Concrete Evidence (27 page)

A crash startled him. Erica cursed as she bent to clean up a shattered coffee mug. “Sorry, I missed the counter.”

He grabbed a towel and bent to help her, but she shooed him away. “Watch the segment.”

The broadcast switched to stock footage of the casino. Artwork and signage befitting a museum surrounded gamblers sitting at baize tables, oblivious to the cultural experience around them, as the chipper reporter described the themes of the other rooms: the Inuit people of the Arctic, the Great Basin cultures of Utah and Nevada, the Pueblo people of the Southwest, the Cherokee Tribe of the East and Southeast. At least thirty seconds of precious airtime was spent describing the casino’s practice of having a table in each room at which gamblers could try their luck at the designated culture’s own historic or prehistoric game of chance.

The Indian games had been Joe’s idea. It had always amused Joe that every culture gambled. “We couldn’t buy advertising like this. Too bad the reporter screwed up, because the networks might’ve replayed the whole piece, including that last bit.”

“Is that why the senator is making the announcement at the casino?” Lee asked.

“Yeah, plus it ties him to his cultural heritage. He’s decided that if he’s going to run on Indian heritage, he’s got to run on all of it, the good, the bad, and the stereotype.” The segment was over, and he shut off the television. “I’m heading back to New York after meeting with Dad.” Crap, he’d forgotten to say,
my
dad and now wondered if he should say the next bit in front of Erica.
What the hell.
She must have figured out Lee was a closer family friend than they’d let on. “Lee, he’d like to see you too. Old Ebbitt Grill. One o’clock.”

Erica glanced at her watch. “I’m heading to the office. You ready, Lee?”

“I need to talk to Lee about the database. You go on ahead,” JT said before Lee could jump up and follow her. After she left, he said, “I won’t be at lunch. I’m meeting the senator earlier so I can get back to New York. I want to warn you, he’s going to ask you to replace Drake.”

“Drake’s leaving Talon & Drake?”

“Even if he’s not involved with the smuggling, he’s a liability. He wants to use Dad to get more government contracts and I suspect he’s set his sights on becoming a key player on the campaign team. He’s finished at T&D.”

“He knows this?”

“I’m sure he suspects.”

Lee nodded. “That’s why he met with Riversong. Why he’s so pissed with you.” He met JT’s gaze. “I don’t want to run the Bethesda office.”

“I need you. You aren’t intimidated by me and won’t push me to take the company public so you can make a killing in stock options.”

“I’ve got my own business to run.”

“It won’t be forever, just until we find the right person to take over.”

“Have you told Joe that I’m working undercover in Bethesda?”

“No. He doesn’t know you’re in the Bethesda office at all.”

“I’m sick of lying, JT.”

“You can’t tell him. The press will scream cover-up if he knows anything—even after the fact. He knows nothing until the smugglers are caught.”

“He’s going to ask me to run the very office I’ve been spying on, and I’m going to have to play dumb? JT, this sucks.”

“You’ve only got a few more days. Sara C comes back Friday, and in all likelihood, your cover will be shot Saturday night.” JT stared into his coffee mug. The situation was rotten. Worse even than Lee realized. “I have no idea how Dad will react if we find out Sam’s in on the smuggling.” Sam. His father’s best friend and mentor.

Lee flopped back in his chair. “The deeper I look, the worse it gets for Sam.” He paused. “I think I’ve isolated who received the text message.”

“Sam?”

“No. It was Sam and Drake’s new buddy, Jake Novak.”

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY

J
OSEPH
T
ALON WAS ABOUT
to make the biggest announcement of his political career in front of Aztec artifacts Erica intended to prove were stolen. Her actions could damage his reputation and that of his tribe. She could destroy his campaign just as it was getting started.

Could she do that?

It was either expose the artifacts or live life fearing the day when Jake would decide to stop toying with her and move in for the kill.

She had to meet the senator. Then she could decide what to do.

But timing was critical. Lee had just left the office to meet JT and the senator for lunch. She intended to wait twenty minutes, then join them. The minutes inched by as she rehearsed what she would say, praying they would accept her reason for crashing their lunch.

She was about to leave when Janice entered the room. “How are you feeling, Erica?”

She was so nervous it took her a moment to comprehend her boss’s question. Janice had been gone all morning, and she hadn’t seen her since Monday. Oh, yeah. The near-death thing.

“I feel fine.”

“I’ve been so worried. I talked with Sam Riversong. He feels just awful about what happened, and the plumbers have been fired. I can’t believe anyone would be so stupid as to set up a generator with the exhaust aimed at an open window.”

So the accident story had taken root. She didn’t find that comforting. Her throat felt dry. She forced a response. “The doctor told me it happens with alarming frequency.”

Janice pulled out a deck of cards, decorated on the back with an historic tablet of Arabic writing. “I have something cool to show you.” She laid the cards faceup in different patterns on the lab table.

“A card trick?”

“No. A deck of playing cards that was made for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan by the Department of Defense’s Heritage Resource Preservation program.”

“Like the deck they gave soldiers to identify the Most Wanted people in Iraq?”

“Yes. These cards show some of Iraq’s and Afghanistan’s most precious archaeological sites. They were made to educate the troops about protecting sites and artifacts.” She held up the seven of clubs. “This one’s my favorite.”

The card had a picture of the ruins of an ancient arched building with the caption:
This site has survived for seventeen centuries. Will it and others survive
you
?

