"I don't know, and I didn't ask. I was lucky enough to get this guy to talk to me off-the-record. But my questions were confined to background stuff."

Kate asked, "Wife? Kids?"

"Two grown sons, also brought here as part of the resettling package. Nothing on them. Wife, Svetlana, doesn't speak much English."

Kate asked, "You spoke to her?"

"Yeah. I called the apartment. But before that, I called his office at MIT. His secretary, a Ms. Crabtree, said he e-mailed her over the weekend-Saturday-and wrote that he wouldn't be back until Tuesday-today. But he's not there yet, and no one has heard from him." He added, "I guess he's up there where you are. Right?"

"We don't know." Odd, I thought, that he'd canceled his 12:45 flight to Boston sometime last night, but hadn't yet contacted his office or the airline to rebook on the next flight to Boston, which I recalled would be 9:55 tomorrow morning, and he wasn't driving back to Boston in his rental car because it had been returned.

Kate asked, "Did his secretary sound concerned?"

"I couldn't tell. She was professional, and I had no reason to push her. So I call Svetlana, and she says to me, 'He not home.' So I ask, 'When he be home?' and she says, 'Tooosday,' and I say, 'Today is Tooosday,' and she says, 'Cool beak,' and hangs up."

"Cool beak?"

"Yeah, that's Russian for call back. So I called back about twenty minutes ago and said, 'I need to reach Mikhail. He won a million dollars in the Reader's Digest sweepstakes, and he needs to claim his prize money,' and she said, 'Moony? Vhat moony?' Anyway, I don't think he's home, or she'd have put him on to claim his money. So, is this guy missing?"

"Maybe. Anything else?"

"No. That's the basic free introductory offer."

"Did you get a cell-phone number for this guy?"

"I asked Svetlana and his secretary. They weren't giving it out, but I'll bet they called it a few times."

"Right. How about the phone company? Or the FBI office in Boston?"

"I'll try the phone company. But I'm not calling my FBI source back. I went as far as I could with him, and he was cooperative, but then he got nosy. We've got to leave that alone unless you want to stir up some shit."

"Okay, leave that alone."

"Kate, why am I doing this? When I worked for the ATTF, they had their own computers, phones, and files."

She looked at me, then said to Dick, "Your friend is pursuing his own theory about something."

"Right. Did you tell him he needs to be a team player?"

"I mentioned that a few times."

By now, I was rolling my eyes.

Dick said, "Well, when John gets fired, I need some help here."

Kate replied, "I think he'll be on the Federal do-not-hire list forever."

"Okay," I interrupted, "let's get back to business. Dick, is there anything else you can think of that might be important or relevant?"

"Relevant to what?"

Good question, and before I could think of an answer, Dick asked, "What's with the nuke stuff?"

"I don't think that's relevant to the homicide investigation."

"Why would an MIT professor be mixed up with a murder?"

"I thought he might be Russian Mafia, but it doesn't sound like it. Okay, I'll-"

"So, did the Arabs snatch this guy?"

"I don't think so. I'll take Putyov's home and work numbers."

He gave them to us, and said, "Okay, guys, the ball is in your court. Good luck with locating Putyov, and I hope you find the sonofabitch who killed Harry Muller."

"We will."

Kate said, "Thanks, Dick."

"Watch yourselves."

We hung up, and Kate looked at me. "Nuclear physicist."

"Right."

"What's he doing at the Custer Hill Club?"

"Fixing the microwave oven?"

"John, we need to fly to New York today and have Walsh assemble the appropriate people-"

"Hold on. You're overreacting. We don't have any startling information other than a nuclear physicist happened to be a guest at the Custer Hill Club-"

"We have MAD, NUK, ELF, and-"

"Jeez, I hope they found that by now."

"What if they haven't?"

"Then they're stupid."

"John-"

"We can't admit to having evidence that we've hidden ... well, that we just forgot to mention."

"We?" She rose from her chair and said, "You didn't report it. We have committed a felony. I'm an accessory."

I also stood. "Don't you think I'm going to cover for you?"