“Not much in it for me, then, is there?” he asked, gazing back at her coolly.

She replied, “The alternative is I don’t fight extradition to the Bahamas. And you spend the rest of your life in one of their prisons.”

That seemed to bring Swann up short. Still he remained silent.

This wasn’t, technically, Rhyme’s concern. But he felt he should contribute. “And who knows, Jacob?” Rhyme said, an amused tone in his voice. “Maybe ADA Laurel here might see if you could get a spot in the kitchen in whatever facility you’re sent to.” He shrugged. “Just a thought.”

Laurel nodded. “I’ll do what I can.”

Swann looked over the smoke-damaged house of Spencer Boston. Then turned back. “When do you want to talk?”

Nance’s response was to dig into her pocketbook and extract a battered tape recorder.

Chapter 91

CHAPTER 91

BUSINESS ISN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE, the arms business, I mean,” Swann was telling them. “Walker Defense was having problems, bad problems, with the wars winding down.”

Sachs said to Rhyme, “That’s right. A lot of the factory facilities were shuttered when I was there.”

“Yes, ma’am. Lost sixty percent of our revenue and the company was in the red. Mr. Walker was used to a nice lifestyle. A couple of his ex-wives were too. Along with his present one and she was thirty years younger than him. Without a good income she might not’ve been too inclined to hang around.”

“Was it his Aston Martin in the lot?” Sachs asked.

“Yes. One of his. He’s got three.”

“Oh. Well. Three.”

“But it was more than that. He believed—I believed too—that the company was doing good work, good for the country. The rifle system for the drone, for instance. And that was just one of them. It was important work. We needed to keep the company afloat.”

Swann continued, “Orders weren’t coming from the U.S. like they used to so Mr. Walker ramped up business in other countries. But there’s a huge surplus of arms out there. Not much demand. So he created some.”

Nance Laurel asked, “By bribing officers and defense ministers in the armed services in Latin America, right?”

“Exactly. Africa and the Balkans too. Middle East some but you’ve got to be careful there. Don’t want to be found out selling weapons to any insurgents who take out U.S. soldiers. Okay, Simon Flores, Moreno’s guard, was with the Brazilian army. Mr. Walker’s Latin American operation is based in São Paulo and so Flores was real aware of the bribes. When he left the army he took plenty of proof with him—enough to put Mr. Walker away for the rest of his life. Flores started blackmailing him.