“This is bullshit,” Schneider said, ignoring Silvia’s curious gaze.
“Let me ask you one easy question,” Carter continued. “What happened to the video of Nika’s interrogation in this very building?”
Silvia frowned. “What happened to it? It’ll be cataloged alongside the other evidence.”
“I suggest you check it’s still there—my source says it’s not. And did you sit in on Nika’s entire interrogation?”
“Most of it.”
“Not all? So … not at the end, when she negotiated whatever deal it was that made the whole thing go away.”
Silvia’s mouth tightened. “Mr. Beck, what do you claim to know here?”
“You’ve never thought there was something more to this?”
“Like what?”
Schneider interrupted. “We’re getting side-tracked. I suggest we come back to the?—”
“Give me twenty-four hours and I’ll get you some answers.”
“Let you go?” Silvia said. “You know we can’t. You just admitted yourself—you’re a hard man to find. But if you tell me where to look for whatever it is you have…”
“Who says you won’t destroy anything that doesn’t fit the narrative? Like the interview video.”
“Hey, slow down with the conspiracy theories. Are you saying I would risk my job and my freedom to incriminate you? Why would I? We’re on the same side here—the side of justice. The only ‘narrative’ I want is the truth. If you have evidence that would clear your name, implicate the real perpetrator, for God’s sake share it with us.”
“I’ve had more people try to kill me in the last week than in five years spying in Moscow, so you’ll forgive me for not knowing who to trust.”
“You’re bluffing,” Schneider declared. “You don’t have any ‘answers.’”
“Let me tell you one thing: I have a copy of a notice of an international wire transfer of $120,000 into the account of a former security guard at Langley.”
Silvia raised her eyebrows. “And?”
“The same guy was pursuing me in Baltimore yesterday, with an armed buddy who is also ex-CIA. I can give you names.”
“How does this relate to the case I’m investigating?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. That and why Nika had this information, and much, much more—and how she used it to get red-carpet entry into the U.S. Twenty-four hours, and I’ll bring you a fuller picture. The names in these documents?” He shot a glance at Schneider, who had the air of a guy who looked worried but was trying to hide it. “Some of them would blow your mind. Unless you don’t want the full picture…”
“What is this?” Schneider said. “A stalling tactic?”
“Tell me where to look,” Silvia said. “Let me help you. Where is this evidence?”
“As a first step, if you show me the evidence you have on this—the physical evidence—I suspect we’ll discover something interesting, something that was overlooked.”
Silvia frowned. “There can’t be a whole lot of it. It’s not like we have evidence from the crime scene.”
“Still…”
Schneider threw up his hands. “Now you really are wasting our time.”
There was a knock on the door and it opened. “Sorry to interrupt,” a man said grimly, his face shielded from Carter’s view. “You’ll want to come and hear this.”
Carter’s interrogators left. He couldn’t make out more than a rumble of voices from the corridor. Was it something to do with Alice? If they were going to find her, they would have by now—and they’d be using it to put pressure on Carter. She had to have skipped out. She had no phone or transport, but she’d taken her purse, so she’d have access to money, though they’d be monitoring her debit cards. But if she didn’t know Carter had been picked up, she might assume he’d given up on her. If she could get to the apartment and get access to the list and the kompromat…
Might be time for him to lawyer up, and get the lawyer to make a public statement about him being detained—which would also give Alice a point of contact to get help. One of his mom’s book club friends was a lawyer—a human rights lawyer, but close enough.
