The Triggerman Dance

"We certainly do," said Norton. "Joshua and Sharon have procured for us documents relating to Baum's home and work.'

"I've seen them. Interesting. But no evidence to establish that Wayfarer was at the scene. They're undergoing analysis right now—nothing is certain."

Joshua's heart fell.

"What?" asked Dumars.

"The photograph is of Baum's property," said Norton. "We can establish that. Plus the sketch of the Journal grounds."

"Which proves nothing," answered Frazee.

"Then we'll close the loop," said Norton.

"How?"

Joshua thought that he moved in rather nicely. "Owl is digging much better than we thought he might. We've got Liberty Operations docs, and a safe that looks more than promising. We expect a .30/06 caliber hunting rifle next, to work the engraved shells against. Getting the rifle out could be tough. But he's working Liberty Ridge like a gopher."

Frazee's brow furrowed. "I thought we established that the bullets fired at the victim didn't come from the engraved shells."

"Correct, sir," said Joshua. "We're hoping to find that they came from another gun in Wayfarer's arsenal."

Frazee nodded with undisguised irritation. "If Owl hopes to get inside that safe I'd like to know how. Can he bend steel in his bare hands?"

"He's been in just over a week, sir," said Dumars.

"How often do you talk?" he asked Joshua, ignoring Sharon.

"Every other day, sir. It depends on John—Owl—getting to the phone. It's out on the perimeter of the property."

"Why not closer?"

"We assumed Wayfarer would find it."

"I'd say that was a good assumption. Does Wayfarer suspect him, yet?"

The "yet" struck Joshua as condescending and fated, but he held his tongue. "Wayfarer's security man has jumped him through some hoops. He cleared them all, so far as we can tell."

"Fargo?"

"Yes."

"Hmmm," mumbled Frazee. He sat back and looked briefly at Norton, then Joshua. "Hmmm. You know, this Hate Crimes money doesn't come to us for free."

Joshua waited. He had no idea where Frazee was going or why he was going there. An abrupt one-eighty like this was why they called him Crazy. Besides, Joshua believed the Hate Crimes money did come for free, more or less, taxed out of a dazed populace and spent by bureaucrats like any other federal funds. It was beyond Joshua's belief that Frazee would have called them back to Washington to talk about money.

"Appropriations feeds us, as you know. As it does Commerce, State Department, etc."

Shit, thought Joshua. My joe kills an innocent thug in the southern California hills, and Frazee's doing Economics 101.The little dandy droned on.

"We're Justice, of course, so we see our precious dollar shared with such critical programs as the Weed and Seed Fund ii General Administration, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Trust Fund, and of course our friends, the Drug Enforcemen Administration. The House Committee cut us again this year, as you know. As you also know, the President bailed us out— partially—with the Federal Hate Crimes funding. We were asked by the Attorney General to streamline and cooperate between agencies. The idea was that we could be cost effective. They actually used the phrase 'more bang for the buck.' Well, we've bee: asked to liase with the other agencies, in order to stretch the Hat Crimes windfall."

"We've been liasing all along," said Norton. "What a word. We get our piece of pie, everybody else gets theirs. We always cooperate until everybody gets out of our way."

"That just changed. We're barely past one quarter of the fiscal year, and we—that's not just the Bureau, but all of us inside Justice—have eaten up the Hate Crimes funding like it was candy. C-SPAN aired our foibles before the nation, just last week Certain Representatives heard from their constituents, and the Inspector-In-Charge heard from the Congressmen. We've decide to joint task some of the operations where we overlap. There's Joint Task Committee and I am on it."

"Congratulations," muttered Dumars.

"So what are we supposed to do?" asked Weinstein. "Help INS run down aliens?"

Frazee aimed a crisp stare at Joshua. "You are supposed to arrest an assassin."

"We're working effectively toward that end," said Norton.

"Hmmm," Frazee grunted. He sighed and shook his head "You know, Norton—this isn't the kind of thing I'd have approved, if it had come across my desk to begin with. It's too risk too time-consuming, too expensive. Joshua, you don't necessarily need to know that, but now you do. Of course, it's beside the point. But the fact that I'm our man on the Joint Task Committee isn't beside he point at all. Are your fingers to the wind now?"

Joshua nodded. "We're wasting money."

"In the eyes of the House, yes. And let's face it, twelve million for Hate Crimes, even divided up by Justice, isn't just change. Would you say?"

"Not at all, sir." said Joshua. "But our total outlay for Owl is less than eighty-five thousand."

"Counting salaries it isn't."