Nelson DeMille - Night Fall

Ted Nash informed me, “You’re in way over your head, Mr. Corey.”

“And you’re up to your ass in shit.” I said, “I’m feeling triangulated. See you tomorrow.” I hung up, went to the bar, and got myself a cold beer.

Ted Nash is a master at alternating between death threats, compromises, and bribes to achieve his goals. In this case, his ultimate goal was to bury the evidence, and while he was at it, to bury me, probably Jill Winslow, and possibly Kate.

And this was the guy who Kate liked. I know the ladies like the bad boys, but Ted Nash was beyond bad; he was, to make an analogy, like a vampire-sometimes charming, mostly scary, and always evil. And he was now back from the grave to kill anyone who threatened to expose his dark secrets.

So, no matter what happened tomorrow, or the next day, this guy was not going to rest or feel safe until he killed me.

I felt the same way about him.

CHAPTER FIFTY

Jill returned with a few shopping bags, one of which contained a tube of Crest toothpaste, and the other a VHS tape of A Man and a Woman.

She sat down, took off her shoes, and put her feet up on a hassock. She commented, “I’m not used to this much walking.”

I said, “If you’re going to live in Manhattan, you’ll do a lot of walking.”

She smiled and replied, “You don’t think Mark will give me a car and a chauffeur as part of our divorce?”

“Can’t hurt to ask.” I was glad to see she still had an upbeat attitude. Starting a new life was exciting, but eventually the scary part started to sink in. It was time to brief Mrs. Winslow, and I pulled up a chair across from her and said, “I have a meeting tomorrow morning at eight-thirty-to discuss you, the videotape, and related matters.”

She nodded.

I continued, “Bud Mitchell is scheduled to be at that meeting.”

“I see. And you’d like me to be there.”

“I would.”

She thought a moment, then said, “If that’s what you want, I’ll be there.” She asked, “Who else will be there?”

I replied, “I’ll be there, of course, and probably Kate. On the other side will be Ted Nash and Liam Griffith, who you met five years ago. The third man you met, Mr. Brown, may or may not be there.”

She nodded and said, “I didn’t particularly like Ted Nash.”

“Most people don’t-me included.” Kate did, but not for much longer. I continued, “I’ve asked that my boss, Jack Koenig, be there, and perhaps a police captain named David Stein.”

“Whose side are they on?”

“That’s a very good question.” I said, “I think of this as a game between two teams-the Angels and the Demons. The players are choosing up sides now, and there could be some defections from one team to the other. The captain of the Demons is Ted Nash, and he’s not changing sides. Everyone else is waiting to see what happens at this meeting.”

“Who’s the captain of the Angels?”

“Me.”

She smiled and said, “I’m on your team. And so, too, of course is your wife.”

“Of course.” I added, “I’ve asked that a person from the attorney general’s office be there-he or she will be the referee. To continue the analogy, there may be people there who are only spectators, but who may want to get in the game.” I further added, “The videotape is the game ball.”

She didn’t reply for a few seconds, then said to me, “I still don’t understand why this is a problem. That aircraft was shot down. The people who took my erased tape and restored it know that. Who is keeping this information secret? And why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Will we know tomorrow?”

“They may tell us why, but it doesn’t matter why. They’ll never tell us who. And it doesn’t matter right now why or who. It only matters that this tape, and your testimony, and Bud’s testimony become public. The rest, I can assure you, will sort itself out.”

She nodded, then asked, “They’ve actually gotten Bud to come forward?”

“If that’s what they want, then Bud will do what they want.”

“But how about the promise made five years ago that if Bud and I answered their questions, they would never reveal our names or what happened that night?”

“A lot of things have happened since then. Don’t worry about Bud-he’s not worried about you.”

“I know.”

“And don’t feel awkward or guilty when you meet him tomorrow. You need to get up for this game.”

She looked at her feet on the hassock, and asked me, “Will the videotape be shown?”

“Probably, but neither you nor Bud need to be present.”

She nodded.

I said, “This meeting will be held in a public place-Windows on the World in the Trade Center. We may then adjourn to a Federal office in that building where the tape will be played.” I looked at her closely. She’d understood all of this as an abstraction-divorce, public exposure, and all of that-but as we got into the specifics-Windows on the World at 8:30A.M., parties present, and so forth-she was becoming somewhat anxious. I said to her, “No matter how bad any of this gets, in the end, only good will come out of this.”

“I know.”

I said, “Something else you should know. This first meeting is, quite frankly, the most dangerous.”

She looked at me.

I said, “I think that these people are desperate and therefore dangerous. If they have any chance to squash this before it gets bigger and out of their control, then their time and place for that are tomorrow, before, during, or after the meeting. Understand?”

She nodded.

I said, “I’ve taken some precautions, but I need you to be aware that anything could happen. Stay alert, stay close to me, or to Kate, or to Dom Fanelli. Don’t even go to the ladies’ room without Kate along. Okay?”

“I understand…” She asked me, “Why don’t we call the news media?”

“After tomorrow, we won’t have to call them-they’ll call us. But for now… there’s an unspoken rule in my business about going to the media. We don’t do that. Ever.” I smiled and said, “That’s a worse crime than treason or conspiracy.”

“But-”

“Trust me. By the end of the week, you’ll have all the news media you can handle for the rest of your life.”

“All right.”

I said, “Sometime tomorrow or the next day, Kate will discuss with you the Witness Protection Program, and the new identity program, if you’re interested in that.”

She didn’t reply.

I stood and said, “I need to make a phone call. You can listen.” I turned on my cell phone, canceled the anonymous feature, and dialed. I said to Jill, “My boss, Jack Koenig.”

Koenig answered his cell phone. “Corey?”

“I’m back.”

“Well… how are you? How was Yemen?”

“It was great, Jack. I wanted to thank you for the opportunity.”

“You’re quite welcome. I heard you did a good job there.”

“Well, then, you heard wrong. No one’s allowed to do a good job there.”

He said, “I’m not used to so much honesty.”

“That’s too bad. If we all started to get honest about the problem, we could find a solution.”

“We’re all doing the best we can.”

“No, we’re not. But that’s not why I called you.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Have you heard from Ted Nash?”

“No… I… what are you talking about? He’s dead.”

“He’s not, and you know it.”

There were a few seconds of silence, then Koenig asked me, “Where are you?”

“Jack, don’t waste my five minutes of untriangulated phone time with questions that I’m not going to answer. Answer my question-have you heard from Nash?”