Stuart Woods - Below the Belt

“Oh, all right, it’s Ed Rawls.”

Dino stared at him with furrowed brow. “Sounds familiar,” he said, then his face fell. “Holy shit, that Ed Rawls? Isn’t he in a federal pen?”

“No, he was pardoned a couple of years ago. He’s been living on Islesboro since then. This is the first time he’s been off the island.”

“You’re having a traitor as your guest of honor for dinner?”

“Dino, watch your preconceived notions.”

“You mean he’s not a traitor?”

“He is not. He was the Agency’s station chief in Stockholm, and he got in bed with a pretty girl.”

“Was the pretty girl Russian?”

“She was, but he thought she was Swedish. The KGB blackmailed him into giving them some information, but he was smart enough to only give them harmless stuff. Kate Lee got on to him and nailed him. He pled guilty and got twenty years, served seven, I think.”

“About when he’d be eligible for parole.”

“He would have had to serve every day of it, but he was helpful to his government in ways I don’t even know about, and Will pardoned him on the last day of his presidency.”

“Well, if Will thinks he’s okay, I guess that’s good enough for me,” Dino said.

“That’s awfully good of you, Dino,” his wife, Viv, said.

“Sarcasm is unattractive,” he replied.

“It was irony.”

“Whatever.”

Ed Rawls appeared in the doorway, dressed smartly in a blue blazer and a necktie. “Good evening,” he said. “I apologize for keeping you waiting.”

“You didn’t keep us waiting,” Stone said, raising his glass. “You just gave us a head start.” He introduced Ed to the Bacchettis.

Dino rose and shook his hand. “Thank you for whatever you did that got you a pardon.”

“Dino!” Viv said.

Ed laughed heartily. “First thanks I ever had,” he said, “whether I deserved it or not.” He sat down, and asked for a single malt, one ice cube.

Stone poured him a Talisker.

“Smoky and spicy,” Ed said, tasting it. “Perfect. Dino — if I may call you that...”

“Sure, it’s my name.”

“I believe you are this fair city’s police commissioner.”

“And I thought you had been on a desert island for years.”

“The New York Times arrives every day in time for cocktails,” Ed said. “I tend to memorize it.”

“You have a photographic memory?” Dino asked.

“It’s weirder than that,” Ed replied. “I just sort of absorb it without thinking about it.”

“I could make great use of that faculty,” Dino said. “I don’t suppose it’s transferable.”

“No, but it served me well in my work for many years.”

“Are you married, Ed?” Viv asked. “Kids?”

“My wife filed for divorce the day I pled guilty,” Ed said. “We had a daughter, but she died in the embassy explosion in Nairobi, in ’98, one of two hundred and thirty-two who did. It was her first posting for the Agency after she completed her training.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Viv said.

“Thank you. It was an even greater loss for her country. She was a very bright young woman who would have had a spectacular career as a covert officer. She was fluent in French, German, and Swahili.”

Fred Flicker entered the room. “Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served in the dining room.”

They tossed off their drinks and followed Fred in.

Helene had prepared a mushroom bisque and a crown roast of lamb, and they drank two bottles of a Dancing Hares cabernet sauvignon, 2010. They moved on to dessert, apple pie à la mode, with a bottle of sauterne, a Chateau Coutet, 1978.

Ed was more relaxed than Stone had ever seen him, and more charming, too. This was a new Ed Rawls, one that Stone liked a lot.

Dino liked him, too. “Tell me, Ed, what really happened at Roswell, New Mexico, when that spacecraft crashed?”

“Dino,” Ed said, looking serious, “if I told you that I’d be arrested all over again, and this time, they wouldn’t let me go.”

They moved back into the study for cognac and coffee. They had just settled down when Stone’s cell phone rang. He looked at the number and recognized it. “Excuse me,” he said. He left the room and came back five minutes later.

“That was a captain in the Maine State Police,” Stone said. “First, I should tell you that Ed’s house burned down last night, while we were at dinner at my house.”

“Was it an accident?” Dino asked.

“They don’t believe it was — there was evidence of an accelerant found. The captain said their preliminary conclusion was that it was a suicide.”

Everybody was quiet while digesting that.

“Well,” Ed said, “I’m glad it was only a preliminary conclusion. I’d miss me.”

Everybody laughed, except Stone. “The body was found in the living room, and the police were puzzled by something.”

“I should think they were,” Ed said.

“Underneath the body of the man they found an FBI badge in a wallet. His picture ID burned, but the badge survived.”

“Well, Ed,” Dino said, “you never told us you were an FBI agent.”

“They ran the badge number,” Stone said, “and it didn’t exist. Ed, they apparently believed that you had been impersonating a federal law enforcement officer, which would be a serious crime, if you weren’t dead.”

“Stone,” Dino said, “is this about the strong case downstairs in your safe?”

Stone stared at Dino. “How the hell do you know about the strong case?”

“I think Will Lee was concerned about your safety,” Dino replied, “or maybe just about the safety of the strong case. I guess he wanted a backup. Anyway, he called me.”

Stone relaxed. “You gave me a scare for a minute. I thought I was doing this in the strictest confidence, but apparently not.”

“Maybe Will thought it was okay to share it with your best friend in the world.”

“Apparently so. I just wish he’d told me.”

“Does he know about the fire at Ed’s house?”

“Not from me.”

“You may not be his only source of information,” Dino said.

“Good point,” Ed Rawls said. “He might be in touch with someone on the island.”

“Or someone in the Maine State Police,” Stone pointed out.

“At this stage of the game, I don’t think it matters,” Ed said.

“And what,” Dino asked, “is the game?”

“Politics is my best guess.”

“Well, why don’t we take a look at the contents?” Dino asked. “We’re all good friends here.”

“I don’t think you want to do that,” Ed said.

Dino turned toward Stone. “What is he talking about?”

“I don’t know. He told me the same thing, and I took him at his word.”

“Maybe you should take him at his word, too, Dino,” Viv said.

Dino made a grunting noise and shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

“Contain your curiosity,” Viv said. “You might be happier for it.”

“I’ve never been happier for not knowing something.”

“You might be happier not knowing what happened at Roswell,” Ed said.

“I was joking.”

Ed grinned. “So was I.”

“Ed,” Holly said, “just out of curiosity, how did you come to have the strong case? Not what’s in it, just the case.”

“I was issued it for an operation many years ago,” Ed replied, “and somehow it never made its way back to Technical Services.”

“Did you have occasion to open it during the operation?”

“Actually, no. Someone else had the key. That person removed the contents and gave me the case and the key.”

“But you opened it to place its current contents inside?”