Page 41 of Go First
Her phone rang.Marcus.
“Morning, Vee.You on the move?”
“En route to the prison.”She kept her eyes on the ribbon of blacktop ahead.“You?”
“Office.Trying to convince a federal judge to give me a warrant for Stone’s office.”A pause.“Turns out even the tame ones—our so-called FBI fans—grow a sudden love for the First Amendment when the person under the microscope carries a bar card.”
Kate smiled without amusement.“Lawyers protecting lawyers.Who’d-a thunk it?”
“Yeah, well, I’ve handed it to Poppy.She’s like a bloodhound.If anyone can charm a warrant out of these robes, it’s her.Wait?What?"Kate heard muffled voices, then Marcus briefly came back loud and clear, saying, "I'll call you back.”
The line clicked off.
Kate let the quiet in.Through the windshield, the Maine landscape rolled away—silver-green pines, patches of early mist clinging to the Kennebec like smoke.For a moment she was eight years old again, jolting along some county back-road in Illinois with her father at the wheel.He'd loved weekend hikes, the kind where you came home muddy and scraped and smelling of wood-smoke.
The memory struck like a sudden punch.Her throat tightened, eyes stinging before she could blink it away.Grief was an ambush; it never gave warning.And it left behind the same questions.Would her pain be less sharp, if she knew why her father had died, why someone had performed an almost-professional hit-job on the world-renowned stem cell researcher in the grounds of a church?And would she be able to cope with it better if she wasn’t in this job, surrounded daily by loss and death?
What else would she even do?She’d tried academia, and trying was enough.
Marcus called back.“Sorry,” he said.“We just got something weird.Angela Phillips was attacked this morning.Campus car-park.”
Kate gripped the wheel.“Is she—?”
“Alive.That’s all I’ve got.No details yet.I’ll keep you posted.”
Kate felt the old unease slide in behind her ribs.Cox stabbed in his cell, now Phillips.Coincidences stacked too high began to look like architecture.
The prison came into view, a slab of concrete and razor wire squatting against the pale sky.She parked, badge-checked her way through the metal detectors, and was met by the Governor of the facility, a heavy-set man with a weary dignity.
“This is… beyond me,” he said as they walked the corridor, their footsteps ringing against cinderblock walls.“Father Santos has worked with prisoners for years.Outreach, counselling.The man’s record is spotless.Yesterday he—” The Governor broke off, shaking his head.“It’s as if something inside him just broke.A psychotic snap.”
“Yet one he planned for?I’m assuming he brought the weapon in with him.”
“This is something we just don’t understand.It was a shard of Perspex: a classic prison shank.But Santos was patted down, he and his briefcase went through the scanners.I’ve watched the CCTV from the entrance; the officer did everything he should have done, and there was no rush, no distractions.It was a Sunday.”
“The only other possibility is that the shank was stashed somewhere inside the prison for Santos to collect.”
“I know.But he didn’t visit the restroom.Went straight to the visitation suite to see Cox.”
“Underneath the table?”
“It has to be.We checked, of course.There’s no sign that anything was stuck there.Nothing on the weapon, either, but of course that was covered in blood.”
“Can’t you see from the CCTV?”
The Governor shook his head.“It all happens so fast.Cox slides off his seat, choking.Santos kind of crouches on top of him, with his back to the camera, blocking the view of what happens. It’s extremely frustrating.”
That wouldn’t have been the word Kate would have used.She might have said convenient.Set-up.Staged.“Can you show me the footage?”
“Of course.”
“What’s the news on Cox?”Kate asked.
“Amazingly, the knife didn’t hit anything major, but he lost a lot of blood, and he’s running a slight fever, which we’re keeping a close eye on.”
“I see the usual voices are out in full voice on the web.”
“Oh yes.‘Why cure a man in order to kill him?’‘Let that animal die slowly, like his victims did…’ I know there are a great deal of paradoxes and contradictions in our legal system, but it’s the best we’ve got.”