Reckless Abandon (Holly Barker 4)

“I think I’m picking up the thread,” Stone said.

“Enlighten us.”

“If the cop was killed as a result of a stray bullet, then the NYPD is no longer investigating an execution, but an accident—manslaughter, not murder.”

“Very good!”

“So what?” Holly said.

“Detectives loaned from other precincts will be sent home, and the investigation will become much less intense,” Stone explained. “And that takes some of the pressure off Trini, at least for the moment.”

“But why would the NYPD want to take pressure off a cop killer?” Holly asked.

“Not the NYPD,” Lance offered. “The FBI.”

“Excuse me,” Holly said, “but this is way too sophisticated for my simple mind.”

“You have an excellent mind, Holly,” Lance said, “but not as devious as that of the collective guile of the Bureau.”

“Holly,” Stone said, “Grant has just told us that Trini’s use to the Bureau is important for only another couple of days.”

“Bingo!” Lance said.

“So they want Trini on the street long enough to complete whatever the FBI wants him to?”

“Bingo again!” Lance said. “And would you like to know what Trini is doing for the Bureau?”

“Yes, please,” Holly replied.

“Now I must remind you that you two are, each in your way, arms of the Agency, and as such, you may not reveal to anyone what I am about to tell you.”

Stone sighed.

“Specifically, you may not reveal it to Dino,” Lance said.

“Why not?” Holly asked.

Stone spoke up. “Because Dino is NYPD, and he would be outraged to learn that the Bureau is messing with the investigation into a cop killing for its own purposes, and he might intervene.”

“Exactly,” Lance said. “Are we all in the tent now?”

Stone and Holly nodded.

“Well,” Lance, said, looking around to make sure he was not being overheard in the crowded restaurant, “it seems that our Trini has somehow convinced the Bureau that there is a financial connection between his mob friends and a certain Middle Eastern terrorist fraternity, the name of which shall not escape my lips.”

Stone shook his head. “The Mafia financing a terrorist organization? Not possible.”

“Stone, you forget that the Mafia is a terrorist organization, in its small way, and that their sympathies become altered when there is money to be made.”

“No, Lance, the mob is—in its small way, as you put it—a bunch of patriotic guys who are very grateful for the opportunities the United States has given them to become rich—stealing, extorting, and killing.”

“You have a point, Stone. Perhaps it is the case that the mob has been let in on the little secret—given an opportunity to do something patriotic.”

“And what would that be?” Holly asked.

“The boys have a great many money-laundering connections that our Middle Eastern foes covet. Since the Treasury Department has cracked down on wire transfers to suspect locales, and since the National Security Agency has greatly increased their surveillance of Middle Eastern cell and satellite phones, not to mention penetration of their websites, it has become much more difficult for them to move money around the world. On the other hand, the increased scrutiny of terrorists has had the happy effect, for the mob, of diverting attention from their own financial transactions.”

“I suppose it makes a kind of weird sense,” Stone said.