While Justice Sleeps(127)
But he would not be denied his revenge. “I call your judgment into question, Roseborough. Permitting this tripe in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate will certainly be investigating your fitness to serve.”
“That is your prerogative, Mr. President,” she responded disinterestedly. “Are you denying Ms. Keene’s accusations?”
“I won’t dignify them with a response.” He inclined his head imperiously. The training from too many lawyers had taught him the drill.
The solicitor general stepped forward, astonishment shifting into damage control. Whatever the son of a bitch had done, exposing his crimes in open court had to break some law, even if he could not name it offhand. “If I may, Madam Chief, we should have the Secret Service and the FBI in here now. Ms. Keene should be detained until we have reviewed this information. And I recommend an investigation into her reckless conduct. If she has participated in obstruction of justice, action should be taken.”
“I agree.” Chief Roseborough depressed the button that summoned the Court police, ignoring Avery’s intake of breath.
Avery brandished the authenticated documents and the drive. “Chief, I have proof.”
“Which you should have turned over to the proper authorities.” Chief Roseborough gave her a steady look. “If what you say is true, you should know better, Avery. The Court isn’t a playground.”
Before Avery could protest, the door opened behind her. The occupants of the chamber turned as five burly men entered, gunmetal glinting dully at their hips. Agent Lee waited behind them with more agents at the ready.
The Speaker and the majority leader had squeezed behind them, nearly out of sight. On his phone, the majority leader hastily typed out a message to his chief of staff. Senate hearings into the Tigris Project and the possible impeachment of President Brandon Stokes would commence tomorrow. Subpoenas would be drafted and start circulating within hours.
His press conference announcing the extraordinary event would convene on the steps of Capitol Hill in forty-five minutes, which would allow sound trucks time to set up and secure satellite feeds. A camera would be positioned behind him, showing his vantage point of a fallen White House. Thoughts of a late entry into the race for president fleetingly crossed his mind until he realized that a scandal this salacious would earn him a supermajority and nearly unfettered power. LBJ’s legacy as master of the Senate would become a footnote if he played his cards right.
His companion, the Speaker of the House, not to be outdone, had already convened the Democratic members of the House Committee on Intelligence for a meeting in his office in thirty minutes. Congressional aides had been instructed to locate their members and have them in a caucus meeting in an hour and a half. By the close of business, his members would be scattered across the major networks and hurried into recording studios to tape the commercials that would simultaneously scare the bejesus out of every American citizen and secure the millions to fill the DCCC coffers for the coming elections.
Because he understood the vagaries of the human condition, he also scheduled a clandestine meeting with the investigator he’d hired to do opposition research on the minority leader of the House. The likely surrogate for a fallen Stokes, the telegenic young woman who had breached her party’s power structure and taken on the mantle, would be a formidable opponent in the autumn elections. Representative Carolyn Hall had been a pilot in the Air Force and had faced court-martial for revealing misconduct in her squadron. She’d emerged a folk hero, and if she played her cards right, she could parlay this moment into her political triumph and challenge Stokes for the presidency.
Filling the sudden silence, President Stokes pointed at an FBI agent and ordered, “Place Ms. Keene under arrest.”
One of the armed men asked, “Sir?”
“I am the commander in chief. Arrest her!” He pointed at Avery and wished, for the first time, that he had gone to law school.
Agent Lee shouldered his way forward to the chief justice’s desk. “Chief Roseborough, I’ve just spoken with the director. We’ve been instructed to detain Ms. Keene. And President Stokes, I also have a warrant for your arrest.”
“On what grounds?” Stokes growled.
“We received evidence that you attempted to kill Justice Wynn. A pill bottle containing trace amounts of an unknown chemical was turned over to my office. This chemical was matched to the only other sample we’ve seen in this country—Justice Wynn’s blood tests. On my orders, the FBI crime lab ran the prints on the bottle, and there are two sets. His and yours. I don’t know how you managed it, but right now, you are under arrest for attempted murder.”
“I did not touch him or any pill bottle!” In a flash, the strange moment with Howard Wynn at the graduation replayed in Stokes’s mind. Wynn had shaken his hand awkwardly and grinned, then leaned toward him and whispered, “Checkmate, Stokes.” Goddamn it.
Across the room, an officer approached Avery and clasped her elbow. “Please come with me,” he said politely.
She stared at him but said nothing. All of this, and she was being perp-walked out of the Chief’s chambers.
He escorted her toward the door, past where another pair of agents negotiated in muffled tones with the president. Avery stopped, paces away from the president, where Agent Lee had joined him.