He ran all the attempts on Sokolov through his mind like a movie reel, stopping now and then to consider the picture in his mind’s eye, then starting again.
After a while, he thought the thought. Or dreamt the dream. Whatever.
He went back to sleep and slept restlessly until his phone alarm went off at eight-thirty, and called Sherwood.
“We on for breakfast at nine?” Lucas asked.
“Yes. I’m not doing anything but standing around. The FBI guys will barely talk to me,” Sherwood said.
“How’s Sokolov?”
“Bad. They’re working on him, but they don’t like his chances.”
“See you at nine.”
• • •
Sherwood was promptand they took his rental out to Cecil’s, settled into a booth. Sherwood seemed watchful and Lucas said, “You seem watchful.”
“Yeah, I’m watching you,” Sherwood said. “You’re onto something. Or up to something.”
“I had a thought last night. Maybe this morning. I’m a little cloudy on the time.”
The waitress came back with coffee and Diet Coke and took their orders, and when she was gone, Sherwood said, “You had a thought. Spit it out.”
“Their intelligence is too good. Way too good. The shooter’s crew.”
“It’s driving us nuts,” Sherwood admitted. “Nobody knew about the FBI’s move at the apartment house and it wasn’t even on time. Now they’re saying only a few people had access to Sokolov, though it turns out he might have been alone occasionally, for only a minute or two at a time…Okay. What?”
Lucas said, “Bernie.”
• • •
Sherwood stared atLucas for what must have been fifteen seconds, then said, “Mother of God. I’m so stupid. Or maybe I’m not cynical enough. I mean, that’s an idea that would make a congressman proud.”
He took his phone out of his pocket, pushed one button, and a moment later said, “Our marshal had a thought.” He repeated the thought and then listened again.
“I had another thought, too,” Lucas said.
“He had another thought,” Sherwood said into the phone. “I’m going to put us on speaker.” He put the phone on the tabletop and asked Lucas, “What was the other thought?”
“Letty, my daughter, is with Homeland Security…”
A tinny voice from the phone: “We know. We looked her up.”
“She has a very tight connection with a woman at the NSA,” Lucas said. “The NSA woman is hooked into people who do telephones. All phones. All day, every day.”
Sherwood licked his bottom lip and said, “Interesting.”
The phone on the tabletop burbled something unintelligible. Sherwood picked it up, said, “Say that again,” listened, and then said, “We’ll get back to you.”
He clicked off and said, “We need to talk to Letty. The guy I just talked to? He doesn’t know about it.”
• • •
They called Lettyfrom the diner. She picked up and said, “You get shot again?”
“No, but only because I got lucky. Listen, I’m sitting here with a guy from the Unspecified Agency. He actually knows your friend Barb. You could clear him with her, if you need to.”
