grip. That was as standard FBI macho as the suit. As he spoke he reached down absentmindedly to the desk and straightened the calendar.
“Always glad to meet one of our friends in the Fourth Estate. Especially one that doesn’t come from inside the beltway.”
I just nodded. It was bullshit and everybody there knew it.
“Jack, why don’t we go over to the Boardroom and get a cup of coffee,” Backus said. “It’s been a long day. I’ll show you around a little on the way.”
As we went upstairs Backus said nothing of consequence other than to express condolences about my brother. After the three of us were seated with our coffee at one of the tables in the cafeteria called the Boardroom, he got down to business.
“Jack, we are off the record,” Backus said. “Everything that you see or hear while in Quantico is off the record. Are we clear on that?”
“Yes. For the time being.”
“Okay. If you want to talk about changing the agreement, talk to me or Rachel and we’ll hash it out. Would you be willing to sign an agreement to that effect?”
“Sure. But I’m going to be the one who writes it.”
Backus nodded as if I had scored a point in a debate final.
“Fair enough.” He moved his coffee cup to the side, brushed some unseen impurity off his palms and leaned across the table toward me. “Jack, we’ve got a status meeting in fifteen minutes. As I am sure Rachel has told you, we are going full speed. We’d be criminally negligent, in my opinion, if we proceeded with this investigation in any other way. I’ve got my entire team on it, eight other BSS agents on loan, two techs assigned full-time and six field offices involved. I can’t remember when we’ve had that kind of commitment to an investigation before.”
“I’m glad to hear that . . . Bob.”
He didn’t seem to flinch at my use of his first name. It had been a small test. He was seemingly treating me as an equal, calling me by my first name often. I decided to see what would happen if I did the same. So far, so good.
“You have done some very fine work,” Backus continued. “What you have done has given us a solid blueprint. It’s a start and I want to tell you we’re already more than twenty-four solid hours into it.”
Behind Backus I saw the agent who had spoken to me in Walling’s office sit down at another table with a cup of coffee and a sandwich. He watched us as he began to eat.
“We are talking about a tremendous amount of resources being committed to the investigation,” Backus said. “But right now our number one priority is one of containment.”
It was going exactly the way I had expected and I had to struggle to keep a look on my face that did not give away that I knew I held sway over the FBI and the investigation. I had leverage. I was an insider.
“You don’t want me to write about it,” I said quietly.
“Yes, that’s exactly right. Not yet, at least. We know that you have enough, even without what you’ve learned from us, to write a hell of a story. It’s an explosive story, Jack. If you write about it out there in Denver it is going to attract attention. Overnight it will be on the network and in every newspaper. Then “Hard Copy” and the rest of the TV tabloids. Anybody who doesn’t have his head in the sand is going to know about it. And, Jack, plain and simple, we can’t have that. Once the offender knows we know about him, he could disappear. If he is smart, and we already know he is damn smart, he will disappear. We’ll never get him then. You don’t want that. We’re talking about the person who killed your brother. You don’t want that, do you?”
I nodded that I understood the dilemma and was silent a moment as I composed my reply. I looked from Backus to Walling and then back to Backus.
“My paper has already invested a lot of time and money,” I said. “I’ve got the story down cold. Just so you understand, I could write a story tonight that says authorities are conducting a nationwide investigation into the likelihood that a serial killer of cops has been operating for as long as three years without detection.”
“As I said, you’ve done very good work and nobody’s arguing what kind of story