“I can’t tell you. I got it from a confidential source who’s involved with the government. If you say there’s a Malone case, that could be where she got it.”
“Hmph. She, huh? I’ll think about that. Anyway, the Malone case involved one of my clients, Malone Materials. Malone lost a military procurement bid to another company and didn’t understand why since the other company had no expertise in the required area, which involved retrofitting certain military vehicles with lightweight side-panel armor as protection against improvised explosive devices. We sued. There was never any absolute proof, but it became quite clear to me and others who were handling the case that Parrish had been involved in discussions between the Army procurement people and a number of members of both the House and the Senate. Their discussions ended with the other company, Inter-Core Ballistics, getting higher procurement grades despite its lack of experience and markedly higher prices for the panels. I believe money changed hands in a variety of ways, and some of it stuck to Parrish’s hands and probably the hands of some members of the procurement team. A good bit probably wound up in reelection funds.”
“Bribes,” Lucas said.
“Not only bribes—but bribes that channeled money to a company with no experience in a mission critical manufacturing operation and so risked the lives of American troops,” Ingram said.
“That’s... ugly,” Lucas said. “Parrish seems to be doing quite well in his continuing military career. In the Army Reserve.”
“I didn’t know that, but, now that I do, I’ll ask around. Do you really think that he tried to kill Smalls?”
“That’s a conclusion you jumped to.”
“Don’t bullshit me, Davenport, it won’t work. I saw your facewhen I mentioned the Smalls accident.” She turned away, thinking, snapped her fingers, turned back, and said, “Got it: Smalls and Taryn Grant. Parrish now works for Grant. That is very, very, interesting. Very.”
“Don’t jump to more conclusions... And don’t try to use that,” Lucas said.
“I don’t think I’m jumping to anything,” she said. “You’ve got something about the accident, don’t you? What is it? I’d love to get something good on Parrish and/or Grant.”
Lucas said, “Miz Ingram, let me suggest you forget about all these... speculations. I’m afraid if you go somewhere with them, somebody might come to your nice brick house and hurt you.”
“Really.” Skepticism, not a question.
“Really,” Lucas said. “Listen, we’re looking at a... at a bare possibility. The most likely thing that happened in the Smalls accident is that he and the driver both had a little to drink, she lost it and went off the road. We need to check, and that’s what I’m doing. I’ve gotten the impression from... other people... that Parrish is a dangerous guy. If you try to stick it to him, or he thinks you will, you could have a problem.”
“I will take that under advisement,” she said.
“Sit tight for a couple of weeks—that’s all you have to do,” Lucas said. “By that time, I’ll have figured out whether Parrish was involved in the accident. If he was, I’ll handle it. If he wasn’t, I’ll let you know. No point in taking risks that you don’t have to.”
“I will take that under advisement as well,” she said. “Boy—Taryn Grant and Jack Parrish. That’s a mix ’n’ match, huh?”
“They actually—” Lucas cut himself off.
“Are well suited to each other, that’s what you were about to say,” Ingram said. “I don’t know much about Grant, but I doknow about the controversy when she was elected. Were you involved in that investigation?”
“I led it; for the state,” Lucas said.
“Now you’re a federal marshal. There wasn’t any political influence involved in that, was there?”
Lucas shook his head. “I didn’t know you were a trial attorney.”
“So, I’m starting to see it. U.S. senator gets jobbed by an opposition candidate, who takes his seat. He gets himself elected again and immediately begins peeing on his opponent’s shoes—or, in Grant’s case, her Christian Louboutin pumps. Grant is a murderous witch who lands on the Senate Intelligence Committee, where she connects with a hustler who has ties both to the military and the CIA and does her a favor by trying to kill the U.S. senator who’s peeing on her presidential chances. Smalls, who has used his influence to get the man who saved his bacon an appointment as a federal marshal, gets the marshal to investigate the witch,” Ingram said, finally taking a breath. “Man, is this a great country or what?”
—
LUCAS SAIDhe’d stay in touch, and Ingram said, “Oh, do. I’m fascinated.” Back in his car, he tried to call the other two people on the list and again got no answer, so he headed back to the hotel.
After leaving his car with the valet, he was walking through the lobby when the security chief, who he’d met when he was checking in, flagged him over. He’d learned the man’s name was Steve Schneider.
“Did you... have a friend in your room? A male friend, maybe another marshal?” Schneider asked.
“A friend? No... what happened?”
“One of my guys was doing routine floor checks and he heard a door close. A guy was coming down the hall, and my guy got the impression he’d come out of that stub hallway to your room. There was no reason to stop him, so he went on his way. There’s nobody in the other room on that hall. I thought I should mention it.”
“Thanks. Any sign he’d actually been inside my room?”
“No, no. We would have stopped him if we thought he had been,” Schneider said.
