“When was Burns at the agency?” he asked.
“Officially, between 1971 and 1979.”
“No shortage of political scandals then,” he said, scrubbing his face with his hand.
“Let’s go through them and see if anything strikes us as similar.”
Malin turned her head away from the computer when Dutch didn’t say anything. “Don’t tell me you’re hungry.”
Actually, he was, but now he felt stupid saying anything.
“We can take a break,” she offered.
“It’s okay.” He’d been on missions where he hadn’t eaten in longer than twenty-four hours. Unfortunately doing research didn’t produce the same level of adrenaline that a firefight when outnumbered by bad guys did.
“Really, it’s okay.”
Malin stood and walked over to the refrigerator, not that Dutch expected there to be much in it. He watched as she pulled out a head of lettuce and then looked around the kitchen until she found a loaf of bread and some tomatoes, then she went back to the refrigerator and pulled out bacon. “BLT okay?” she asked.
He probably should get up and help her, but he was mesmerized, watching her instead. “Perfect.”
“Why doesn’t Burns just tell me what he thinks?” she asked as she put slices of bacon in a pan.
Dutch had wondered that himself, but the man must have a reason other than trying to get her to figure it out for herself. The woman had been working this for over a year. She didn’t need a lesson in being an agent.
“The biggest political scandal of the seventies was Watergate.”
“There was the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, although that was an accomplishment versus a scandal,” Malin countered.
“What else along those lines?”
“Nixon ended the draft. Changed the direction of the Supreme Court. Both of those would be considered accomplishments domestically.”
“What else, besides opening China?”
“He signed the Paris Peace Accords ending US involvement in the Vietnam War.”
“Wait a minute.”
Malin stopped what she was doing and looked up at Dutch. “We’re over thinking this. Burns isn’t alluding to something that happened. He’s trying to tell us what to do next. What was the beginning of Nixon’s downfall?”
“The money trail.”
“Exactly.”
—:—
Six hours later, Malin watched as the partners of K19 filed into the winery where there was a room big enough for them to meet without disrupting the family, as well as a twenty-foot-long table where the attendees could all be seated.
When she saw Kellen McTiernan and Sumner Copeland get out of one of the SUVs, the hair on the back of her neck stood up.
“Easy,” said Dutch when her eyes met those of the man who had been her handler, and she visibly bristled.
“I didn’t expect them.”
“Neither did I.”
She was even more surprised when she saw Striker Ellis walk directly over to her after getting out of the next SUV that pulled up.