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He grinned. "I'm tempt
ed to ask 'how grateful,' but I did say I'd cool it, didn't I?"
"You did."
"Damn." A dramatic sigh. "So, changing the subject, have you picked an agency yet?"
"Ag -? Oh, your job. I know you've done fieldwork - searches, stakeouts, tailing suspects. Given how much help you were with the Wilkes case, keeping us abreast of the FBI investigation, the most obvious answer is FBI. But Jack said something last fall that made me think that wasn't it."
"It's not. I could help because I have a lot of contacts, in a lot of different branches - friends really - and no one thinks twice if I'm nosy or curious, because that's normal for me."
"Next, I considered DEA, which would fit, especially with the cross-border visits, but it doesn't feel right."
"It isn't."
"CIA, NSA... Maybe ATF."
"No on all three."
"Homeland Security?"
A bark of a laugh. "No, thank God."
"Postal Inspector? Fish and Wildlife?"
He gave me a look.
"Hey, I'm running out of options. I know there are a bunch of military law enforcement agencies, and those would be federal, but I'm going to guess no to all of them."
"You'd be guessing correctly."
I leaned back in the passenger seat, racking my brain. In Canada, we had a handful of federal law agencies. In the U.S., there were dozens.
"USMS," Quinn said.
"What?"
He sighed. "Even when I give the acronym, it doesn't help. What did Jack say my specialty was?"
I thought back. "Oh, right. Finding people." A pause. "Border patrol? Coast Guard?"
A deeper sigh. "No respect, I tell you. The oldest federal law agency in the country, and we always get forgotten. Or, worse, discounted as glorified bounty hunters."
"Marshals. USMS - United States Marshal Service."
"It was the 'glorified bounty hunters' that did it, wasn't it?"
"Sorry."
He fixed me with a mock glare. "I'll have you know the marshals do a lot more than apprehend fugitives. We're not only the oldest law agency, we're the most versatile. Just check our Web site. Says so right there."
I smiled. "I stand corrected. But fugitive apprehension is what you were doing in Canada, right?"
"Montreal, yes. I got a lead about someone your RCMP is also interested in. Toronto was a training seminar."
"What were they teaching?"
"I was teaching." He caught my look. "What, I don't strike you as instructor material?"
