'I'm Senior Agent Cavalierre. FBI," Betsey said.

"Senior agent! Let's see, what's the line from all the cop shows on TV? We can do this the hard way or we can do it the easy way," he said and showed off surprisingly even white teeth. He was wearing black paramilitary pants, off-white shower thongs, no shirt. His arms and upper torso were covered with jailhouse tats and curled black hair.

"I vote for the hard way. But that's just me," Betsey said.

Brophy turned to a skinny blonde who was sitting on a lime-green retro couch in front of a TV. She wore a loose-fitting FUBU shirt over her underwear.

"You like her as much as I do, Nora?" Brophy asked the blonde.

The woman shrugged, apparently uninterested in anything but Rosie O'Donnell. She was probably high. Her hair was stringy, with the bangs gelled down to her forehead. She had barbed-wire tattoos on both ankles, wrists and around her throat.

Brophy looked back at Betsey Cavalierre and me. "I take it we have business to discuss. So, the mystery lady is FBI. That's very good. Means you can afford any information I might have."

Betsey shook her head. "I'd rather beat it out of you."

Tony Broph," s dark eyes came alive again. "I really like her."

We followed Brophy to a lopsided, wooden table in a tiny kitchen. He sat straddled on a chair, the backrest wedged against his hairy stomach and chest. We had to arrive at a financial agreement before he would give up anything. He was right about one thing Betsey Cavalierre's budget was a lot bigger than mine.

"This has to be good information, though," she warned.

He nodded confidently, smugly. "This is the best you can buy, baby. Top of the line. Y'see, I met with the man behind those nasty jobs in Maryland and Virginia. Want to know what he's like? Well, he's one cold motherfucker. And remember who's telling you that."

Brophy stared hard at Betsey and me. He definitely had our interest.

"He called himself Mastermind," Brophy said in a slow Florida drawl. "He was dead serious about it. Mastermind. You believe it?

"The two of us met at the Sheraton Airport Hotel. He contacted me through a guy I know from new York. "Brophy went on," The so-called Mastermind knew things about me. He ticked off my strengths, then weaknesses. He had me down to a T. He even knew about the lovely Nora and her habit."

"Think he was a cop? All the information he had about you?" I asked Brophy.

Brophy grinned broadly. "No. Too smart. He might have talked to some cops, though, considering he knew everything. That's why I stayed and listened to the dude. That, plus he told me this was a high-six-figure opportunity for me. That caught my interest."

All Agent Cavalierre and I had to do now was listen. Once Brophy got started there was no stopping him.

"What did he look like?"I asked.