Luke gave an angelic smile. “And as a private citizen, I was happy to do my civic duty.”

“It sounds like the two of you ran off to start your own private crusade,” Wilkie said dryly. “We can save the legal niceties for later, but I need to know what you suspect about the military. I’ve got teams of investigators who can carry this out with both secrecy and benefit of the law.”

Mercifully, it looked as if Philip and Luke were willing to cooperate. The Secret Service was nowhere within the military chain of command, meaning they could be a neutral party to carry out the investigation. Caroline held her breath as Luke relayed what he’d learned while imprisoned alongside Mateo. He laid out the facts with confidence, but a hint of teasing mockery lay beneath the surface the entire time, keeping her on edge. Luke loved needling authority.

When he outlined the plan to use a fake telegram from Mateo to dupe Holland into action, Nathaniel flatly rejected it.

“That’s entrapment,” he said. “I won’t condone an investigation based on a lie.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “I forgot my smelling salts, so go stand in the hall if this is making you feel faint. I say we cut straight to the chase. It’s Saturday. Holland’s office at the War Department is empty. We can break in and have a look around.”

Again, Nathaniel shook his head. “If you want inside his office, you need a search warrant and probable cause. We need to do everything aboveboard.”

“And how does one do an undercover operation in an aboveboard manner?” Luke asked tightly.

Caroline bit her lip as all her misgivings started playing out before her. Nathaniel had gone back to his rigid formality, while Luke was hurling darts at the man she loved.

Even with all their bickering, within an hour, Wilkie and Philip devised a plan that was both legal and clever enough to provoke a guilty man into revealing his hand. Despite Nathaniel’s earlier rejection, Wilkie affirmed that using a fake telegram from Mateo was perfectly lawful. If Holland took the bait and sprang into action, the government would have probable cause for a search warrant.

“There’s another man we need to catch,” Luke said. “Holland never personally delivered the funds to Mateo. There’s a go-between in Key West, and I don’t know the identity of that man. All I know is that Holland wires money to Key West, then the go-between sails it to Cuba. We need to figure out who that man is.”

“Once we arrest Holland, we’ll be able to search his house and find the third man,” Wilkie said. “First we arrest the mastermind, then we go after his minions. It will take some time for me to arrange the fake telegram originating from Cuba, so let’s do the stakeout of Holland’s house tomorrow.”