“Where is Miz Chase now?” Lucas asked.
“She’s on her way. She’ll be in a communications car at the corner of Wilson Boulevard and North Veitch Street. If you go around the corner on Veitch, we’ve reserved parking for members of the group.”
—
LUCAS DROVE,with Rae in the passenger seat, Bob in back. Lucas normally didn’t like to ride with other law enforcement officers because too often everybody wound up wanting to go to different places. In this case, they’d be more observers than an action team, so it was unlikely they’d need to split up.
On the way over, Lucas said, “Her assistant said they expect McCoy to leave around four o’clock. I think they’re doing some electronic monitoring. I don’t know how, but they’re doing it.”
“Wonder where Moore is,” Rae said. “Hope he’s not in a landfill.”
“Don’t even think that,” Lucas said.
—
TRAFFIC WASalready tightening up as they crossed the Potomac into Arlington. They turned the corner off Wilson onto North Veitch and found a line of large sedans and two Chevy Yukons parked on the right side of the street, and a man in a suit who waved them away from an open parking space. Lucas pulled in anyway, got out, and held up his badge: “U.S. Marshals, here to meet Miz Chase.”
The man nodded, and said, “Okay. White Yukon.”
Chase was in the passenger seat, and Lucas, Bob, and Raepiled into the empty second row of seats, squeezing Rae in the middle. Lucas asked, “Where are we?”
“We’re looking at five men: Luther Franklin, Ray Shelve, Arnold Buckram, and your two, Kerry Moore and John McCoy. I’m worried about Moore; we’ve picked up some chatter from Heracles, and they don’t seem to know where he is, either.”
“You’re monitoring Heracles?”
Chase turned her head to glance at him, and said, “We have some... resources in place.”
“Hope he’s not dead,” Bob said. “They kill both McCoy and Moore, we marshals be suffering some serious butthurt, Smalls-wise.”
Chase looked over her other shoulder. “What? Butthurt? Is that a marshal technical term?” First hint of a sense of humor.
—
THE YUKON’S DRIVERwas a serious young agent with a Caucasian-colored earbud in one ear, which made Lucas wonder whether the feds had other ethnically correct monitors. The man said, “Franklin’s leaving Heracles, and McCoy is with him... They’re talking... They’re splitting up. Ben’s on Franklin, Clark’s on McCoy.”
Chase said to Lucas, “McCoy’s meeting his personal attorney at the Corner Bakery Café. He made the appointment this afternoon, and he made it walking down the street from his office, like he didn’t want to be overheard. We plan to approach both men at the same time. We arrest McCoy and give a National Security Letter to his attorney.”
“I don’t know what that is,” Lucas said.
“It’s like a gag order. It’ll keep him from tipping off Heracles,should he be inclined to do that. We can do it administratively, but the director herself has to approve. That’s why we’re running late today. It took a while to get that done. The lawyer—his name’s Roy Bunch—can challenge it in court, but by the time he does that we’ll be all over Heracles. Bunch has a general practice that has included some criminal law, and we’re hoping he’ll agree to come along with McCoy when we take him in.”
“Where’s this café?” Bob asked.
Chase gestured over her shoulder with her thumb. “On the corner... There’s a Dunkin’ Donuts on the other side of the street, around the other corner... You’ve got time—you know, being cops and all.” Second hint at a sense of humor.
“I could go for a couple of those powdered jellys,” Bob said.
Rae: “You probably will.”
The young agent muttered, “McCoy’s in his car. He’s headed this way.”
Chase: “There’s no parking. As soon as he gets to the corner, one of our cars will pull out and leave a space for him. When he gets out of his car, we take him. Then we’ll go down to the corner and fetch his lawyer. If he’s not there yet, we’ll wait. But his office is across the street, so he should be on time.”
“Still got time for donuts?” Bob asked.
Chase: “Seriously?”
“Seriously. I’ll get a bag and wait on the corner. You can wave when he gets close. Rae can wait down at the other end of the block. In case he runs and gets past your guys. He’s supposed to be tough.”
