gate at University Hospital and down the ramp and on between the bearing beams under city morgue. He had expected Ned Van Ornum to be waiting for him, assumed it was Ned sitting on the edge of the loading dock in the distance. Van Ornum was head of detectives for the Prairie Port Police Department. He was also Cub Hennessy’s confidential informant on police force operations. Grafton, the only other FBI man to know the Prairie Port PD was being spied on by one of its own, considered Ned Van Ornum to be Cub Hennessy’s finest recruitment. Cub wasn’t all that certain. Never had been. Cub Hennessy ran informants for the FBI’s resident office in Prairie Port, which is to say he was in charge of selecting candidates for the small and generally clandestine ring of information-gatherers, then, after clearance from Grafton, recruiting the prospects, convincing them by whatever means possible to “run” for him and Grafton. Other agents at the Prairie Port residency developed their own informants, but these were usually less crucial sources.
