Deadlock

And room S-326-A, where Daniel Webster had once stored his wine, was his favorite.

Sondra – she must have been about twenty-five – giggled as Levering led her inside.

“Shh,” he said. “It’s past ten. The walls have ears.”

“So do you,” she said, playfully biting Levering’s right lobe.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “But keep it down.” The Capitol police were sometimes nosy.

Levering kept a bottle of bourbon in a cabinet near the window. The little minx did not drink anything except wine, but the bottle at di

As he poured himself a bourbon, Sondra snuck up behind him and kissed his neck. She giggled again. That could get old, he mused. Better to drink and get down to business.

His cell phone bleeped in his pocket.

“Oh, no,” Sondra said like a pouting coquette.

“I’ll turn it off, honey,” Levering said. “Just let me take it.”

He flipped the phone open.

“Levering.”

“This is Detective Markey.”

Something like steam heat – part anger, part alcohol, part unfulfilled desire – flushed Levering’s face. “How did you get this number?”

“Sir, I have to – ”

“I don’t want anybody calling this who isn’t – ”

“Sir, if I may – ”

“I’m go

“We found him,” Markey said.

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Elijah. The homeless man who was a witness to what really happened that night with Justice Hollander.”

The steam was coming out of Levering’s nostrils now. “Listen!”

“You’d better listen, Senator. You know this man.”

“I don’t know anything about him. I told you that.”

“We’ve made a positive ID from the prints.”

“I’m hanging up now – ”

“It’s your son, Senator.”

An invisible hand gripped Levering’s throat. He held the phone to his ear, as if pressing it against his flesh would erase what was just said.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Senator,” Markey said. “The body is that of Tad Levering.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

1

“They found him!” A

“Whoa,” Ambrosi said. His phone crackled. He was probably between big buildings in the city.

“In the river,” A

“Don’t worry about it.”

“He was the senator’s own son.”

Pause. “So? What do you want me to do about it now?”

“I don’t know what I want.” And she didn’t. The walls were closing in around her.

“Your boss going mental?” Ambrosi asked.

“Oh, yeah. He was on edge before. But this…”

“Look, maybe I can help. The both of you.”

“Help?”

“I have a sense of pride here.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I did a job for you. You didn’t like the results. Okay. Happens. You got access to fifty thousand?”

The sudden shift to money talk jolted A

“Let me do another job for you. This one will be clean.”

“What sort of job?”

“A biggie.”

He seemed to A

“Tell me,” A

“I been following the whole thing about the justice. What’s her name?”

A prickling came to A

“I could take care of that.”

Unthinkable. Absolutely unthinkable. A

“I can’t let you do it,” A

“Oh, yeah?”

“Too risky. There’s all sorts of security. Especially now.”

“Hey,” Ambrosi said. “You don’t remember what Al Pacino said? Somebody told Al he couldn’t whack this guy. Al says if history teaches us anything, it’s that you can kill anybody. He’s right.”

“Look, we better get off now,” A

“After.”

“After what?”

“I’ll let you know.”

2

In the moonlight, the back acre of Bill Bonassi’s property looked like the realm of a ghost story. There were no colors, only differing shades of light and dark.

Millie and Bonassi sat on the verandah. Millie wondered if this would be the last time she did so as chief justice. Tomorrow, according to new reports, the House committee would release its report, and recommend that the members vote to impeach Millicent Ma

“This is only the begi

Not tonight. Tonight she felt it all slipping away. As if, out in the shadows of the huge lawn, the forces of darkness were gathered to declare victory.

“But the fight is dirty!” Millie said. “They had someone taking pictures of me at the hospital! While my mother was dying some sleazy photographer was snapping away. And the alcohol story! Bill, is it un-Christian to want to claw their eyes out?”

“Righteous anger is allowable, I should think.”

“How can they do this to the Court?”

“They can because they want to scorch the earth. If the Court gets burned up, so be it. You’re a threat to them now. They’ll say anything, do anything.”

“I want to talk. I can’t stand this. Let’s call a press conference.”

“I’m preparing a statement,” Bonassi said calmly. “It will emphasize that an impeachment is nothing more than an indictment, and that anyone accused in this country is i

“But when do I get to speak?” Millie asked.

“Right now the dogs are barking. They won’t hear you.”

“But when?”

“We’ll know when.”

Millie let out a labored breath. Her chest was tight. “I wish I had your faith, Bill. I’m still not there.”

“Faith takes time. Instant faith is not very hearty. The Bible says it’s the testing of your faith that develops perseverance.”

“Why?” Millie said. “Why is this happening?”

Bonassi laced his fingers together. “That question is most often answered after the fact. You look back, and you see what God’s pattern was.”

The word plucked an i

“Ah, yes,” Bonassi said. “Romans 8:28. The reverse paranoid text.”

“Excuse me?”

Bill Bonassi’s smile was moonlit. “The Scriptures make an incredible claim that, for those who follow Christ, God arranges things so that your good is the final outcome. He is out to get you, you see, but out of love. You are a reverse paranoid if you believe this.”

Millie shook her head slightly. “Seems almost too good to be true.”

“That’s a pretty good definition of God, isn’t it?”

“The polls, I’m told, have been ru

“Forget ’em!” Bonassi said. “We have truth on our side.”

Millie flashed to the sign on Tom Riley’s desk. Vincit omnia veritas. And then, suddenly, she knew what would save the Court.

“Riley,” she blurted.

Bonassi looked at her.

“Riley is the key,” she said.