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community would want to understand. And he wouldn’t give up easily. They were bringing him to you for questioning?”
    “To the SCU, and, yes, because traditional means of interrogation had netted them exactly nothing. Normally, we would have gone to him for the interview, but he was being transferred near here because he’d been making noises about trading the location of the money for a reduced sentence and better accommodations. Nobody really wanted to make that deal, but judging by the security video evidence and as far as we could otherwise determine, Jacoby hadn’t worked with a partner who might have talked, assuming we were able to locate him or her. The investigation into the robbery had turned up zip for leads, so he was and is still our only link to the money.”
    Bothered, Maggie said, “If he could manipulate someone else’s mind, I’m surprised he didn’t try it sooner.”
    “He may have tried,” Bishop reminded her. “And failed. Or succeeded in some way we haven’t discovered yet. That may well have been the way he was able to choose the right bank on the right day. And that could have been his first measurable success. We have no way of knowing for sure. If there’s anything our experiences have taught us, it’s that even with training and practice many of us can control our abilities only erratically.”
    Practically, John said, “Or maybe he just bided his time and used what leverage he had to manipulate the situation until the odds were more in his favor; he was alone with only a couple of agents and had a better chance of escaping.”
    “Maybe so,” Bishop agreed. “In any case, he escaped. He didn’t make the Ten Most Wanted list because he’s not believed to be a violent criminal, but recapturing him could go a long way toward promoting an agent stuck in a backwater field office.”
    “Which,” John said, “explains why Nash called us instead of the SCU. We don’t need or want the public credit for that sort of success, but if another agent or unit within the FBI did the work, it would certainly be known inside the bureau.”
    “Yes,” Bishop said.
    Maggie said, “And since you’ve been your usual secretive self, it wouldn’t be in any of the reports or alerts that you suspected Jacoby of being psychic.”
    Dryly, Bishop said, “I generally keep suspicion of possible psychic activity out of reports unless and until I’m certain. And sometimes even then. There are, after all, still some in—and out of—the bureau who refer to us as the Spooky Crimes Unit.”
    “You knew it’d be an uphill battle for respect,” John reminded him with a trace of amusement.
    “Yeah. And a long one. In any case, the case paperwork on Nash, the reports and stats on his crimes and on him as an escaped felon, contain nothing indicating any interest from the SCU.”
    “Yet you have an agent in Tennessee.”
    “We had reason to believe he’d head in that direction.”
    “Before he escaped?” Maggie asked curiously.
    “When he escaped. Almost immediately,” Bishop replied, unusually forthcoming with information. Maggie frowned slightly.
    “He headed into a wilderness,” John reminded, in the patient tone of one accustomed to dealing with the SCU’s infamously enigmatic chief. “Into a state our information has him with absolutely no connection to. No family, no friends, no past job, nothing. Far as any discoverable records go, he never set foot in the state before. And you managed to place an agent close to where he’d eventually settle?”
    “Within five miles, I believe. Possibly even closer. And we’re reasonably sure he’s hidden out in that general area before.”
    “Information not worth sharing?” John’s voice remained patient, even as his wife smiled at him wryly.
    “Not until now. Your operative needed to be there. Even more, he needed to locate Jacoby himself, at least initially.”
    “Some things have to happen just the way they happen,” Maggie