Larry Rosen closed up his desk and turned out the light. It was 5:30 and he was done for the day. He had about a month to clean up Judge Winston’s business and put her professional affairs in order. Then he would be assigned to another judge.
He walked out of the courthouse and was about to head toward the subway when a long black stretch limousine pulled up next to him. The back window went down and David Lowell’s face appeared.
“Mr. Rosen.”
Rosen was startled for a moment. “Mr. Lowell?”
“Please, won’t you join me for a few moments? I’d like to talk to you. My driver will take you wherever you wish to go when we’re through.”
Rosen scratched his chin. “Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”
“I’m afraid not. If you just come in I’ll explain it all to you. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”
Rosen looked into the limo. It was quite luxuriously furnished, with comfortable seats. There was even a desk with a computer on top. Well, it beat sitting on the F train.
“Well, all right, but only if we can talk while you drive me to Brooklyn. I have an appointment this evening that I can not be late for, and I must get home in time to prepare.”
“Of course.”
He got in.
When he was seated, Lowell handed Rosen the phone and pushed a button. “Tell my driver where you would like to be dropped.”
Andy came on. “Yes, sir, where would you like to go?”
“Take the Brooklyn Bridge and go up Smith Street,” said Rosen. “Make a right on Thirty-seventh and then the first left. It’s the third house on the right.”
“Very good, sir.”
The limo started to move. Lowell opened a cabinet to reveal about two dozen bottles.
“Would you like something? I’ve got pretty much everything, vodka, scotch, wine, beer. I’m having a vodka and tonic.”
“That sound fine, I’ll have the same.”
“Stoli okay?”
“Sure.”
Lowell took two highball glasses, added ice and mixed the vodka and tonic.
“Would you like a slice of fresh lime?
“Yes, lime would be nice.”
Lowell took a lime slice from the small refrigerator, stuck it on the side of the glass and handed it to Rosen.
“Here you go.” He kept the other drink for himself.
“No lime for you?”
Lowell shook his head and put his hand to his stomach. “Citrus doesn’t agree with me.”
Rosen squeezed the lime slice into the drink and raised the cup. “To your health,” he said, and then took a large gulp.
“No, to yours.” Lowell took a long sip. “Ah, quite refreshing.”
“So what is so important that you had to tell me now?”
Lowell looked at his watch. “Oh, you’ll know in about fifteen seconds.”
“What happens in fifteen seconds?”
“You pass out.”
“What the hell are you talking ab…” Rosen keeled over and Lowell caught the glass before it hit the floor.
Lowell picked up the phone. “He’s out cold.”
Andy lowered the glass partition. “Brilliant idea, putting the drug in the lime slice. How long does this stuff last?”
“Not long, maybe ten minutes.”
“Well, we’d better hurry.”
“You be ready,” said Lowell.
“Just give me the signal.”
Lowell tied Rosen’s hands behind him and put a blindfold over his face as Andy closed the glass divider. Then he turned on Delaney’s invention and set the machine to a dark and rainy night on a rural road. Soon the windows were wet and chilly, and “a heavy rain” poured down on the limo. Then Lowell took Rosen’s watch and moved it ahead five hours.
He put the drinks out of sight, took a gun from his desk drawer and waited.
A few minutes later Rosen started to groan. “Where am I?”
“You’re still in my limousine, and I’m going to ask you a few questions, which you’d better answer truthfully.”
“What the hell is this?” He tried to move his hands, but couldn’t. “I’m not answering anything, you crazy bastard. I’m going to have you arrested for kidnapping and assault.”
“If I were you, I’d answer.”
Rosen continued to struggle with his restrains. “The hell I will. What are you going to do if I don’t? What’s to prevent me from kicking out your window and yelling for help?”
Lowell took the blindfold off.
“God damn you, I’ll have you all arrested. You’re…” He looked out the window and stopped. Then he noticed the rain pelting the roof. “Where are we?” he asked, a tinge of fear in his voice.
“Western Massachusetts.”
“What? How long have I been out?”
Lowell looked at his watch. “Five hours.”
Rosen looked out the window. “Why are we in Massachusetts?”
“Because, nobody will ever find your body here. If you don’t tell me the truth, and soon, I’m going to kill you and dump you in a lake.”
Rosen wasn’t a brave man, as Lowell knew from his natal chart. He lacked backbone and had no illusions about it. To save his ass he would sell out his own mother in a heartbeat.
Rosen stared at him. “You couldn’t. You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, but I could and would. You see, Mr. Rosen, I’m trying to save the life of an innocent young woman. And it is obvious to me that the people responsible for the death of Farrah Winston are using my client as a scapegoat. Since they have no compunctions about hurting an innocent bystander, I am forced to act in the most callous of manners.”
He put the gun up to Rosen’s cheek and pressed it into the flesh.
Rosen was sweating profusely. His breath was short and erratic. He had rarely seen a gun, let alone had one put against his face like that.
“But then you’ll never let me go. I could identify you to the police and…” He shut up.
Lowell lowered the gun. “Mr. Rosen, I think by the end of our conversation, going to the police will be the last thing on your mind. I seriously doubt you will tell many people about this meeting.”
Rosen shivered. “Would you mind untying my hands? It’s most uncomfortable.”
Lowell put the gun back up against Rosen’s cheek. “If I untie you and you do anything stupid I will have no problem using this. Is that clear?”
