doing a blog post on the penalties you’re talking about. Don’t just take down likely extremist groups, take them all down. Roust them. Make threats. Make it look like the end of the world is coming down.”
“What about you? Are you giving up?”
Lucas spread his hands: “If you wind up taking down everybody we know about, then what would we contribute?”
“Stay on a while longer. I tend to agree with you about a media blitz, but that’s gonna take a few meetings,” Chase said.
“We could stay a couple days anyway. We could do some sight-seeing if nothing specific comes up . . .”
“Do that. Or go look around Cop’s house and see if you spot anything that might lead to this Linc guy—you’ve got a great eye,” Chase said. “If you hadn’t seen that phone list, and taken the time to read it, we might not have gotten to Cop as quickly as we did. We’re really looking good. So stay. Buy me some luck.”
“All right. I would like to take a look at Cop’s place, the sooner the better. And we’ll want to take a look at his car. We’ve got that spotted. We’re gonna need warrants.”
“I’ll have those in an hour. Boone’s married, we’ve already hit his house. I understand his wife is giving us a hard time. But, that is what it is; so far, nobody’s called to tell me about any big discoveries there.”
* * *
—
LUCAS’S PHONE BUZZED and he looked at the incoming call, but didn’t recognize the number.
“Davenport,” he said.
“Marshal Davenport?” Young male voice, heavy breathing. “This is Blake Winston.”
“What’s happening, Blake?” His eyes clicked over to Chase, who’d caught the name, and stepped closer. Lucas thumbed the speaker option so she could listen.
“You were right. I got into Audrey’s computer and that 1919 site is in there, the pieces of it. Audrey put the site together.”
“Where are you?”
“At home,” Winston said. “I put all the pieces I found on a thumb drive for you. I have it here.”
“Don’t talk to anyone. I mean, anyone. We’re coming,” Lucas said. “I’m way up north, it’ll take an hour.”
“I’ll go hit some tennis balls with my mom. I did tell her about it and she’s royally pissed.”
“Try to calm her down, Blake. I’m on my way.”
* * *
—
LUCAS CLICKED OFF AND CHASE, eyes wide with horror, said, “No, no, no, no-no-no.”
Lucas: “Oh, yeah. I had a funky feeling right from the first meeting with Audrey and her mother. I recruited Blake to spy on her.”
“That’s awful.”
“What’s awful is that she did it,” Lucas said. “Anyway, I don’t think you want to have heard what you just heard.”
“Lucas . . .”
“This can’t get out,” Lucas said. “The Senate will go batshit, or at least half of it will. If something happens and you have to claim later that you didn’t know about this, I’ll back you up. I’ll lie. I’ll say nobody knew but me. ’Cause this is about to get desperately political. If it gets out, then everybody who knew about it, about a cover-up, which is what we’re talking about, is going to carry a little stink.”
“What about you?”
“I’ve got forty million dollars in my investment accounts,” Lucas said. “If it turns into a huge deal, I could maybe lose my job, but so what? I’ll take the chance, and if I lose, I’ve got a pillow to fall on. What do you have?”
She bit her lower lip and then said, “Probably be a county prosecutor, but it’d be a small county in a cold place.”
“Exactly. So, you know, but you don’t know. You might be able to direct some traffic that you wouldn’t if you didn’t know. Take the emphasis off uncovering 1919 and put it on finding any lone wolves who are rattling around. But that’s only because you’re really, really smart—not because you know who put the site up.”
Chase stepped back: “You’re right. About all of it. I know, but I don’t know.”
She walked away, glancing back only once.
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
Lucas pried Bob and Rae away from the SWATs, said, “I need the truck, but you guys can’t come. What you need to do is, get a ride from Jane. She’ll give you a warrant to search Cop’s car down at the UPS center. Call me when you get it done.”
Rae: “We can do that, but why?”
“Because this is about to get political and you don’t want to know about it. You want to be able to look a Senate investigating committee in the