Walk the Wire (Amos Decker #6)(66)

“Is this a two-way street?” asked Decker.

“Meaning?”

“What can you tell us?”

Blue Man nodded slowly and looked thoughtful. “I think some quid pro quo is in order. You ask why I’m involved, and, ultimately, why you and Agent Jamison are involved in this?” He paused. “Irene Cramer is the answer, of course.”

“Or Mary Rice, as she was known at a nursing home in Williston,” interjected Jamison.

Blue Man said, “Or Terry Ellison or Denise Finley. I could go on and on.”

“Please do,” encouraged Jamison.

“Irene Cramer was collateral damage in a disastrous mission undertaken decades ago by the U.S. government.”

“How so?” asked Decker.

“Her mother was a Russian agent.”

Jamison shot Decker a glance. “Sins of the parent, Decker, like you said.”

“Oh, so you had figured that out?” said Blue Man.

“Only to that extent. So her mother was a spy and you caught her. How is that a disaster?”

“You didn’t let me finish. Her mother was a Russian agent who we thought was still working against us. She was actually a double agent and was working on behalf of a sister agency of ours that had neglected to tell us of that arrangement.”

“And the FBI’s involvement? Because Cramer’s fingerprints set off alarm bells all over Bureau Land.”

“They were the agency tasked with bringing Cramer’s mother in, since we have no authority to arrest anyone.”

“What happened?” asked Jamison.

“Irene Cramer was only eight at the time. I won’t tell you what their real names were. The point is the mission went sideways and her mother was . . . killed. And, unfortunately, Irene saw the whole, disturbing thing.”

“And her mother was working for us?” said Jamison. “Risking her life?”

“What a clusterfuck,” added Decker.

“Yes, it was. We could not let her daughter go back to Russia, of course. So, for all intents and purposes, we adopted her. Gave her a new identity. Paid for her education and living expenses. Gave her money when she needed it as she grew up.”

“You were paying for her silence?” said Jamison harshly.

“In a way, yes, though who would have believed her? But the far more important thing was to keep her safe. The Russians have a long memory. And were they to find out about her mother spying on them, which we believe they actually did, Moscow would have no compunction about using the daughter as an example. She would have died a horrible death, I can assure you.”

“Did you know she was applying for a teaching job here?” asked Jamison. “She told the Brothers that she went to Amherst. And she had a teaching certificate. They apparently didn’t check up on that because they needed someone badly.”

“Normally, if she needed a reference for some reason, the information she provided an employer would run through one of our departments, which would handle it.”

“So you would give her a bogus reference?” said Decker incredulously.

“It’s not like she ever applied to be a commercial airline pilot or heart surgeon. And as a matter of fact she had gone to college at Amherst, and she did have a teaching certificate under the name Irene Cramer.”

Decker looked at Blue Man. “But you knew nothing about her applying for the job here?”

Blue Man shook his head and said, “About fourteen months ago, she disappeared off our radar completely. That had never happened before. We were concerned, of course.”

“That’s just about the time she stopped working at the nursing home,” noted Jamison.

“So when her prints and the name hit the FBI database?” said Decker.

“We knew what had become of her. But we don’t know who killed her.”

“Or why she was here?” said Decker.

“Precisely.”

“There’s an old man at that nursing home named Brad Daniels who worked at the London Air Station decades ago. Irene, under the name Mary Rice, worked as a physical therapist and met Daniels that way.”

“We actually knew about her job at the nursing home,” said Blue Man. “We paid for PT training for her. I think she continually changed occupations just to make us do things for her. Provide her education and money.”

“She must have hated you all very much,” pointed out Jamison.

“No doubt she did, as I would have if the positions were reversed. But this elderly gentleman, Daniels? Explain, please.”

Decker said, “We talked to him. He clammed up when we asked him about the work he’d done here. Said it was classified.”

“And when Decker told him that Mary Rice had been murdered, he lost it. Screamed at us to get out.”

“You think he told her something? That’s why she came here?” This comment came from Robie.

Decker and Jamison both nodded. “That’s right,” she said.

“And perhaps he feels guilt for what happened to her,” said Blue Man. “Which might have caused his anger.”

Decker looked at Blue Man. “What do you know about the Douglas S. George Defense Complex?”

“The Air Force, in theory, runs it. But it is odd.”