A female officer is at the River Basin. She sounds keyed up as she requests backup and a detective.

“And you believe that?” Benton’s reflection looks amused. As if I said something funny.

“Carrie had it. Then Erin Loria did. Ultimately it ended up in Pakistan,” I say to him as Marino goes through his recent calls, looking for a number. “Erin Loria could be in a lot of hot water and I think that might be one reason she’s framing Lucy.”

“I don’t know who you’ve been getting your information from,” Benton says. “But the machine gun you’re talking about was a prop my unit was given as a thank-you when the movie folks were filming Silence of the Lambs at Quantico in 1990. A couple of us got fun Hollywood toys like tommy guns, handcuffs, wanted posters. When Lucy showed up for her internship many years later she saw the MP5K prop in my office and asked if she could borrow it. Which was fine since the gun was completely useless not to mention legal,” he adds and I feel foolish. “It was a real MP5K but the barrel had been plugged, the firing group removed and even the receiver was cut.”

“Is it possible Carrie got hold of it and rebuilt it, got it back into working order?” I ask as Marino talks on his phone.

“Yeah I heard,” he’s saying to another officer. “What’s going on?”

“It would have been hard but yes she certainly could have.” Benton’s eyes are on me as I continue to glance at the mirror.

“That would be a pretty shrewd setup wouldn’t it? Someone gives a machine gun to the FBI profiling unit. And the head of it lets my nineteen-year-old niece borrow it. Then Carrie steals it and years later it’s used to commit an international crime that would cause our government unthinkable embarrassment and bad relations if the truth got out. Not to mention wrecking a few careers. In particular Erin Loria’s. Am I right, Benton? Is it true about Bhutto?”

“Erin certainly might think it’s true. In my mind it’s uncertain at this time if it’s a bluff or an example of record tampering. Either way you’re right. There’s a massive perception problem if word gets out.”

Data fiction.

“We should talk about this later,” he says.