Page 123 of The First Gentleman

CHAPTER 119

Rockingham County Courthouse, New Hampshire

W ord is out that Cole Wright has decided to testify.

Maybe this afternoon.

Maybe tomorrow.

I stand with Ron Reynolds on the courthouse steps as he finishes tapping out an update for the Globe on his phone.

“So, Ms. Criminal Attorney, how do you think Hardy is prepping him?” Ron asks me.

“What’s most important is that Tess coach him on what he has to say on the stand. Word for word. And then her client has to follow through.”

“Do you think it’s a mistake for him to testify?”

“If he were a normal murder defendant, I’d say yes. But Wright’s playing to a bigger audience. And remember, he was a football player. A tight end. He has faith in a Hail Mary.”

My phone buzzes in my bag.

Ron gives me a nod and goes back to his texting.

I walk up the steps and find an empty spot near the gallery entrance.

I don’t recognize the number but I pick up anyway.

“Hello, Brea Cooke here.”

“Brea. It’s Daryna.” A pause.

“Calling from Ukraine.”

Garrett’s hacker contact!

Daryna has a heavy Eastern European accent, and she sounds like a teenager.

“What kind of phone are you using?” she asks.

I have to think for a second.

“It’s an iPhone. Umm… an iPhone sixteen. Why?”

“I’m going to send you a link to an app. Tell me when you get it.”

I look down at my screen.

A message arrives with a simple black icon—looks like a K from the Russian alphabet.

“I have it.”

“Now open the app and install it.”

“What’s this for?”

“Don’t speak. Do it.”

I click the icon and follow the prompts.

It takes about ten seconds.

“Okay, it’s done.”

“Good. We’re safe. This connection is now encrypted. My end and yours. Can you talk?”

I make sure no one is in earshot.

“Yes. I can talk.”

“My sympathies about Garrett. I miss hearing his voice.”

“So do I.”

“And I’m sorry that I haven’t been in touch. My server got taken out in a drone strike. My whole network was compromised. I’ve been a nomad for the past few months. I finally found a safer location.”

“Where are you?”

“Not important.”

“I know Garrett trusted you, Daryna. He said you were the best.”

“He trusted you too. More than anybody. He said if anything happened to him, I should give my report to you.”

“What report?”

“He asked me to look into an operation that’s trying to subvert the Wright administration. He said he had a lead from a very high source.”

A very high source?

The airport! Cole Wright!

Does Daryna know about Garrett’s meeting with the president’s husband?

I decide to keep it to myself.

“And what did the source tell him?”

“The source just pointed Garrett in the right direction. And then Garrett pointed me. I’ve discovered that there’s an active cabal disseminating disinformation about the president’s husband as a way of undermining the administration, trying to bring it down. The cabal was centered in DC, but now the nexus is in Berlin.”

“Berlin?”

“Are you familiar with Rachel Bernstein, the vice president’s chief of staff?”

“Sure. I read the news.”

“She is an enemy of the president. She wants her own man in place. Vice President Faulkner.”

Is that who Doc Cams was communicating with?

If so, the VP’s chief of staff was spreading dirt about the First Couple.

Sounds like that’s where this is leading.

“And you should know this, too,” says Daryna.

“The files in the Suzanne Bonanno case weren’t misplaced. Somebody in the federal government confiscated them three years ago. There were leads in this case that they did not want followed. It looks like they’re covering for the Providence Mob or in collusion with it.”

Leo Amalfi.

Tony Romero. The Mob connections keep coming up.

“Daryna, I need more information on this. Can you help?”

“I’ll keep searching,” the hacker says.

“I’ll do it for you. And for Garrett.”