position in the right corner.
A four-by-eight-foot sheet of plywood exploded inward. Gage looked over and saw Anston falling into Socorro, whose chair toppled to the side. He then spotted the motion of Boot’s handgun and his arm stretching over the grow table to target Viz as he ducked through the opening in the wall. Gage and Casey opened fire together, the bullets cutting through the plastic shells of the tabletop tubs. Boots grunted, then collapsed.
Viz spun away as Anston fired, then collapsed to the floor, reaching for his sister.
Anston alerted to the motion of Gage rising from behind the bags, turned his head and raised his gun just in time to see the flash from Gage’s barrel.
Chapter 89
Casey slid along the right wall until he got close enough to see whether Boots was still alive, then reached down and took the gun from the dead man’s hand.
Gage didn’t give Anston a second look. He’d seen where the slug struck his forehead. He ran to where Viz lay shielding Socorro. Blood soaked through the upper right back of his shirt.
Viz rolled over and stared up at Gage. “Is she okay?”
Gage dropped to his knees between them. Socorro was lying on her right side, still bound to the chair, her face bruised and bloody. She nodded.
“She’ll be okay. Hang in there.”
Gage saw blood pooling by Viz’s shoulder. He ripped open Viz’s shirt, then reached around and pressed his palm against the open wound.
“Man, I never thought I’d die like this,” Viz said, looking up at Gage. “It’s too soon… I’ve got… I’ve got things…”
Gage locked his eyes on Viz’s.
“You’re gonna make it. You need to trust me. If you weren’t, I’d say so. I wouldn’t take that away from you.”
T his is Graham.”
“Let me turn it down,” Spike Pacheco said.
Gage heard television voices fade in the background.
“I guess you just saw Landon on TV, too,” Spike said.
Gage’s world mushroomed outward from the carnage lying before him.
“Graham,” Spike finally said, “you still there?”
“Yeah. I’m at Gilbert and Brannan. I just called 911 for an ambulance. You better get over here before your whole department shows up.”
S pike shook his head as he surveyed the bodies of Anston and Boots. It wasn’t the worst crime scene he’d been called to, but it was the only one that ever had a federal judge curled up in a corner, rocking back and forth like an infant.
“I’m not sure I can contain this,” Spike said. “The media listens to our 911 dispatcher.”
“Just try to keep things muffled,” Gage said, “at least until seven o’clock tomorrow morning.”
“Then what?”
“Speculate your ass off.”
“What about Viz and the bruises on Socorro? How are you going to explain all that at SF Medical?”
“Casey knows what he needs to do. He’ll think of something by the time the ambulance gets them there.”
Chapter 90
Gage turned on his cell phone and checked for messages as the United Airlines red-eye from San Francisco set down on the runway at Dulles International Airport at ten o’clock the next morning. He scrolled through the texts until he found one from Faith reassuring him that Viz and Socorro would be all right. He then activated the CNN Internet site. A reporter stood in front of the Gilbert Street warehouse, a microphone in his left hand and an open notebook in the other. The camera panned up toward the “For Sale” sign, then down again to the reporter.
“Details are scarce and the crime scene is still being sorted out, but the story we’re getting is terrifying. Apparently, Judge Brandon Meyer, the brother of presidential hopeful Landon Meyer, went with an ex-law partner, Marc Anston, and another investor to scout a possible site for a live-work loft development. Judge Meyer was spotted by a disgraced and deranged ex-DEA agent named Boots Marnin who pursued them into the warehouse. By chance, FBI special agent Joe Casey was in the area on an assignment when he noticed Marnin following Judge Meyer. It’s still unclear what happened inside, but the result was that Anston and Marnin now lie dead and Judge Meyer has been taken to SF Medical for what they’re calling observation.”
“Does that mean medical observation?”
“They didn’t say. But one source claims he had some sort of mental breakdown.”
“I understand Judge Meyer and Special Agent Casey had a recent conflict.”
“Yes, Bob. The irony is overwhelming. Just a few days ago, in open court, Judge Meyer all but accused Casey of perjury in the OptiCom trade secrets case.”
G age climbed into the black Escalade to find Senator Landon Meyer sitting on the rear bench seat. The tinted windows shrouded the interior in near darkness. Gage sat down next to him.
As the SUV pulled away from the curb, Landon asked, “Were you there?”
Gage recounted the battle.
“And Brandon?”
“He’ll recover, but he’ll never walk out of federal prison.”
“That bad?”
“That bad.”
T wo hours later, Gage removed Charlie Palmer’s DVD from his laptop, closed the spreadsheets Alex Z had copied from Brandon’s computer, and flipped down the screen. The click echoed in Meyer’s Senate office.
Landon’s face was gray. He gripped the arms of his chair to rise, then stopped as though afraid his legs would give out. He lowered his hands to his lap and exhaled.
“I know Palmer and Anston didn’t talk about my first campaign on the video,” Landon finally said, “but you don’t think Anston was behind the killing of those poor children in Compton?”
Gage shook his head. “He just paid off some community leaders to sound like they were reversing their stand on the death penalty. He used Pegasus to funnel the money, like with the fake jihadist contribution.”
Landon leaned forward in his chair, then hung his head.
“So every election was tainted… every single one.”
Gage didn’t interrupt the silence that followed, and didn’t have an answer to the question that would surely come next.
Landon looked up, his face nearly bloodless, his fists clenched, his whole body rigid.
“Tell me… please God tell me they didn’t kill Ed Lightfoot.”
Chapter 91
'Since Watergate,” Landon told Gage, “everybody says follow the money and you’ll find the source of the corruption. But it’s not that simple.”
It was an hour before the press conference. Landon had met briefly with his staff and sent them away to
