J2

J2

"Sure, if there was only a hundred of them.  There's probably a hundred thousand  of them now  and they're breeding. I  chalk it down to one of the many unexplained things about this town."

"Just before we met I  was reading how  Chief Wanica and  a boy named Tashunka somehow fought off a half-dozen armed men."

Roddy was tempted to tell Felt this Tashunka found the deceased, but that would break Felt's rule: it was germaine to the case.

The waitress arrived with their food. The sheriff withheld his reply until after they were served. Then he said, "My guess is Special Agent  in Charge Tolson  is running that old  mystery to ground.  But I  don't want  to break  your rule  and talk  about active cases while we're eating."

They stopped conversing and ate  while Mark Felt  expressed his appreciation for the  food  with grunts  and eyebrow  gestures. Roddy asked, "How many spies have you caught, Agent Felt?"

"None so far," Mark admitted. "I've only been with the Bureau for one year.  Half of '42 was  spent at the Academy  and in DC, and for the rest of the year I was in Texas in hot field offices doing little more than interviewing references people had listed when they applied for government  jobs. Hardly the exciting life of a g-man that I envisioned."

"How's the pay?"

"About sixty a week."

"Not shabby at all, Special Agent Felt."

"What is shabby is having to pick up and move every few months. My wife Audrey and I were in the middle of another move to DC so I could catch spies like I wanted, but I got diverted here."

"How long have you been married?"

"Four years, twice as many relocations, and somehow my beautiful girl still puts up with me."

At the station  after supper  Felt had  his first  look at  the evidence in the case, the photographs and  the fingerprints and the knife found  near  the scene. And there was  the set  the knife came from, retrieved from  Bergin's trash. Felt began to interrogate the sheriff and the  deputies as though he were some pricy city lawyer Paul Bergin might retain.