CHAPTER 84
IT’S ROLAND PERKINS, THE accountant-looking spook.
He picks his way up my driveway, stepping over hoses and equipment.
I see him pause beside the wreckage of Anna Rizzo’s car.
All around the vehicle, forensics techs are starting their work—snapping pictures, taking measurements, scraping charred paint into small plastic evidence bags.
Perkins holds up his ID and peeks in through the mangled passenger-side door, then quickly backs away. “Jesus Christ!”
Perkins looks a bit shaken when he walks over to me. “This is a tough one, Sampson. Unbelievable. I hear Rizzo was a solid investigator. I recall how much you liked her. I’m really sorry.”
I can’t tell if Perkins is totally genuine or a really good actor. Since he’s career CIA, there’s no way to know. But I take his words at face value for the moment. “Yeah. Me too.”
“We’re assuming you were the target?” he asks, sitting down beside me.
“Must’ve been. Rizzo told me she was coming over only ten minutes before this happened.
Whoever set this couldn’t have been expecting her.
There wouldn’t have been any time to hide a device that strong.
So it must’ve been intended for me, for the next time I backed out of my garage, and …
” My throat gets tight. “I could have had my daughter with me.”
“Why was Rizzo coming here so early?” Perkins asks. “Her office is in Bethesda.”
“She had something to tell me. Said it had to be in person.”
“Something about Phillips?”
“Maybe.”
“Do you think she talked to anyone in her office?”
“I doubt it. We agreed to keep our circle pretty tight.”
“How tight?”
“Just the two of us. Other techs were feeding her data and test results, but she was the only one besides me and you guys who had the whole picture.”
Perkins nods. “The whole picture is looking a lot clearer.” He glances back at the car wreckage and the workers in hazmat suits. “My bet is they’ll find more of that tagged C-4. Phillips did this for sure. He wants to short-circuit the investigation by taking you out.”
“Maybe so. But that doesn’t get us any closer to finding him. He could be anywhere in the world by now.”
“We’ve got alerts at all the airports. Shipping and cruise companies too.”
This almost makes me laugh. “Not much of an obstacle if you know what you’re doing.
This guy managed to sneak into Afghanistan on a private mission right under the nose of the CIA.
He got away clean from four bombings, including this one.
I have no doubt he’ll be able to sneak through one of our semipermeable borders. ”
“Unless he’s not finished here,” says Perkins.
“Right. Unless he’s not finished.”
“We should get you some protection, John. Let me make a call. I’ll assign you a few ex-Blackwater guys.”
“No, thanks. I don’t travel in packs. Never have.”
“Are you sure? They’ll turn your place into a fortress overnight.”
I stand up. “Right now, I’ve gotta change my clothes and get to Bethesda. I need to notify Anna Rizzo’s family.” I flash on Juan and Tina running around my backyard with Willow just twelve hours ago. Amazing how fast life can change—and how goddamn dark it can get.
Perkins reaches for his cell phone. “I’ll get you a car and a driver.”
“Screw that. Get me a bird and a pilot. I need to beat the press.”