Brodie said to Whitmore, “I’m glad to see you’ve got him on a short leash. Might also need a muzzle.”
She stared at him. “You have gonewaybeyond your authority.”
“That’s easy to do when we had no authority to begin with.”
“You understood the parameters of this assignment when you accepted it. I see now that you had no intention of respecting those parameters.” She looked at Taylor. “I have to say, I expected much more professionalism from the CID.”
Taylor looked pissed off, and said, “The motto of the CID is ‘Do What Has to Be Done.’ And we did.”
Whitmore ignored that as she produced a dark-blue folder from the pile of paperwork in front of her and slid it across the table. “As long as you are the agents on this case and have not yet been relieved of your duty, I am obligated to share any pertinent information provided by German law enforcement. There’s a preliminary report on the Neukölln bombing prepared by the BKA and translated by my office, as well as a list from Berlin PD of any sightings of Mr. Vance on public surveillance cameras from when he arrived at the Berlin central train station on Tuesday to when he disembarked the metro in Neukölln in the early hours of Sunday—the night of his death.”
Taylor took the folder and slipped it into her satchel.
Whitmore added, “I regret that our working relationship is ending this way. But as the embassy legal attaché, I will do what I believe I must in order to find justice for Mr. Vance.”
“Right,” said Brodie as he stood and grabbed his coat. “And I promise you, so will we.”
CHAPTER 26
Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor strode in silence across Pariser Platz. Finally Taylor said, “Well, they turned out to be assholes.”
“Comes with the territory.” He added, “Not excusing them, but working in a foreign country is a balancing act.”
“I’m sure they were assholes back in the States.”
“Maybe we bring out the worst in people.”
“Speak for yourself.” She added, “Actually, you’re an asshole.”
“Only when I work with you.”
They both got a smile out of that.
Taylor said, “More importantly, we’re about to be relieved of our duties.”
“That’s what happens when you show personal initiative in government work.”
She glanced at him as they walked. “Dombroski will go to bat for us.”
“He used all his goodwill with General Hackett to get us on this case, and I don’t think he’s got much left to go against the recommendation of the legal attaché.”
“Call him.”
“He’ll call us when he’s ready to pull the plug on us. No reason to hasten the inevitable.”
She looked at him. “You’re just accepting this?”
“I’m acknowledging the situation. It’s up to us how we respond, but I guarantee you that whining to the boss will do nothing.” He added, “Dombroski is worried about his own ass by now.”
Taylor said, “He stuck his neck out to get us this assignment.”
“He should have known better.”
They exited the square and walked east along tree-lined Unter den Linden. A light dusting of snow was settling over the city beneath a rolling gray sky.
Taylor looked deep in thought. “The bombing seems to have answered the question of who killed Harry Vance, but the proposed motive sounds vague and I’m not sure I buy it.” She looked at him. “What do you think?”
“I think that Mark Jenkins and David Kim both gave us some compelling reasons as to why Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias might have had a hand in killing Harry. And now suddenly we’re dealing with Syrian bomb-makers who might have a connection to al Qaeda. Plus there’s Qasim, a former Saddam loyalist and WMD officer whose last-known affiliation was helping us hunt down and kill al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq. Never mind the whole Stasi business with Anna. It’s like we keep finding puzzle pieces, but they’re all for different puzzles.”
