THURSDAY 1:43 P.M.

I went to my office. Before I started calling the phone numbers connected with the case, I phoned an old classmate of mine, Nate Lauer. I used another burner phone from the file cabinet. Nate and I had been on the football team together in high school. During the sophomore season we used to like to have sex after practice and even managed to squeeze in a few sessions after a couple games in our dirty, sweaty, muddy uniforms in the locker room. It was a huge risk and hot sex. We went our separate ways after high school, but reconnected as friends a few years ago over a case when I had a client that his office desperately needed for a witness. He was a low level staffer now in the US Attorney’s office for the Central District of Illinois.

We blathered about the weather and people we no longer cared to know for a few minutes. Then I said, “I’ve got a delicate situation.”

“How delicate?”

“Possibly murder. Perhaps international intrigue.”

I said Vincek’s name and he stopped me, “You’re calling on a prepaid cell?”

“Yeah.”

“And you had your entire office checked for bugs?”

“Yeah. Plus my security is beyond state of the art.”

“You’ve still got the Picasso on the wall?”

“Yeah.”

“You should lock it up.”

“Being here is just as good. The insurance company saw the security apparatus we have, and they were satisfied. No one’s been in here.”

“And you have extra security beyond that?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Ask me to be your attorney.”

I understood what he was doing. Assuring attorney-client privilege.

I complied.

I said, “A client told me he’d uncovered possible plots against the government.”

“What kinds of plots?”

I explained the possibilities Vincek had outlined.

“Why did he come to you?”

“He’s scared.”

“Maybe he’s a scared terrorist duping you.”

“He might be, but the first question after that is why?”

“Maybe he wants to involve you or implicate you or frame you.”

I said, “Okay, that’s one problem, but my question is, do I have an obligation to report all this to the authorities? What if one of these is real?”

“Report what?”

“All he said.”

“You have proof that he said it?”

“No, I didn’t record it.”

“So he may or may not have said it. You have any proof that anything that you say he said is true?”

“No. I couldn’t even find physical evidence the accident had happened. Just a cop who said he knew it did, but it had been completely covered up.”

“So a cop who knows less than you do is your witness? As for engineering a crash and cleaning it up, are you sure you trust that cop?”

“He was hot sex.”

“So were we and look what successes we are today.”

We’d had a mundane high school breakup. It was way more exploring sex and each other than a real relationship.

I said, “I also talked with the tow truck guy who moved the vehicles.”

“One of Bernie’s guys?”

“Yeah.”

“That should be reliable. The answer to your question about reporting what you heard is, I don’t think so.”

I told him about Abdul the terrorist who came to my home. I finished, “He seemed legitimate.”

“After you threatened to crush his balls. How much of what he told you is reliable?”

I had no answer to that.

After a brief silence, I asked, “Can you at least find out about that case in New York where those guys were convicted?” I explained about Vincek, or the guy who was in my office claiming he was Vincek being mentioned in the newspaper article.

Nate asked, “And you want to call these guys?”

“I think knowing what the hell is going on would help, but I realize it could be a huge problem, so I wanted to check with you first.”

“If you called these people, how exactly do you think it would go?”

I was silent.

“The first thing they’ll do is try to keep you on the line. That will be the most mild thing. You don’t know what they want him for specifically. Maybe the guy is a terrorist. I know he said he wasn’t. Isn’t that what they all say? How many people walk up to a private detective and announce they’re terrorists?”

“Not many?”

“Good guess. I think you’re into something heavy here. If you approach them, the officials in New York are going to want to talk you, at the least. At worst, I can picture you getting renditioned out of the country.”

“I feared as much.”

“You are right to be concerned.”

“Not good.”

“I’ll sniff very discreetly around the edges for you.”

“I wouldn’t want you to take any chances that would endanger your career.”

“That’s one of the basics you get taught on this job in the first week. I’ll be very careful. So careful, it might be useless.”

“Whatever you can get, I appreciate.”