THE DEATH of Michelson was a big blow to the investigation. I called agent James and had him move my family to another house. For all I knew, Michelson had told Coco where they were. He was the link and perhaps our best chance at finding the mystery woman. At least the leak was plugged.
St. Clair decided to cover up Michelson’s involvement with the Assassin, and I agreed with the decision. The bureau couldn’t take another black eye right now.
For all its faults, the bureau was the nation’s best crime fighting unit. I believed in what Hoover had tried to build.
Sure we had some bad apples in the bureau and some trouble in the crime lab, and a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy to deal with, but overall, we were an excellent organization, with excellent agents doing the best we could. I wasn’t going to allow the fall of Michelson to tarnish the bureau. The bureau would survive his treachery and go on fighting crime.
Kelly wanted to have Sterling call Winston, but I disagreed. Calling him now would give them the advantage. We would end up tipping our hand, and we still wouldn’t know what was going on. Instead, I suggested that we go back to the beginning. The bureau had done a background investigation on Judge Taylor for her nomination. I thought that would be the best place to start. I pulled her file to see if there was anything in there that would give me a clue to who she was and what she knew about the mystery woman.
Judge Taylor was the younger of two sisters. Adrienne was the elder. Her maiden name was Jefferson. She had grown up in Harlem. Then she went to Penn State University on an academic scholarship. After graduating from law school, she went on to become a civil rights attorney. In 1975, she moved to Washington, where she met and married Webster Taylor. Webster had built quite a reputation as a defense lawyer, one of the country’s best. They had three children and moved to Alexandria in 1982. Five years later, she became a Fourth Circuit Court judge.
Senator Martha Blevins’ story was similar to Judge Taylor’s. She, too, was the younger of two siblings. Her maiden name was Bellamy, and she had grown up in privileged circumstances in Wilmington, Delaware, one of the richest communities in America. Her older brother, Jason, now deceased, had inherited the family businesses and created others.
There wasn’t much in the files on either of the two women. I felt even more frustrated, and I kept thinking, I’m missing something here. Kelly and I read and reread their files, but found nothing helpful. I was ready to go home, but no one was there. I didn’t dare go to the safe house, just in case Coco was lying. I didn’t think she was, but can you really trust someone who kills people for money? I certainly don’t.