I should have known when I didn’t hear the pup at the front door. But my mind was somewhere else, sunk into the tangled depths of CMT Holding and a single autopsy photo. I was halfway across my living room when I looked up and saw her, wagging her tail and sitting comfortably in the lap of the mayor of our good city, the honorable John J. Wilson.
“Nice dog, Kel y. I should have kept this one.” The mayor gave Maggie a scratch behind the ears and set her on the floor. Then he gestured to the two men sitting on either side of him.
“These are federal agents. They want to ask you some questions.”
I took the only chair left in the room and considered the pair of suits, one black, one blue. If they weighed two hundred pounds between them, they were lucky. Behind them was the muscle, a linebacker type, wearing a gray cashmere overcoat, finished with black leather gloves and Maui Jim wraparounds.
“What about the Terminator back there?” I said.
Wilson waited for someone else to speak. When no one did, he shrugged. “I told them you could be reasoned with, but they were wary. Of the gun and al that.”
“And you just came along for the ride?”
Wilson stretched his thick lips into a thin line. “I came along to protect the city’s interests, Kel y. And maybe yours, as wel.”
“I’m listening,” I said.
Blue suit thumped a briefcase onto my coffee table and snapped it open. I caught a glimpse of red inside and got an idea where this might be headed. Then the suit opened his mouth and I got an even better idea.
“Mr. Kel y, my name is Leo Nolan. This is Dr. Matthew Danielson. We work with Homeland Security.”
Nolan didn’t flash an ID and I didn’t ask for one.
“We know you were involved in the capture and death of James Doherty,” Nolan continued. “We also know he talked to you about a red binder he had in his possession at the time he was shot.”
“I never got a look inside the binder,” I said. “Agent Lawson took it with her from the scene.”
Nolan nodded. “And yet, we have reason to believe you continue to make inquiries about the binder and the nature of its contents.”
“And how would you know that, Mr. Nolan?”
Nolan shuffled through his briefcase for some paperwork. “We operate under a federal directive cal ed the Cyber Initiative. Al ows us, among other things, to monitor computers and Internet activity that might pose a threat to national security.”
I looked at the mayor, who shrugged. “That’s as much as they told me, Kel y. Maybe you can explain the rest.”
I turned to Nolan. “The red binder you’re talking about is a Pentagon report issued in 1998, cal ed ‘Terror 2000.’ Yes, I saw the title when we were in Doherty’s house. And yes, I did some searching about it on the Internet.”
“Why?” Nolan said.
“Why not? A guy like Doherty carries something like that around with him, it gets my attention. How about you?”
Nolan flicked a piece of lint off his pants. “Did Mr. Doherty make any specific threats?”
“That’s what Mr. Doherty did best.”
“Specific threats against the city?”
I glanced toward the black suit named Danielson. “Does he ever talk?”
Nolan blinked behind his tortoiseshel frames. “Answer the question, Mr. Kel y.”
“No, he didn’t give me any indication as to what he had planned. I think he was about to when things got out of control.”
Nolan leaned in. “And you shot him?”
I nodded. “Whatever Doherty was planning, the details died with him. For what it’s worth, however, I might have some ideas.”
Danielson shifted in his seat and final y spoke. “We’re not interested in your fucking ideas, Mr. Kel y. We’re here for the black case you took from Doherty’s house. Hand it over and this discussion is at an end. Persist with al the bul shit and we move to another phase.”
I looked up at the Terminator and smiled. Behind him was a closet. Inside it, on the top shelf, the black case they were looking for. I returned my gaze to Danielson. “I don’t know anything about any case.”
Danielson rol ed his eyes toward Nolan, who glanced at Wilson. The mayor touched a finger to his lips.
“Gentlemen, let me have a minute.”
Danielson didn’t like the idea. Nolan took him aside and talked in his ear. Danielson relented and held up five fingers. “Five minutes, Mr. Mayor.”
He and Nolan picked up their coats and took a walk. The Terminator fol owed. I noticed he dragged his left foot and hoped it hurt like hel. Wilson waited until the door had closed before speaking. “What do you want, Kel y?”
“How do you know I want anything?”
“How many times have we talked where you didn’t want something?”
“I get the feeling you know as little about these guys as I do.”
“Homeland Security?”
I nodded. The mayor picked up Maggie again and stroked the top of her head. The pup’s eyes immediately began to close.
“You know how many times I get cal ed into meetings with these stiffs?” Wilson said. “First time it happened, three months after 9/11, we went into ful fucking pucker. They sat around, bul shitting for a couple of hours, never gave us a sniff as to what was going on. Poison in the water? Crop dust downtown with some evil-sounding shit? Suitcase nuke in the Hancock? Who the fuck knows? And then you know what I figured out? Who the fuck cares.”
“I don’t believe that, Mr. Mayor.”
Wilson held up a hand. “Hear me out. Of course I care. My point is, what can we do? Someone decides to blow themselves up in the Water Tower this afternoon, what’s Chicago PD going to do? Nothing except clear the street so we can get the ambulances in. We don’t have the expertise, we don’t have the manpower, and we sure as hel don’t get the heads-up from the feds in enough time to do anything even if we did have any of the other shit. So what’s my point, right?”
I nodded.
“My point is one I learned a long time ago. When Homeland Security shows up, we smile and go along. Listen to their happy horseshit, express appropriate concern, and send them on their way. If they catch the bad guy, great.”
“And if not?”
“That’s the beauty of it. So far there hasn’t been any ‘if not.’ At least not in this town, knock on fucking wood. But, real y, that’s al we can do. That and manage the threat.”