“I don’t know the details of why the annulment took place, but it did and was made a matter of record in Washington, D.C., where the couple presumably came back to live. And DeHaven wasn’t part of the spy ring. Details are still coming out and some of it’s being buried because of national security interests, but it looks like he was an innocent guy who got killed because he stumbled onto something he shouldn’t have.”

A pensive Bagger sat back. Annabelle had conned him into thinking she was with CIA and that the money he had given her was a way for the government to launder cash overseas. But what if she really was with CIA? What if it had been the government that had screwed him? You couldn’t sue the government. You couldn’t kill Uncle Sam.

He stared across at Joe. “Good work, Joe. Keep digging and see what you come up with.”

Joe rose. “Already on it, Mr. Bagger.”

After Joe left, Bagger stared down at the picture of the youthful Annabelle. She looked happy although her new hubby looked like, well, like a librarian.

Bagger rose and looked out the window, onto his empire that occupied nearly an entire block on the Boardwalk. Making up his mind, he picked up his phone and called his chief of security. “Warm up the jet, we’re heading out.”

“Where to, Mr. Bagger?”

“My favorite city. Washington, D.C.”

CHAPTER 22

THE NEXT MORNING, while Reuben and Milton drove to Atlantic City, Harry Finn was also busy. He and two team members were surveying a parcel of land near the United States Capitol. Their uniforms were perfect, their equipment spot-on. Most importantly, they exuded the confident air of people who had every right to be where they were. When two Capitol police officers approached them, Finn calmly pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and showed the pair his official-looking orders.

“I just go where they send me, guys,” he said apologetically. “We won’t be here much longer. It’s the damn visitor center project.”

“You mean that taxpayer hell pit?” one of the cops growled. The project had become D.C.’s version of the Big Dig fiasco in Boston.

Finn nodded. “You know in this town everybody thinks somebody else has jurisdiction. So we have to do the same thing ten times because somebody’s panties got in a wad.”

“Tell me about it,” the other cop said. “Just make it quick.”

“Roger that,” Finn said, turning back to his work.

The surveyor’s apparatus they were using was actually a video camera currently filming two entrances to the Capitol building and detailing the rotation of security guards and other essential elements for a successful penetration later. Ever since a man had broken through the Capitol security perimeter with comparative ease, several high-ranking pols had been livid. They had secretly retained Finn’s company to test whether the “enhanced” security measures put in place were the real fix or not. From what Finn had seen so far, they clearly weren’t.

Back at the office, Finn spent the next two hours “phone freaking.” This was a complex exercise involving phoning one person after another and building on the intelligence with each call to elicit more specific information from each new person called. Finn had used this technique to learn the central location in the United States of the vaccine for a nasty bioterrorism bug by pretending to be a marketing student doing a term paper on commercial distribution techniques. He talked to eight different people, finishing with a vice president of the company that manufactured the vaccine, who unknowingly confirmed the location while answering what he obviously thought was a totally unrelated series of questions.

Today Finn was gathering info on two upcoming projects: the hit on the Capitol and a far more involved crashing of the Pentagon. While it had been unfortunately proved beyond doubt that one could fly a large plane into the headquarters of the U.S. military and damage it, there were far subtler ways of breaching the facility’s security and perhaps doing more harm than the doomed jumbo jet had. Among other possible scenarios, one could booby-trap the military’s command and control system, or sabotage its air filtration system, killing or sickening tens of thousands of key government personnel, or even blow up the building from the inside out.

As Finn went about his work, he kept an eye on the Internet for news of Carter Gray’s death. As expected, the authorities were keeping a tight lid on all of it. There had been no leaks and most stories were confined to telling and retelling the glorious career and public service of the dead man, Carter Robert Gray. Finally, Finn couldn’t take it anymore. He went for a walk.

And then he decided, on impulse, to visit his mother. He would catch a flight that very night, after the kids were in bed. He could see her the next day and be back home that same night. After the navy gig, he had some downtime coming anyway. His was not a nine-to-five occupation. And with several jobs percolating in the prep stage before the field operations would begin, now was actually a good time to go.

He both loved and hated to see his mother. The routine never varied; it couldn’t, actually. Yet since it had all begun with her, Finn had to return to that touchstone from time to time. It wasn’t like he was reporting in, but in a way that’s exactly what he was doing.

He booked the flight online and called Mandy and told her. He left work early, drove his two youngest to swimming and baseball practice respectively, and then picked them up later. After they were asleep he left for the airport, for the short ride to one of the longest days of his life.

CHAPTER 23

STONE PUNCHED IN Annabelle’s phone number. Four rings went by and he assumed she wasn’t going to answer when her voice said, “Hello?”

“Where are you?” he said.

“Oliver, I left a note.”

“The note is bullshit. Where are you?”

“I don’t want you involved in this, so just forget me.”

“I’ve sent Milton and Reuben up to Atlantic City to do a recon on Bagger.”

“You did what?” she screamed into the phone. “Are you insane!”

“Now there’s the Annabelle I’ve come to know and admire.”

“That’s suicide, sending them to Bagger’s turf.”

“They know how to take care of themselves.”

“Oliver, I left town so you wouldn’t get involved.”

“Then come back, because we are involved.”

“I can’t come back. I won’t come back.”

“Then just answer one question for me.”

“What?” she said warily.

“What did Jerry Bagger do to you to make you rip him off for millions?”

“I ripped him off because that’s what I do. I’m a con.”

“If you keep lying to me I’m going to get really upset.”

“Why do you care?”

“You helped us, now it’s our turn to help you.”

“I helped myself. You guys were just in the way.”

“So be it, but you still need us. And we’re wasting time. If Bagger’s as good as you say he is, you may not have much time left.”

“Thanks for your vote of confidence.”

“I’m just being practical. Where are you?”

“Forget it.”

“Then let me guess. But if I guess correctly you have to tell me where you are. Deal?”

“Whatever makes you happy.”

“I said deal?”

“Fine. Deal.”

“Okay, you’ve taken my advice and you’re trying to pin something on Bagger. And what you’re trying to pin on him is the reason you ripped him off. And that’s where you are right now, at a place where he did something so bad to you or yours that you had to come back at him. And do it damn hard. Am I right?”

Annabelle was dead silent.

He said, “Now, since I won the bet you have to tell me where you are.”

“You didn’t give me a specific location.”