‘I doubt it, ma’am, but there may be something I can help you with. I have a file note, a request from Mr Culver in fact, to contact you in case of developments in a couple of our investigations. It concerns one of our Mandate settlers, a Mr Miguel Pieraro.’

‘Er, yeah . . . I know of him,’ she replied. ‘I was just reviewing his file last night. What’s up?’

‘I’m afraid Mr Pieraro has been killed. A hit-and-run incident three days ago.’

That woke her up, stunning her into consciousness more effectively than the ice cold water she’d splashed on her face. Caitlin noticed that Colvin didn’t say ‘accident’. She looked at her bags, packed and standing by the door, ready to go. ‘I’m sorry to hear that, Agent Colvin,’ she told him, sincere even through the fogginess still clouding her head. She had really felt for the man who had lost everything, save for one daughter. She felt these things more deeply now, having her own child, no matter how hard she tried to shut down her feelings when she was out in the field. ‘That guy deserved a break. But I’m a little pressed for time here, unfortunately. Is there some reason you contacted me, beyond professional courtesy?’

It was a rather discourteous thing to ask, but there had be some reason Colvin had called. And she really was pressed for time.

‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘The traffic cops called in their colleagues from Homicide pretty quickly on this one. And Homicide called us when they saw that Pieraro’s name was flagged with a link to the federal databases. I figured Mr Culver would want you to know.’

Caitlin could hear the curiosity in back of Colvin’s words. Why would the White House Chief of Staff want a military advisor from his office to know about this sort of stuff? She was glad he didn’t press the matter.

She sat down on the bed, accepting the delay. ‘Homicide?’

‘Yeah,’ said the FBI man. ‘All of the evidence adds up to Pieraro and the woman he was with, a Maive Aronson, being deliberately run down.’

‘I see . . .’ Her mind was racing ahead now. Was this important enough to delay her departure? ‘Agent Colvin, I’m very grateful that you called me, and I apologise if I seemed a little brusque. I was just heading out the door for the airport.’

‘Ah, that’s cool,’ he replied. He seemed to have decided to dispense with inter-agency formalities after all. ‘Look, if you’d like, I could swing by and pick you up. Our office is just a couple of minutes away from the old Harrah’s, and you’d be welcome to go through the evidence they’ve put together so far. If you think you need to brief Mr Culver on it.’

Again, he spoke with a slightly rising inflection as his professional curiousity kicked in.