This time, Jean Rizzo knew where he’d seen them before.
Elizabeth opened the door to the cab and had one leg inside when Jean grabbed her wrist.
“What are you doing? Let go of me!”
At the same time the other door to the cab opened.
For a split second Interpol Inspector Jean Rizzo and FBI Agent Milton Buck glared at each other.
Then both said simultaneously: “You’re under arrest.”
CHAPTER 18
INTERVIEW RESUMED, DECEMBER TWENTY-FIRST, four fifteen A.M. Miss Kenned
y, Mrs. Berkeley has made a statement that you posed to her as an FBI agent. Is that the case?”
Elizabeth Kennedy gave Milton Buck a look of withering disdain but said nothing. Just as she had said nothing to all of Buck’s questions for the last five hours.
“You told Mrs. Berkeley that the emeralds in the choker she was wearing had been irradiated. You further convinced her that her life was in danger from exposure to the irradiated gemstones, a deception you maintained with the use of a number of simple props, including these.”
Milton Buck placed an oval-shaped piece of plastic on the table. Not unlike one of those monitors people used to listen in on their sleeping babies, it was battery-powered and flashed red with a crackling sound when you pressed a button at the back.
Elizabeth smirked.
“Is that what happened, Ms. Kennedy?”
Silence.
“The device was found in your possession, along with the emerald choker. Can you suggest any other explanation for those items being found in your purse, Ms. Kennedy?”
Elizabeth yawned and looked away.
Milton Buck finally lost his temper, banging his fist down on the table.
“You seem not to understand what a phenomenal amount of trouble you are in, Ms. Kennedy. Tonight’s felony alone carries a jail sentence of over a decade. Did you know that?”
Silence.
“Then there’s entering the U.S. on a fake passport. Illegal use of credit cards. Identity theft. Impersonation of a federal agent. That’s twenty years, before we even begin to talk about the jobs you and your partner pulled in Chicago and Los Angeles and Atlanta.” Buck’s eyes bulged furiously. “You help me, Elizabeth, and I’ll help you. But keep this up and I will personally see to it that you rot in jail for the rest of your natural life. Do you understand?”
Elizabeth cast a critical eye over her French manicure. Milton Buck counted to ten.
“We know you were involved in at least three other high-profile robberies on U.S. soil. We also know you work with a partner.”
“You seem to know an awful lot, Agent Buck.”
They were the first words she had spoken. Milton Buck looked suitably surprised.
“How clever you are! I’m surprised you need to ask me any questions at all.”
Her tone was amused, mocking.
“I want the name of your partner, Ms. Kennedy.”
“What partner, Agent Buck?”
“Is it Jeff Stevens?”