The Marble Mask Read Online Free Page A

pipeline, Joe, along with several others.”
    “Maybe so, but since proper procedure’s already out the window, let’s cut corners,” I suggested, matching his stare.
    “I don’t think that would be a good idea, not right out of the starting gate.”
    “Why not?” I asked, anger slowly beginning to build in my chest. “When were you going to decide about him?”
    Stanton’s mouth tightened slightly. “It’s not up to me alone. There’s a panel—”
    “Which you bypassed to hire me,” I interrupted.
    “You were a special case,” he said, giving the comment a clear double meaning. “Kunkle doesn’t fit that category.”
    I turned to the door, resting my hand on the knob. “Maybe you got me wrong.”
    “Don’t be so melodramatic, Joe,” he said with an exasperated sigh. “When you signed on, the deal was we consider Kunkle’s application along with everyone else’s. We’re doing that. You can’t force us to accept him—it wouldn’t be ethical.”
    I laughed, the frustration of waiting around for weeks coming to a boil. “Ethical? You didn’t want him to begin with, and it’s starting to look like you’ve lost interest in VBI. If Willy really is under consideration, and not just being jerked around to keep me quiet, now would be a good time to show some good faith. Let me have him for this case on a provisional basis. Call him a consultant if you want, instead of a special agent, and make his performance a factor in his passing muster, but give the poor bastard a chance, stop treating me like some senile chump, and let the Bureau prove itself in the real world.”
    Stanton scowled at me. “I made you SAC of the whole outfit, for Christ’s sake, and I’m one of the few people who
doesn’t
want the Bureau chopped off at the knees. Everyone has the highest respect for you.
You’re
the one putting a monkey wrench into the works with your obsession with this guy.”
    I didn’t say a word, but I left my hand on the doorknob. He finally relented, which ironically highlighted his ambivalence about our fate, since if ever there was a time to call my bluff, it was now. “All right, you can have Kunkle—provisionally. He’s not to have VBI credentials, and once this case is over, whether he’s accepted or not, I don’t want to have this conversation again.
    “And,” he added, pointing his finger at Bill Allard, “I want at least two more people of
your
choosing assigned to this, regardless of how many break-in problems it might create. They are not to be from Brattleboro or Windham County or even from the southeast corner of the state. If Kunkle’s going to be part of the equation, I want him counterbalanced with the best you can get your hands on. In fact,” he added after a brief pause, “why don’t you pull in someone from BCI as an unofficial intern? That way, Kunkle won’t be alone, it’ll help show we’re not a closed shop, and maybe word’ll leak back to the BCI rank-and-file that we’re not the threat their brass is making us out to be.”
    He shifted his glare to me. “That better be acceptable, Joe, or you damn well
can
walk out that door.”
    I smiled at him instead, amazed I’d gotten away with it. “Don’t worry, Dave. This won’t bite you in the ass.”
    He shook his head. “The way I see it, it already has.”
    · · ·
    Bill Allard laughed as we shoehorned ourselves back into his office. “Christ, that was hardball. What’s with this Willy Kunkle guy?”
    Sammie rolled her eyes. “If you have to ask, you obviously
don’t
know the man.”
    She knew that better than most. Still, I saw the relief in her face and hoped my gambit would benefit both Willy and her.
    By conventional wisdom, however, neither chicanery nor time would be kind to them. Opinionated, headstrong, and passionate, they were fated to clash more than they might commingle. Which probably should have concerned me as their boss. But I’d known them for years and had seen their focus on the job,