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.”I mulled that over in silence.It was technically possible, but only if an unreasonable number off actors fell into place in the right sequence.“A sneakier approach,” she continued, sensing my skepticism, “would be to locate the kind of evidence that would attract federal attention.It might help you sell yourself as an integral part of the package.”I stared at her in wonder.“I shudder to think what’ll happen when you pass the bar.”She smiled.· · ·Ron Klesczewski wasn’t in the next morning.Stimulated by my talk with Gail, I’d come into the office early to talk on the phone with Dan Flynn, and had watched Ron’s empty desk outside my door throughout our conversation, increasingly concerned about where he might be.As soon as I hung up, I dialed Harriet Fritter on the intercom.“You hear from Ron this morning?”She hesitated before answering.“He called in.He said he was taking the day off.”I tried interpreting what she hadn’t said.“He okay?”“He sounded terrible.”I cast back to his state of mind the day before, and to his listless behavior at the post-stress meeting later on.“I’ll give him a buzz,” I told her and punched a button for an outside line.The phone was answered almost immediately by a timid, hesitant, woman’s voice.“Wendy?” I asked, suddenly unsure of who was on the line.“Yes.”“This is Joe Gunther.Is Ron there?”There was a brief, telling hesitation before she said, “He’s not available right now.I’m sorry.”“Harriet told me he sounded a little rough this morning.How’s he doing?”Her silence made clear I’d unwittingly stepped through an open manhole.“Is everything okay?” I added.Her voice cracked slightly.“Not really.I don’t know what’s happening.He won’t talk, won’t eat, won’t sleep.I was so happy he wasn’t badly hurt… I don’t understand.”“Has he called the department counselor?”She sounded more hopeful.“Yes, this morning.He didn’t tell me what they talked about.”“That’s a good sign, though.Shows he knows he’s in trouble.I am sorry, Wendy.I totally misjudged how hard this hit him—people react so differently.Look, tell him I called, that I totally understand, and I think he’s doing the right thing.I’m putting him on administrative leave as of now.That way, he won’t have to worry about showing up at the office, and neither of you will have to worry about his paycheck.Okay?”“Sure… I guess so.”“I’ll tell the counselor what I’ve done, just so he knows.Do you think if I dropped by, that would be a good idea?”“I don’t know.Maybe not right away.”I quickly retreated.“Just an idea.If it’s better that we all stay away—”“No, no.I think he should see you.But maybe after a couple of days.”“Of course.I’ll let you call the shots.If there’s anything we can do, though, don’t hesitate.And let me know if he gets any worse.”I added a little more forcefully, “And if he stops getting help, I need to know that, too.”“I understand.Thank you, Joe.”“Sure.And call any time—day or night.” She murmured something unintelligible and the line went dead.I hung up and stared at the phone for a moment, wondering about all the unacknowledged agonies I’d just glimpsed.· · ·I looked directly at Jack Derby.“Are you going to hand this over to the feds?”He looked from me to Tony Brandt and back.We were all three sitting in Tony’s office, and Tony was pretending to dig around inside his pipe bowl with a small scraping tool.“Seems like a reasonable option,” Derby admitted slowly, his political sensitivity heightened by the presence of no fewer than three television sound trucks in the parking lot outside.“It smacks of organized crime—that’s a Washington hot button right now.I thought the FBI might be interested.”“All right,” I countered, “but if you make that call through conventional channels, it’ll be to the Bureau’s Rutland office—Brattleboro’s in their jurisdiction.That means their senior resident agent, a guy named Joshua Bishop, gets the case, which in turn means we never see it again, because Bishop doesn’t work with locals.He doesn’t trust their security, their integrity, or their ability—he was burned one too many times when he was working in New York.”Derby was slightly confused.“So what’s your proposal?”“We approach the FBI through its Burlington-based supervisor—that’s Bishop’s boss—using the VSP as a conduit [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]