He pulled away into traffic and I eased onto the road a few car lengths behind. I could easily keep track of him and did as I inched a little closer. The red lights were in my favor. So was the traffic. Less than five minutes later, I was right behind him. As soon as the light turned green, I moved into the other lane,waiting as the traffic rolled forward. Well. Well. Luck was still in my favor.
The light ahead had already turned yellow. He was forced to stop. So was I. Only I pulled next to him. We both had our windows down and I kept my hand on the steering wheel, waiting a few seconds before casually turning my head toward him.
He wore no expression except I noticed a slight tic on the corner of his mouth. There was no reason to make a single gesture. I was simply making certain he knew I was soon to be in his face.
When the light turned green, I headed toward the entrance to the interstate.
That was just the beginning.
If he wanted to play games, so would I.
And I’d only be a few minutes late to the glorious press conference. I headed through town, more than eager to catch the illustrious attorney general in a lie.
Or a boast.
That was one of his foibles that I intended to exploit.
As I drove, my thoughts as always turned to Valentina. She’d seemed quieter than normal while we’d shared a cup of coffee together.
I hadn’t been able to tell if she was trying to determine whether she could tolerate the man I was turning into. Maybe that’s why just before I’d walked out the door her words had surprised the hell out of me.
“Knock them dead. Literally.”
Something I might use in the future.
As usual, there was a crowd. But I knew James Worthington well enough to know that he always orchestrated his audience, beefing it up with people in his employ to make himself appear that much more important.
The fucking cockroach probably wouldn’t like that I was in attendance, but too bad. He’d crossed every line.
For the last time.
There were few things that disgusted me as much as a pontificating politician and that’s exactly what James Worthington was and had been since he’d accepted the position. No, I didn’t like him. We’d sparred more than once, his attitude and the way he handled his office abhorrent. We’d been successful at keeping a distance from each other.
The press conference had already been in motion prior to my arrival. Maybe I’d purposely wanted to be late, fearful I couldn’t stomach the full load of bullshit he doled out. Every time he stepped in front of an audience, he reacted the same way. He gloated about his successes for the first fifteen or twenty minutes so in essence I’d missed nothing.
As anticipated, there were a half dozen news stations in the audience. They were lapping up every word as if the man was God.
Yes, he was charismatic, but I’d learned quite a bit about him. He didn’t like to be challenged and had a very short fuse.
Just as James mentioned Jacob Jones’ name, I felt a presence next to me. I didn’t bristle because I knew the aftershave.
“Good to see you, Gabriel.”
He laughed. “I’m glad to see no one can sneak up on you.”
“Comes from my days of being in the Marines. I assume Chase sent you.”
“You wound me. You don’t think I have my own connections?”
“Then do share with me what you’ve learned.”
“First thing. The mole was discovered. Some shit by the name of Steven Sloan. He was an intern with Worthington all through law school. Funny how he ended up working for the prosecutor’s office. It took a little while to dig him up since the guy was good at hiding his tracks. But not good enough.” He pulled out a folded group of papers.
I was momentarily caught on the information already provided. I knew Steven Sloan. He’d assisted on several of Jasmine Guthrie’s cases that had found their way into my courtroom. Including the case against Jacob Jones. What a small world.
But certainly no coincidence.
An even smaller one given I noticed the guy dressed in a dapper suit standing dangerously close to his mentor. Steven Sloan in the flesh. Rotten apples didn’t fall too far from the tree.
