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“You most certainly can, and you will.” She shot to her feet just as the lone female DCIS agent walked into the room.
“Is there a problem?” the agent asked.
“This, this … person … stole my mobile phone.” Alice Broderick pointed at Leilah.
“She was calling Ripley,” Leilah said. “To warn him.”
“It doesn’t matter,” the agent assured her. “We’ve got a team on him, and he’s on the no-fly list. He can’t run. Well, he can. But he isn’t going to get very far.”
Alice Broderick’s mask of affronted privilege cracked. “What is this about?”
The agent looked at her with something akin to sympathy. “I think you know. Let’s go back to the bar and talk about it, shall we?”
Broderick’s eyes darted around the room as she sought some way out of her nightmare. Leilah and the other woman watched her impassively until the reality of her situation fully hit her and her shoulders slumped. She gave a sullen nod, and the agent gestured for Leilah to exit first.
14
Ryan was sitting with the Solicitor General when Leilah, the agent, and a dejected Alice Broderick returned to the bar.
“Madam Solicitor General, this is Leilah Khan. Leilah, Genia Strong,” he made the introductions.
Leilah turned to the Solicitor General. “What do I call you? General?”
The Solicitor General smiled. “Genia works just fine.” She turned her attention to her colleague. “Alice, what’s this all about? Mr. Hayes was telling me that Grover Anderson, one of your AUSAs was murdered last night.”
“I have no idea,” Broderick huffed.
“Now that’s not true,” Ryan corrected her. “Young Ripley got in over his head, and you bailed him out. It’s a natural maternal instinct. Although most mothers would have probably drawn the line at one murder, maximum. I guess you didn’t get where you are by being an underachiever, though.”
“Alice?” Genia Strong prompted. Broderick remained silent, so Genia shifted her gaze to the DCIS agent hovering behind Leilah. “And who might you be?”
“Cara Herschel, ma’am. DCIS.”
At the mention of the Department of Defense’s Criminal Investigative Service, Alice Broderick’s knees buckled. Ryan jumped up and caught her by the armpits before Agent Herschel reached her. He deposited her in a chair with as much gentleness as she merited, which was none.
“Has Ripley done something?” Strong whispered to her friend.
The Inspector General found her voice. “It’s a misunderstanding, Genia.”
Ryan cocked his head. “As far as misunderstandings go, it’s a doozy. Ripley’s company defrauded the Army with a phony ketamine order. Four thousand vials would’ve been worth nearly a million dollars retail and even more on the street. I imagine Ripley didn’t think anyone would notice. After all, what’s a million dollars in the defense budget? But Army Medical Logistics Command had a new program, so it raised flags. And then the Metropolitan Police busted a dealer with eight vials of special K.” Ryan told the story with a cadence he’d developed during his years as a prosecutor. It pulled listeners along, got them on the edges of their seats, eager to hear what came next.
He heard the soft squeak of barstools as the three male agents swiveled around to watch the show. He stared at Broderick until she met his gaze.
“I don’t know anything about Ripley’s business,” she protested.
He continued as if she hadn’t spoken, “I’m guessing if the case had progressed, either King Cortez would have turned state’s evidence or the physical evidence itself, in the form of those vials, would have led back to Fort Detrick and, ultimately, to Ripley’s company.”
“The case didn’t proceed?” Genia asked.
“King Cortez was killed in a prison fight,” Ryan told her. “I imagine Ripley Broderick breathed a sigh of relief and returned to his busy schedule of defrauding the armed services.”
Allice Broderick stiffened her spine and took another shot. “I will not sit here and allow you to defame my son. I’m leaving.”
Agent Herschel rested her hand on her hip, drawing attention to her holstered weapon. “No, ma’am. I’m afraid you need to come with me.”
“Are you arresting me?”
The agent considered the question. “I was told I can if I need to. But the Secretary of Defense thought you might prefer to come in voluntarily.”
