Tuesday morning passed in a great big boring blur. Given the egocentric nature of the world, I imagined that since nothing in particular was happening to me, there was nothing in particular happening to anyone else. In truth, events were transpiring that I would hear about only when it was too late to alter either cause or effect. My phone rang at 11:00 – Cheney asking me to sit tight for the next half-hour as there was something he wanted me to hear. "You have a tape recorder?" he asked.

"An old one, but it takes a regular-size cassette."

"That'll do."

Fifteen minutes later he walked in the door. While I was waiting for him, I searched through my closet until I found the tape recorder. I opened a fresh package of AA batteries and by the time Cheney arrived, the tape recorder was set up and ready to go. "What is it?"

He slipped the cassette in the machine. "Something the FBI picked up this morning. Some of it sounds garbled, but the techs have taken it as far as they can." He pressed the Play button, triggering a generalized hissing and the ringing of a phone. A man on the other end picked up without identifying himself. "Yes?"

The calling party said, "Problem."

The minute I heard the voice, I shot a look at Cheney. "Beck?"

He pressed the Pause button. "The guy he's talking to is Salustio Castillo. This was the first call he placed when he got to the office." He pressed Play again.

On the tape, Castillo was saying, "What?"

"When I took delivery on that shipment, the inventory was off."

Silence. Hissing. "Impossible. 'Off meaning what?"

"Short."

"By how much?"

"A pack."

"Large or small?"

"Large. We're talking twenty-five."

Salustio was silent. "I supervised the count myself. What about the invoices?"

"Not a match. I checked three times and the numbers don't tally."

Salustio said, "I told you I wanted someone supervising your end –"

"This wasn't on my end."

"Or so you say."

Silence from Beck. "You know I wouldn't do this."

"Do I? You've argued for a bigger cut of the action, which I can't... there's no way I can justify from my end. Now you say... missing, all I have is your word."

"You think I'd lie?"

"Let's call it inventory shrinkage. It's been known to happen. From my perspective, you're adequately compensated... don't see it that way. So maybe you siphon off a percentage of the goods and that satisfies your need for a pay increase. What better cover than claiming I shorted you?"

"I never said that."

"Then what?"

"I said the total's off. Might be the... mistake..."

"Yours. Not mine."

"..."

"Fix it."

Silence. There was a stretch of pure hissing on the tape.

Tightly Beck said, "Tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it."