“That’s not an option anymore,” Sharp said as he crowded in behind Brad and forced him into the front hall. Carson turned on the light.
“What are you talking about?” Brad asked, suddenly frightened.
Before Sharp could answer, a large man in jeans and a leather jacket stepped from behind the door and slammed a gun butt into Sharp’s head. Sharp slumped to the floor. Two more armed men appeared from the shadows. One man was as massive as Sharp’s assailant. The other was Brad’s height and slender.
“Put your hands behind you,” Mustapha said calmly. “If you resist, we’ll hurt you, and the end result will be the same.”
“Who are you?” Carson asked.
Mustapha answered by slamming his gun into Carson’s face. The senator’s knees buckled and he looked shocked. Blood poured out of a split lip.
“We aren’t in the Senate. I ask the questions, and you keep your mouth shut except when you’re answering them. Now put your hands behind your back.”
Brad and Carson complied. One of the larger men wrenched Sharp’s arms behind him and secured his wrists with plastic cuffs. The large man who had been at Mustapha’s side stepped behind Brad and the senator and secured their hands. Then Brad, Sharp, and Carson were herded into the living room and lashed to straight-back chairs. Brad tested his ropes and found almost no give.
“Go outside and stand guard,” Mustapha said to the man who had assaulted Lucas Sharp. He left the living room, and Brad heard the front door open and close.
“Senator,” Mustapha said. “I need honest answers. If you don’t give them to me here, we will kill your friends. Then we will take you to a place where we won’t be disturbed and where I will have an unlimited amount of time to question you. If I have to resort to this backup plan, you will suffer an incredible amount of pain. Inevitably, you will tell me everything I want to know. Then you will die. Tell me what I want to know now, and all of you will live.”
Carson was shaking. His brow was beaded with sweat.
“Before we start, I am going to entertain you and your friends with a DVD Miss Koshani recorded.”
Mustapha laid his gun on an end table and picked up a remote.
“Please, no,” Carson begged. “They don’t have to see that. I’ll tell you want you want to know. Please.”
Mustapha pressed PLAY. Brad felt sick when he recognized the man wearing the dog collar. He turned his head away from the screen. Mustapha let the DVD run for a few minutes before stopping it. He turned to Carson.
“What happened at your town house on the day Jessica Koshani was murdered?”
Carson’s head dropped so he was looking at his lap. “I can’t,” he whispered.
Mustapha nodded. The man standing behind the senator took a knife and sliced off Carson’s left earlobe. The senator screamed as blood poured onto his shoulder from the wound.
“Cauterize it,” Mustapha said. The large man took out a lighter and burned the wound until it sealed. Carson was screaming right next to Brad, and Brad had to fight to keep from fainting.
“Senator Carson, what happened in the town house?” Mustapha repeated.
“It wasn’t me,” Carson gasped. “Please don’t hurt me anymore. It wasn’t me.”
“Explain.”
Carson was weeping. His eyes were fixed on the floor. His teeth were clenched from the pain.
“Lucas did it. He killed her.”
Brad looked at the chief of staff. He was glaring at his oldest friend with unconcealed contempt.
“Start at the beginning,” Mustapha commanded.
“She made me come over. She asked about the plot, what the FBI knew. Nothing had changed. I told her Homeland Security knew there was something big planned but not what the target was or when the plan was going to be executed. Then she asked me about the hearing, what would happen, what questions the committee would ask. A little before noon, she told me I could go. She was staying on the second floor in the guest bedroom. She took out a cell phone and went upstairs. As I was walking to the front door I heard her talking to someone.”
Carson paused and took a few deep breaths. When he started to speak again, his voice was ragged.
“I crept up the stairs. I was hoping I would learn who she was talking to so I would have leverage to get the DVD back. I heard her mention FedEx Field. Then she stopped talking and closed the phone. She must have heard me, because the next thing I knew, she was in the doorway with a knife. I was shocked. She stabbed at me and I jumped back. She ran at me and stabbed me in the side. I don’t remember how it happened. It must have been reflex. I hit her. It was hard and right on the chin. She fell back and hit her head on the corner of the grandfather clock. It’s solid wood, and it stunned her. I hit her again and she collapsed.
“I was in a panic. I called Luke. When he arrived, I was light-headed and in a lot of pain. Luke applied first aid, but he said a doctor should check me out. Koshani was still unconscious when he arrived, but she was breathing. I told Luke everything: the blackmail, the DVD. He said we had to force her to tell us where she had the DVD and who had copies so we could destroy them. He told me he’d been a DA when Clarence Little was killing people in Oregon. He’d seen the autopsy reports, he’d actually seen the body of one of the victims in person, and he’d read the opinion of the Oregon judge who reversed Little’s cases. The opinion described the method of torture in detail. He said he’d make it look like Little killed her.”
The senator was babbling, and Mustapha listened patiently as Brad’s boss threw his oldest friend under the bus.
“It wasn’t my idea. I didn’t even mean to hurt her. He took off her clothes and tied her to the chair. He woke her up. She was very groggy. She could barely speak. She must have had a concussion. I tried to stop him, but he cut her until she answered all of his questions. She told him where she kept the DVD. She gave him the alarm code to her house. When… when he was through, he killed her. It wasn’t me.”
Carson looked up at Mustapha. His eyes begged for mercy. Mustapha smiled and nodded to show he understood.
“Go on,” Mustapha urged his prisoner.
“Luke said I needed an alibi and someplace to rest until my wounds healed. We flew to Portland on my private jet so he could get the DVD. I told him about Dorothy Crispin. He paid her to let me stay while I healed. He knew a doctor with a drug habit from his days in the DA’s office. He took care of me for a price. It was Luke who called Dana Cutler with Crispin’s name. He said it made the alibi more believable if a reporter discovered her name.”
“Did you tell the FBI or CIA about FedEx Field?”
“No, I swear. I didn’t have time. I was in Oregon. I was hiding out. If I told, they’d know I was with Koshani when she was killed.”
Brad couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. Carson had known about the plot to destroy FedEx Field and he’d done nothing.
“I swear I never betrayed you,” Carson said. “Please, don’t kill me.”
Mustapha looked Carson in the eye. “You are truly pathetic. You are a pervert and a craven coward and a perfect example of the infidels who run your country.”
He looked at the man who was standing behind the three captives.
“Kill them.”
Chapter Forty-six
A driving rain pelted Ron Tolliver when he walked through the door of the detention center. He flipped up the hood of the sweatshirt and turned up the collar of the jacket Bobby Schatz had purchased for him. Then he checked the street for a tail. He couldn’t pick out anyone suspicious, but he was certain that someone was following him.
Tolliver thought about his next move. He had money, a gun, and false ID stashed at a pawnshop that was owned by a shell corporation controlled by Afridi. Tolliver took a bus across town, then walked a circuitous path to shake the people he was certain were tracking him. He had very little confidence that he would get to the
