Peter spoke up again, “You know as well as anyone that it’s as much a crime to order an execution as it is to carry one out.”
Kloch shrugged. “It’s also illegal to double park, but people do it all the time.”
Peter’s eyes flickered, and he cut a quick glance at Diana. Kloch thought himself above the law.
“Anyway, it’s not as if Garibaldi will be missed,” Kloch continued. “He’s been responsible for dozens of deaths. You should be thanking me. Agencies around the world have been trying to catch him for years. We were just the first to have the courage to do what was necessary to get him. Thanks to us, he is no longer a danger to anyone.”
“You said Senator Greene was the target of this new Islamic terror group, and that he contracted your company to provide him with additional security, correct?” Diana asked.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Do you know why he was selected as the target? He’s not very high-profile. Why didn’t they go after someone like the Prime Minister?”
“Senator Greene is opposed to withdrawing our troops from the Middle East. He’s been very vocal about it. He believes we should be increasing our military presence in the region, not decreasing it. His view is that it is the only way to maintain control. As such, Islamic groups consider him an enemy.”
“And you agree with him?” Peter said.
Kloch nodded. “Of course. It’s the only way to keep the peace. Military might.”
“More eye for an eye stuff, right?” Diana said.
“Oh no, Diana,” he purred. He looked intently at her through his rimless spectacles. “They take an eye, we take ten eyes, ten tongues, ten noses, and ten hearts. They strike us, we retaliate with a nuke. They hit us, we hit them harder. It’s the only way to assert our authority.” Kloch smiled. “And, of course, keep the peace.”
“Keep the money flowing, you mean,” Peter added. “In your direction.”
“Okay, but I still don’t see how the Senator’s stance on our troops in the Middle East makes him a target. He’s small fry. He has little power to affect policy changes on his own. Why add him to a kill list and sic a top assassin on him?” Diana asked.
She sat back in her chair and folded her arms.
“Senator Greene will be announcing his candidacy for Prime Minister within the next two months,” Kloch said.
Peter pushed himself off the wall and walked over to the table once more. He stood behind Kloch who twisted in his seat, trying to keep both interrogators in his line of sight.
“And how did some extremist group from the other side of the world find out about that?” Peter raised his eyebrows at Kloch. “And why would they kill him before he makes the official announcement? It would make more sense to wait.”
Kloch decided to focus on Diana. He looked squarely at her. “I don’t know what to tell you. My job is to take care of the Senator’s security. That’s all I know.” He made the tiniest of shakes with his head, sniffed, then rubbed his nose. Diana perked up.
Kloch hadn’t broken eye contact at all. A shake of his head meant he didn’t mean what he was saying. Nose rubbing occurred as a result of itchiness associated with an increase in adrenaline. Maintaining eye contact for an extended period of time is an overcompensating action to deflect the idea that the subject is being dishonest.
Bernard Kloch was lying.
CHAPTER TEN
“DO YOU KNOW anything else about the attempt on Senator Greene’s life?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Are you sure?”
“I just said I didn’t,” he snapped, shaking his head slightly. Lie. She made a tiny movement with her hand. It was a move Kloch wouldn’t notice but one that Peter would fathom. Even Kieran hadn’t understood her like Peter did. He nodded back.
“So you’re saying that you heard that Greene was to be killed because of the possibility that should he become the next P.M., he would have a hawkish stance on Canadian military presence in the Middle East?”
“Yes.” Kloch shook his head again. Another lie.
Another slight movement of her hand. Another nod from Peter.
Kloch knew much more about what was going on than he was saying. Peter gestured toward Kloch with his head. It was his signal that she should go on the offensive to get more information out of Kloch.
Diana raised her eyebrows.
Peter paused for a moment. She was asking him to reconsider. Should they tip their hand so early in the game? He nodded slightly. On reflection, he was agreeing with her. They would wait.
