“Helene,” General Miller said, “this young woman is Sergeant Schneider of the Philadelphia Police Department.”
“We finally got Dick released into our company, Mrs. M.,” Charley said. “But I had to promise you’d keep him chained in the backyard.”
Mrs. Miller shook her head, then put out her hand to Betty.
“I’m very pleased to meet you. Welcome!”
“Thank you,” Betty said.
Castillo’s cellular tinkled again.
“Hello?”
“Hiya, Charley! How are things in Bala Cynwyd, P.A.?”
Charley recognized the voice of Howard Kennedy, Aleksandr Pevsner’s former FBI agent personal spook.
“How nice of you to call, Mr. Kennedy,” Castillo said.
Major Miller’s eyes lit up.
“Aren’t you going to ask how I know where you are?”
“You have friends from the old days, right?”
Castillo noticed curiosity on Betty’s face and disapproval on General Miller’s.
“I don’t know about ’friends,’ ” Kennedy said. “But you’ve heard, I’m sure, that money talks?”
If he knows I’m here in Bala Cynwyd—nobody knew we were coming here—he’s got somebody in the cellular phone business. They can trace a call to the nearest cell antenna. That’s what the first no-answer call was all about. He wanted to locate me before he talked to me.
“So I’m told.”
“You want to tell me who’s answering your phone in the Mayflower?”
What the hell! Don’t lie unless you have to.
“One of Secretary Hall’s Secret Service guys. His personal detail. My boss thought you might call and he didn’t want me to miss it.”
“Not somebody from the Fumbling Bureau of Investigation, Charley? Please don’t lie to me, Charley.”
“No. As a matter of fact, right now Secretary Hall’s relationship with the FBI is rather strained.”
“I would really hate to think that you were trying to set up some sort of a rendezvous between me and my former colleagues, Charley. That would distress me almost as much as it would distress Alex.”
“Neither you nor he have to worry about that, Howard.”
“Good. When Alex is distressed, he can get very unpleasant. For the moment, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.”
“Thank you.”
“I like you, Charley. Respect you. I checked you out. There’s more to you than your West Point poster boy image suggests. I think we could become pals.”
Does he mean that? Or is he schmoozing me?
“What did you want to tell me when you called the Mayflower?”
“Alex wanted me to tell you that that airplane’s no longer where we told you it would be,” Kennedy said.