Rosen nodded.
Lowell reached behind Rosen and released the restraints, the gun never leaving his hand. Rosen rubbed his wrists and looked at his watch.
“God damn it, I have been out for five hours!” He rubbed his neck.
“I want to know why you set up Johnny Colbert to take the fall.”
“Because I had to.”
“You’re not in a position to put this all in motion yourself. Who told you to do this? Was it for money?”
“Money.” He laughed. “Money is crap. This was about right and wrong. You have no idea who you’re dealing with.”
“That, sir, is why your life is still hanging by a thread. Who am I dealing with?”
“People that understand. People that want to save this country and get us back on track.”
“What about the assassin?”
“Who?”
“Don’t play dumb. He was the one who set off the bomb that killed Judge Winston, wasn’t he? Or did you do that?”
“I didn’t kill anyone. I was just supposed to call a number when the right person came into the courtroom, that’s all, nothing else.”
“But Farrah Winston is dead because of you, you know that don’t you? And an innocent person is on trial for her life. My daughter is going to call you to the stand. If you’re willing to testify to what you just told me, I can guarantee your safety.”
Rosen laughed a humorless guffaw. “You can’t guarantee your own safety. They already tried to kill you, and they’ll keep trying until they get you, you know. And if I get anywhere near a courtroom…” He shook his head. “I’m not testifying to anything.”
“But if you don’t agree to help me, you’re dead in about five minutes.”
He opened a drawer and took out a silencer, which he slowly screwed on to the gun barrel. “This is your last chance.”
Rosen’s mouth went dry. “All I know is that they’re very powerful men who can get things done.”
Lowell continued to screw the silencer on. “Give me a name.”
“I don’t have one, I swear to you,” he shouted. “Please, for God’s sake, I don’t know anything. I never even met them, only spoken on the phone. I just told them when that foul-mouthed woman started threatening Farrah. I don’t know anything else.”
“What do you know about Pilgrim’s Cavern?”
“I never heard of it. Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I had to help them. Farrah Winston was going to ruin the country.”
“How was she going to do that?”
“By becoming the president of the United States someday and pretending to be conservative only to change her agenda once she was in office.”
It was starting to make some sort of sense in a bizarre way. “How did these men contact you?”
“Someone phoned me at my office a few months ago. He said that they shared my views on the world and felt that what was happening to America was disgusting. They wanted to take back the power and straighten things out. All they asked was for me to keep my eyes open and let them know if Farrah began acting strangely.”
“But why?” said Lowell, pressing the gun harder against his head.
“Because she was changing.” His voice cracked.
“How?”
“I don’t know. It was subtle at first, just little things most people who didn’t know her well would miss. The way she talked, how she responded to newspaper editorials, things like that. She was becoming concerned with issues that had never bothered her before.”
“And that just wasn’t acceptable, is that it? Was she beginning to lean just a tad toward the center? Or even a bit to the left? So what? Surely she was still a conservative in most things. Nobody changes overnight.”
“You just don’t get it, do you? She was going to ruin everything.”
“So you wanted her dead?”
“I didn’t want her to die. I didn’t know they planned on killing her, or I never would have gone along with it. I swear. They just told me to let them know if there was any trouble in her court, beyond the usual arguments and shouting. When that Colbert girl came in and made such a ruckus, then threatened to kill Farrah, I called the number they gave me and told someone what happened.”
“That’s all you did?”
“I swear to it.” The sweat was running freely down his cheeks, the fear in his eyes excruciatingly present.
“You know something, Rosen—I believe you.”
As the wilderness sped by, Lowell turned for a moment to get something from behind him. The road appeared to bend, and the car slowed down. Rosen saw this as his chance. He leaped forward, grabbed the handle of the door and jumped out of the limousine. He expected to be thrown onto the side of the road late at night in a New England forest.
Instead, he was sitting on the sidewalk right in front of his brownstone in the early evening. The limo sped away, leaving Rosen on the concrete, his mouth open in a most unnatural manner.
***
After Rosen jumped from the limo Andy headed back to Manhattan. He lowered the partition behind him. “How did it go?”
“It was close,” replied Lowell, as he gave Andy his gun back. “For a minute there I didn’t think he was going to take the bait and jump. Thank God he did. It would have been very embarrassing to have gone through all of that and then have to open the door and escort him out.”
Andy chuckled. “You’ve got quite a flair for the dramatic, don’t you?”
“One of the many questionable traits I inherited from my family.”
“Where to, boss?”
“It’s almost dinnertime. Let’s go home.”
***
Julia was setting the table when they arrived. Lowell went into the den where Melinda was working at her makeshift desk.
“Hi,” she said. “How did it go?”
He told her about the limo ride with Rosen. He took out a digital tape of the conversation with Rosen and put it into a portable player.
“It doesn’t tell us much,” she said. “Besides, it’s hearsay without corroboration from Rosen. He could say it was recorded under duress, or altered. We’ve got to get him on the witness stand.”
“That’s what I figured.”
“Well, I’ll add him to the witness list tomorrow. I hope I can get him to incriminate himself. Or at least create reasonable doubt.”
“I have no doubt, reasonable or otherwise, that you can do it.”
She smiled. “At least we finally have a lead. It’s something to work with.”
“Yes,” said Lowell. “There may be some light at the end of this tunnel after all.”