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“I told you I did.”

“Tell me more,” said Decker.

“What do you want to know?”

“Anything, considering I really know nothing about him.”

“He was an impressive man. Everyone respected him. More than they do his daughter,” he added, a bit petulantly, thought Decker.

“You seem to have an issue with her,” said Decker.

Andrews rubbed at his injured shoulder and said, “Maybe I do.”

“Why?”

“No particular reason,” said Andrews, not meeting his eye.

“Well, let me give you one. You tried to get a position with Gamma but were rejected. Too inflexible, maybe?”

Andrews gasped, “How in the hell did you know that?”

“I didn’t, not for sure, until right now. But there was something just off about you and GammaandKasimira Roe. You were a little too effusive about the firm, and you knew a lot about it. And you seem to like the finer things in life, not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

Andrews lay back and closed his eyes. “I guess I should have recused myself from the investigation, like you suggested.”

“We’re all human.”

“What else do you want to know about Kanak Roe?”

“Successful, respected. Anything more?”

“You really want the observations of aninflexibleagent who can’t make the grade in the private sector?”

“I want the observations of a veteran FBI agent who was nearly killed performing his duty.”

Andrews opened his eyes. “I appreciate your saying that.”

“It’s the truth. Subtlety is not my thing.”

Andrews let out a sigh. “I’ll tell you something about Kanak Roe that I don’t think I’ve told anyone else.”

“What’s that?”

“I went deep-sea fishing with him once, oh, this was a little over four years ago.”

“Didn’t know you were into fishing.”

“I was thinking about jumping to the private sector back then. I was coming up on my full twenty-five-year pension at the Bureau, and the bucks even the young punks made at Gamma were twice what the Bureau paid. I was hoping that if I got to know Roe better it might help my chances. Unfortunately, he died before I was ready to apply. And under Kasimira’s regime I didn’t make the cut.” He glanced sideways at Decker. “You were right, they considered me ‘an inside-the-box thinker and too bureaucratic.’ She’d hire you in a heartbeat.”

“Go on.”

“We had a good day out on the boat. His buddy, Danny Garcia, came along with us. We had our beers and caught a couple of marlins and nearly landed a big-ass tuna. We were heading back and I was feeling good about things when he told me.”

“Told you what?”

“Thathe’d just been diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer.” He looked at Decker probingly. “You don’t seem surprised.”

“Garcia told me about it.”


Tags: David Baldacci Amos Decker Thriller