Page 141 of The 9th Man

“Not at all. The FBI examined the collection for several months then returned them to her with a thank-you letter from J. Edgar Hoover. These are copies, which the FBI deposited here in 1965.”

He studied the rest of the photos. In style they were similar, but only two other images caught the trail car in frame. Both were either blurry or cut off.

“You said there were twenty-one photos in the series? But there are only eighteen here.”

“Three went missing long ago. We have no idea what happened to them.”

“Isn’t that a bit unusual?”

She shook her head. “Not really. It happens.”

“Any idea what these three images showed?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

His request to view these specific items had come officially from the Department of Justice, through Stephanie. So this woman knew he was government, not a conspiratorialist.

Time to play his hand.

“Like I said, I’m here on official business. People have died in the past week, and all of those deaths related to these photos.”

“That’s horrible,” she said.

He pointed at the pictures. “I was led straight to these by someone with knowledge. I’m going to give you some names and I need to know if any of them ever came here to see these.”

“We have a record of every visitor.”

“Benjamin Stein, Ray Simmons, David Eckstein.”

69

LUKE CAUGHT THE MOMENT OF RECOGNITION WHEN HE MENTIONEDEckstein. This woman was good, but not that good.

“You knew him?” he asked.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“What did you meanknewEckstein?”

“He’s dead.”

Shock filled her face.

“So are Stein and Simmons. Thomas Rowland killed Stein and Eckstein. Simmons killed himself.”

“Oh, my God.” Her eyes watered and she began to cry.

He was hoping the truth might prove productive. Then he realized something. NAI 31621 was Eckstein’s way of sending him to her. A name would have been meaningless, and it had taken all the old man had to even say the identifier.

“Did you know David?” he asked.

She nodded. “We became friends after his many visits here. When the request came to view this particular portfolio, it caught my attention. Only David has looked at these in the past decade. How did you know him?”

“I became involved in the investigation he, Simmons, and Stein were conducting into the assassination. With his dying breath, David pointed me here.”

“I was afraid Thomas Rowland wasn’t going to take their accusations lightly,” she said. “David supplied me with a pretty good bio on Rowland that he said Benji composed. Rowland had a long history with the CIA, like his father before him. They were trying to see if Rowland would talk with them. I never thought he would, but the publisher said they had to try before submitting the manuscript.”

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