“It’s brilliant,” Erica said, touching the cards. “I’m glad the DoD is taking cultural history in the Middle East seriously.” She picked up the queen of clubs, which had a picture of an artifact with the caption:
Remember! The buying and selling of antiquities is illegal and punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

She stopped when she came to the nine of diamonds, which depicted a mask that had been looted from the Iraq Museum, and thought of the artifacts Jake had acquired by trading the Aztec pieces. “How did you get the deck?”

“A friend in the heritage program.”

She’d had a year to wonder how Sam Riversong—if it was indeed Sam—had gotten the Iraqi artifacts he traded with Jake. The logical conclusion was he’d somehow gotten them through Talon & Drake. She’d worked that angle as much as she could, but security being what it was, she’d gotten nowhere.

Janice finished laying out the cards, and Erica saw that when arranged properly, the background of each card created a bigger picture, one puzzle for each suit. Clubs was a famous monument, diamonds a gold artifact.

“These are amazing,” she said, wondering if she should skip the FBI and go straight to the Department of Defense with her photos of the Aztec artifacts. The DoD was dealing with the looting problem and had a vested interest in correcting the situation. But her proof was Aztec, not Iraqi. She doubted she’d be able to connect Jake to the Iraq artifacts. Her biggest fear, though, was that she would end up being prosecuted with Jake and the crew.

Janice set down the cards. “Have you put together a budget for the navy proposal?”

Her belly twisted. Janice had asked her to do that on Monday, before she delivered the Thermo-Con EA. “I haven’t had a moment to look at it. I really think it’s a bad idea, Janice. Jake Novak strikes me as unethical.”

“My hands are tied. Ed wants to bid, and he wants to team with Jake.” She glanced at her watch. “Do you have time? I want to talk about how to organize the project.”

The knot in her stomach tightened as they discussed a project she would never work on, fully aware her chance to catch the senator was slipping away.

Finally, Janice left, and Erica slid the Thermo-Con file into her bag and headed to the Metro station, hoping and praying she wasn’t too late.

J
OE WAS ALREADY SEATED
in a booth when Lee arrived at the restaurant. He greeted his former stepfather with a firm handshake and a politically expedient man hug, well aware that these days Joe was under constant media surveillance. Lee had always lived on the edge of Joe’s inner circle. As an adult, he appreciated the anonymity of life at the fringe, but as a kid, he’d resented the hell out of it.

He slid into the seat across from Joe. No matter where he was positioned in Joe’s public life, privately, they were close. Lee would always be grateful for the many times—even long after the divorce—Joe stepped in and was a father to him when both of Lee’s biological parents failed miserably. He respected the man’s integrity, knew he’d make a spectacular president, and would do anything to help him get elected. Hell, he’d proved that when he took on the intern role.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.” Joe’s eyes held a subtle reprimand.

“I’ve been busy with a client.” That was true enough.

“Not so busy you won’t be there when I make my announcement, I hope.”

“I wouldn’t miss it.”

“Good.” Joe paused. “Did JT mention why I wanted to talk to you?” The man was never one to waste time.

“You want me to run the Bethesda office.”

Joe’s grim smile reminded Lee of the time he’d switched his high school’s computer-synchronized clocks to run on metric time, and Joe’s intervention saved Lee from expulsion.

“Ed has become a liability,” Joe said. “He’s getting older and slipping, but he owns a third of Talon & Drake, so it’s going to be tricky. But Ed’s eager to work for the campaign, and I can placate him by giving him an important-sounding job until the transition is done. Then I’ll have to let him go.” He studied Lee. “But this is a sensitive situation. We can’t have just anyone in charge at the second largest office of T&D while I’m running for president. We’re going to have to maneuver around some very complex issues, not the least of which is adhering to the Senate Ethics Manual. We need someone we can trust completely. I need you, son.”

Lee had waited a lifetime to hear those words from Joe, and if what he suspected about Ed Drake was true, then it was vital they remove him from the company.

But he didn’t want the job.

The waiter arrived. He ordered the special, too preoccupied to give the food any consideration. How would Erica react? When she realized the extent of his lies, she’d hate him.

And when he became her boss?

If he couldn’t explain the lies, she’d never forgive him.

But he could get rid of Novak. He could protect her.

“What’s her name?”

Lee startled. “What?”

“You’ve got the same look in your eye you used to get when you were sixteen and full of hormones.”

He laughed and considered his answer. The truth? “Her name is Erica.”

“Is it serious?”

“I don’t know.” He paused. “But I hope so.” The words slipped out, an uncontrollable urge to be honest. With Joe, with himself.

“Promise me she isn’t another reporter hoping to capitalize on your connection to me.”

Damn, he’d thought Joe had let that go. “She’s an archaeologist. Actually, she works for Talon & Drake—Bethesda.”
Crap, he’ll want to know how we met.
“JT introduced us.” Sweat formed on his brow. JT
never
socialized with employees. And Joe knew it.

“You’ll be her boss. Is that a problem?”

“She’ll freak. And not in a good way.” That was an understatement.

“Work it out. I need you to start on Monday.”

Typical Joe. He’d embraced the idea and moved on it with hurricane force, not even waiting for Lee to agree. The man was short on patience and had absolute confidence in his abilities. This attitude sometimes led to spectacular failures, but Joe didn’t shirk from his mistakes any more than he’d deny his successes. Lee had learned much from him over the years, and owning faults was paramount.