Phillip Margolin - Supreme Justice

Brad’s voice shook as he told Justice Price-without naming Dana or Ginny-what had been uncovered about Woodruff’s case. Price maintained a blank expression during the narrative. If they’d been expecting Price to break down and confess, Justice Moss and her clerk were disappointed.

“I haven’t heard anything but guesswork and hearsay,” Price said when Brad was finished. “You’d never get any of that admitted in court.”

“Our conferences are not courts of law, Millard,” Felicia said quietly. “The hearsay rule doesn’t apply. But common sense does, and I believe that our brethren will be as upset with you as I am when they know what happened on that ship and the attempts that you and your school friend made to cover it up-attempts that may have included an attempt on my life.

“Tell me, Millard, what will you do if a member of the House of Representatives begins impeachment proceedings? How will you and Dennis Masterson cover up what you did when the government and the press put this sordid episode under a microscope.”

The smug look disappeared from Price’s face, and Brad could tell that he finally understood his position.

“Thank you for your help, Brad. Why don’t you leave me and Justice Price so we can continue this discussion?”

Brad was torn. He wanted nothing more to do with the China Sea, but he didn’t want to leave his boss with a man who might try to kill her. Moss saw his indecision. She smiled.

“I’ll be fine, Brad. Please go. And tell Carrie I don’t want to be interrupted.”

Brad stepped out and gave Carrie the message. He rounded the corner and was about to step into his office when his cell phone vibrated. He looked down to check the caller ID and almost ran into Harriet Lezak.

“Sorry,” Brad said.

“No problem.”

Harriet headed down the hall.

“Hey, Keith,” Brad said.

“Don’t react. Just say yes or no. Is Harriet Lezak with you?”

“No. She just left our office. Why?”

“She’s an impostor. The real Harriet Lezak has been dead for months.”

“Jesus!”

“I’m pulling into the Court garage. I’ll be upstairs in a few minutes.”

As Brad disconnected, he remembered that Justice Moss and Justice Price were alone and Harriet had been heading in the direction of the judge’s chambers. He sprinted back. Carrie had been sitting at her desk moments ago, but he didn’t see her. Then he saw a foot jutting out past her desk. He walked around it and found the judge’s secretary sprawled on the floor. He knelt quickly and felt for a pulse. As soon as he found one, Brad rushed to the door of Justice Moss’s chambers and yanked it open. Harriet was standing in the middle of the room, pointing a gun at Price and Moss. She turned her head toward Brad, and Justice Price launched himself across the room with the determination he’d shown decades earlier on the gridiron. Harriet turned back and fired. Price staggered but he was close enough to wrap Lezak in a bear hug. His momentum sent them crashing to the floor. When they hit, Harriet’s right arm was pinned to her side and the gun was pointed down her leg. Price held her so tightly that she couldn’t turn the barrel toward him.

Brad scanned the room for a weapon and grabbed a heavy ceremonial gavel that had been given to Justice Moss by the NAACP. Price and Lezak were thrashing around on the floor. The justice was bleeding badly and he was weakening. Lezak got some space between their bodies and started to sit up. Brad smashed the gavel on her skull. Blood poured from her scalp. She turned her head toward Brad and he whipped the gavel into her face with so much force that the head of it flew off.

Lezak slumped back, but she still held the gun. Brad stamped on her wrist and her hand opened. As he kicked the gun away, Lezak grabbed his ankle and whipped it up. Brad toppled over. Lezak heaved Price off her. Brad got to his knees. Lezak turned to face him. The handle of the gavel was jagged where the head had snapped off. Brad didn’t hesitate. He plunged the jagged edge into Lezak’s neck. Blood spurted out and her hands flew to the wound just as the door flew open and Keith Evans ran in, followed by two members of the Supreme Court police force and a redheaded woman Brad had never seen before.

Two days later, Justice Moss and Brad Miller sat quietly in the judge’s chambers while Keith Evans brought them up to speed on the investigation.

“Justice Price passed away last night,” he said.

“Oh my,” Felicia said. A tear drifted down her cheek. “He saved my life, you know. When Harriet pulled the gun, he begged her to spare me. Then he took the bullet that was meant for me.”

“Lezak would probably have killed him anyway,” Keith said. “When we swept your chambers, we found a listening device. She could hear everything you said in here, which means she heard you and Brad lay out the investigation. She couldn’t let Price talk, and you were a witness and you were going to vote to grant Woodruff’s cert petition.”

“Has Harriet-or whatever her real name is-has she said anything?” Brad asked.

“She’s still not able to speak.”

“How did she become a clerk?” Brad asked. With everything that had gone on, he’d never had a chance to find out how Keith knew “Lezak” was an impostor.

Keith told them everything Daphne Haggard had discovered in Inverness.

“Without Price, we can’t prove everything,” Keith said, “but here’s what I think happened. Masterson would have kept track of Woodruff’s case. When the Oregon Supreme Court denied her appeal, he must have told Price that they needed a mole on the Court to keep track of the way some of the more liberal judges were leaning and to try and influence them. I’m guessing that Masterson made a study of the students at the top of second-tier law schools until he found one who looked like one of his operatives. Daphne Haggard told me how excited Dean Ostgard was at the possibility of placing a La Follette grad in a Supreme Court clerkship. It wasn’t much of an effort to get him to keep Price’s experiment secret, and the real Harriet Lezak was thrilled by the opportunity to get the most prestigious law job in the country.

“A few months before the offer was made, the impostor befriended Lezak. She may have posed as a fellow runner and killed Harriet in the forest during a run. Then she chopped up the body to hide it and stall identification as long as possible in case someone stumbled across the body parts.”

Keith addressed Justice Moss. “Once Price hired Lezak, he maneuvered you into taking her on as your clerk. Her first chance to influence your decision in Woodruff came when you assigned her to write a memo about the legal issues raised by the case. Brad has reviewed the phony Lezak’s legal work. He said it was pretty high quality. She’s probably a lawyer or had legal training. She used her memo to convince you to vote against granting cert, but you had reservations about the case. That made you a potential target. I’m guessing that Masterson told her to take you out when Price told him that you were responsible for convincing the justices to defer the vote on Woodruff in the conference.”

“Do you have a case against Masterson?” Justice Moss asked.

“I’ll be honest with you, Judge. If we can’t get the phony Lezak to talk, we have nothing.”

“Agent Evans,” the judge said, “I will do everything in my power to see that the events on the China Sea receive as much publicity as they possibly can. Once the other justices learn what’s happened, I’m guessing that cert will be granted. There are going to be congressional inquiries, investigative reports. Dennis Masterson will not get away scot-free.”