Дэвид Балдаччи - The Fix

Bogart said, “Before he killed Berkshire, we saw a woman on a video with your husband removing items from his safe deposit box.”

“I don’t know for sure, but I assume it was one of Anna’s people. You don’t know this, but they tried to recruit Walt after he stole the secrets to pay for Natalie’s debts. Anna always played the long game. Getting back at me was a secondary goal. Getting Walt as part of her spy ring would have been a great coup for her. They met with him, told him some things. Walt would never have done that. But Walt was a brilliant man. He and Anna were evenly matched there. He played along because he had his own plan. He later videotaped himself naming names and talking about the secrets he stole so your government would be warned to bring down Anna’s spy ring. But they somehow found out about his plan and took the evidence.”

“Did he name you as part of the spy ring?” asked Bogart.

“No. He wanted me to be spared from that.”

“A very understanding man,” snapped Brown. “Considering how cruelly you had used him all those years.”

Ellie looked up at her. “You have spies working for you, do you not?”

“Yes.”

“Do they infiltrate places and pretend to be something they’re not?”

“That happens,” admitted Brown.

“And you believe they are doing important work on behalf of their country?”

“Of course. They’re incredibly dedicated and brave.”

“So in your eyes spies are only incredibly dedicated and brave when they’re working for the Americans?”

Brown flinched but said nothing.

Decker said, “So with that video evidence gone and your husband’s plan ruined, is that when you two decided to kill Berkshire instead?”

She nodded. “After my athletic hopes ended back in East Germany, I was recruited by the MfS. The East German Ministry for State Security,” she added when they looked confused. “They worked closely with Moscow and the KGB. They had formed a joint intelligence program that would deliver agents into the United States, not as foreigners but with the background to make them appear to be citizens . It was thought that in this way we would have more paths to success. I was put in the most intense training for years. It was also during that time that I met Anna, who was also in the same joint program, but on the KGB side. She was brilliant and cunning and dedicated to the cause of the Soviets. I was the spy and she was my handler. We never became friends. That was not the desired relationship. We became something much stronger. We were operatives whose lives would be forfeited the instant we were discovered. That bond is very strong, nearly unbreakable.”

“I can see that,” said Brown, drawing a quick glance from the others.

Ellie continued. “I was indoctrinated. I won’t say brainwashed, because I was proud to serve my country. And I did so, faithfully, for years. The money for the car and the house? I told Walt it was from a trust fund set up for me by the logging company that was at fault for the mudslide that killed my ‘parents.’ I told him it had been earning interest and dividends all that time until it was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Decker said, “Okay. Although I’m surprised he didn’t want to save it and put it into the business he was probably planning on starting even back then.”

She smiled wistfully. “That was our little compromise. He got the car of his dreams and I got the house of mine. I had passed by our home often in the past when it was owned by others. I always loved it. Back in my country I lived in a one-bedroom flat. To have such a house, well, it seemed impossible. But for me, it could be possible.”

“I can see that.”

She turned to Decker. “And then something happened.”

“You found out about the anabolic steroids?” he said. “And what they had done to you and your children?”

She waved this off dismissively. “No. I had long since learned of that. Yes, I was devastated by the stillbirth and the miscarriages. And by how my girls suffered. But there was nothing I could do about that. But I could do something about what I came to this country to do. I could stop spying.”

“And what was the catalyst for that?” asked Bogart.

She smiled, the expression on her face both tragic and wistful. “I realized that I loved my family more than I loved my country,” she said simply. “And each day that went by I was terrified that they would find out who I really was. So... I stopped doing it. I turned my back on my country. And you’re right, Anna was livid. But I didn’t care. She threatened to expose me. But I had taken steps to protect myself. I had information, evidence that would have crippled her operation. So we reached a détente. And that was how things stood.” She let out a long breath. “Until Anna outwitted me by using Natalie.”

She stood and walked over to Dabney’s grave. “Even after Anna was gone, her circle was still in place. And they contacted me; like Walt, they wanted me to spy once more. Even with Walt dead, they had positions for me that would help them. I didn’t answer them. I thought if I said no, they would kill all of us. But they’ve been watching us. And you kept coming back. I also believed they bugged my house. They must have heard things.”

“Like when we found the dolls?” said Decker.

She nodded.

Brown interjected, “They wasted no time on that one. They hit us the same night.”

“How did Anna end up with Jules’s doll?” asked Decker. “Did she have it all this time or was it more recent?”

“She demanded it from me in return for helping with Natalie. I guess she considered it a symbolic victory considering how we had used them for our spying.”

Decker looked at her. “It’s funny,” he said.

“What is?” Ellie demanded.

“Jules told me she believed you were incapable of keeping secrets from the family. She was obviously wrong about that. Did Cecilia Randall knowingly help you with the dolls and the spying?”

“No, she knew nothing about it.”

“Did you kill her?” asked Decker.

She shook her head. “I could never do that. But her house key, which we kept in the kitchen, went missing. I can only think that Anna’s people heard something that she said that distressed them. And they killed her.”

“I think you might be right about that,” said Decker. “She told us about your coming from money. And your family’s health issues. They were probably worried she might say something else that would make us suspicious.”

Bogart walked over to Ellie and said, “Eleanor Dabney, I’m arresting you on the charge of espionage against the United States.” He read off her Miranda rights as Milligan handcuffed the woman.

No more tears passed down her face as this was being done.

She looked once more over at her husband’s grave. “I’m sorry, Walt. For everything.”

Before Bogart and Milligan led her away, Decker said, “Mrs. Dabney, I have another question.”

“What is it?” she said wearily.

“Why did your husband shoot Berkshire in front of the FBI building? Was that your choice or his?”

“I had arranged to meet with Anna that day. Only she didn’t know that she instead would be running into Walt. But to answer your question, it was Walt’s idea to meet her there. The actual meeting place I had given Anna was to be around the corner at a café. But Walt told me that after I signaled him he was going to confront Anna in front of the FBI building and shoot her there.”

“And then kill himself?” said Decker.

She nodded, looking down at the ground.

“You’re an amazing actress,” said Jamison. “When you were at your husband’s bedside at the hospital I never would have guessed that any of it was an act.”