Richard Patterson - Balance of Power

Curtly nodding, Bond answered with veiled sarcasm. "Please."

Sarah's own voice was shaky but determined. "I do believe that politics and morality should coincide. As should justice and morality.

"As a lawyer, I deeply regret abridging this Court's order. It was a painful choice, and I apologize to you for the offense caused by the choice I felt I had to make." Sarah paused, then decided to take a chance. "As I made it, I could only hope that it was a judgment the Court would have considered making, had it stood where I stood, and known what I knew . . ."

"You're badly mistaken," Bond interjected sharply. "The choice was this Court's, not yours. Your only role was to ask me to dissolve the order."

Helpless, Sarah moved her shoulders. "There was no time," she said simply.

This clear reference to the Senate's pending vote seemed to deepen Bond's annoyance. Behind her, Sarah heard John Nolan's voice. "May I speak on behalf of Lexington, Your Honor?"

Bond gave a slightly more pacific nod. "Counsel."

Stepping forward, Nolan glanced at the piece of paper he held.

"Your Honor," he said in a subdued voice, "in light of my client's reevaluation of its interests in this litigation, our firm may be withdrawing as counsel. However, Mr. Callister has directed me to tell the Court that Lexington does not ask for, or endorse, any sanctions against Ms. Dash. However much or little that may weigh in the Court's consideration."

As surprised as, judging from his expression, was Gardner Bond himself, Sarah saw an indignant Harrison Fancher quickly rise to seek the judge's attention. "I assume," the judge said tartly, "that you don't share Mr. Callister's somewhat gratuitous beneficence."

"We do not." Fancher's tone was one of open anger. "The SSA views Mr. Callister's testimony as slander—a tissue of lies used by Ms. Dash and her client, in blatant disregard of this Court's order, to shift the blame for the shootings to the SSA and to curry favor with the President. Who, as we all know, is the éminence grise of this entire travesty of justice."

Fancher shot a venomous glance at Sarah. "For her role," he concluded harshly, "we believe that Ms. Dash should face disbarment. That's a proper sanction for a lawyer who can't conform herself to the law."

Beside Sarah, Lenihan prepared to respond. Swiftly, she whispered, "Let it go, Bob."

He gave her a puzzled look, but Sarah was watching Bond. The judge, confronted for the first time with a packed courtroom, was forced to consider how appearances might affect his own prospects of promotion, fully aware that the sole counterbalance to the President's measured comments was the harsh demand of a very besmirched SSA. To Sarah, Bond's stern air seemed newly tempered by a hesitance which betrayed the tacit erosion of his power.

"All right," he snapped. "By their own admission, Ms. Dash and the Kilcannon Center stand in contempt of court. It is not up to lawyers to select which orders to obey. Accordingly, the Court orders that Ms. Dash and the Kilcannon Center each pay a fine of two thousand dollars. The Court will also send a copy of this order to the State Bar of California."

Abruptly, Bond cracked his gavel. "All rise," his courtroom deputy intoned. As the onlookers stood, Bond strode stiffly from the bench, covering his retreat with a last show of judicial dignity.

Glancing at Nolan and Fancher, Sarah suppressed a smile. The jaws of Kerry Kilcannon's trap had shut on them at last. Perhaps she would not have Nolan to kick around anymore, but she intended to nail Harrison Fancher's client to the wall.

SEVENTEEN

Three days before Christmas, to be spent with Mary, Kerry and Lara visited the gravesites.

It was morning. Thin sunlight filtered through a dissipating fog, and the grass on the knoll glistened with dew. Holding Kerry's hand, Lara gazed down at the headstones of her mother, sister and niece.

They were President and First Lady. Lara understood, and accepted, that the press, gathered some distance away, would film them, and that the image would linger over the Senate when it debated Kerry's gun bill, as it would over Gardner Bond's courtroom on the first day of trial. She knew that, in part, this was why Kerry had suggested coming. But she also knew that, with all the hurt they had sustained, Kerry sensed that this was a time for Lara to seek peace. Although, she thought to herself, he did not yet know the final reason this was so.

After a time, she banished those watching from her mind. In turn, Lara thought of Inez Costello, then Joan, and then Marie—recalling each not as she had seen them last, but in life, until their memory filled her like a living thing.

She did not know how long this took. When they stepped away, it was because she was done; when they stopped, a short distance from the graves, it was because Lara wished it.

"I can't imagine," she told him, "how this would have been without you."

A hint of pain surfaced in his eyes. "Without me," he answered, "it wouldn't have been at all."

"It wasn't you, Kerry." She hesitated, then touched his face. "All my life I've been afraid to lean on anyone. Now I know that I can. And so can you."

Kerry smiled a little. "Then that's all I could want."

She cocked her head. "All?"

His expression became puzzled. Watching him, Lara felt her anticipation quicken; this moment, before it was strained through the prism of politics and public life, belonged to them alone. She saw his puzzlement change to wonder.

"It wasn't flu . . ."

Lara smiled up at him. "Diapers," she informed her husband, "are the acid test of character. Even for a President."

Afterword and Acknowledgments

Gun violence in America is a subject of daunting complexity, requiring a knowledge of its political, governmental, legal, medical, public health, social, and cultural dimensions. I should start by acknowledging that I approached this undertaking with a distinct point of view: I am a strong advocate of common-sense measures to curb gun violence. This position is buttressed by my presence on the boards of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Family Violence Prevention Fund. I am also concerned about the influence of special interest money in politics, which in part accounts for my current service on the board of Common Cause, the public interest lobby. Each of these affiliations has shaped my thinking, and stimulated my concern, with respect to the causes and the toll of gun violence in America. By no means am I a dispassionate, or neutral, observer.

That said, the enormous amount of research required by this novel informed and complicated my view of these subjects in countless ways. To write Balance of Power , I tried to probe every aspect of this problem and every point of view. So I am deeply indebted to all those who helped me to achieve the knowledge base necessary to write this book.

I must also make it clear that they represent disparate and often conflicting experiences and perspectives, and that their help does not constitute an endorsement of this book, let alone of any particular opinion expressed herein. As always, the buck stops with me, and any disagreements or hostility engendered by this novel should be directed at me alone.

I am, of course, a fiction writer, and this is a work of imagination. Nonetheless, I have striven for accuracy throughout the book, in ways both large and small, and the story is firmly rooted in the reality of our current political environment. For example, a bill immunizing the gun industry in a manner similar to that portrayed in this novel was pending in the last Congress, and its proponents claimed two hundred twentyeight sponsors in the House of Representatives, a majority. In the Senate about to be convened, the control has now returned to the Republicans; it is quite possible that a bill will be introduced and voted on by both houses before this book is published. Readers should also know that the general outline—though not all of the details, and certainly not the blackmail of a President—of the problems faced by George Callister and Lexington Arms in settling with Kerry Kilcannon were faced by Smith & Wesson when it entered into a tentative settlement in 2000 with the Clinton Administration which never came to fruition. And the basis and legal theories of the Costello lawsuit reflect, to a considerable degree, the litigation involving the shootings in the 101 California tragedy in San Francisco—including the nature of the weapon, the mode of advertising, and the kind of harm inflicted—and the "flooding" issue appears in lawsuits filed against the gun industry by several California cities.