“Come on, Susan, or whatever your real name is, you’re obviously not stupid. You know Carr and Stone are the same person. He’s been hiding out for thirty years.”

“If that’s so, why do you think he’s been hiding out?”

“You tell me.”

“Maybe people were after him.”

“What people?”

“People looking to kill him, I think.”

“Is that what he said?”

“He told me once that with some agencies, even if you want to leave, they won’t let you. They’d rather you’d be dead than not working for them.”

This remark hit Knox like a hard slap but he didn’t show it. That one I can believe.

“So let’s assume for the moment he was a Triple Six who wanted out. They didn’t want him to leave?”

“I know he was married and had a daughter. But he said they were both dead now.”

Knox sat back against the seat, his fingers still gripping the steering wheel. “Suggesting that whoever was after him killed them?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

Knox let go of the steering wheel and stared out at the traffic whipping by down Pennsylvania Avenue. His thoughts turned momentarily to his own son and daughter. Maybe his son was safer in Iraq than his daughter was in Washington. That was a brutally numbing thought.

“Do you have a family?” she asked.

Knox snapped back. “What else can you tell me? His last few days with you? Anything that might show where he went?”

“If he did kill Gray and Simpson they probably deserved it.”

“That’s not what I asked, and, by the way, talk like that could wind you up in jail.”

“I owe Oliver my life.”

“That’s you, not me.”

“So when you find him are you going to kill him?”

“I work for the federal government. I’m not a hired killer.”

“So you’re telling me that if you do catch him he’ll end up being tried, in a court of law?”

Knox hesitated. “That’s not my call. A lot of it depends on him.”

“Yeah, I thought that might be what you’d say.”

“We’re talking about a killer, Ms. Hunter.”

“No, we’re talking about my friend who was pushed past all human limits.”

“You know that to be a fact?”

“I know him. That’s how he’s built. Was he capable of violence, of killing? Sure. Was he a cold-blooded killer? No.”

“I have information that says otherwise.”

“Then your information is wrong.”

“What makes you so sure?”

“My gut.”

“Your gut? That’s it?”

“Yeah, the same gut that’s telling me you really don’t want any part of this job. I’m betting you have a family and a dream of being retired. But you got called into this shit and now you don’t know which side is playing you for a fool.”