The girl had no idea how to use the phone, though, no real concept of what a phone was, either, which seemed strange. The woman looked at the phone and saw a number already programmed in. Assuming that was the parents’ number, the woman told her to press the green button to send the call, and the girl, who seemed more than willing to please, did. Moments later, the building, less than half a mile away, went down in a pile of rubble at the feet of the people who’d just evacuated it.
The Boulder police had sent photographs of both the child and the cell phone detonator. The aide handed them to Bianco, who glanced at them and tossed them onto her desk. Fletcher reached over and picked them up, and felt the punch in his gut. He showed the photo of the girl to Inez.
“Oh, my God. Do you think?” she asked.
“What? What does he think?” Bianco snapped.
Fletcher pointed toward the conference room.
“I’d say the chances are pretty high that her mother is sitting in the conference room.”
Bianco’s tune changed a bit when she realized the link to the bomber was sitting five feet away from her office. She was still obviously pissed at Fletcher and Inez, but she put her indignation aside long enough to allow herself to be briefed on the rest of the story.
When Fletcher finished, she sat back in her chair. Anger turned to incredulity.
“So let me get this straight. While I was getting my head handed to me for letting my staff run amok with highly sensitive information that can compromise national security, you two were busy finding the wife of the bomber. Who happens to be the daughter of two of our victims.”
“It looks like that’s the case, yes, ma’am.” Inez was paddling, anything to get back in her boss’s good graces. Fletcher wasn’t quite as anxious.
“Well, we don’t know that she’s the congressman’s kid, though.” Fletcher was still a little unsure of that, but the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.
Bianco gave him a look as if to say keep up, stupid, so he shrugged. “Okay, she’s their illegitimate love child. Fine. The Post never got anything wrong, ever.”
“Don’t get fresh with me, Detective. You are still on my shit list. But you can’t leave yet. I want to meet this girl.”
“Before we do, Andi, let me reiterate something. There is no way the paper got that story from Inez. Neither one of us had that connection until you told us just now. We were still piecing together the CIA connection, as well. I’d say an apology is in order.”
Bianco’s eyes were still simmering, but she raised her hand, palm first, in apology.
“Fine. Inez, I’m sorry. I ever find out you leaked something from this office, you’re fired. Happy now?”
Inez nodded meekly.
“Good. But before we go singing ‘Kumbaya,’ where the hell did the leak come from?”
“I don’t know,” Fletcher answered. “But there’re only a few people who could have this level of detail. While you were out, we discovered that Glenn Temple has been impersonating the congressman on the street with the working boys and girls. Hence the rumors that the congressman has a few interesting proclivities. They don’t know what the real Peter Leighton looks like, Temple has been careful to pick from the low end of the spectrum, the specialists. I’d wager some of the higher-priced call girls would know who he was, primarily because they service the same level of clientele, and part of their job is to be savvy about the daily goings-on in town and on the Hill. But Temple would know that, too, so he made sure that his playmates weren’t following the news closely.”
The look on her face was priceless. “Glenn Temple, the congressman’s chief of staff.”
“Yes, ma’am. There’s more. ViCAP came back with some matches to several unsolved cases here in the tri-state area. Mostly working girls, strangled, raped, left out in the open. We are thinking Temple might be responsible for these murders as well, but has been trying to lay the blame on his boss. Who happens to be one of his best friends, as well. We need DNA from him, and we were in the process of following that lead, so we need to make that happen sooner rather than later.”
Bianco was totally back on board.
Yeah, you don’t mess with the Fletch.
“Where is Temple now?”
“Don’t know.”
She gave him one of her more unfathomable looks, then hit a button on her phone. Sutton came into the room.
“Would you be so kind as to have Cusack and Halder go pick up Glenn Temple for a chat? Inez will give you the information. Thank you, Inez. You and Sutton may go.”
Inez didn’t waste any time. She threw Fletch a grateful glance and hightailed it out of there. He didn’t blame her for a second.
“You are so damn lucky, Fletcher. If you didn’t have case-breaking information right now, I would have you tossed out on your ear.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, biting back a few choicer words.
“Tell me about Ledbetter’s kid.”
“Shouldn’t we figure out where the leak came from?”
“Surely it was Temple. Right?”
He shook his head. “Honestly, I think it’s even closer than that. Think about it. Who stands to gain from this sort of information getting out?”