“Yeah.” She was quiet as she watched David hang up his coat, and turn on the computer on his desk. “I spoke to Sarah this morning. She talked me into dinner tonight.”

“Oh, really?” David couldn’t help grinning. “Will it be three, or four?”

“Four. And you probably already knew that.”

“No. Well, not for certain. She said she’d asked someone, but she didn’t know if they’d show. She was going to remind them last night.”

“Uh-huh. You know this person?”

“Nope. But Sarah says she’s hot. If she wasn’t with Maggie, she’d be tempted to ask her out.”

“Great. Sarah and I do not have the same taste in women.”

David stopped and looked at her. “Are you saying you don’t like Maggie?”

“No! I love Maggie. I just wouldn’t choose to go out with her, that’s all. She’s not my type.”

“I don’t get it. You say you and Sarah don’t have the same taste, yet she went out with you.”

“Yep, and that proves my point. I would never date someone like me.”

David grinned at her. “Neither would I.”

Alex glared at him.

*******************************************************

David volunteered to get more hot chocolate for Alex while he got himself some fresh coffee. While he was gone, Alex called Philadelphia.

“Okay, Alex, do you want the really bad news or the semi-good news?”

“Are those my only two choices?”

“‘Fraid so.”

She sighed. “Okay, the really bad news. Always begin with the worst, my dad said.”

“The room was clean.”

“Nothing? What about their stuff?”

“Gone. Not only that, but the room had been stripped. Towels, blankets, sheets, everything. And the whole place was wiped clean, including the remote control, the bathroom faucet, and all the knobs. Somebody didn’t want anything left behind.”

“Damn. I don’t like that, Ken.”

“Me neither. It was kind of eerie when we walked into the place. It was absolutely sterile.”

Alex tossed her pencil onto her desk in frustration. “Okay, the semi-good news. Hopefully it will cheer me up.”

“Steve and Louis can confirm that it’s the same type of bomb used in Atlanta.”

“How can that be? One was a remote, and the other was hooked to the ignition. Plus, you said yourself the two were different in strength, and even in placement.”

“Yeah, I said all that. But I’m a forensics expert. They’re the bomb specialists. They crawled through that wreck, and found a bunch of tiny little metal fragments inside the engine of the car. It’s the same thing they found in the car in Atlanta.

“Pieces of metal? I don’t get it. With all the metal in the vehicle, and especially in the engine, how can they tell what belongs there and what doesn’t?”

“This metal has a different chemical composition. It’s totally foreign to the engine of a car.”

“Okay. This is good news because?”

“Well, I said semi-good. It doesn’t bring us any closer to who planted it, but at least we know it was the same guys that gave them the bomb in Atlanta.”

“Right. At least we know that.”

“Now, I think you and David should think about coming up here next week.”

“Why?”

“I believe you should be the next set of agents to talk to Mr. Kyle Brogan.”

“Any reason why?”

“Because you are the expert on his cousin Derek White, and you can probably shock him with what you found yesterday.”

“What we found — oh, you mean the picture of White, in the background of the one of Mather and Wilford.”

“Well, yeah.”

“I don’t know if we want to go to him with that yet, Ken. After all, it ties his cousin in with the killers, not him. If he didn’t break, we’d have to release him, and he’d probably warn White, and Gerlach as well. If those two are part of this, I don’t want them to have any idea that we’re on to them.”

There was a pause on the other end. “Okay, I agree with that line of reasoning. If we move too soon we might spook them, and they’ll hide. But, Alex, what did you mean we don’t have any connection between Brogan and the killers?”

“Well, okay, we have a small one. Brogan and Mather both went to Penn State, and their years there overlap. But it’s a huge campus, Ken, and there’s no way to know if they actually met there.”

Ken waited a moment longer, thinking. Then he realized why she wasn’t getting it. “I forgot, you’ve never seen Brogan.”

“No, I never have. So?”

“Alex, I found a copy of that picture you were talking about. The one of White shaking hands with a guy.”

“Yeah, so?”

“Are you sitting down?”

She was, but she the question made her sit up straighter. “Yes.”

“The man holding the silver cup in his hand is Kyle Brogan.”

For a moment, Alex just sat there. When she found her voice again all she could say was, “Holy fucking shit.”

*******************************************************

“I don’t believe it.”

Cliff was standing by the window in his office staring into the sky beyond it.

“We’re busy trying to find ways to show a connection, and it’s all there in two photographs.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I don’t fucking believe it.”

He turned around and stared at the two agents in front of him. “All right, Ken wants the two of you up there. Think you should go?”

Alex bit her lip and thought about it. “Well, yes, but maybe not as soon as Ken thinks. Brogan is shaken, he thinks, and maybe we should shake him a little more before we confront him again.”

“How so?”

“Put him under surveillance. Maybe a phone tap?”

“How will that spook him?”

“Make the surveillance a little obvious. Let him know we’re going to watch him. Then, if he calls his cousin in a panic, we ‘ll know.”

Her boss nodded. “Any thoughts, Dave?”

“I agree with Alex.”

“You usually do.”

“That’s because she knows her stuff.”

Cliff snorted. “Good thing for us, eh?”

He dropped into his chair, and sighed. “All right, I’ll call Philly and ask for some help with surveillance. I’ll also ask for authorization for a wire tap. You check out what Derek White has been doing for the last few months. We’ve got tons of photos, and reports. Go through them, and find something.”

“I’ve already sent a request for all phone records, for Gerlach, White, and Brogan. Plus, I sent photos of Mather and Wilford to the guys who normally do surveillance on White. They’re gonna pass it among their team.”

“Good. Damn, I’d love to slam the door on a cell with Derek White in it.”

“You and me both.”

With that, Cliff looked up and waved a hand at them in dismissal. “Get out and get to work, you two.”

“Right. I’ll make sure you get a progress report before we leave tonight.”

Cliff’s eyes were already intent on the paperwork in front of him as David and Alex left his office.

*******************************************************

Searching through a report is easy, Alex thought, when you have a name that you’re looking for. But in these surveillance records on Derek White, Alex wasn’t just looking for a name. She was searching for names, dates, places, anything that would tell her Derek White was involved in the assassinations.

There were plenty of places, and even more names and dates, which was what frustrated Alex. She had no way of knowing which, if any, were significant. Along with going to Idaho to see his brother, Derek White had taken several long trips. On these he was sometimes seen doing the normal tourist traps. Other times he’d visit a person. Very seldom was he seen actually attending a meeting of any organizations outside his own. The few times he did, the meeting was private, and heavily guarded.

Finally, out of frustration, Alex began putting together lists of the cities her subject had visited. She was disappointed to find that, though he had often visited Atlanta, Philadelphia, and New York, he was not in any of those cities when the killings occurred.