David Baldacci - The Sixth Man

One of the men shook his head. “I don’t really care. Get out. Now.”

“We’re investigating this case for the defense. We have the right to be here.”

“All the same, you’re going to have to leave.”

“How’d you know we were here?” asked Michelle, as they headed to her truck.

“Excuse me?” said one of the men.

“There’s nobody around here. We didn’t pass one car getting here. How’d you know we were here?”

In response the man opened the door to Michelle’s truck and motioned for her to get in.

Sean and Michelle sped off down the dirt road, billowing dust behind them and into the faces of the two Feds.

“They couldn’t have known we were there, Sean. And those badges looked like the real deal even if I couldn’t see what agency they were actually with. They looked like Feds.”

He nodded. “We’re being tailed. I wonder for how long.”

“I swear there was no one following us when we went to see Kelly Paul. There’s no way I could’ve missed that. There was no cover. Absolutely none.”

“That’s the rub. There’s no cover here, either, and they still showed up.”

Michelle gazed out the window. “Satellite?”

“We’re up against the Feds here. Why not?”

“Buying satellite time is a tough step even for the Bureau.”

Sean considered this. “Those guys weren’t with the FBI. They want you to know who they are. They would’ve shoved their creds right in our faces and kept them there.”

“Damn, what have we got ourselves into?”

Sean didn’t answer her because he had nothing to say.

CHAPTER

29

“HE WAS AN EXCEPTIONAL WORKER. Smart as a whip. No—smarter, actually. It was really something. Almost not human, I’d guess you could say.”

Sean and Michelle were in Leon Russell’s office at the IRS in Charlottesville. Russell was short and wide, with thick white hair. He wore a short-sleeved shirt with a T-shirt underneath and suspenders. His fingers were stained with nicotine, and he twitched a lot, as though the absence of a cigarette in his hand was messing with his mind.

“That’s what we heard too,” said Sean. “What were his duties here?”

“He was the troubleshooter. Anything out of the ordinary that no one else could figure out, we went to Edgar.”

“What sort of person was he?” asked Michelle.

“Kept to himself. We’d sometimes go out for a beer after work. Edgar never joined us. He’d head home to his farm. I think he liked to read.”

“Did you ever go out to the farm?”

“Only once, when I was interviewing him for the job.”

“How’d you come to know about him?”

“Friend of a friend. At his college. I keep contacts everywhere. People with exceptional talent I get a heads-up on. Edgar really stood out. He’d been out of school for a while, doing what I’m not sure. But I called him up and he came in for an interview. Impressed the hell out of me. I had one of those old Rubik’s Cubes on my desk. He picked it up while he was talking to me, and kept messing it up and then solving it over and over, just like that. I’ve never been able to do it once. It was like he could see every combination in his mind. Bet the guy could’ve been a hell of a chess player.”

“I didn’t realize the IRS went all out for that kind of talent,” said Sean. “It’s not like you can compete with the salaries on Wall Street.”

“Edgar had no desire to go there. Don’t get me wrong. He probably could’ve come up with some derivative algorithm that would’ve made him billions. Or designed some software in Silicon Valley that would have made him equally rich.”

“But no interest?”

“He had his farm, his books, his numbers.”

“Numbers?” asked Michelle.

“Yeah. Guy loved numbers, what he could make them do. And he loved complexities. He could take a ton of different sections of the tax code—income, gift, estate, corporate, partnerships, carried interests, capital gains—and visualize how they all worked together. Did it for fun. For fun! Do you realize how remarkable that is? The tax code is a freaking nightmare. Even I don’t understand all of it. Not even close, in fact. No one does. Well, except for Edgar. Every page and every section and every word. Probably the only one in the country who did.”

“Pretty unique,” said Michelle.

“Oh, yeah. Made our little office stand out, I can tell you that. Other places wanted to snag him. I mean in the IRS system. They tried, but he was content. He didn’t want to move. Thank God for me. The performance bonuses I got because of that guy, well, let’s just say my retirement will be a lot better because of him.”

“I understand that he went to D.C. a lot,” said Sean. “Is that because he was the only one in the country who understood it all?”

Russell’s amiable expression changed. “Who told you he went to D.C. a lot?”

“Is that not true?”

“Depends on how you define a lot .”

“How would you define it?” asked Michelle.

“Once a week.”

“Okay, did Roy meet that standard or not?”

“I’d have to check my files.”

“Is the office here that big?”

“It’s bigger than it looks.”

Sean switched gears. “So he was working here when he was arrested?”

Russell leaned back and studied them both, his hands resting on his belly. Over his shoulder was a shelf full of thick white binders with sleep-inducing titles on the spines.

“And you say you’re representing Edgar’s interests?”

“That’s right. We were hired by his counsel, Ted Bergin.”

“Who I now understand is dead.”

“That’s right. He was murdered up in Maine near where Roy is being held.”

“So you’re technically no longer representing Edgar, then?” Russell smiled at what he obviously thought was a key and winning point in the debate.

“Actually, we are. Bergin’s law firm was representing him, and there’s another lawyer there who’s taken the case over. So the connection still holds.”

Russell, who did not seem to be listening to this, spread his hands. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Well, I was hoping you could tell me if Roy was working here when he was arrested.” He paused. “Or is the office too big to determine that?”

“I don’t need to tell you anything. You’re not the police.”

“By not telling us things you’re actually telling us a lot,” pointed out Michelle.

Sean added, “I’m sure the police have been by to question you. Why don’t you just tell us what you told them?”

“Why don’t you just ask them yourself? I’ve already told you enough. And I’ve got work to do.”

“It’s always nice to hear it from the horse’s mouth,” said Michelle. “I hope you recognize your role in the proceedings.”

“I don’t appreciate your tone.”

Sean sat forward. “Do you think he’s guilty?”

The man shrugged. “Probably.”

“Why?”

“These genius types. They’ve all got dark sides. Think too much. Not like the rest of us. So, yeah, he probably did it. Let’s face it, any guy who knows every reg of the tax code has to be some sort of a wacko.”

“Well, let’s hope you don’t get called for jury duty,” snapped Michelle. This drew a scowl from Russell.

Sean said, “Did you notice anything in Roy’s behavior that would have indicated he might have been a serial killer?”

Russell gave a fake yawn and said in a clearly uninterested tone, “And what sort of behavior would I have been looking for?”