“Very well, Mr. Kloch. We will leave things here for now. Someone will be in to keep you company, and we’ll come back in a bit.” Kloch’s pupils widened but he said nothing. “Can we get you a coffee?”
“No, thank you.”
“Very well. See you later.”
“Maybe,” Kloch smiled as he watched them leave the room. Peter was calling for a constable and didn’t notice, but Diana saw Kloch’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. She wondered what he was hiding.
They’d found an empty conference room. Peter leaned back in a chair and put his feet on the table, his hands behind his head. His chair teetered on its back legs.
“He knows a lot more than he’s saying.” he said.
“Doesn’t he just? Part of me is afraid to find out what they’re up to.”
“Someone else is involved. They have to be. It isn’t as if you can be party to a terrorist plot, hire someone like Surgeon, attempt to cover your tracks all on your own, and keep it a secret.”
“What I’d really like to know is whether or not Greene had any idea about Kloch’s plan. Did he know that a kill was ordered to protect him?”
Peter snorted. “I wouldn’t be surprised. He’s a politician. Nothing’s more important to him than his hide.”
“Yes, but precisely because he is a politician, would he knowingly risk having his name associated with a professional hit? If it got out, it would destroy any chance he had of getting elected.”
Peter shook his head. “Oh, I don’t know. His popularity could soar just because he didn’t wait around to be killed. He might be seen as a man of action rather than a political putz.”
Diana quietly tapped the table as Peter warmed to his idea. “As Kloch said, it wasn’t as if they arranged for the killing of an innocent civilian. Garibaldi was a killer himself. Many people would agree with the strategy to take him out. Greene might become a hero.”
“Politics is such a sleazy game,” Diana said with a groan.
Peter grinned, “I think it’s cool. Watching them have a go at each other is like having a ringside seat at a boxing match, except with less blood.”
Diana snorted. “I don’t get your fascination with boxing matches.”
“I don’t get how you’re sick at the sight of blood at boxing matches. Seriously, woman? I mean, you must have seen a ton of blood in your time.”
Diana sighed. “At times. But a boxing match or any other sport? One drop, and I lose my cookies.”
“You’re such a girl,” Peter said, rolling his eyes.
Diana glanced at Peter. “Really? I hadn’t noticed,” she said wryly. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to tip back on a chair like that?”
“Frequently, but it didn’t make a blind bit of difference. Used to drive her mad. So, do you think Greene was in on it or not?” Peter asked, turning serious.
“I don’t know. We’re going to have to talk to him.”
Peter sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t wait.”
“I know. It’ll be tricky.”
“If we go in guns blazing, the Deputy Commissioner will have our heads on spikes. Donaldson won’t be able to protect us.”
Diana sighed. “We can go slower. Anyway, if we start throwing accusations around, Greene will clam up faster than an antelope running from a tiger.”
“I’m guessing you’d be the tiger in this analogy?”
She shook her
head. “Nope, that’d be you. You’re the one who’s big and scary with a tendency to snarl at people.”
“Wow,” he said, rubbing his chin.
Diana laughed. “Well, take it as you will. But I do love tigers.” She snarled and clawed the air with her hand.
Peter’s gaze flew up to meet hers. Her tone surprised him. In a few fleeting moments of weakness, he’d considered something more with Diana. She was a beautiful woman. He’d have to be blind, dumb, deaf, stupid, and dead not to consider it. But he had drawn a line, and he refused to cross it. She was his partner and nothing more. She could never be anything more. Besides, Diana had always been clear she wasn’t interested in a relationship. With anyone. She’d treated him as a friend, a buddy, nothing more.
He expected her to retract her words or pass them off as a joke. Instead, she just smiled at him.
“If I’m the tiger, then what are you? Because I certainly don’t see you as the antelope,” he said, his voice low.
She hesitated, but then got up and walked toward the door. Peter’s heart sank for a moment. He watched her.
