“Prove it.”
“I actually don’t have to. I can leave that to the FBI.”
“FBI? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Tuck’s wife was murdered and his oldest daughter kidnapped. You telling me you didn’t know that?”
“Of course I knew about it. It’s been in all the papers. His sister is the First Lady.”
“You like screwing the First Brother-in-law?”
“Go to hell.”
“That’s something you should be worried about, actually.”
“What is that supposed to mean exactly?” she said in a false bored tone.
“It means exactly that the oldest motivation in the book for a philandering husband to bump off his wife is so he can marry the mistress.”
“It wasn’t like that with me and Tuck.”
“So what was it like? You can either tell me or the FBI. And the agent running the case isn’t nearly as nice as I am.”
“He was attracted to me.”
“Yeah, that I know. But if you did the little bend and hold you just pulled with me, I can hardly blame the guy. Well, I can blame him, actually, because he’s obviously a weak little bastard. So why’d you come to work for him when I’m sure you got better offers elsewhere from bigger companies?”
“You seem to know a lot about me.”
“I’ve always been a curious guy. You were saying?”
“He said he’d be really good to me if we got the contract.”
“So not just salary, a piece of the equity?”
“Something like that.”
“I’m not interested in ‘something like that.’ I want facts.”
“Twenty percent of the contract profit,” she said hastily. “Over and above my salary and bonus.”
“But then you did get a better offer, although it was after you signed with Tuck.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said hesitantly.
“Sure you do. You have a fling with Tuck. Dawson has his ear to the ground and finds out, or maybe he put you up to it, who knows. But now he has the proof to take to DHS. Banging the president’s brother-in-law. They find out, Dawson wins the contract and you get a backdoor payoff. Maybe part of it was in that envelope he gave you today.” He held up the camera. “Only now I have the proof about you and Greggie to give to DHS and crater your dream. Interesting development, wouldn’t you say? And why a cash payoff?”
“Greg said they can track any funds these days. Electronic, Swiss bank accounts, anything. The cash was sort of a down payment.”
“Okay.”
“Look, maybe we can cut some kind of deal.”
“I’m not looking for cash in an envelope.”
“Deals don’t have to always be about money.” She glanced at him anxiously. “I know you think I’m probably a slut, but I’m really not. We could have a lot of fun together. I mean a lot.”
“Thanks, but I’m not really into women who show their ass to every delivery guy who knocks on their door. And not to be too blunt but when was the last time you were checked for an STD?”