“Yes. I understand now that she was pumping me for information. I think she was trying to get me to confirm her suspicions that we’d gotten information from Jonathan. We didn’t know anything about the Parker case until Lisa brought it up. Ethel was just playing along.” Jesse looked first at Hauser and then Bradshaw. “She wanted to trust both of you, but with twenty million dollars hanging over an interagency conspiracy? Well, you know her history with betrayal.”

The two directors were silent.

Mancini took advantage of the pause. “That’s why she brought me in first. And why she used those two vet pilots to pass along information to me. And why she tracked Lisa and Douglas with planted cell phones. She wanted to stay out of possibly compromised internal communications in both your agencies. Given the circumstances, you have to admit she acted with good reasons.”

Jesse leaned forward. “She was really happy when both of you texted the same answer to her question about Lisa and O’Hara. That you didn’t try to cover up that relationship.”

“You mean that we weren’t part of the conspiracy,” Hauser said. “I guess I was pushing too hard to recover that money. It gave Lisa Draper cover for pursuing her own agenda.”

“And I think that agenda started months ago,” Bradshaw said. “She never broke up with O’Hara. She moved into Ethel’s because Jonathan was there. She’d already developed her theory that he had the Parker money, and she wanted to get close to him.”

Hauser frowned. “But if Finch didn’t have the Parker money, where was he getting the funds to buy the counterfeit stash, assuming he was setting a trap?”

No one spoke. It was the one question that defied an exonerating answer.

“Did you ever find his computer or phone?” Jesse asked.

“No,” Bradshaw said. “If it had links to Draper or the others, then both phone and computer could be at the bottom of the Potomac.”

Mancini cleared his throat. “So, as a lowly Arlington detective, I see your federal agencies responding one of two ways. First option—you close the case and give Finch’s family the honor of a fallen hero’s funeral with the appropriate financial consideration for being killed in the line of duty. Second option, you keep the case open, creating a cloud of suspicion over Finch, who can’t defend himself, waste money dredging the Potomac or some equally hopeless search for what is probably the only potential evidence of any guilt on Finch’s part, and your efforts only encourage media exposure that will upset a widow and her special-needs child. To what end? Return money to some hedge fund managers who deal in millions like we deal in twenties? Well, it’s your call, gentlemen. I’ll let you answer to Ethel.”

“Low blow,” Hauser grumbled.

Bradshaw had to smile. “Yeah, kick us when we’re down.”