Page 87 of The Shadow Friends

“Strictly speaking, not really,” said Minnihan. “I just have a master’s degree. I don’t consider myself—”

“They don’t need to hear all that,” said Jo.

Minnihan held up his bound wrists and looked at Ben. “Could you cut me loose, please?”

“A physicist, huh?” Ben produced a pocketknife and efficiently sliced apart the zip tie. “Well, that explains things.”

“You’re here because of the polonium?” said Declan.

Minnihan nodded as he massaged his wrists. “I was brought in because there’s only one source for polonium-210. It means we’re dealing with . . .” He paused and looked at Jo. “Why am I even talking to these people?”

Jo glared at Ben. “Because they can be very persuasive.”

“They threatened me. They’re the ones who should be in handcuffs.”

“I often think that.”

“Aren’t you going to do anything?”

Jo sighed. “Agent Minnihan, they believed you were about to break into this house. They acted based on that assumption. Count yourself lucky they didn’t shoot you.”

“They were going to torture me first! That’s what that”—he pointed to Ben—“that thug said.”

Jo looked at Ben. “Is this true?”

Ben shrugged. “I get carried away sometimes.”

“What are you people doing here, anyway?”

“We were staking out the house,” said Maggie. “Waiting to see who showed up.”

“Why?”

“We can’t tell you.”

Jo looked around the room. “Where are Ingrid and Lloyd?”

Maggie glanced at Minnihan, then back at Jo. “We can’t tell you.”

“What can you tell me?”

“Maslov’s dead. Karen O’Brien’s dead,” said Maggie. “We think Ingrid’s next.”

“This is news to me,” said Agent Minnihan. “How do you know all this?”

“Trust me, they have their sources,” said Jo. She turned to Maggie. “So you’re here waiting for some killer to show up. What were you going to do if he had?”

“Interrogate him. Find out who’s behind this, and why.”

“And then what were you going to do with him?” She looked at Ben, then Declan. “Oh God, don’t tell me.”

“We would have done it in a different jurisdiction,” said Ben.

“You’re not doing it in any jurisdiction. You people are way out of bounds!”

“Ingrid’s our friend,” said Maggie. “When it comes to protecting our friends, sometimes we have to bend the rules.”

“And the people doing this aren’t saints, Jo,” said Ben. “They’re contract killers. We can give you a list of people they’ve murdered. People they’ve tortured.”