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“If you have any other concerns just let me know.” Harkes clicked off.
Bunting slowly put the phone down, rose and went to the window, and stared down at the street. His mind was literally catapulting forward to one devastating scenario after another.
Why would anyone have wanted Dukes dead? She was the director of Cutter’s, but it wasn’t like she had any real power. If Harkes had killed her, why?
He sat down and called Avery, who had just flown in to the D.C. office. Bunting knew he had met with Dukes last night. It had been a last-minute thing, prompted by a frantic text to Avery, who had gone back up to Maine only the day before. Dukes had wanted to meet with Bunting, but since Avery was already on the ground in Maine and Dukes had wanted to meet immediately, Avery had gone instead.
“Avery, Carla Dukes is dead, murdered, not too long after she met with you.”
Avery said, “I know, I just heard it on the news.” His voice was shaky.
“What did she want to meet about? When she texted me that she wanted to meet, she didn’t say why. That’s when I texted her back to contact you directly.”
“Sean King had approached her at her home.”
“King? About what?”
“He said he knew she was working with someone other than the FBI. That the Bureau wouldn’t be happy when they found that out. He really shook her up.”
“How the hell did he know about that?”
“No clue.”
Bunting thought quickly. “It must’ve been guesswork on his part.”
“But she was frightened. He gave her an ultimatum of sorts.”
“What did he want?”
“Us, I guess.”
“How good is our wall?”
“No one at Cutter’s Rock will talk to him.”
“But they suspect someone else is involved.” Bunting had a sudden, terrible thought. “Did King meet with her right before she came to see you?”
“Yes. She was upset. Sent me a coded message and in it she said King had told her the FBI had tapped her phones and e-mails.”
“And you met with her where?”
“The rendezvous point we had designated previously. It’s a little picnic area really off the beaten path, even for Maine.”
“So King put the fear of God into Carla with the result that she got spooked and went running to you. Was Michelle Maxwell with King when he met with Carla?”
“She said he was alone.”
“Shit!”
“What is it?”
“They played us.”
“What? How?”
“While King was busy scaring the crap out of Carla, Maxwell was doing something else, maybe placing a tracking device on Carla’s car. Then King bullshitted her about the FBI tapping her phone and e-mails. The result was that the only way to safely communicate with us was face-to-face.”
“They followed Dukes to the meeting?”
