“You’re wrong,” he said right away. He took a step toward me then and lowered his voice. “Don’t accuse me of things you don’t know anything about, Detective. I’m warning you —”

“Shut the hell up!” I shouted at him as much for the “warning” as the fact that he’d stepped up on me. I’d had enough of his crap for one day.

Still, I was instantly sorry I’d yelled. The whole press corps was watching us from the sidewalk. I took a breath and tried again.

“Listen, Max —”

“Give me a little credit, Alex,” he said, and stepped back to put some room between us. “I’m not exactly wet behind the ears. Now, I’ll bear in mind what you said, but you’ve got to let me do my job, just like I let you do yours.”

He even smiled and put his hand out, as if he were trying to diffuse the situation and not manipulate it. With everyone watching, I went ahead and shook, but my first impressions of Siegel hadn’t changed a bit. This was an agent with a giant ego for a blind spot, and unfortunately there was only so much I could do to rein him in.

“Just be careful,” I said.

“I’m always careful,” he said. “Careful’s my middle name.”

Chapter 44

“YOU SEE THAT GUY over there, Mitchie? The tall brother talking to the suit?”

“Guy looks like Muhammad Ali?”

“That’s the cop, Alex Cross. And I think the other one’s FBI. Just a couple of piggies from different farms.”

“They don’t look too happy to me,” Mitch said.

“That’s ’cause they’re looking for something they’re never going to find. We’re in the big top now, buddy. Just you and me. There’s nothing gonna touch us anymore.”

Mitch cracked up, too excited to contain himself.

“When’s the next hit, Denny?”

“You’re looking at it. We got to spread the good word, get folks on our side. And then — bam! We’ll surprise them again when the time’s right. That’s what this whole e-mail thing’s all about — getting the word out.”

Mitch nodded like he understood, but he didn’t try to hide his disappointment either. That wasn’t the kind of mission he meant.

“Don’t worry,” Denny told him. “We’ll have you back in the saddle before you know it. Meantime — come on. This is gonna be great, trust me.”