Read US Marshall 03 - The Rapids for Free Online Page B

you before here?”
    “Chicago.”
    “And you grew up in…”
    “South Florida, for the most part. We moved around a lot before my parents were divorced.”
    “They still live there?”
    “My mother does.” She left it at that.
    But Rob persisted. “Your father?”
    “He died a year and a half ago.”
    “I’m sorry.” No hesitation, no awkwardness. He had the social graces down pat, when he wanted to use them. “Any theory why Janssen was in Den Bosch?”
    She shook her head, reminding herself that Rob’s family had nearly all been killed because of NickJanssen and she should cut him some slack. But he wasn’t going to change the subject, obviously. He’d keep grilling her about Janssen and Den Bosch and the tip until she put a stop to it. She didn’t know if he was suspicious of her because of the tip or just tenacious—or both.
    “Why do you think the marshals sent you here?” she asked casually. “Given your personal connection to Janssen—”
    “No one sent me. I asked to come here.”
    It wasn’t the answer she’d expected. “They let you?”
    Janssen’s arrest stirred up the media. “I had a lot of reporters on my tail. This way I’m out of sight, out of mind.”
    “Or out of sight and they’ll all want to know why and show up here next?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t think so. Have you had many reporters contact you?”
    “Not directly. A few have contacted Public Affairs.”
    “I guess it’s not nearly as interesting to have an international fugitive arrested as a presidential connection exposed.”
    She tried more of the espresso. Rob had done fine yesterday at the embassy. He was good at small talk, at ease with people. His connection to President Poe made people eager to meet him and be on their best behavior, but in the end, Maggie thought, it hadn’t made that big a difference. The guy was likable. Themistake, she suspected, was to assume that translated into being a soft touch.
    He again consulted his map. “Janssen was picked up on a canal?”
    “The Binnendieze. I wasn’t sure of what it was, either. It’s a shallow river, but it looks and feels like a canal. Den Bosch is located in a triangle where the Aa and the Dommel join to form the Dieze River, which eventually runs into the Maas.”
    “Ah. So I see on the map.”
    “Water’s a big deal in the Netherlands. About a third of the country’s below sea level. We tend to think in terms of the North Sea, but river flooding is a concern, too.”
    “Binnendieze—does that mean ‘little Dieze’?”
    “Aren’t you the one who speaks all the languages?”
    He finished his espresso without answering.
    “I heard it was seven,” Maggie persisted.
    “Well, one of them isn’t Dutch.”
    She laughed. “ Binnen means inner, or inside. It’s the section of the Dieze that runs within Den Bosch’s original city walls—it’s sort of a natural moat. They’ve cleaned it up and run boat tours on it these days.”
    “Bet it used to be the town sewer.”
    “That’s what I understand. The tour’s unusual because it takes you under the city, actually under people’s houses. For safety reasons, centuries ago,people could only build inside the city walls. When they ran out of room, they started building over the waterway.”
    “Very clever.”
    “It sounds like a fascinating tour, doesn’t it?”
    “Better than the cathedral, if you ask me.”
    Maggie got off the A2 motorway and drove toward the city center, Rob pointing out a stunning fountain featuring a gold dragon in the middle of a roundabout. Remembering directions she’d gotten from a Dutch police inspector, who hadn’t questioned her reasons for asking, she found her way to the boat-tour entrance and parked nearby.
    It was a pleasantly warm morning under a clear Dutch-blue sky, a perfect day to play tourist—except that wasn’t why she and Rob were there, Maggie reminded herself as they walked along a shaded street. The narrow, shallow waterway flowed next to