“I saw her sitting outside the building. She was banged up, and her bike …” Joe threw up his hands and then continued. “She wanted to make a report, but our security turned her away. She was hysterical, looked like she’d been in a fight or was living rough, and maybe she seemed irrational. Anyway, I asked her name and what was wrong. She told me she’d seen this war criminal from her past life. I drove her home, and while in the car, she told me that she had lived in Djoba and survived Petrović’s massacre.”
Steinmetz said, “Can you hang on a minute?”
He stepped outside his office, asked his assistant to postpone his next meeting, then returned to his desk.
He said, “I know what happened in Djoba. I’m listening.”
CHAPTER 40
Joe picked up where he’d left off.
“Anna is sure the man she saw that morning was Petrović. She seemed credible, but I couldn’t know. Was she right? Or having flashbacks because of a man who resembled Petrović? I decided to vet her story and see if we should look into it.”
Steinmetz looked at his watch, then told Joe to keep going.
Joe said, “Almost done. Day after running into Sotovina, I met with her near the place where she’d seen this man. He appeared, coming down his front steps. I took his photo, but it was in profile, and his hand and phone obscured much of his face. He looked like the pictures I’ve seen of Petrović, but I couldn’t be sure.
“I reached out to Nguyen in Virginia to make the shot usable, and then I got a match. The man Sotovina saw is, in fact, Slobodan Petrović, now using the name Antonije Branko.”
Steinmetz’s eyes widened. Joe guessed he was alarmed that Joe had gotten Nguyen involved without having a case number. Or maybe he was reacting to the frankly shocking news that Petrović’s ID and fake ID had been confirmed.
One thing seemed sure. Steinmetz couldn’t be happy that Joe had begun running an operation without clearance.
The branch supervisor shook his head, ran his hands through his hair, and swiveled his chair right to left and back again, settling in Joe’s direction.
He said, “I get the feeling there’s more.”
“Well, yes. Yesterday I followed Petrović into a steak house on California. I ordered lunch. Ten minutes later he comes out of the kitchen, and he’s clearly the boss. It gets worse. He made me from when I took his picture. And he connected me to Sotovina.”
“Oh, that’s just great,” Steinmetz said. “And after you choked on your steak, what did you do?”
Joe apologized. He couldn’t remember ever having to do such a thing professionally, but he knew making contact with Petrović had been a serious error in judgment.
“What I know now is that Petrović was tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the ICC and released. Now he’s living high and he opened this restaurant. According to police records, he’s been questioned twice in the last two years for associating with drug dealers but so far hasn’t crossed the line.”
Steinmetz said, “So you have nothing on him.”
“Not exactly nothing. I’ve confirmed that he’s a mass murderer using a fake name and flying as free as a bird in San Francisco. Craig, what’s he doing here? Do you know?”
Steinmetz didn’t answer, but he asked Joe a dozen questions, all of them about Joe’s motive for taking on a possible career-ending flier outside the Bureau’s bounds and regulations.
He established that Joe hadn’t taken money or used Anna to advance his career, hadn’t betrayed the Bureau or the government, and had brought this off-road investigation to Steinmetz before going any further.
Steinmetz said, “Assure me that you’re not having a relationship with this woman.”
Joe said, “There’s nothing between us and there will never be.”
Steinmetz dotted some i’s on his notepad, crossed a couple of t’s, then turned off the recorder.
He said, “I’ll be ready to see the witness in a half hour.”
CHAPTER 41
Anna had plugged back into her music when Steinmetz opened the reception room door and said, “Ms. Sotovina, I’m ready to see you now.”
Joe made the awkward introductions, then returned to his seat on the rigid sectional. He stared ahead through the wall-to-wall glass at a gray sky and replayed his meeting with Steinmetz. Of course, he hadn’t been able to read the supervisor’s mind. He didn’t know if he’d be working the Petrović case even if Steinmetz found Anna believable.
Joe had promised Anna he would get Petrović off the street, but even with a green light, it wouldn’t be easy. As far as he knew, Petrović hadn’t done anything criminal. Red-faced hog opens steak house: not exactly the crime of the century.
There was a good chance Steinmetz would shunt this investigation to the DC branch, and if so, Joe would have to roll with that and break his promise to Anna. This worried him. She’d told him more than once that she would shoot Petrović herself. He believed her.
Joe read a left-behind copy of the Chronicle until Anna returned to her seat and Steinmetz asked Joe to come back in. They stood together in the corridor, where Steinmetz said without expression or inflection, “You’re approved to open a case on this suspicious person.”
Joe felt a surge of relief. Steinmetz told him to keep him posted, and that if a case against Petrović didn’t come together in the next thirty days, that would be the end of it.
Joe shook Steinmetz’s hand.
“Craig. Thanks.”
The door closed and Joe walked over to Anna, touched her arm.
“You did great. I’m officially working the case,” he said.
Anna got to her feet and hugged Joe. “Thank you. I can’t say how happy this makes me.”
Joe said, “I’m glad. I’m very glad to be able to help. There’s our elevator. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 42
Joe walked Anna out of the building and up Golden Gate Avenue three blocks to her small red Kia.
They talked about the meetings, and Joe commented that it was a small miracle that Steinmetz had gotten behind this. After all, Petrović hadn’t committed a crime on US soil, as far as they knew.
“He will,” Anna said.
“I’ll try to be there when he screws up, and I’ll let you know when I have news to report. But Anna, Petrović knows you ride past his house on your bike.”
“He said that?”
“He saw us together last week. I don’t know that he recognized you from Djoba, but don’t give him a chance to think about you. For now, drive to work. And don’t chase him.”
Anna lowered her head and said, “You don’t have to remind me. That was my last chase.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scold. I’m worried that he could pop you from his front step. You know that better than I do.”
She nodded vigorously. Then she hugged him again, hard.
Joe patted Anna’s back, opened her car door, watched as she buckled in.
She said, “Thank you so much,” with a breaking voice. “I thank you for my son and my husband.”