“I will not consider it justified. I want him here within fifteen minutes,” Wallace said, his annoyance having turned to anger.
“I’m afraid that is impossible. If Your Honor wants to delay the reading of the verdict, I can guarantee Mr. Douglas’s presence tomorrow.”
“We will go forward today. Right now.”
They all marched into the courtroom. Andy and Eddie Dowd sat alone at the defense table as the jury was brought in. One of Andy’s superstitions is that he always puts his hand on his client’s shoulder as verdicts are read. The problem in this case was that the client, and his shoulders, were not actually in the courtroom.
“Ladies and gentlemen, have you reached a verdict?”
The foreperson stood and nodded. “Yes, Your Honor. We have.”
“YOU know, you should be thanking me.”
Jason Musgrove smiles, but he’s not really amused. “I should be thanking you?”
I nod. “Yup. They would have killed you for sure. Just like they’re going to try to kill you now. You and Stephanie Downes are probably the only two people on the planet who know who they are. They are going to disappear; why would they leave behind loose ends?” I shake my head as if I’m saddened by it all. “After all you did for them, how does it feel to be a loose end?”
He doesn’t answer. I go to the window and look out for at least the tenth time. I sure as hell hope they’re coming.
Musgrove speaks, the first time in at least a half hour. “Why did you bring your dog?”
“He’s not my dog; he’s my partner. And unlike your partners, I can trust him. He’ll also let me know when they arrive; he is impossible to sneak up on.”
As if to prove my point, Simon suddenly sits up, alert. I look out the window and see them pull up, just behind my car. There are two of them; they get out and look around quickly. Determining that nothing is out of the ordinary, they walk to the house.
They don’t bother to knock; the door is open. The two of them come in … Don Crystal and the man who pretended to be Steven Landry, son of Doris. Steven, or whatever his real name is, is the one holding the gun.
“Well, well … I didn’t expect you to be here yet,” Crystal says to me. “I thought we’d have to kill him and then wait for you.”
I frown. “I’ve got to tell you, you look better in pajamas. Although, the truth is, you look like an asshole either way. In any event, where you’re going, they’ll tell you how to dress. And you can trade cigarettes for Tang.” I then turn to his partner. “Steven, so sorry to hear about your mom.”
I’m pretending to be calmer than I am; I wish the bulletproof vest that I’m wearing could cover my entire body and head, but they don’t make them like that.
Simon is less interested in acting amiable. He starts to growl.
“Shut that dog up,” the fake Steven Landry says.
“Simon. Easy,” I say to calm him down. I don’t want Landry taking a shot at Simon.
“Hello, Jason,” Crystal says, turning to Musgrove with a smile on his face. “Sorry it had to end this way.”
“It doesn’t,” Musgrove says, his voice shaking.
“Oh, but it does. You know far too much.”
“My lawyer and partners also know everything,” I say. “The jig, to coin a phrase, is up.”
Crystal smiles. “Doesn’t matter what they know. We will have ceased to exist.”
“Amazing,” I say. “You create people on a computer, give them full lives, then kill them off and collect the insurance. What a world. And I can barely send an email.”
Crystal smiles. “You are indeed in the presence of genius.”
“On the other hand, you were too stupid to realize that I used Stephanie Downes to call you and send you here. And you’re too stupid to realize that right now there are at least three sets of guns pointed at you.”
“Freeze! Drop the weapon!” I think it’s Pete Stanton’s voice coming from the doorway, but it could be that of Robbie Lillard, standing at the open window.
But Landry does not drop the gun; he raises it to fire. This time I’m certain that it’s Pete who centers two bullets on his chest; I watch him do it.
I look at the obviously deceased Landry and shake my head. “I’m just glad his poor mom isn’t here to see this.”
I watch as Lillard and two officers come in and place Crystal and Musgrove under arrest. I’ve been calm this entire time, but suddenly my heart starts to pound when I realize that I’m about to find out whether I’m going to prison.
I call Andy on his cell, and he answers with two words.
“Not guilty.”
It takes me a little while to reduce the lump in my throat enough to thank him, then I walk over and hug Simon. “Looks like you’re stuck with me for a while, buddy.”
IT’S been just two days, and already the FBI has completely taken over the investigation.
That is no surprise; the conspiracy has not only crossed state lines, but it probably operated in every state in the country. One of the first things the Feds did was ask to interview me, and I spoke to them for four and a half hours yesterday.
They expected it to be a one-way informational street, but I quickly set different ground rules. In return for providing them with the information I had, and which they desperately needed, I demanded and extracted information from them.
The local mop-up went quickly. Laurie detained Stephanie Downes until the police arrived to place her under arrest. Marcus was at Don Crystal’s house, and when he and Landry left, Marcus moved in to detain the two other members of Crystal’s cyber team, who were working inside.
Marcus’s method of detaining
