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“Not today” I recalled what Oliver hi, and how no one knew it all but him “How did you knohat happened? Oliver surely didn’t include you in the loop on the oal”

She tossed lance as she considered the obvious strain of incredulity in my voice

“No, he didn’t tell ,” she said

I was puzzled

Then I heard movement from another room and someone entered the den

“I told her,” Bruce Lael said

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

I cauy torched in a car bomb”

“Your visit interrupted my diversion,” Lael said

“A bit dramatic, wouldn’t you say?”

“I actually got the idea froo He and I have never seen eye-to-eye He told me that it would be a shame if my car exploded one day, with me in it So I decided, what the hell, why not?”

“And the point?”

“It draws a lot of attention, which will slow hiive me time to disappear from both him—” He paused “—and your subpoenas”

“I’ to let this lie Valdez has opened a firestorravated by you”

“I’ if it struck home”

“Contrary to what you called me, I’m not some dumb-ass rookie”

“You keep telling yourself that Confidence is good in the field You’re going to need it”

“There was no body in that car?”

Lael shook his head “Nope Just one big bang It’s been a few hours so they certainly know by noasn’t inside The locals are wondering what the hell is going on Oliver is probably shaking his head The idea was just to buy er at ht after Reverend Foster calledon Oliver An internal corruption probe But the Justice Department is involved, too, separately, headed by a lawyer named Stephanie Nelle You work for her?”

I nodded, deciding to be honest “An FBI adustine Valdez did it”

“Shooting the head of the intelligence branch takes balls”

“You don’t seem surprised”

“It takes more than that to shock me”

I said, “There are a lot of questions about why people in the FBI are so curious about a 1933 Double Eagle and a as froet its hands on two 1933 Double Eagles?”

Lael slary around 1963, I think I can’t really reenerate a civil ithin that faot one They killed each other faster than we could have prosecuted the them in to the Secret Service would have raised a pile of questions that nobody wanted to answer So we just held on to them We collected lots of cash and valuables that way It became a private reserve fund I knew that Valdez and Foster were paid with those coins”

“You recorded the transaction?”

He nodded “Not Valdez But I did Foster Oliver wanted everythingsure Foster never went public But the coin was an insult Payment, yet not He’d have to liquidate it soh”

“Was Foster an FBI informant?”

He didn’t i to take the Fifth on that one Ask Foster”

I added that to the list of questions for later “Veddern said they were about to take you into custody”

“Which is another reason for the big bang I was tipped off by Oliver that Veddern was co me ere all on the sa Oliver That’s a reatest kiss-ass All he wanted was Hoover’s constant approval He told that SOB exactly what he wanted to hear, and did exactly what Hoover wanted Then after Hoover died he turned on hied to stay around for twenty-five more years He knohere a lot of skeletons are buried, literally, and he still has friends in high places”

“Where are you two going?”

Cie shrugged “Far away froh that Tom Oliver, or the FBI, won’t consider us a threat anymore”

“They’ll go looking for you”

“Sure they will,” Lael said “But I’host”

I was curious “Was it as bad, back in the ’60s, as FBI history says it was?”