The Bishop's Pawn (Cotton Malone #13)(70)
Jansen: So he’s having problems with his own people. That’s even better to hear. He’s been on a self-destructive path for a while now.
Foster: Why don’t you stop hedging with me?
Jansen: What are you talking about?
Foster: I’m not a fool.
Jansen: I never said you were.
Foster: You just treat me like one. We’ve been at this for months now. I know what you’re doing.
Jansen: We pay you for information. What we do with it is none of your business.
Foster: I’ve watched King for years. I’ve been right there every step. Hoover’s right. He’s immoral. He’s also a liar. He tells all of us to toe the line, but he does whatever he pleases. He says money isn’t important, but he wants for nothing, while we get paid next to nothing. I’m tired of it. I don’t give a damn about this civil rights crap. Who the hell cares? I’m not interested in changing the world. I’m tired of being sprayed with fire hoses and attacked by dogs. They’re never going to give me a Nobel Prize. I. Don’t. Care. All I want is money. What do you want?
[PAUSE]
Jansen: We don’t want a martyr.
Foster: You won’t get one. You people have tape after tape showing what King does with women. I heard the recordings you sent to his house. I know about all those women, along with others you don’t know about. Release those tapes and you won’t have a martyr. People will know King for the barnyard dog he really is.
Jansen: What will happen if he’s killed?
Foster: There’ll be violence of a magnitude never seen before in this country. Cities will burn.
Jansen: You really think so?
Foster: Everything is ready to explode. I just told you that the SCLC is on the verge of collapsing. Nonviolent resistance is over. America will burn, then it will all fade. If you handle it right, King will be remembered for what he is. A lying, cheating husband who can’t be trusted. And I’ll be rich.
Jansen: You’re a coldhearted bastard.
Foster: I’m just being real. I’m a black man in a country full of hate. Some of what King says makes sense. But the price to be paid to get what he wants is too much. Too many are going to be hurt or die. White people aren’t going to share their world with us. Not without a fight. I don’t want to pay that price. I don’t care about civil rights. I care about money. I figure if I get enough from you, it won’t matter that white people hate me.
Jansen: How much do you want?
Foster: A million dollars.
Jansen: You can’t be serious.
Foster: Don’t push me, or I’ll ask for two.
Jansen: And what do I get for that kind of money?
Foster: I’ll make your job real easy.
[PAUSE]
Jansen: What do you have in mind?
Foster: He’s headed back to Memphis. He’ll be at the Lorraine Motel starting the afternoon of the third.
Jansen: Why wait three days? I can have it done here in Atlanta right now.
Foster: No. Do it in the turmoil in Memphis. A white man kills Martin Luther King while he fights for the rights of black garbage workers.
Jansen: Who said anything about a white man?
Foster: If it’s not, then you’re a damn fool. It has to be a white man.
Jansen: I prefer to choose the place.
Foster: Good luck with that, since if you do I won’t be providing any information to help. Ever thought about Kennedy’s death? Oswald didn’t need informants. They published the president’s whole schedule in the newspaper, days in advance. All he had to do was show up. There’s no schedule printed for King, and things change constantly. My job is to keep up with those changes and get him where he needs to be. I’m your only source on that. I can help, or hurt you. Make a choice.
[PAUSE]
Jansen: All right. We’ll do it your way. But you’re sure? You’re ready to send the Bishop to his death?
Foster: You don’t have to keep asking me that. It’s clear we both know what we’re doing. They’re sending lawyers to federal court on the third and fourth to try to lift the injunction preventing another march. King will stay in Memphis until they get that done. Room 306. There’ll be plenty of opportunities on the fourth to make this happen. Be ready. I’ll call and provide you the best one.
Jansen: Memphis it is then.
The tape ended.
I popped it from the machine and stared at the cassette.
A confidential source who has furnished reliable information in the past.
A fancy way to keep a trusted source’s identity secret. I’d seen similar language in many NCIS reports. No wonder Benjamin Foster didn’t want Coleen to know anything about this. He’d set Martin Luther King Jr. up to die.
All for a 1933 Double Eagle.
I looked again at the date on the cassette. March 31, 1968. Three days before the assassination. Bruce Lael had lived with that knowledge a long time. No wonder he’d made contact with Foster. I could only imagine what those talks had been like. I was truly amazed at Foster. To hear him talk, he’d been at King’s side for years. He was there in the hospital when the man died. He cast himself as some civil rights warrior.
I sat in the truck.
Something buzzed in my pocket.
Nate’s cell phone had come alive.
I removed the unit and answered.
“You ruined my clothes,” Valdez said.