Kane chose the role he is playing, which makes him guilty, not insane.
In a limited sense, yes, Lucy replied, determined to match him monologue for monologue. But just because people choose a role for whatever reason-money, power, whatever else turns Mr. Kane on-it doesn’t necessarily mean they understand how their part will play out in the end. Judas chose to betray Jesus, but did he know that by doing so he caused the most far-reaching social and spiritual revolution ever? But let’s say you’re right…maybe there’s no demon that possessed Hans Lichner and there never was that spark inside of him. That it’s all bullshit. Maybe he chose to play the part of a monster who did that to little boys… but when he threw the rosaries into the grave, was he choosing to be the instrument for justice that brought down his master, Andrew Kane? Because that’s what happened. Or maybe there was something left of the divine in him that made him do it in order to alter the role his conscious mind, or the demon, chose?
Or maybe it was just a part of his personality disorder, Karp countered. Maybe it just fed his ego to say, “I did what I wanted, and I want you to know it was me and not some other brute. And I’m leaving this clue because you’re too stupid and weak to catch me anyway.”…And by the way, you just contradicted yourself.
How’s that? Lucy replied, a little testily he noticed.
You said that this “spark of the divine” in him CHOSE to assume a different role for good, Karp said. But earlier, you were arguing that it’s all some sort of enormous play that’s already been written, that we’ve already been cast, and we’re just playing out our parts…no choice in the matter.
No contradiction. You’re just not giving God enough credit to anticipate where free will would take us, Lucy said smugly. He works in mysterious ways, you know.
Lucy had ended the debate with a parting shot at his “advanced age” from the As You Like It soliloquy they’d been tossing back and forth. I guess Old Bill knew what he was saying when he wrote, the “Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion. Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” Sound familiar, old man? Oops, Ned’s here, gotta go, love you, Daddy.
Karp picked up the evidence bag containing the rosary beads. He’d handled a lot of murder weapons in his career-axes, guns, daggers, golf clubs, an oil-soaked rag that had been stuffed down a bookie’s throat suffocating him and then lit on fire…you name it, it had been used to commit homicide. But there was something about the rosary beads, perhaps the horrible irony that caused the skin on his hand to crawl as he put the bag back down.
Jaxon had been livid when he returned from California. Only a few people were supposed to know Fey was there, he sputtered in Karp’s office. Even the warden only knew that the old man was under the Witness Protection Program. Other than that, a couple of people in my agency knew-but not Grover, who would have been the logical choice for traitor. So that leaves me with another mole and very few people I can trust.
What about the Homeland Security guys? Karp asked. Did any of them know?
Jaxon looked like he was going to say something and then thought better of it. I don’t really know what they know, he said. They’re worse than the CIA with the “need-to-know” stuff. I don’t even know what kind of access they have to FBI files-some of this stuff is being handled at the very top, director to director, and us low-level flunkies are not privy to those conversations…. But I’d say no simply because they didn’t get into this until after Kane’s escape and the connection to Samira Azzam was made…. And considering Grover was one of mine, it would be pretty ballsy of me to point the finger at some other agency.
Hoping it would lift Jaxon’s spirits, Karp presented him with a copy of the photograph of Samira Azzam given to him the night before by his uncle. Apparently, the Israelis can vouch for its authenticity, he said.
This could be invaluable, Jaxon said. Where did you get it?
I’m not at liberty to say at the moment, Karp replied. He didn’t feel like explaining his relationship with a Brooklyn crime family to an FBI agent, even one with whom he’d been friends for years. But this same person has a theory that Kane and Azzam might be after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
Jaxon had stared at Karp like he’d just told him the name of the man on the grassy knoll in Dallas. I’m really not supposed to say anything about this, but between you and me that scenario has emerged as the number-one theory. Apparently, the terrorist who was killed when Kane escaped, Akhmed Kadyrov, had a telephone number in his pocket-no name or anything else with it, but it rings into the office of the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations. Maybe that means something, maybe not. But there’s also been some chatter on internet websites we monitor that al Qaeda has something big planned in the United States for September, which is when Putin is scheduled to speak.
What’s Kane get out of this? Karp had asked. He’s not the “political causes” type.
I don’t know…money. Jaxon shrugged. Al Qaeda has almost limitless funds, which Americans contribute to every time they fill up their cars with gas-either directly, or to governments that support these hyenas. So Kane arranges whatever they need and gets a flat fee and maybe asylum, some sweet penthouse overlooking downtown Tehran. Or maybe there’s more to it than that. The important thing will be to learn as much as we can about their plans, and then try to lure them into a trap. This photo will help us spot Azzam. His brows knit. If the Israelis have this, I wonder why we didn’t?
Someone spoke to him. Karp looked up from the rosary beads.
“So the killer was a fake priest?” Murrow asked again.
“Uh, sorry, Gilbert, I was somewhere else,” Karp apologized.
“I was just saying that Fey’s killer was a fake priest,” Murrow repeated.
“Well, if he was a fake, he was a good one,” Karp replied. “According to Jaxon, he even delivered mass in Latin for the Hispanic population and took confession from at least two staff members who said he knew all the rites.”
“So maybe a former priest who found a new line of work,” Newbury said. “He was obviously sent by Kane, so maybe he’ll turn up in the ‘No Prosecution’ cases. Espey Jaxon can send one of his feds over, and we’ll take a look at the possibilities. Maybe somebody at the prison farm will recognize this guy from a booking photograph, if there is one.”
Newbury was referring to hundreds of criminal complaints against cops, and, in a separate section, Catholic priests accused of sexual assault and other crimes. The city and archdiocese-trying to avoid lawsuits and the media-had hired Kane’s law firm to settle the cases quietly, as well as vet them to determine if they should also be turned over to the DAO for prosecution. Some, chiefly those Kane had no use for, or he disliked for some reason, had been sent to the DAO with the recommendation that criminal charges be filed. But many others had been stamped “No Prosecution” and forwarded on to Karp’s predecessors, who had filed them away in a secret cabinet.
Kane had used the cases to manipulate “dirty cops” into working for him as his own private army of enforcers, up to and including murder. He also had protected sexual offenders within the ranks of the priesthood in part to gain control of the archdiocese but with the ultimate goal of eventually having the accusations “discovered” by the press, thereby destroying the church through scandal and debasement. It was through his counsel that then-Archbishop Fey chose to remain ignorant of what was going on; believing, as Kane whispered in his ear, that he was protecting the church for the greater good.
However, while working on a cleanup crew at the Criminal Courts building, an emerging rap singer named Alejandro Garcia had discovered the “No Prosecution” files, recognized what they contained, and turned them over to his mentor and friend, Father Michael Dugan, a confidant of Marlene. The priest had then arranged to get the files into Karp’s hands.
After Kane’s arrest, Karp had turned V. T. Newbury loose on the “No Prosecution” inquiry, telling him to