“One of us needs to speak to Donaldson so we can get a meeting with Greene. It’ll be easier to get to him if the Deputy Commissioner opens the door for us,” Diana threw over her shoulder.
“What makes you think the Deputy Commissioner will help us? He’ll want to keep Greene happy more than he’ll want to help us.”
Diana stopped at the door. “True, but the thought of being accused by the media of aiding a terrorist plot will put a bomb under him. As it were.”
Peter’s eyebrows climbed into his scalp. “Really? How would you swing that one?”
“You have no idea what CSIS can do,” she winked at him.
“I’m guessing you’ll be asking Kieran for help with that, then.” He sounded irritated, and he knew it. Despite all his logic regarding their strength as a team, why a relationship with Diana wouldn’t work, why they should just be partners and friends, Kieran’s reappearance in Diana’s life annoyed him. In fact, every time he saw the guy, he wanted to rip his face off. Actually, he wanted to rip him limb from limb, then stand over him beating on his chest, showing his woman that he was the better, stronger partner.
Oh God. What the hell?
“Not Kieran, Peter. CSIS,” she replied, tartly.
“It’s a good idea,” he said gruffly. “Though I’m not sure how threatening the Deputy Commissioner will help us in the long run.”
Diana shrugged. “I don’t intend to threaten him. In fact, I plan on approaching the D.C. directly and being very diplomatic about it.”
“Are you trying to subtly tell me I’m not part of your plan?” he asked.
“Subtlety is hardly my go-to M.O where you’re concerned.”
“Can’t say I’d noticed.”
“Very funny. We’ve got to get it past Donaldson first. And we’ll speak to Greene together.”
“I’m not very diplomatic.”
She smiled. “No, you’re not. But you have many other more valuable skills.”
Diana left the room and closed the door. Not even a second later, she opened it again and poked her head through. “And I’d be the tigress, watching your back. You catch the antelope, and we rip it apart together,” she said with a wink and closed the door as quickly as she had opened it.
Peter found himself staring at the door for a long moment after it had closed, pondering her words. After a while, he shook his head. He was imagining things. Everything was just like it always was. And that’s how it would stay.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“YOU WANT TO what?” Donaldson exclaimed. Diana and Peter had just finished briefing the superintendent on the information Kloch had provided them and had expressed their desire to have a word with Senator Greene. Their request hadn’t gone over well.
“Well, sir,” Peter began, “we need to find out exactly what Greene knows and how involved he is in this whole mess.”
“And you think that he’s going to suddenly find God and decide to tell you the whole truth and nothing but? Don’t be ridiculous! Even if he is involved, which I doubt, he won’t tell you a thing. And, in the process, you’ll have antagonized a Senator and the Deputy Commissioner, who thinks, by the way, the sun shines out of Greene’s rear end,” Donaldson snapped.
“I can read him and at least get an idea of whether he’s lying to us or not,” Diana said.
Donaldson snorted. “He’s a politician. If his mouth is moving, he’s lying.” He shook his head. “No, no. I do not need this right now. I don’t need the Deputy Commissioner breathing down my neck because I let you two squeeze his favorite Senator. And I said desk work, young lady. Not chase down a Canadian Senator and give him the third degree. Find another way.”
“Sir, this could all blow up not only into a major political scandal, but also a public terror incident. If we have foreign parties ordering the assassination of a Canadian politician on our soil, it’s possible there’s a threat to the general public underway too. Garibaldi wasn’t a major loss. No one will cry over his death. But what if innocent people are caught in the crossfire next time, and we let it happen because we didn’t want to ruffle feathers?”
Diana had to give it to Peter. He was wrong. He could be diplomatic and persuasive when he wanted.
Donaldson gave Peter a dirty look, opened his mouth, and then shut it just as quickly. He glared at Diana. “Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “If, if, you get approval from the D.C., I want you leading the interview,” he said. Donaldson pointed at Diana. “And you,” turning to Peter, “You keep quiet. Not a single word out of you, got it?”
