts forgiven if we did this.”
“Lie to the FBI?”
“Yes.”
“Big risk.”
“Prison over death?” she said incredulously.
“What does your husband do?”
“He’s a partner in a law firm. He’s a good man. A pillar in the community. But he has a little problem with betting. And he used some client trust funds to make up a shortfall. He’ll be ruined if it comes out.”
“Who were the people who got you to do this?”
“I never met them. My husband did. He said he was taken to a room, sat in the dark, and given an ultimatum. They told us everything we needed to do.”
“Why were you chosen to do it instead of your husband?”
“I guess I’m cooler under pressure than he is. We didn’t think he would be able to lie to the FBI.”
Robie thought about this. Respectable couple, believable witness. No motivation to tell an untruth. Made sense.
“Who was the guy you were supposed to be having an affair with?”
“They supplied him. We just sat in the motel bedroom staring at the floor. Then we left at the time we’d been given. I didn’t actually see the bus explode. I was told to say it was a black man and black teenager who got off the bus. And then the rest that you heard today.”
“Where is your husband now?”
“Confirming that his gambling debts have been taken care of.”
“You really think it will be that easy?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re a liability to these folks, Michele. Do you think they were going to let you and your husband live?”
Her face flushed. “But we don’t know anything.”
“What you just told me disproves that.”
“You think they’ll try to kill us?”
“What time is your husband supposed to be back?”
She looked at her watch and her face turned whiter. “About twenty minutes ago.”
“Call him.”
She grabbed the phone and punched in the number. She waited, the phone pressed to her ear.
“It went right to voice mail.”
“Text him.”
She did. They waited for five minutes and no text came back.
“Call him again.”
She tried twice more, with the same result.
“Where was he going to confirm that the debts were canceled?”
“At a bar over in Bethesda.”
Robie thought quickly. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To the bar in Bethesda. We might be in time to save his life.”
CHAPTER
65
ON THE WAY Robie called Blue Man and requested backup. They would meet him at the bar.
Robie gunned the Volvo and glanced over at Cohen. Her face was tear-streaked and her breaths only came in short gasps that might have caused Robie to feel sorry for her under different circumstances.
She glanced at him, her look of misery deepening. “You think he’s dead, don’t you?”
“I don’t know, Michele. But that’s why we’re here. To prevent it if we can.”
“It seems so stupid now. Of course they wouldn’t just let him walk away. But it was the only chance we had. We were desperate.”
“Which made you the perfect people to approach.”
He made a left, a quick right, and pulled the car to the curb. “That the place?” he said, indicating a bar farther down the street with the sign “Lucky’s” above it.
She nodded. “Yes, that’s it.”
Well, I hope it’s lucky for us.
Robie looked around for his backup. He texted Blue Man. The reply came back almost immediately.
Sixty seconds away.
Cohen blurted, “That’s Mark’s car over there.” She pointed to a gray Lexus sedan parked a half block down.
A few moments later an SUV pulled up behind Robie. He signaled to the driver. The man signaled back. Robie got out and escorted Cohen to the SUV. There were three men inside. Cohen got in the backseat.
“Stay put,” he told her. “No matter what you see or hear, these men will take care of you, okay?”
“Please bring my husband back to me.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Robie looked at the man in the passenger seat. “You want to come with me?”
The man nodded, racked his pistol, and put it back in the holster.
The pair moved down the street, their heads rotating side to side,