They ditched the Honda, which was acting up, and rented a sedan. Riggs was getting tired of hot-wiring the car anyway.
They drove to the outskirts of western Fairfax County and stopped for lunch at a nearly empty restaurant. On the drive out Riggs filled her in on the meeting at the Hoover Building. They walked past the bar area and sat at a table in the corner. LuAnn absently watched the bartender tinker with the TV to better the reception of a daytime soap he was watching. He slouched against the bar and pried between his teeth with a swizzle stick as he watched the small screen. It would be wonderful, she thought, to be that relaxed, that laid back.
They ordered their food and then Riggs pulled out the newspaper. He didn’t say a word until LuAnn had read the entire story.
“Good Lord.”
“Donovan should have listened to you.”
“You think Jackson killed him?”
Riggs nodded grimly. “Probably set him up. Had Reynolds call him, say she was gonna spill her guts. Jackson is there and pops them both with the result that Donovan gets blamed for it all.”
LuAnn let her head rest in her hands.
Riggs gently touched her head. “Hey, LuAnn, you tried to warn the guy. There was nothing else you could do.”
“I could have said no to Jackson ten years ago. Then none of this would’ve happened.”
“Yeah, but I bet if you had, he would’ve done you right then and there.”
LuAnn wiped her eyes with her sleeve. “So now I’ve got this great deal with the FBI you negotiated for me, and in order to finalize it all we need to do is drop a net over Lucifer.” She sipped on her coffee. “Would you care to tell me how we’re going to do that?”
Riggs put away the paper. “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought as you might have guessed. The problem is we can’t be too simplistic or too complicated. Either way, he’ll smell a trap.”
“I don’t think he’ll take another meeting with me.”
“No, I wasn’t going to suggest that. He wouldn’t show, but he’d send somebody to kill you. That’s way too dangerous.”
“Didn’t you know, I like danger, Matthew. If I wasn’t constantly smothered in the stuff, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. Okay, no meeting, what else?”
“Like I said before, if we can find out who he really is, track him down, then we might be in business.” Riggs paused as their food came. After the waitress left he picked up his sandwich and started talking in between bites. “You don’t remember anything about the guy? I mean anything that could start us in the right direction to finding out who he really is?”
“He was always disguised.”
“The financial documents he sent you?”
“They were from a firm in Switzerland. I’ve got some back at the house, which I guess I can’t get to. Even with our deal?” She raised an eyebrow.
“I wouldn’t advise that, LuAnn. The Feds run across you now, they might forget all about out little deal.”
“I’ve got some other documents at my bank in New York.”
“Still too risky.”
“I could write the firm in Switzerland, but I don’t think they’re going to know anything. And if they do, I don’t think they’re going to talk. I mean, that’s why people bank in Switzerland, right?”
“Okay, okay. Anything else? There’s gotta be something you remember about the guy. The way he dressed, smelled, talked, walked. Any particular interests? How about Charlie? Would he have any ideas?”
LuAnn hesitated. “We could ask him,” she said, wiping her hands on her napkin, “but I wouldn’t bet on it. Charlie told me he’d never even met Jackson face-to-face. It was always over the phone.”
Riggs slumped back and touched his injured arm.
“I just don’t see any way to get to him, Matthew.”
“There is a way, LuAnn. In fact I had already concluded it was the only way. I was just going through the motions with all those questions.”
“How?”
“You have a phone number where you can reach him?”
“Yes. So?”
“We set up a meeting.”