Page 29 of Smoke Screen
“Could be something. Could be nothing. We’re trying to get a handle on it.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Phin said, “tell us what you’ve got.”
“We’ve got Maddy Carmichael at the Center talking to the unsubs the week before the heist. Probably doing recon.”
Phin’s head snapped back, the jolt reminding him of when they were kids, and randomly took swings at each other.
“One of them,” Ash continued, “has a distinctive tattoo on his neck. It shows up again on the footage from the night of the heist.”
“Hold up.” Phin raised his hand as if Ash could see him. “You guys thinkMaddy Carmichaelis involved? When it comes to her job, she’s freaking Mary Poppins. Total pleaser. There’s no way.”
“Is that your expert opinion? Given you’ve known her for two days.”
Scored one there.
“Point taken, but have youbeenin her office? The wall is a shrine to the Thompsons. Plus, she’s smart. Too smart to be seen on video with yourunsubs.”
“That’s what I thought at first, too. But there’s more.”
More, in Phin’s not-so-expert opinion, was always bad.
“What’s that?”
“There’s the footage of her talking to guys at the Center. Then there’s more of the dude with the tattoo. At her apartment.”
Phin whirled a finger in the air. “Whoopdie-fucking-doo. In case you missed it, she’s an attractive woman. Dude was probably hitting on her. Are you surveilling her?”
“No. When we saw the video from the Center, we got a warrant for the security footage from her condo building. Just to see what kind of activity might be happening. A guy walked to her door. We checked that footage against what we have at the Thompson Center, and it’s the same guy.”
“This is why you think she’s involved?”
“Jesus, Phin. What’s with you?”
Yeah. Whatwaswith him?
Besides the fact that he had fantasies about Maddy on top of him, riding like a rodeo queen.
Yeah, he had a thing for this woman.
“I’ll tell you what’s with me. From what I can tell, she lives for her job. Thrives on it. And the feds are accusing her of theft? Of stealing from a guy who gave her the opportunity of a lifetime. Hate to tell you, big brother, she’s smarter than that. You kids are way off.”
“We’re not accus—”
“Fine.You’re suspicious. Either way, you’rejudginghercharacterbased on what you perceive—with extremely weak evidence—to be true. That sucks.”
And, yeah, maybe Phin was getting a little loud because Zeke pulled a what-the-fuck face.
“Now I get it,” Ash said. “This isn’t about Madison Carmichael. This is about you.”
“Me?”
“Senator Blakely pissed you off the other night. He judgedyourcharacter. Jesus, Phin. Get focused.”
What the hell? Before Phin could tear into—absolutely shred—Ash, Zeke put up a hand. “Both of you, relax. We don’t have time for this. Ash, can you give us timestamps of when this happened? We’ll take a look from our end.”
“Yeah. But I can’t give you the footage from her building. It’s the same guy. No doubt.”
“Did you ask Maddy about this?”
