“I’m a little worried too, Maggie, being so close to you.”
“Scott—”
“You should never have gotten involved with Black Ops people.”
“I got involved with Trent.”
“And he played you like a harp.”
“I don’t want to hear that.”
“You stepped in quicksand, Ms. Taylor, and every move you make gets you deeper. How many times have you seen this in criminal cases?”
“I’ve said all I have to say. I confessed to you. You can do what you want with the information. I’ll even give you the Garmin device for evidence.”
“If you’d given it to me back in Caracas, I could be more sympathetic—”
“We were in Caracas when you gave me a pass on this instead of reporting it to Dombroski. And if I’d slept with you, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. In fact, you’re angry, but I want you to forgive me—and trust me—for the right reasons,notbecause we were having a business trip romance.”
He thought about that and concluded she had some valid points, but she was also distracting him from the central issue of her betrayal and lying. If he had duct tape, he would have used it on her.
“Don’t get angry, Scott. Get even. Help me make this right.”
“You’ll need to resign.”
“All right…”
“And give testimony.”
“I’m ready to do that.”
“What is your current relationship with Trent?”
“Mutual blackmail. Same as our relationship.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning you failed in your duty to report me to Dombroski in a timely manner. Do you want me to include that in my report?”
“No good deed goes unpunished.”
“Look, Scott… you didn’t do anything wrong—you tempered justice with mercy. I owe you for that. And I never really did anything wrong—I just didn’t do the right thing. I stayed silent, when I should have blown the top off Operation Flagstaff. Innocent civilians were killed, and even the guilty deserved better justice. My grandma dragged me to church every Sunday, and I paid attention in church and CID training, and I know right from wrong, and lawful from unlawful. And I’m not going to blow smoke up your butt, soldier, and tell you I like you, because I don’t. You’re an asshole. But… Icouldlike you… well, maybe I’m attracted to you—in a physical way. Which is probably mutual. So… let’s continue the mission. Do the best we can, try to see that justice is done, and not hurt each other.” She added, “We could have a future.”
Well, who’d disarmed who? He tapped the gun in his pocket to make sure it was still there. “You done?”
“I am.”
“Let’s finish this and get out of here. Unless you want my Swiss Army knife to carve our initials in a heart on this tree.”
“Total asshole.” She unwrapped the line from the tree and used a paddle to push off.
Brodie started the engine, and they continued along the riverbank. Up ahead, he could see the thatched-roof platform, which sat on stilts,overhanging the river, about five feet above the water—looked like a nice place to have a cocktail.
Brodie tried to replay that three-minute conversation, to figure out who’d got the best of it. And more importantly, figure out the future implications—legal, professional, and personal. But for now, the future was on hold, and the present needed his attention.
He focused his binoculars on the platform and thought he saw movement up there, but it could have been a moving shadow made by sunlight coming through the trees.
Taylor used her cell phone to take a long shot of the platform, then said to him, “Maybe we’ve reached that edge of danger.”
