Read The Lie for Free Online Page A

first,” he said. “Well, she was hit twice in the face. So she wasn’t about to get off her own
     three shots by firing second. Also, her first shot was through the bed sheet.”
    Paulie breathed deeply, but he still felt stifled.
    “You were close to your father,” said the lieutenant. “Didn’t he ever mention possible problems, enemies, people he might
     have been worried about?”
    “Not to me.”
    Lieutenant Spadero sat weighing Paulie’s answer.
    “That’s too bad,” he said. “Because unless you can comeup with something you suddenly remember… or we get lucky with an informer… I can’t see much hope for us here.”
    The big surprise of the night was the arrival of Tommy Cortlandt.
    The CIA director was standing in the Walterses’ living room no more than an hour after Lieutenant Spadero had walked out of
     it, his arms clutching Paulie in a powerful embrace. There were tears in Cortlandt’s eyes.
    “You came,” Paulie said. As always, he used English when he was with the director.
    “How could I not? I was at a NATO meeting in Brussels when I heard the news.” Cortlandt looked at Paulie. “Sorry I wasn’t
     at the funeral, but it would have been stupid. I’d only have been recognized by the press, which wouldn’t have done either
     of us any good.”
    He drifted about the room, touching things. Then he sat down, a controlled man with cool eyes that seemed to invite a challenge.
    “You all right?” he said.
    Paulie shrugged. “I’m still half in shock.”
    “Who found them?”
    “I did. I’d stopped in on my way home from Serbia.” “What did the police come up with?” asked Cortlandt. “Nothing,” said Paulie,
     briefly describing the lieutenant’s last visit.
    “Was the lieutenant right?” asked Cortlandt. “
Were
you holding anything back?”
    “Yeah. But it wasn’t that much. Only my father’s wall safe.”
    “What was in it?”
    “Mostly personal and legal stuff. Except for a couple of pictures. Blowups of a man and woman blazing away with a pair of
     Schmeissers. They meant nothing to me, but I was hoping you might know something.”
    “Let me take a look.”
    Paulie went upstairs to the safe and took out the manila envelope. When he returned to the living room, his heart was racing.
    He handed Tommy Cortlandt the two enlarged photographs. Then he just concentrated on watching his face.
    “For what it’s worth,” said Cortlandt, “I do recognize these two people, but they’ve been dead for almost twenty years.”
    “Who were they?”
    “A couple of world-class terrorists. Angelo and Patty Falanga.”
    “What did they have to do with my father?”
    “More than they would have liked. He killed them both.”
    “Together?”
    “Yes. Seconds after these pictures were taken.”
    “What made him save them? The pictures.”
    “I have no idea. I never knew he had them.”
    “These were the only pictures in the safe,” Paulie said. “They’re the only pictures of that kind I’ve ever seen in this house.
     Wouldn’t you say they had to have had some very special importance to my father?”
    “Obviously.”
    Paulie blinked, suddenly feeling slow and tired.
    “I see where you’re heading,” said Cortlandt. “But your father shot the Falangas almost twenty years ago. Why would anyone
     wait that long for retribution?”
    “I don’t know. Unless the guy just found out who killed them. How many people do you think actually knew my father was involved?”
    “I can’t answer that with any accuracy.”
    “Were you Dad’s chief of station back then? Did you give him the assignment to get the Falangas?”
    “Yes. To both questions.”
    “Something like this would have to be on a top secret, need-to-know basis?”
    Cortlandt nodded.
    “What kind of backup did my dad have? Or was he handling it alone?”
    The director took a long moment. “He had two men going in with him. They were both killed in the final action.”
    “Can you think of anyone else who