Peter raised an eyebrow. “So what am I supposed to do?”
“Just stand there and look menacing. You’re good at that,” Donaldson said. “Now go, before I change my mind.” He waved them both out of his office, and they left as quickly as they could.
“He said yes,” Diana came down the stairs quickly. She’d been up to the Deputy Commissioner’s office and pitched the plan about speaking to Greene to him.
Peter grabbed his jacket. “Come on, let’s get going,” he said. “He might change his mind if he has too much time to think about it.”
Diana hesitated for a moment. “Should we call ahead?”
Peter shook his head. “No, let’s use the element of surprise.”
“You’re right. Let’s go.” They hurried out the building and down to the parking lot.
“You were quite the politician in there with Donaldson earlier,” Diana murmured when they were in the car. Peter reversed out of the parking space and quickly turned right into the street, throwing a quick glance over his left shoulder as he did so.
“I’m not just muscle and menace, you know. Even the Hulk has his moments.”
“But you let people think that.”
“It suits me. Besides, next to you, I’m always going to be the brute. Beast to your Beauty, Shrek to your Princess Fiona.”
Diana shifted in her seat and looked at him in surprise.
“I have a niece, Clare. She’s seven,” he explained, sensing her curiousity.
“And you watch movies with her?”
“Uh-huh. She makes me. I must’ve seen Frozen one hundred and twenty-two times.” He looked over to her. “That’s a secret. I definitely will have to kill you if you tell anyone about that.”
Diana looked at Peter in wonder. “Can you sing the songs?”
He shook his head. “I can’t reach the big notes.“
“Bet you know all the words, though.”
“Maybe.” He smiled at a memory. “She sings into a microphone, and I play the,” he took his hands off the wheel for a second to make air quotes, “camera guy.”
“Sounds fun.”
“Yeah, she’s pretty cute. We have a regular date once a week.” He didn’t say anymore.
Diana stared at him a moment longer before she turned back to the front. She studiously watched the scenery as it passed by, mul
ling over what she’d just heard and conjuring up the scene of Peter with his niece watching movies and singing songs together. She felt a stab of jealousy, then longing. Deep, deep longing. She shut her eyes briefly. Stop this, Diana. Oh, god. Please no.
Greene’s immaculately coiffed and elegantly dressed personal assistant showed Diana and Peter into Greene’s office. After they’d showed up unannounced, the assistant had initially refused to allow them to see the Senator, but following an unproductive charm offensive from Diana and some rather more stern rank pulling from Peter, she’d reluctantly informed Greene of their presence.
“Senator Greene, thank you for seeing us. My name is Diana Hunter. This is Detective Peter Hopkinson.” Greene looked in his early fifties, with salt and pepper hair and vibrant green eyes. He was attractive, and his confident air made him appear authoritative, ideal for the position of Prime Minister. He’d made them wait half an hour after agreeing to see them. It wasn’t clear if that was genuine or a power play, but Diana was wary.
“No, problem at all,” Greene said as he shook her hand and then Peter’s. He gave Peter a cursory glance, before refocusing all his attention on Diana. “Anything to help the Vancouver Police Department. Please, sit down,” he said, indicating the chairs in front of his desk.
Diana sank into the plush cushions. She realized immediately that the soft chairs were designed to put the sitter at a disadvantage. She quickly took in his office. A large mahogany desk with intricately carved legs dominated the room. Two wine-colored couches faced one another in the middle, and a small, discreet bar took up one corner.
Around the room, dotted on tables and bookcases, were various busts, figurines, and sculptures. Two large pieces of original art hung on the walls. One depicted a red maple on the banks of a river, the white crested rapids forming the backdrop to the tree’s scarlet leaves. The other was of an explorer’s encampment during an expedition. Diana knew it to be nearly two hundred years old and one of the most expensive Canadian paintings ever.
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