The Inside Ring. Mike Lawson

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       6

      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 СКАЧАТЬ