The Racketeer Page 0,26

friends or close acquaintances, of no one, really, who ever crossed paths with Judge Fawcett. No gang members or drug dealers or serious criminals. Next we tracked down as many of his former clients as possible, though this was difficult because we can't get access to a lot of his old files. Again, no one of interest there. He did the small-town-lawyer gig for about ten years, with two older African-American lawyers, and it was a squeaky-clean operation."

"Did he do business in Judge Fawcett's court?" McTavey asked.

"There's no record of him handling a case there. He didn't do much federal work, and besides he was in the Northern District of Virginia. It's fair to say that Mr. Bannister was not a widely sought-after trial lawyer."

"So you believe that whoever killed Fawcett is someone Mr. Bannister met in prison, assuming, of course, we believe he knows the truth."

"Correct. He served the first twenty-two months of his sentence in Louisville, Kentucky, a medium-security facility with two thousand inmates. He had three different cell mates, and he worked in the laundry and the kitchen. He also developed his skills as a jailhouse lawyer and actually helped at least five inmates get out of prison. We have a list of about fifty men he probably knew fairly well, but frankly it's impossible to know everyone he came into contact with at Louisville. And the same at Frostburg. He's been there for the past three years and has served time with a thousand men."

"How long is your list?" McTavey asked.

"We have about 110 names, give or take, but we don't feel too confident about most of these guys."

"How many were sentenced by Fawcett?"

"Six."

"So there's no clear suspect in Bannister's prison history?"

"Not yet, but we're still digging. Bear in mind, this is our second theory, the one that assumes whoever killed the judge was carrying a grudge because of a bad outcome in his court. Our first theory is that it was an old-fashioned murder-robbery."

"Do you have a third theory?" McTavey asked.

"The jealous ex-husband of the dead secretary," Westlake replied.

"That's not credible, right?"

"Right."

"Do you have a fourth theory?"

"No, not at this time."

Director McTavey sipped his coffee and said, "This is really bad coffee." Two flunkies at the far end of the room bolted to attention and disappeared in search of something better.

"Sorry," Westlake said. It was widely known that the Director was a serious coffee man and to provide a brew that didn't measure up was an embarrassment.

"And Bannister's background again?" he asked.

"Ten years, RICO, got caught up in the Barry Rafko mess a few years back, though he wasn't a big player. He had handled some land deals for Barry and got himself convicted."

"So he was not in bed with sixteen-year-old girls?"

"Oh no, that was just our congressmen. Bannister appears to be a good guy, former Marine and all, just picked the wrong client."

"Well, was he guilty?"

"The jury felt so. As did the judge. You don't get ten years unless you've screwed up somewhere."

Another cup of coffee was placed in front of the Director, who sniffed it, then finally took a sip as everyone stopped breathing. Then another sip, and everyone exhaled.

"Why do we believe Bannister?" McTavey asked.

Westlake quickly passed the buck. "Hanski."

Agent Chris Hanski was sitting on go. He cleared his throat and dove in. "Well, I'm not sure we believe Bannister, but he makes a good impression. I've interviewed him twice, watched him carefully, and I've seen no signs of deception. He's bright, shrewd, and has nothing to gain by lying to us. After five years in prison, it's quite possible he bumped into someone who wanted to knock off Judge Fawcett or to rob him."

"And we really have no idea who this person might be, right?"

Hanski looked at Victor Westlake, who said, "As of today, that's right. But we're still digging."

"I don't like our chances of discovering the identity of the killer based on who Mr. Bannister may have bumped into in prison," McTavey said, sounding perfectly logical. "We could be chasing dead ends for the next ten years. What's the downside of cutting a deal with Bannister? Look, the guy is a white-collar crook who has already served five years for criminal activity that seems rather harmless in the scheme of things. Don't you think so, Vic?"

Vic was nodding gravely.

McTavey pressed on: "So the guy gets out of prison. It's not as though we're releasing a serial killer or a sexual predator. If the guy is right, then this case is