Джон Гришэм - The Judge’s List

“Call the police!” Lacy said.

Bannick landed a kick in the face and Gunther was stunned. He crawled away, grabbing at anything, finding nothing. Bannick ducked into his room, got his laptop, and disappeared toward the exit.

Lacy and Gunther found the stairs and hustled down one flight to the dark lobby. The receptionist had a flashlight and was saying to some guests, “I don’t know, I don’t know. Same thing happened last night.”

“Call the police,” Lacy said. “We were attacked on the second floor.”

“Who attacked you?”

That’s a long story, Lacy thought, but said, “Hell if I know. Hurry, he’s getting away.” More flashlights appeared from behind the desk as more guests stumbled down in the dark.

Gunther found a chair and took a seat to nurse his wounds. “Son of a bitch can kick like a mule,” he said, still dazed. “I think my ribs are broken.” Lacy sat next to him as things settled down and they waited for the police. She said, “I have to call Jeri. I think she’s in trouble.”

“Who’s Jeri?”

“Betty Roe. Our girl. The source. I’ll explain later.”

Jeri did not answer her phone, which was not at all unusual. Lacy scrolled through her recent calls and punched the number for Clay Vidovich. He answered after the second ring and she told him where she was, what had happened, and said she was certain they had been set up by Ross Bannick. She could not positively identify him but everything added up. He was in the process of fleeing the area. No, she did not see what he was driving. Vidovich was having dinner with his team in downtown Pensacola, an hour away. He would notify the Florida state police and get the authorities in Mobile to check on Jeri. Lacy was certain they would not find her there. Vidovich was headed her way and told Lacy to inform the motel not to touch the two rooms.

Moments later, the local police arrived with blue lights flashing. They found the lobby in chaos as guests milled about in the semidarkness. The motel’s lighting smart panel and security grid had been hacked and no one on the skeletal staff knew what to do. Lacy explained as much as she could and gave a general description of Bannick. No, she had no idea what he was driving. They, too, called the state police, but with no description of the vehicle they were not sure where to begin.

A clerk appeared with two small bags of ice, one for Gunther’s ribs, the other for his jaw, which was swollen but probably not broken. He was still a bit groggy and breathing was painful, but he refused to complain and wanted to get back to his airplane. A janitor rigged up a portable gas generator and, suddenly, the lobby was lit. There was not enough voltage for air-conditioning and the temperature rose fast. Several of the guests spilled into the parking lot and loitered around their vehicles.

He fought the urge to race down the state highway and kept his speed close to the limit. Overreacting would only cause more trouble, and he willed himself to drive reasonably while he thought through what had just happened. He had been ambushed for the first time in his career and he was certain he’d made mistakes. But he still wore plastic gloves and knew he’d left behind no prints, no evidence. He had entered the room with only a smartphone and a laptop and both were now at the bottom of a pond outside of Crestview. His right shoulder ached from the fight, or whatever it could be called. He never saw the man, never heard him coming. He had his hands on Lacy for only a second before being tackled and knocked down. Then she started screaming.

It was probably Darren Trope, her colleague. Son of a bitch.

He soon crossed into Alabama, took a detour, and drove through the Conecuh National Forest. As he approached the town of Andalusia, population 9,000, he decided to circle around it. It was almost ten thirty on a Saturday night and the cops would be out in force. He didn’t need a GPS because he had memorized the highways and roads. He saw the signs for Gantt Lake and zigzagged his way in its direction. He drove through the quiet village of Antioch without seeing another human, and the roads narrowed. Less than two miles from his next turn onto a gravel road, he was shocked to see blue lights bearing down from behind. His speedometer was at fifty, the limit, and he knew he had not been speeding. There were no traffic lights to run through. He slowed even more and gawked at the county patrol car as it flew past. Saturday night, probably a brawl in a honky-tonk. The blue lights disappeared in front of him.

He would kill her quickly and be on his way. The cabin was clean, no clues as always. He would decorate the job with a perfect knot, only fitting since she was so curious about it.

The gravel road ran deeper into the woods, into the darkness where the cabin waited. Suddenly there were more blue lights, another county boy hot on his trail. He slowed almost to a stop and got out of the way. The car slid past, missing his by inches, a boiling cloud of dust in its wake. Something wasn’t right.

He turned onto the dirt trail that ended at the cabin’s front door, so deep in the woods it could not be seen by anyone passing by. He saw a clearing with a gap in the fence and pulled off the road. He backed into some undergrowth, got out, and jogged toward the cabin. Around a bend, he saw a terrible sight. The cabin was a scene, with cops and blue lights everywhere.

The two boys, ages fifteen and sixteen, had arrived on ATVs before dark. They noticed the smoke from the chimney and knew someone was there for the weekend, but the silver Tahoe had just left. They watched the cabin, watched the road, and waited until long after dark before kicking in the front door. They were looking for guns, fishing gear, anything of value. They found nothing but a dead black woman lying on the bed, her wrists cuffed behind her, her ankles chained together.

They panicked, fled, and didn’t stop until they wheeled into a country store, closed for the evening. They called 911 from a pay phone and reported a dead woman in the old Sutton cabin off Crab Hill Road. When the dispatcher asked their names, they hung up and hurried home.

Jeri was taken by ambulance to a regional hospital in Enterprise, Alabama. She was awake, severely nauseated, dehydrated, and still not lucid, but recovering quickly. At midnight, she was talking to the state police and filling in the gaps. She had been drugged so much by Bannick that she had not seen his vehicle, so there was no description. A quick search, though, gave the police his make, model, and license plates.

At 1:00 a.m., a detective called Lacy’s number. She was at home in Tallahassee, safe, and tending to her brother, who had been X-rayed and given painkillers. The detective smiled, handed his phone to Jeri, and when they heard each other’s voices, they burst into tears.

By then he was cruising into Birmingham, with fake Texas tags on his Tahoe. He parked in the long-term lot at the international airport and, carrying his overnight bag, entered the main terminal. He sipped an espresso at a coffee bar and killed time. He found a row of seats with a view of the runways and tried to nap, just another weary traveler. When the Avis counter opened at six, he ambled over and chatted with the clerk. Using a fake driver’s license and a prepaid credit card issued to an alias, he rented a Honda, one with California tags, and left the airport, headed west. Far west. For the next twenty hours he would drive virtually nonstop, pay cash for gas, pop bennies, and slug endless cups of black coffee.

At seven thirty Sunday morning two teams of FBI agents and technicians, backed up by locals, crashed into Bannick’s world. The first entered his home with a crowbar and disarmed his security systems, but not before arousing the neighbors. The second entered the Chavez County Courthouse, with the assistance of Diana Zhang and a janitor, and began combing through his desk, file cabinets, bookshelves, anything he might have touched. They quickly realized the file cabinets were empty, as were his desk drawers. Diana was surprised to see so many of his personal items missing. Framed photos and awards and certificates, letter openers, pens, writing pads, paperweights. She went to her desk to look for files he had dealt with, and found the drawers empty. His desktop computer could not be accessed and its hard drive was missing. It was taken to a van to be shipped to a lab.