“It would, which is why it has, so far, proved impossible to catch him.”
“Is he on another rampage now?”
“No, not that we know of. My guess is that he is living quietly in retirement.”
Stone frowned. “In St. Marks?”
“Perhaps. That is what we want you and Holly to learn.”
“Why St. Marks?”
“There is another Agency employee named Irene Foster living there. She retired after twenty-five years, shortly before Teddy’s most recent vanishing. Another former Agency employee has told us that many years ago, she and Teddy had a rather torrid affair. We’ve not been able to establish that there has been any contact between them since then, but still…”
“That’s a pretty slim connection, isn’t it?”
“Irene’s last post was as Assistant Deputy Director for Operations, and she was in a position, had she chosen to do so, to provide Teddy with a great deal of information that he would have needed to conduct his campaign in New York.”
“Wasn’t she investigated at the time?”
“There was a full internal investigation into who, if anyone, might have been helping Teddy.”
“And?”
“No culprit was discovered. Irene Foster conducted the investigation.”
“Oh.”
“Irene told her colleagues at the time of her retirement that she had bought a house on the island of St. Barts, but not long after her retirement, she sold the house and left the island.”
“For St. Marks?”
“We’ve only recently learned that she bought another house on St. Marks.”
“Why Holly and me?”
“Three reasons: one, Holly was the only member of the New York team who thought Teddy was still alive after the building collapsed, and she has actually seen him twice, though he was disguised; two, you are under contract to us as a consultant, and you are an experienced investigator with some experience of St. Marks; and three, a couple would excite less interest in such a setting than a single person, and you are the only man Holly would agree to share…ah, quarters with.”
“I have a feeling there’s another reason,” Stone said.
“Ah. Yes. I take it you have a personal interest in seeing President Lee reelected.”
“I support him, yes.”
“You did not know that Teddy Fay had survived the aircraft explosion, did you?”
“No.”
“Neither does anybody else outside the FBI director’s office, my director’s office and those designated by the current occupant of this room. The president was persuaded to conceal his knowledge of Teddy’s survival, in the interest of helping catch him. He shared that knowledge with only three other people-all members of Congress.”
“So?”
“Since we now believe that Teddy may still be alive, and since the president knows this, he is vulnerable if it should become known. In effect, he has kept from the public, on two occasions, the knowledge that a wanted criminal is still at large. His wife, as director of Central Intelligence, shares this vulnerability. Should Teddy’s continued existence become known in the months remaining before the election, Katharine Rule Lee would be forced to resign from the Agency. Since she was always an unpopular choice with the political opposition, they will make much of it, and the ensuing uproar might very likely torpedo the reelection of the president.”
“I’m uncomfortable with this,” Stone said.
“Everyone is uncomfortable with it,” Lance replied, “not least the president and the first lady, but there it is, and we have to deal with it.”
There was a knock on the double doors. “More of this tomorrow.” Lance called out, “Come in.”