The Eighth Sister (Charles Jenkins #1)(118)
“Please state your name for the record,” Harden said.
Emerson looked to Velasquez, then to the judge. “Excuse me?”
“State your name for the record,” Harden said.
“Carl Edward Emerson.”
“Are you presently employed?”
Emerson uncrossed his legs and sat up. “No, I’m retired.”
“What are you retired from?”
“The Central Intelligence Agency.”
“Did you retire from the CIA or were you terminated?”
“I decided that forty-five years of government service was sufficient and I retired.”
“Mr. Emerson,” Harden said, pulling out the documents that the CIA records clerk had introduced. “I have employment documents here indicating your employment was terminated. Are you telling me these documents are inaccurate?”
Emerson gave a smug smile. “I suppose it is how one looks at it. I didn’t consider myself terminated. If I was, it was after I had already decided to retire.”
“The documents also indicate you were reprimanded for exercising poor judgment in dealings with the companies TBT Investments and LSR&C. Are you saying you weren’t aware of that?”
“No, I’m aware of it.”
“So you were terminated?”
“I suppose I was,” Emerson said, that slight smile still on his lips.
“And why were you reprimanded?”
Emerson again looked to Velasquez before answering. “For investing personal money in those companies.”
“You invested your own money?”
Jenkins leaned into Sloane. “I was right,” he whispered. “Emerson’s the leak. He was using TBT to wash the money he received from the FSB.”
“I did,” Emerson said. “It was a mistake, given how everything turned out.”
“There has been testimony that you previously served as the Mexico City CIA station chief. Is that true?”
“That is correct.”
“And you were the defendant’s, Charles Jenkins’s, boss.”
“For a brief time when I was his special agent in charge. Charles was an excellent agent, but he abruptly left the CIA. He was upset and angry. I cannot discuss the operation that caused Charles to quit, but he was angry at the CIA and the United States government, and I guess at me.”
“He told you this?”
Emerson stumbled, then sought to recover. “No. I never heard from him. He just left.”
Judge Harden paused, and Jenkins looked to the jurors, several of whom appeared to have caught the inconsistency. If Jenkins had abruptly left and had not spoken to Emerson, then how did Emerson know the reason for Jenkins’s departure?
“There has been testimony that you served as an officer of the company TBT Investments. Is that true?”
“Nice,” Sloane said under his breath to Jenkins. “He’s relying on testimony, not on the documents.”
“That is true.”
Jenkins had expected Emerson to lie, but maybe Harden’s decision to call him so quickly prevented the government from telling Emerson that the LSR&C documents had been classified.
“Did you have a TBT business card with your phone number on it?”
“I had a business card with a number on it, yes.”
“And there has been testimony that TBT was a subsidiary of a company called LSR&C. Is that correct?”
“That is correct.”
“There has been testimony that TBT Investments was a company used to funnel money to CIA field officers and their operations in other countries. Is that true?”
“Yes, that is true.”
Jenkins leaned close to Sloane. “We have confirmation that Goldstone isn’t a liar.”
“There has also been testimony that in your capacity as an officer of TBT Investments, you used the alias Richard Peterson. Is that true?”
“I did.”
Jenkins watched the jurors’ reactions. They looked intrigued.
“During November 2017, did you have occasion to travel to Camano Island and meet with the defendant, Charles William Jenkins?”
Jenkins knew that was the key question. If Emerson was going to lie, now would be the moment.
“No,” Emerson said. “That is not true.”
It was as Jenkins had speculated. Emerson would admit that LSR&C was a CIA front but deny that Jenkins had been reactivated. That would allow Velasquez to argue that Jenkins had made up the story after Mitchell Goldstone raised it as his defense. The difference now, however, was Emerson had confirmed that Goldstone had told the truth.
“When was the last time you saw Mr. Jenkins?”
“The last time?” Emerson looked to Jenkins, the smug smile still on his face. “That would have been decades ago, in Mexico City.”
“You haven’t seen him since?”
“No.”
“You’re excused,” Harden said.
Emerson never lost the smug smile. He stood, buttoned his suit jacket, and stepped down.
Harden turned to the jury. “That is the court’s evidence. Ladies and gentlemen, let me give you another status report. The defendant has concluded the evidence that he is going to put on, and I have plugged in the evidence that the court felt you ought to have. And now the government, if it is inclined to do so, may put on rebuttal evidence. Counsel, are you so inclined?”