"No," Britton said. "There she is. Betty put that together. I had nothing to do with it."
"Betty Schneider and Jack Britton, now of the Secret Service," Castillo went on. "This is Colonel Jake Torine, who flew the 727 home from Costa Rica."
They shook hands.
"No, I haven't had breakfast, and yes, thank you, I could eat a bite," Torine said.
"I don't know how warm it still is," Castillo said, liftinga stainless-steel dome and revealing a pile of still-steaming scrambled eggs.
"Warm enough," Torine said and sat down.
He started spooning eggs onto a plate.
"So what's going on, Charley?" Torine asked.
Castillo handed him the Buenos Aires Herald.
"Th
is is what's been given out," he said. "Most of it's pretty accurate. I'll fill you in on what's not."
Torine took the newspaper and started to read. Shaking his head as he swallowed his last bite of breakfast, Torine handed the Herald back to Castillo.
"There's an editorial, too," Castillo said. "Headlined THE NATION IS SHAMED."
"Should they be?" Torine asked.
"Embarrassed, sure," Castillo said. "A diplomat's wife is kidnapped and then the diplomat gets blown away. That's not supposed to happen in a civilized nation. This isn't the Congo. But 'shamed' is a little strong. And God knows, they got their act in high gear the minute this happened to find out who did it.
"What we think happened is that Mrs. Masterson's kidnappers got in touch with him, set up a meeting, and he sneaked out of his house and went to meet them. And got himself blown away."
"Weren't they watching the house?" Torine asked, incredulously.
"They had cops and SIDE agents-you know what SIDE is?"
Torine nodded.
"So, not only cops and SIDE agents all over the place, but sitting in a car in front of his house at two in the morning when Masterson sneaked out was a CIA spook named Paul Sieno and Colonel Alfredo Munz, the head of SIDE."
"You think Masterson went to pay the ransom and something went wrong?"
"I just don't know. All I know is that Alex Darby, the station chief, Sieno-good guy, I knew him in Afghanistan; his cover is commercial attache and Alex says he's his best man-and Munz did the best they know how to make sure something like this didn't happen. And it did. I should throw in that Masterson was Darby's best friend."
"Jesus, what the hell is this all about?"
"I wish to hell I knew," Castillo said. "And one more thing, Colonel: These bastards have something on Mrs. Masterson-maybe a threat to kill the kids, maybe something else-that's got her terrified."
"That's understandable, isn't it?"
"Surrounded by the embassy's security people, plus the CIA, the Secret Service, and SIDE, you'd think she'd feel protected enough to at least come up with a description of who grabbed her," Castillo said. "If we are to believe her, and I don't, she doesn't remember anything. That's one of the reasons I had them send Betty down here"-one of them, anyway-"to see if she can get close to her and come up with something."
Special Agent Schneider's mind apparently ran on a parallel path with one of them, anyway. Castillo felt the ball of her foot on his calf again, and when he looked at her, there was a hint of a smile on her lips and a naughty look in her eyes.
"The one question in my mind, ever since I heard about this, was whether it is terrorist-connected," Torine said.
"If it had just been assassinating Masterson, maybe. But if terrorists did it, they would have been boasting about it an hour after it happened. And I don't think they would have passed up the opportunity to kill Mrs. Masterson when they had the chance."
Torine nodded his understanding.