Spring Break

Chapter 6

Federal Building, Manhattan.

As soon as Neal arrived in the office, he caught Peter Burke's eye and gestured toward Henry. Both young men looked worried, and that had Peter's gut churning. He always trusted his gut, but there wasn't time for Neal to fill him in. Hughes was already calling them up to the conference room.

Peter believed he was a decent manager, but after a year in the role he had to admit he still had plenty to learn. The touchy-feely aspects of management weren't his strong suit. When his boss told him a few weeks ago that they needed a team-building event with the visitors currently sitting in the conference room, he'd been underwhelmed at the idea. Who had time for team building? Why not just tell everyone they needed to get along?

But now as he stood at the front of the conference room and looked at his audience, he had to admit they didn't look even slightly unified. All the participants from the FBI were seated on one side of the conference table, staring at the representatives from Winston-Winslow. The folks from Win-Win were staring right back from the opposite side. Win-Win had a culture of distrusting and demeaning the FBI, and likewise FBI agents weren't big fans of private investigators.

Apparently collaborating over the phone and via email had not melded this group into a high-functioning team. Maybe the game of laser tag planned for this afternoon really would serve as more than an excuse to goof off on Neal's birthday.

Peter called the meeting to order and after introductions he explained the need to iron out a more formal arrangement between the FBI and Win-Win. Graham Winslow rolled his eyes. It was only a matter of time before he said something disparaging about the bureaucracy of government agencies. Peter decided to put him on the spot. "My boss and I learned about your exploits when we went through our training at Quantico, but I understand you're not part of the curriculum anymore. Graham, would you fill my younger team members in on your company's history?"

As Peter took a seat, Graham gave him a wry smile that indicated he knew he was being called on to speak before he could start heckling. The oldest person in the room, he was officially retired but remained an active member of the board of directors. "My father was one of the founders of Win-Win, and before that he was an FBI agent who got fired for making a nuisance of himself. He kept pushing the Bureau to adopt more modern methods, like psychological profiles. He believed that psychology could be applied not only to suspects, but also to victims and witnesses. Around the same time, another agent quit. Martin Winston was a proponent of using more computer-based tools in solving cases, but he walked when he couldn't get the budget. Both of them had worked in the D.C. offices and knew each other casually. They met for drinks to commiserate and ended up deciding to pool their ideas and resources to open an elite private investigation and security company in Baltimore. Without government restrictions, they were free to work any way they wanted."

His eyes twinkled. "And what they wanted was to do things that would shock their former bosses. They took big risks, and it paid off." His expression sobered. "Eventually we took things too far, and that contributed to my son's death. It's time we adjust our attitude. Neal, can you pick up the story? Several of the Win-Win team members here don't know how you roped Henry into some of your cases last year."

Neal looked surprised, but he had the confidence and humor to follow Graham's lead. "All of you know Henry's my cousin on his mother's side, right?" People nodded and Neal continued, "In January of last year, just a few weeks after I started working for Peter, I took a quick trip to the emergency room after a minor mishap on a case. Henry got wind of it and decided to visit. You know Henry," he said to the Win-Win side of the room. "Didn't matter how many times I told him I was fine. He wasn't going to be satisfied until he saw for himself."