Читать книгу The Inside Ring - Mike Lawson - Страница 12

Most people had left the art gallery cafeteria immediately after Christine’s quartet finished playing. A cleanup crew was now stacking chairs and clearing off tables, and the man in charge was giving Emma and DeMarco looks encouraging them to leave. Emma was impervious to the looks.

‘I don’t get it,’ Emma said. ‘What exactly does Banks want you to do?’

‘He says he wants me to see if there’s a link, no matter how remote, between Mattis and the assassination attempt,’ DeMarco said. ‘He’s not convinced Mattis is guilty of anything, and at the same time he’s not a hundred percent positive he’s innocent either. All he wants me to do is check out Mattis and then he says he can rest with a clear conscience.’

‘A politician striving for a clear conscience,’ Emma said, ‘is like Sir Percival searching for the Grail.’

‘Aside from that medieval insight, Emma, what do you think?’

‘Joe, sweetie, we’re in Washington, D.C. Here live the fine people who brought you the Bay of Pigs, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and invisible weapons of mass destruction. Do I think it feasible that a government agency – particularly one headed by a weasel like Patrick Donnelly – could be involved in an attempt to kill a president? The answer is yes. Do I think it likely? The answer is no.’

Emma took a sip of her wine. ‘And the reason Banks wants you to investigate Mattis is because he looks “hinky” on this video?’

‘I guess. Banks says he’s a big believer in listenin’ to his gut, and his gut’s tellin’ him there’s something wrong with Mattis. By the way, the agent in the video, the one who dropped his sunglasses? That was Billy Ray Mattis.’

‘Is that why Banks is suspicious of him?’ Emma said.

‘I don’t know, but Mattis was also the agent who stood directly in front of the President after the shooting started. That last bullet the sniper fired, the one that killed that other agent, went right between his legs. Missed his johnson by an inch.’

‘Small target,’ Emma muttered. ‘Who took the video, by the way?’

‘A local station out of Gainsville. The President thought it would be a treat for them to get an exclusive of him and Montgomery flying off in the helicopter. They were given about four hours’ notice.’

A member of the cleaning crew stopped at their table, a dignified-looking Hispanic. He asked Emma politely if she’d be leaving soon so his crew could finish cleaning up. Emma just stared at the poor guy until he backed away, bowing, making apologies in two languages.

‘And there’s something else that’s bothering Banks,’ DeMarco said.

‘Oh?’ Emma said.

‘Yeah. Patrick Donnelly. He says Donnelly’s response to the warning note was out of character. I don’t know how long Donnelly has been director of the Secret Service but—’

‘A long time,’ Emma said.

‘—but according to Banks he doesn’t have a reputation as a guy who goes out on a limb and he certainly doesn’t go out on a limb for his agents. Banks said he was surprised that Donnelly didn’t try to get the Chattooga River trip canceled just to cover his ass. At a minimum, he should have switched out the agents assigned to the inside ring, but he didn’t do that either.’

‘I agree,’ Emma said. ‘So why didn’t he?’

‘Banks doesn’t know, but it’s just one more thing that’s making him nervous.’

‘I’ll tell you another thing that would make me nervous if I was Banks,’ Emma said.

‘What’s that?’

‘Why didn’t the person who wrote that letter send it to Donnelly, the guy directly in charge of the Secret Service, instead of Banks?’

‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ DeMarco said.

Emma was silent for a moment before saying, ‘So why doesn’t Banks just call up the FBI, tell ’em about the warning letter, and let them investigate?’

‘He says he’s not willing to unleash a media hurricane about Secret Service involvement in the assassination attempt based solely on his gut feeling. And he’s particularly not willing to do that now that they’ve got Edwards’s suicide note.’

‘So he wants you looking into this instead of the Bureau?’

‘Yeah. At least I won’t leak the story to the Post. Well, maybe not.’

‘I guess you’re better than nothing,’ Emma muttered.

‘Thanks for that vote of confidence, Ms Emma, but frankly I agree with you and that’s what I told Mahoney. But once I told him Donnelly was acting weird on this thing, he insisted I get involved.’

‘What’s Mahoney have against Donnelly?’

‘I don’t know. And there’s one other thing: Banks doesn’t think Donnelly really had that note analyzed.’

‘He thinks Donnelly lied to him?’ Emma said.

‘Yeah. Banks doesn’t think there was enough time to check the letter out, not if they analyzed for DNA and questioned people and stuff like that. And when I told Mahoney that, his big ears really perked up.’

‘From what I’ve heard about Donnelly,’ Emma said, ‘I suppose anything’s possible.’ She ran a hand through her short hair as she thought over everything DeMarco had told her. ‘Tell me something, Joseph,’ she said. ‘That note said the inside ring had been “compromised,” whatever the hell that means. Exactly how could any of those four agents guarding the President that morning have compromised his security?’

‘Good question, Emma, and I don’t know. They certainly protected him when the shooting started, and the dates and location of the trip were hardly state secrets. And if the FBI had found some major hole in the Service’s security procedures, that would have been all over the news by now. So far no one is blaming the Secret Service for misconduct, dereliction of duty, or anything else. Not yet, anyway.’

‘Well,’ Emma said, gathering up her purse, ‘this is all very interesting, Joe, but as I said earlier, I have a lovely friend waiting for me. Is there anything else you wanted?’

‘Yeah. How ’bout asking your buddies to do a records check on Mattis? See if he knew Harold Edwards. Check out his finances, his history, that sorta thing.’

‘He’s a Secret Service agent, sweetie. I doubt the databases will be revealing.’

‘We gotta look.’

‘We?’

DeMarco shook his head in despair. ‘Why in the hell would Mahoney want me fooling around with something like this, Emma? I mean, Jesus. If he wants to cause Donnelly a problem all he has to do is leak this shit to the Post.’

‘Honey, I think the Speaker is playing a zillion-to-one long shot. I don’t think he believes there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that Mattis or anyone else in the Secret Service was involved in the assassination attempt. But he hopes they were. And if they were, he can destroy Patrick Donnelly – not just annoy him with some unflattering press.’

‘That damn Mahoney,’ DeMarco said.

‘Come on, Joe, quit whinin’ and let’s get crackin’. You have to take me someplace where they sell fresh strawberries.’