Expecting the same treatment, Tam was surprised instead by the interjection of a middle-aged man in a suit that said he’d arrived from a colder climate and hadn’t had time to change.
“Elliot Druckerman,” he said. “I’m counsel for Ms. Sterling and Ms. Barrett.” He looked like he’d been on a very, very early morning flight.
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Martin LeRoi was very reasonable, immediately offering them a private place to confer. He said to Kip, almost apologetically, “I need to search your belongings first.”
Kip eagerly said, “Go right ahead. The sooner this is over the better.”
Tam also gave permission and wasn’t surprised when LeRoi found and confiscated their identification as Pippa Merritt and Pamela Curling.
“Are these the papers you used to enter the Bahamas?”
Druckerman said, “You don’t have to answer,” but hardly got that out before Kip and Tam in stereo said, “Yes.”
Kip added, “That’s the only thing we used them for—to book the passage on the cruise ship so we could get here.”
Druckerman sighed. “Let’s confer before my clients make any more spontaneous confessions.”
“That’s all there is,” Kip said. “We sent all the evidence we gathered to Tam’s assistant. She’ll have it tomorrow, or know where it is, and will I’m sure happily surrender it.”
Elliot Druckerman sighed again.
Tam shrugged. “She speaks for both of us.”
LeRoi didn’t smile, but he lost some of his stern glare.
Whatever FBI request he’d been given to fulfill, it hadn’t included treating them like criminals. Tam could only hope that the only order he’d been given was to detain them if found.
In no time at all she and Kip were in a private room with Druckerman, who had successfully argued to have their handcuffs removed after LeRoi confirmed that indeed, there were no charges filed against either of them, at least not yet.
Once the door closed, without any further preamble, Druckerman said, “I have a message for you from Mercedes Houston. She says this is what happens when you keep secrets from her.”
“We’re really done?” Kip couldn’t believe she and Tam were 238
standing at the embassy gates, waiting to be released. She had followed and agreed with every argument that their lawyer had made with the embassy staff, but still... Was it really true? She lowered her voice. “We broke the law.”
“No one at the FBI is going to push that through inter-departmental headaches to press charges for flying with a fake ID alone. The case will end up dismissed in someone’s crowded docket because there’s no other crime to pursue.” Druckerman looked half-wilted in his suit. “I expect the next you’ll hear about any of this is depositions for the case against the Langhorns.”
“And if the rumors haven’t hit the financial press already,”
Tam said. “That’s my last worry. If we beat that cycle, then this was all worth it.”
“You should manage the press,” Druckerman advised.
“Quickly. After all, that’s a key staff person back in there, waiting for transfer to jail in Miami. They won’t have immediate access to the press. You do.”
Kip watched the light in Tam’s eyes dim as she nodded. “Yes, I think I need to get out there and talk about it, make sure our clients know that we did what was necessary to the criminals in our midst, and we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, just as we insist on from them.” She tapped her temple. “I made some mental notes for a press release while we were waiting in there.”
“Don’t forget that we made full recovery.” Kip grinned and was glad to see Tam smile as well. She knew it had to hurt. Ted—
and certainly Nadia—had been more than colleagues to her. “I can’t believe they think they’re going to be reality TV stars, or pundits, cashing in on their crimes to be richer than ever. Like people who crash state dinners or weep their tales of remorse in front of millions.”
Druckerman shrugged. “I turn on the TV every day and see financial advice being doled out by people who’ve been tried and fined or jailed as SEC rules violators, so maybe they’re right. No bad deed goes unrewarded in this world.”
“What a depressing thought,” Kip said. She would much 239
rather live in SFI’s world—Tam’s world.
Once Druckerman showed their passes to the guard they were let out onto the elegant Nassau Place. From their vantage point at the top of the hill the port shimmered in the mid-afternoon sun. The Blue Sky of Sweden gleamed at her moorings and Kip wondered if maybe...just maybe...
“We sail at six thirty,” Tam said to Druckerman. “Can I buy you the best conch fritters in the Bahamas, and a cold beer?”
Kip’s heart did a pleasurable slow roll. They were going to go back aboard, to that tiny little cabin and the soothing, rocking bed.Druckerman blinked. “I had thought we’d all be flying back to the mainland. There’s a flight late this afternoon I had hoped to catch so I can make a connection to New York. I’ll fully brief Hank Jefferson as soon as I get to the airport.”
Tam’s lips twitched, then creased into a full smile. “Ms.
Barrett has earned a night of relaxation given what her client has put her through.”
Kip saw the speculative look in Druckerman’s eyes before he assumed a more lawyerly mask of disinterest. It wasn’t right, the way it looked. Tam was no longer her suspect, true, and she was no longer actively working evidence. But Tam was still her boss’s boss’s boss. Nothing had changed. She should go back with Druckerman.
The three of them began the walk down the sloping hill toward the ocean. Kip knew she should tell Tam to fly home. They should both fly home. If they went back aboard ship there was no way they’d make it through the night without compromising their signed statements of ethics. She didn’t know if she had a future with Tamara Sterling, either, so ultimately what would she get for breaking faith with herself and with her employer?
Possibly nothing but heartache and unemployment checks.
Really, she told herself, there’s only one thing to say that can make any of this right. It was going to hurt.
“Tam,” she said, pulling her to a stop. Druckerman hesitated as well, though he continued to scan the traffic for the taxi he 240
needed. “Mr. Druckerman, I think as my attorney, I want you to hear this.”
“What is it?” Tam took both her hands. “You look so serious.”
“There’s only one right thing to do here. I have to say it. It’s wrong if I don’t.”
Druckerman and Tam both wore the same expressions of confusion.
She took a deep breath. She had not a clue what the future would bring. Her heart and her body had been right all along, though, and right now they told her that she was doing the right thing. She would probably regret it, at least a little. There was no getting around it, but sacrifice was a part of life. It was a big risk, but a potentially big payoff.
“I quit.”
“I can’t let you do this,” Tam said again. They’d left Druckerman to find his cab and Kip was walking steadily down the hill toward the port.
“There’s no letting me. You can’t stop me. I don’t have to work for you. I get to quit if I want.”
“But Kip... I don’t care what the Langhorns say. The world isn’t theirs or anyone else’s to plunder. You love your job. You love what we do.”
“And,” Kip said, “I love you. So which would you rather I quit? The job or you?”
Tam stopped walking. She could think of nothing to say.
Kip only continued a few paces before she stopped and slowly turned back. Behind her the ocean was sparkling under the afternoon wind and someone close by was roasting pineapple. Tam opened all her senses. She wanted to remember everything.