“You tell them it is done,” Kosovsky said. “It is a big shame about the young girl, but when you play with fire, you get the burn. To tell them about their daughter, they will find out about her inwolwement in unpleasant business. Perhaps it would be better to tell them what they want to hear rather than the truth.”

No one spoke.

Kosovsky said, “Assure the girl’s parents that her killer has been punished.”

“Without prejudice,” Decker said.

“Excuse me?”

“Just an old army term. While I’m assuring Angeline Moreau’s parents that the rogue has been taken care of, what do I say to Detective McAdams who was shot three times.”

Kosovsky turned to McAdams. “My sincere apologies, Meester McAdams. If you are ewer in Moscow, I would be honored to host you . . . show you around my city.”

“Thank you.” McAdams raised an eyebrow.

“I think we’re done here,” said Agent Blond.

“Not by a long shot,” Decker said. The room went quiet for a moment. “Let me take you on a theoretical walk and you can tell me how theoretical the walk actually is.”

Silence.

“Go on,” Kosovsky said.

“We know that the codebook was found in John Latham’s apartment hidden in an out of the way place, but recovered brilliantly by my colleague, Detective Mulrooney. We also know that someone was desperately looking for it—in Latham’s apartment and in Angeline’s apartment because both places were tossed. I believe that Viktor Gerrard—who is missing—is our key player. He was born in East Germany and spoke Russian as well as German. He was also an art dealer working in a gallery that specialized in Russian art. I suspect that Viktor had a bad case of sticky fingers.”

“I don’t understand sticky fingers,” Kosovsky said.

“He was a thief.”

“Ah . . . go on.”

Decker said, “Maybe Gerrard was the rogue agent you’re referring to. Or maybe he’s just a rogue, period. Whoever he really was, Gerrard had contacts in Russia, including you, Mr. Kosovsky. Could be he was trying to buy something from you. More likely, he was trying to sell you something. Because like Latham, Gerrard probably had a side business in stolen goods. I believe he accidentally came across the codebook in a client’s house in Russia and he knew he had found something big. So he decided to take it back to America. How am I doing so far?”

“I hold judgment,” the Russian said.

“Always a good thing to be open-minded,” Oliver said.

Decker held back a smile. “The problem was that Gerrard couldn’t break the code. So he enlisted help. Enter John Latham who was clever enough to figure out enough of the code and realize what he was dealing with. But instead of cluing Viktor in on what he had, he embarked upon his own blackmail scheme against you, Mr. Kosovsky.” Decker turned to Beckwith. “And possibly against you.”