"What's that for?" Molina asked.
"Just in case we want to stop him for a traffic violation."
They talked about tagging Perry's unit at the APT Performa offices and decided not to do it. The vehicle was parked too close to the entrance under direct video surveillance.
In his unit Sloan keyed up the radio and asked one of Andy Baca's agents for a beacon check. Molina handed the slim jim to Sloan through the open Blazer window while they waited for a response.
"You're up and running," the agent said.
"Ten-four," Sloan said. He keyed off and looked at Molina.
"What's next?"
"We've got some downtime," Molina said.
"Let's try to get a meeting with the chief."
Helen Muiz insulated Kerney while he cleared off his desk. He waded through the important stuff, first concentrating on the affidavit for the court order to access Mitchells Internet account. He passed the information on to criminal investigations and spent twenty minutes in a phone conversation with Cloudy Herrera's lawyer. He listened to threats of legal action, demands to restore Herrera to patrol duty, a thinly veiled accusation of racism, and a final pitch to resolve the problem before it became "politicized."
Kerney resisted a desire to laugh, told the lawyer he would think about it, and hung up.
Helen brought papers so Kerney could prep for a meeting with Larry Otero. Larry had hired a new secretary and put the five-year strategic planning process back on track. He needed sign-off approval to implement new department standards on child sexual abuse investigations and wanted Kerney to review the final field training reports on six new academy graduates due to start independent patrol.
Kerney signed off on routine matters, reviewed management information reports from the various units, and put non urgent items in a pending file. He called Helen into his office and gave her documents to be routed.
She put a note on his desk. Molina and Sloan had made back channel contact through the sheriff's department. They wanted an ASAP meeting with Kerney and were standing by at the law enforcement academy.
"I'll meet with them as soon as possible," Kerney said, wondering why they'd broken off surveillance.
"Did Chief Otero consult with you on his choice of a new secretary?" he asked.
"Yes, indeed. She'll fit in very nicely, I think," Helen replied.
"You have a meeting with Mr. Demora at city hall in an hour."
"Push it back for me, will you?"
Helen flashed a disapproving look.
"I'll see what I can do. Are you ready for Chief Otero?"
"Send him in."
Larry Otero came in stiff and formal. Kerney forced himself not to clock-watch as they worked their way through the agenda, wondering what was eating his number two.
They finished up and Kerney commended Otero's good work. He got a curt nod and a frosty look.
"Let's take a walk," he said.
He led Otero out of the administrative suite to a basement room, closed the door, and asked Larry what was bothering him.
"I've got people questioning me about this special training you sent Molina and Sloan to," Otero said.
"Questioning you about what?"
"The training supervisor knows nothing about this academy class. He says it's not on the schedule. The union rep wants to know why other officers weren't offered a chance to sign up for it, and the two detectives forced to pull doubles and work the weekend on short notice aren't happy campers. What's going on, Chief?"
"I've put you in an awkward situation," Kerney said.
"Big time, Chief."
"I won't do that again." Kerney explained what Molina and Sloan were really doing. Otero's look of skepticism faded when Kerney laid out the facts of the faked evidence in the Terrell murder case, the hard evidence of a tie-in between Father Mitchell and Phyllis Terrell, and the listening devices he'd found at his quarters.
"If I get the boot because of this, you're going to have to run the department," he added.
"Not likely. Demora will have me back in technical services within a week. What can I do to help?"
"For now, just keep covering for me," Kerney said, "and make whatever decisions you need to. Act like it's business as usual. I'll call if I need you to do more."
They separated on the first floor. Otero went to his office thinking it might be wise not to get too attached to the three stars on his collar.
In the years since Kerney's graduation from the law-enforcement academy, the facility had been transformed from a spartan, barracks-style operation into a modern campus with comfortable classrooms, up-to-date equipment, and a strong training curriculum.
After learning why Sloan and Molina had dropped their surveillance, Kerney asked for a briefing.
Andy Baca walked in just as things got started.
"Don't let me stop you," he said, sliding into a seat.
Kerney nodded and made notes while Sal Molina talked. Molina sketched the recent events at APT Performa, the airport, the appearance of Timothy Ingram on the scene, and the little they knew about him.
"Ingram may be military," Molina said, passing over the verbatim transcript of the snatches of conversation between Thayer and Ingram that Sloan had picked up outside of APT Performa.
"But he's carried on the books as the security chief for Touch Link Satellite Systems, headquartered at Kirtland. The company has a big government contract to do remote nuclear weapons disarmament monitoring."
"More hush-hush stuff," Kerney said. He wrote down IN GRAM Molina nodded.
"But what it has to do with us is anybody's guess. We put vehicle-tracking devices on the cars at the airport parking lot."
Kerney wrote down "ART PER FORMA"
"TOUCH LINK," and "KIRTLAND AFB," in capital letters, and looked up from his notepad.
"What else?"
Bobby Sloan pushed photographs toward Kerney.
"Ingram?" Kerney asked.
Sloan nodded.
"Back up and give me a surveillance chronology," Kerney said.
Molina started with Perry's body-snatcher trip to the Albuquerque HMO, followed by his return to Santa Fe and visit to the federal courthouse.
Kerney scribbled
"HMO" and drew a line to "KIRTLAND."
"What's at the courthouse?" Kerney asked.
"That's unknown for certain, Chief. I checked with an informant who says there's a secure basement room that's off limits to all courthouse personnel. It was used by the Secret Service when the vice president came to town, and a bunch of computer gee ks have been going in and out for the last couple of months."
Kerney wrote down "SECRET ROOM, COMMAND CENTER, LISTENING POST," and put a question mark at the end. He thought about how convenient it would be to have a listening post within a few steps of the resident FBI agent's office.
"Stop there for a minute," he said.
"Is there any way to confirm this information?"
"Not likely, Chief," Molina said.
"The guy's a federal employee, bound by a signed oath to keep the government's secrets."
"Let's move on."
Sloan picked up the ball. He detailed Applewhite's trip to Kirtland and Ingram's first appearance on the scene.
Kerney wrote down IN GRAM RENDEZVOUS, WHY?" and circled it.
"Andy, you're up next."
"After you," Andy replied.
Kerney went over some of the basics: the phone logs that showed Mitchell and Terrell had personal contact with each other, the possibility that Phyllis Terrell may have passed information to Mitchell, and the strong likelihood that Mitchell had been delving into the possible existence of a U. S. intelligence plot to destroy the drug cartels and bring down the Colombian government.
"If Phyllis Terrell was passing on information," Kerney said, "it mostly likely came from her husband."