29

THE NEXT MORNING at eleven, Jack stood behind his desk at FBI headquarters. He looked tense, jumpy, as he rubbed his hands together. Leaning on the wall just to his right, Oscar felt nervous himself. If things weren’t handled just right, putting Jack in a room with Steinbach and Tommy Wilson, from Homeland Security, could backfire . . . and both of them could be in a world of trouble.

Now Steinbach was dressed in a khaki safari jacket and a black sport shirt. He looked like a successful Hollywood movie director, the kind of guy who made millions off action movies.

The Afrikaner smiled.

“Excuse me, Jack,” he said. “Did I hear you right? Did you say I was in your house? That I attacked a friend of yours?”

“Yeah, you heard it, Karl,” Jack said. His voice rose from the tension constricting his throat.

Steinbach laughed and shook his head, like a father dealing with an impudent and misbehaving child.

“You find that amusing, Karl?” Jack was bouncing on the balls of his feet now, so Oscar took a step closer to him.

“Yes, Jack, I do.” Steinbach turned slightly to include Tommy Wilson in his astonished look.

“It’s funny, Jackie, because last night I was with my partner here, Tommy Wilson.”

“All night?” Oscar asked.

Wilson nodded. “Yes, all night. We’re setting up an important operation.”

“Okay,” Jack said. “So it wasn’t this shithead here who was actually in my house. Doesn’t matter because he still set it up. Put a guy inside my home to grab my kid.”

Tommy Wilson coughed as he spoke. He didn’t like what was going down here. Why couldn’t Harper just admit he was wrong?

“Jack, come on,” he said. “You’re reaching.”

“Bullshit!” Jack said. “It was him. If Charlie hadn’t been there . . .”

“Jack, Jack, Jack,” Steinbach said. “Listen to yourself. I think you need some counseling. Maybe a prescription for some Paxil. That usually quiets patients right down.”

“Fuck you, you piece of shit!” Jack said. He exploded around the desk, moving so fast that he went right by Oscar, who seemed to reach out in vain. Jack pushed Wilson aside and was all over Steinbach, punching him in the face, then again in the stomach. Steinbach hit him back, then got him in a clinch. Oscar was around the desk now and tried tackling both men at once.

A few seconds later, they were all over the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

Tommy Wilson came up from behind Jack and pulled him off Steinbach. Jack reluctantly let himself be brought to his feet.

As Steinbach managed to scrape himself off the floor, Oscar put a small electronic bug inside Steinbach’s leather briefcase.

Then he shut it quickly and scrambled to his feet.

“Jack,” Oscar said. “That’s not the way, babe.”

Tommy Wilson was up in Jack’s face.

“Harper,” he said. “You’re way out of line. One more time like that, and I’ll put you on report. You won’t leave this building for the next five years!”

Steinbach smoothed his expensive shirt.

“And I’ll hit you with a civil suit. For both physical and mental damages.”

“Do whatever you gotta do,” Jack said. “But if you or any of the creeps who work for you come near my family, you’re gonna die. You hear me?”

Steinbach looked at Tommy and laughed.

“You heard that, Tommy. Harper just threatened my life. You’re my witness.”

Steinbach looked at Jack with a smug twist of his lips and headed out the door. Before he left, Tommy Wilson turned and looked sadly at Jack.

“You used to be a good agent, Jack. But you’re all burned out. You need help. And then you need to fucking retire. Go write your memoirs or something.”

He shook his head as if Jack was a lost cause and walked out the door.

Jack waited until he was sure they were gone and then turned to Oscar.

“You get the locator in the bag?”

“Oh, yeah,” Oscar said.

“You’re a good man,” Jack said.

“And you’re a good actor,” Oscar said. “For a while there, I thought you’d actually turned into a psycho.”

“Who’s acting?” Jack laughed and pounded his partner on the back.

Oscar laughed with him, but wondered. Jack had looked a little too convincing. Maybe his old partner was headed over the edge after all.

“Look,” Jack said. “There’s something we gotta talk about.”

“What’s that?”

“I want to break into Andreen’s place on Sunday night.”

“Jackie, you know I’ll be out of town. I got my sister’s wedding out in Glendale.”

“I know,” Jack said. “So I’ll do it on my own.”

“Jack, that’s bullshit. You can’t go in there without backup.”

“Cut it out. We’ve both done it before.”

“Yeah, but it’s a freaking risk . . . we can wait until next week.

We got other cases, you know: the Wilshire bank thing, the Blackstone Gang case.”

Jack felt a steady, pulsating pressure in his head.

“No,” he said. “The guy is killing agents. I don’t think we want to wait around to see if he comes at us next. Man, he was in my fucking house, okay? We need to do it this weekend.”

“That fucking vein is pulsating in your head, compadre,” Oscar said.

Jack put his right hand up to his forehead. Oscar was right. The vein was pulsating. He felt clammy down in his finger tips, too. The whole goddamned case . . . the sons of bitches in his house. Thoughts of Kevin getting hit with a hail of bullets crossed his mind. He could see his son lying there, in his own bedroom, dead. Or maybe they would come after him at school, or at the baseball field. Then he remembered the scarred man. What was his part in all this?

“I’m sorry,” Jack said. “I gotta do this now.”

“Jack, it’s my sister. I don’t go to this, I’m expelled from the family. I’m serious.”

“It’s fine,” Jack said.

“How dangerous is it going to be?”

“It’ll be nothing. I already got it worked out, checked the alarm. Piece of cake.”

“All right, Jack. But be fucking careful, amigo.”

“You got it,” Jack said. “Have a great time at Laura’s wedding, amigo.”

Oscar smiled. “You know you’re invited, too.”

“I know,” Jack said. “But this thing . . . I don’t think we can wait.”

He tried smiling at Oscar but the pain in his head was worse. He ought to take something for it, he thought. He ought to go see the doctor, but there was no time for that right now.

He had to get this prick, and he was sure there was something in Andreen’s records that was going to help him do it.