“Well, that’s fascinating, Mr. Kinney,” the chairman said drily. “I understand that you and the most recent director had different opinions about one or two things.”
“The most recent director and I disagreed about almost everything,” Kinney replied.
“Can you think of any instance when you felt able to give your director your full support for his actions?”
Kinney thought for a moment. “No, Mr. Chairman. I cannot.”
There was a roar of laughter from the audience in the big hearing room, and the chairman angrily gaveled them into silence. “Did you mean to be funny, Mr. Kinney?”
“No, sir, simply candid.”
“Did you think that your disloyalty to your director made you a better FBI man?”
“Mr. Chairman, my loyalty was to the quality of the investigations conducted by the Bureau. The director’s actions often infringed on that quality, and when that happened, I opposed him.”
“That’s your opinion, is it not?”
“It’s a fact, sir.”
The chairman, looking thoroughly unhappy, passed the questioning on to another senator.
“Mr. Kinney,” the senator began, “the president has proposed that the FBI be severed from the Justice Department and operate as an independent entity. Do you support this recommendation?”
“Yes, Senator, I do, unreservedly.”
“Why don’t you want the supervision of the attorney general?”
“I think we have a fine attorney general, Senator, but I believe the Bureau can operate more effectively if it is independent. In the past, some attorneys general have used the Bureau for political ends, and that is not the Bureau’s purpose.”
“Would you care to be specific about that?”
“No, sir, I would not. I’m not here to criticize former officeholders.”
“Except the former director.”
Kinney simply shrugged. “I answered the questions I was asked.”
“When you were with the New York City Police Department you worked in conjunction with the district attorney’s office, did you not? They prosecuted the cases you investigated. Is that so different from the way the Bureau has worked with the justice department in the past?”
“Yes, Senator, it is. The NYPD is an independent police organization, and it does not report to the district attorney or follow his orders.”
The questioning continued for another two hours. Kinney was, by turns, blunt and charming. Some committee members seemed miffed, but the audience loved him.
When the hearing ended, Kinney was surrounded by reporters and cameras and besieged with questions, which he declined to answer.
____________________
ON THE WAY BACK to the Hoover Building, Kinney called Kerry Smith. “Are you all set for tonight at the Met?” he asked.
“Yes, sir, we are,” Smith replied. “We’ve pulled everybody off everything else in order to saturate Lincoln Center with our people. If he shows, he’ll be ours.”
“Don’t fuck it up,” Kinney said, then hung up.
THIRTY-ONE
HOLLY STOOD IN FRONT of the Metropolitan Opera House, shivering in the cold and occasionally stamping her feet to keep them warm. Her eyes raked the giant plaza of Lincoln Center, searching for Hyman Baum. All she saw were CIA and FBI agents. She hoped to God they were not as visible to Teddy Fay as they were to her.
She stood near the door where she had met him on the previous Friday night and hoped he would arrive before she froze to death. She had spent the last four winters in Florida, and she had forgotten what cold weather was. New York was reminding her.