A local civilian conviction would take six months to work its way through the county courts.

It wouldn’t wipe out the fraudulent federal debt in time for my change of command ceremony.

I needed federal agents, and I needed them to move at once.

The only way to set off an immediate federal arrest was for the suspect to commit a new financial crime right on a military installation.

I looked at the rusty master key lying on the nightstand beside the plastic motel lamp.

For forty years my father had carried that key in his pocket.