Jake remembered the first time Glynis had come to the big rig, how Younger had practically thrown her out. He wasn’t so inhospitable now. He walked arm in arm with her across the test cell, obviously showing off what his team of technicians were doing, grinning like a schoolboy. And Glynis was smiling up at him, seemingly just as happy as he was.

But a few minutes later, as Jake started for the door and Younger turned his attention back to his technicians, Glynis walked over toward Jake and fell in step with him.

“How are you, Jake?” she asked.

Miserable, he wanted to say, but instead he replied, “I’m okay. Pretty busy. How about you?”

“I’ve been talking to Sheila. They’ve taken her off the investigation.”

“The FBI agent?” Jake asked. “She’s off the case?”

“From what she tells me, a couple of more experienced agents have been assigned to look into Senator Leeds’s connections to organized crime. It’s all very hush-hush, of course.”

They had reached the door. Jake said, “I wonder if we could get the FBI to make some kind of statement before election day.”

“I doubt it,” Glynis replied. “They’re walking on eggs, you know.”

“Probing a senator, yeah, I guess they’re going to keep as quiet as they can.”

Glynis looked thoughtful. “Unless someone does something to bring the investigation out into the open.”

Jake snapped, “You stay out of it! Keep yourself out of this, Glyn. I don’t want you in trouble with these guys.”

“There you go again,” she said, with a wry smile, “getting melodramatic.”

“Glynis, I know these guys. I know how they operate. Perez warned us, remember?”

“And you take him seriously.”

“Damned right I do. Let the FBI handle this. You steer clear of it.”

She shook her head. “Jake, the FBI is going through a strictly pro forma routine. That’s what Sheila told me. They’re not going to find anything because they’re not really looking for anything.”

“Glyn…”

“For god’s sake, Jake, Leeds asked them to investigate the link between Mrs. Sinclair’s killing and organized gambling. They’re not after Leeds; they’re just making copies of that Captain Harraway’s phony reports and calling that an investigation.”

“Stay out of it,” Jake repeated, trying to keep his voice low and forceful at the same time.

“Leeds is going to make a publicity splash about the FBI report finding nothing,” she insisted.

Jake didn’t know what to say about that.

“Unless we do something to stir them up,” Glynis added.

Jake gripped her arm. “Glynis, I want you to go back to West Virginia and stay there until this election is over.”

“I’ll do nothing of the kind,” she replied heatedly.

“I don’t want you—”