Robert Tanenbaum - Malice

Are you talking about Grale's warning in the hospital? Marlene asked. Look, I appreciate what he's done for this family, and for New York. But you do realize that he's at least half insane. He sees a conspiracy of evil behind every crime when sometimes it's just a bad guy doing a bad thing.

Yeah, I know, Karp replied. Still, I can't discount that most of his information has been right on the money; in fact, I've wondered how someone who spends his life underground fighting "demons" has such solid connections. I just hope that when we catch whoever it is pulling the strings in this puppet show, there'll be evidence that this conspiracy to commit murder was hatched in the County of New York so that I can have a shot at them in court.

Aren't you taking this a little personally? Marlene cautioned.

Karp knew that her point was valid. His mentor, Francis Garrahy, had always warned about the pitfall of getting emotionally involved in cases, especially homicides.

Our job is a search for truth, not retribution, the old man would lecture. We are not advocates for the victims. Our responsibility is to objectively weigh the evidence. Was the crime committed in our jurisdiction? Do we have legally admissible evidence that is likely to lead a jury to a verdict of guilty?

Passion was okay, he'd say, if it was a passion for doing the job right. Emotion was human nature, and even a valuable asset in the theater of the courtroom during an opening statement or closing argument. To care is human and juries like that. But not if it distracts from the central truth of the case.

Garrahy's voice echoed down the long hall of time, and Karp knew that the old DA and Marlene were right, but still…I'm just trying to connect the dots, Marlene, he'd told her. I know the answer is right in front of me, I just have to keep looking until I can see it.

Marlene had stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. I know, babe, she whispered. You're still recuperating, and I was just trying to mother-hen you a little.

Alone in the loft, his wife across the street, painting, his twin boys at the movies, and Lucy in New Mexico, Karp glanced back at the legal pad. Each column of names had a heading. Under "Kane's Escape"-meaning those people who knew the route of the motorcade-the list started with himself, then Clay Fulton, V. T. Newbury, who had been investigating Kane's tentacles into the NYPD and the Catholic Archdiocese of New York, his appeals chief, Harry Kipman, who was also one of Karp's most trusted lieutenants, and Gilbert Murrow, who as Karp's aide had acted as the liaison between the feds and Fulton. After that, there were the possibilities outside his office: the traitor Michael Grover, followed by FBI agent S. P. Jaxon, who'd been Grover's boss, and a list of four names from the U.S. Justice Department to whom Jaxon and Grover reported. That was it.

Another column was headed "Archbishop Fey," a reference to the former archbishop of the New York archdiocese, Timothy Fey, who had looked the other way while his attorney, Kane, used the church to further his criminal empire. Fey had been awaiting the call to testify on a prison farm in California where he was living under a witness protection program alias. Yet, Kane had discovered Fey's whereabouts and sent an assassin, who strangled the old man in the barn.

Only a few people had known where Fey was incarcerated. That list included the same people from the DAO and most of the same federal names, except for Grover, who'd been killed after Kane's escape and had never been apprised of Fey's location. Unless Jaxon told him, Karp thought. Nah, there was no reason to tell him, and Espey knows how to keep a secret.

A third column was simply titled "Aspen." Acting on a tip, federal agents had surrounded the house of a Saudi Arabian prince in Aspen, Colorado, under the belief that Kane was hiding there, guarded by Islamic terrorists. However, it was a trap and an enormous bomb had exploded, leveling the mansion and killing the hostages, the terrorists, and a half dozen federal agents.

Again, those in the know were the inner circle from the DAO, as well as Jaxon and his superiors in the FBI and Justice Department. New to the mix was Jon Ellis, the assistant director of special operations for the Department of Homeland Security, who'd stepped in after Kane's escape.

Some of the names on the pad Karp had crossed off, especially those who fell under only one heading, such as the prison farm administrator. He also would have crossed Ellis off, but he had not and wasn't sure why.

Personally, Karp didn't like the man. He thought the agent acted superior and condescending. Then there was the little matter after Kane escaped yet again, this time from St. Patrick's Cathedral. When Jaxon and Ellis, who had been outside directing the federal response to the hostage crisis, learned that Kane was gone, leaving the terrorists to blow the place up, Ellis had disappeared. He'd later explained that he'd run to a different communications truck to issue a BOLO, Be On the Lookout, to his agency for Agent Vic Hodges, aka Kane, at the airports, train stations, and bus terminals.

Still, Karp had asked Newbury, who had connections at the State Department and the Justice Department, to check Ellis out. The report had come back spotless, if anyone in the intelligence world could be considered clean. Ellis was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, from which he'd gone into the Navy's elite SEALs commando force and served with distinction, earning a Silver Star and Purple Heart. However, that was followed by a period of time for which Newbury's sources could not account for Ellis.

My guess is he went from military hero to spook-NSA or CIA, maybe something even further off the map, Newbury said. My sources indicated that Ellis was involved in some very nasty "wet work" in trouble spots around the world that resulted in the early demise of some noted terrorists. He reemerged after 9/11 in his current role with Homeland Security and, again according to my source, has been effective at countering terrorist plans the likes of which would terrify this country's citizens if they knew about them.

You're convinced he's a good guy? Karp asked.

Newbury hesitated. I've only met him a couple of times and I also find him a hard guy to like, he said. Then again, he's in a business where maybe being likable is not an asset. I would say that his resume suggests that he wouldn't be likely to consort with enemies of the United States. If anything, he's what you might call a "super patriot."

I don't know if I trust that sort either, Karp growled. They all seem to know what's best for the rest of us, Constitution be damned.

With his pen hovering above Ellis's name on the legal pad, Karp recalled the conversation with Newbury and wondered how his friend was doing. A longtime colleague, V.T. was obviously under a lot of strain after the unexpected death of his father from a heart attack two weeks earlier. Beneath his sometimes rigid blue-blooded exterior, Vinson Talcott Newbury was a gentle soul who'd loved his dad and grieved even as he went about his duties at the DAO. Karp had told him to take as much time as he needed; however, except for a day or two on either side of the funeral and memorial services, he'd preferred to work.

If anything, he's what you might call a "super patriot." Karp's pen moved to scratch out Ellis. The agent wasn't involved in the motorcade and wasn't privy to Fey's whereabouts. His explanation about running to a communication truck to issue a BOLO had checked out; a Homeland Security helicopter had been on the scene when Kane dove into the Harlem River and drowned. Karp lifted the pen and left his name on the list.

Glancing farther down the page, his eyes rested on one final name. Jamys Kellagh. Grale thought Kellagh was the man pulling Kane's strings. But extensive checks by Murrow and Newbury had not been able to turn up anyone with that name who could even remotely be tied to Kane or terrorists. He drew a circle around the name, but there was no sense drawing any lines connecting it to any other name or heading.