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Authors: Archer Mayor
Tags: USA
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bed.”
I left it short and simple, giving him a choice to either share his knowledge or nail me with the omission of the tattooed toes, the buckle knife, or the fact that we’d traced the rental car to Logan Airport.
Not surprisingly, I suppose, he ducked the choice entirely, leaving me as up in the air as before. “Lieutenant,” he said, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the desk. “Around here, we are so instinctively suspicious of everyone and everything, we often end up confusing the very people we’re supposed to be working with. What I should’ve said on the phone was that we would put this thing to bed—take it off your hands, so to speak.”
This time, I didn’t need to fake any confusion. “You’re allowed to do that? Operate within the country?”
Snowden was already straightening in his chair, smiling and waving his hand to interrupt. “No, no. Of course not. I didn’t mean it that way. Let me explain. You have a dead body and no leads to follow. I happen to know that’s with good reason. The man you found was simply deposited in your area—pure happenstance. He doesn’t have the remotest connection to Brattleboro or Vermont or even the U.S., for that matter. He was a foreign national, a man we’ve been watching for years, and he was taken out by other non-U.S. citizens. His ending up in Vermont was a fluke. I’m not asking you to drop the case or even to tiptoe around anything. You can beat the bushes all you want. I’m just saying you won’t find anything. My comment about putting the case to bed was a clumsy way of recommending you don’t waste too much overtime on this one. But it’s up to you. I am sorry about the poor phrasing—too many years working in Washington.”
I just stared at him, a response he obviously hadn’t anticipated. After an awkward silence, he added, “After all, what’s to be gained? Your job, like mine, is to protect and to serve. The people who killed this man are long gone, so no one needs protection from them, and running around for weeks discovering that fact won’t serve anyone, least of all your taxpayers. Letting this one slip to the back pages will save you a lot of aggravation, and if things work out the way I think they will, it won’t be too long anyway before I’ll be calling you with some news that’ll satisfy everyone.”
“Meaning the CIA will locate his killer or killers abroad and hold them accountable?”
“Something like that. I’ll give you enough that it’ll look like a real-life spy thriller. ’Course, it’ll be a bit on the vague side. But the locals should get a kick out of playing a minor role in some international intrigue.”
I gave him an acquiescing smile, now absolutely positive I wasn’t going to play ball with him. “Sort of amazing, isn’t it, you getting me all the way down here just to tell me not to waste taxpayer money? This kind of thing happen often?”
Snowden became very still. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“That you make such an effort to tell a local cop to lay off. I mean, let’s face it, you people aren’t the only ones who’re overly suspicious by nature. I’m a little that way myself. Why didn’t you just let us charge around till we ran out of gas?”
He let out a small sigh. “I can see my homework about you was pretty accurate. Look, I won’t go into details—there are some national security angles I can’t divulge—but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that your fading away quietly would be a big help to us. I meant what I said about doing what you want, though. Despite what the media says, we don’t mess with the Constitution. But what you found is a tiny fragment of something we’ve been working on for years. Kicking up a lot of dust won’t do you any good, and it could make things harder for us, so I guess I’m asking you to look at the big picture, and ask yourself if searching for something that isn’t there is in anyone’s best interest.”
“And
I left it short and simple, giving him a choice to either share his knowledge or nail me with the omission of the tattooed toes, the buckle knife, or the fact that we’d traced the rental car to Logan Airport.
Not surprisingly, I suppose, he ducked the choice entirely, leaving me as up in the air as before. “Lieutenant,” he said, leaning forward and resting his forearms on the desk. “Around here, we are so instinctively suspicious of everyone and everything, we often end up confusing the very people we’re supposed to be working with. What I should’ve said on the phone was that we would put this thing to bed—take it off your hands, so to speak.”
This time, I didn’t need to fake any confusion. “You’re allowed to do that? Operate within the country?”
Snowden was already straightening in his chair, smiling and waving his hand to interrupt. “No, no. Of course not. I didn’t mean it that way. Let me explain. You have a dead body and no leads to follow. I happen to know that’s with good reason. The man you found was simply deposited in your area—pure happenstance. He doesn’t have the remotest connection to Brattleboro or Vermont or even the U.S., for that matter. He was a foreign national, a man we’ve been watching for years, and he was taken out by other non-U.S. citizens. His ending up in Vermont was a fluke. I’m not asking you to drop the case or even to tiptoe around anything. You can beat the bushes all you want. I’m just saying you won’t find anything. My comment about putting the case to bed was a clumsy way of recommending you don’t waste too much overtime on this one. But it’s up to you. I am sorry about the poor phrasing—too many years working in Washington.”
I just stared at him, a response he obviously hadn’t anticipated. After an awkward silence, he added, “After all, what’s to be gained? Your job, like mine, is to protect and to serve. The people who killed this man are long gone, so no one needs protection from them, and running around for weeks discovering that fact won’t serve anyone, least of all your taxpayers. Letting this one slip to the back pages will save you a lot of aggravation, and if things work out the way I think they will, it won’t be too long anyway before I’ll be calling you with some news that’ll satisfy everyone.”
“Meaning the CIA will locate his killer or killers abroad and hold them accountable?”
“Something like that. I’ll give you enough that it’ll look like a real-life spy thriller. ’Course, it’ll be a bit on the vague side. But the locals should get a kick out of playing a minor role in some international intrigue.”
I gave him an acquiescing smile, now absolutely positive I wasn’t going to play ball with him. “Sort of amazing, isn’t it, you getting me all the way down here just to tell me not to waste taxpayer money? This kind of thing happen often?”
Snowden became very still. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“That you make such an effort to tell a local cop to lay off. I mean, let’s face it, you people aren’t the only ones who’re overly suspicious by nature. I’m a little that way myself. Why didn’t you just let us charge around till we ran out of gas?”
He let out a small sigh. “I can see my homework about you was pretty accurate. Look, I won’t go into details—there are some national security angles I can’t divulge—but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that your fading away quietly would be a big help to us. I meant what I said about doing what you want, though. Despite what the media says, we don’t mess with the Constitution. But what you found is a tiny fragment of something we’ve been working on for years. Kicking up a lot of dust won’t do you any good, and it could make things harder for us, so I guess I’m asking you to look at the big picture, and ask yourself if searching for something that isn’t there is in anyone’s best interest.”
“And
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