The Accused by Craig Parshall Page A

different…that they had been unwrapping a mystery, only to find another riddle.

16
    J ASON B ELL P URDY CLOSED THE sliding French doors to the library of his Chevy Chase brownstone.
    â€œJason, I appreciate you inviting me out to Maryland.” Howley Jubb was at the bar pouring himself a drink.
    â€œHey,” Purdy responded, “like I said—I’ve been meaning to bring you out here for a long time. Things just got crazy. Real busy. Is your hotel room okay?”
    â€œYeah, nice suite. I appreciate it.”
    Purdy plopped down on the couch, kicked off his shoes, and stretched out his legs.
    â€œSo, what do you have for me? What did you dig up south of the border?”
    â€œI think I’ve got the whole package almost wrapped up for you.”
    The seated man’s eyes brightened, and he gave out a whoop.
    â€œHey—great work, Howley! Give me the details.”
    â€œWell, first I was going to have Susie back at the office type up a report for you. But her kid got sick. So I didn’t get a chance to have her do it before I flew out of Atlanta.”
    Purdy’s expression changed to a scowl and he straightened up on the couch.
    â€œHey—hey. Nothing in writing. Nothing . What’s wrong with you, Howley? You’re going to have some secretary type this stuff up? All this is verbal only .”
    â€œFine, fine. No problem,” Jubb said, sipping from his glass. “How dumb do you think I am? All the really sensitive stuff I was going to put in code.”
    â€œHey—forget the code stuff. I’m in Washington, DC. We’ve got guys walking around with badges who break codes all the time. We’vegot people looking for paper on each other constantly. You get the point?”
    â€œSure,” Jubb said with a half smile, as he sat down in a chair opposite the couch. “So, like I was saying, things are looking very good. My contacts down there tell me that this group—al-Aqsa Jihad, the AAJ—has been operating in Mexico. Some of the folks in the Mexican government even know about it. They tell me there’s been a change of attitude about the U.S. from bad to worse. There’s a group down there called the Independent Revolutionary Party—the IRP—it’s really building a lot of support. And of course the federal police and some of the judges and government folks in Mexico City have been playing ball with drug dealers for a long period of time.”
    â€œWhy would somebody in the government let the AAJ operate in the country?” Purdy asked.
    â€œCan’t figure that out yet. But it’s apparently a fact.”
    â€œSo how about this massacre deal down at Chacmool?”
    â€œOkay, you’ve got to go back to the kidnapping down at Cancún first. The way the Mexicans look at it, the American military and some sort of mysterious special ops group were already on their way down there—maybe even within the borders—when the kidnapping happened. Anyway, the commando unit was already close by.
    â€œSo they’re moving into position when the White House calls Mexico City and says we’re going in—we’re saving the Secretary of Commerce with or without your permission. But we would like your permission—so how about it? So the Mexicans figure, hey, this is a cabinet-level kidnapping—we can’t fool around with this. So they give a kind of halfhearted approval for the military operation to be run by the Americans. The Mexicans are only there to provide background information, as requested. But basically, it’s—you Mexicans get out of the way—the Americans are coming and we’re going to take care of this.”
    â€œAlright, all that’s fine,” Purdy said. “Secretary Kilmer is rescued. But what happens next? What did Mexico have to say about the Americans tracking down these AAJ people and trying to kill them?”
    â€œThat’s where it gets