Fourth Down and Out. Andrew Welsh-Huggins

not sure I agree.”

      “No?”

      “I’ve only seen one option so far: make me tell you everything about what I’m doing, while telling me squat about what you’re up to. So here’s my counteroffer: come clean about your investigation into Doug Freeley and American Financial Health Care, including when you expect the first indictments, and I’ll reconsider my position.”

      “Of course you know I can’t do that.”

      “Give me a break. You’re the FBI. You can do anything.”

      It was her turn to laugh.

      I said, “Since neither of us is willing to punch the other’s dance card, do you mind if we call it a day? I’m a little achy from last night and I have a lot to do. None of it involving Freeley, by the way.”

      “Nothing I can do to make you reconsider?”

      “Other than make me a better offer?”

      She put down the ATF mug. “Thanks for the coffee,” she said.

      “You’re welcome,” I said.

      I walked her to the door. As I opened it, I said, “Soccer or lacrosse?”

      “I beg your pardon?”

      “You move like an athlete. You played a sport at some point.”

      “How private investigator-ly of you,” she said. “Field hockey, in fact.” She added: “I wielded a mighty stick.”

      I was about to smile and concede her quip, when she narrowed her eyes and gazed at me. “Of course, we all know what sport you played. And I do mean ‘we.’”

      I shut the door a little too loudly behind her.

      15

      I sat at my kitchen table for a few minutes after she left, steaming. What the hell was that all about? How had this case moved so quickly from a run-of-the-mill sex video extortion case to a concussion and the FBI at my door? I needed Cindy Morris like a hole in the head, and in fact I nearly had that anyway, thank you very much.

      Now I was even more peeved than after Hamilton called, and had to do something. That turned out to be taking Hopalong to Schiller Park, where we spent most of the time at the casting pond while Hopalong sniffed for carp. I can’t say if I felt physically better or worse by the time we got back, but my head, pounding or not, was a little clearer.