Even in my numbed state, this revelation sends shock through me. “Did Castro mention Frank’s name?”
“No. But goddamn it . . . what more could we ask for?”
I shrug. “Frank’s name, obviously. Not to mention Dwight and Caitlin living to learn about this.”
“Dwight did find out. I told him late last night.”
My face probably doesn’t express it to Kaiser, but this does bring me at least some comfort. “Well . . . I’m glad of that. But all this is kind of off-track for me, actually. My problem is a murder charge.”
“No, it’s not. Don’t you get it? This letter is your ticket out of here.”
“I don’t follow.”
Kaiser gives me a sympathetic smile. “When Garrity found this stuff, he knew how big it was. He called Mackiever right away, and by then, Mackiever and I were working together. He told us what he found, and he made some very clear demands. He wanted Forrest blamed for the murder of Trooper Deke Dunn, which would clear him and Tom of that killing. By some method I won’t let myself think about, the derringer that killed Dunn turned out to be hidden in Forrest Knox’s Baton Rouge home.”
I nod slowly.
“I see that doesn’t surprise you. Well, maybe this will. Garrity also wanted you cleared of any possible charges that might come from the death of Forrest Knox or Alphonse Ozan. At first it seemed that I couldn’t use this letter—or even the evidence from Forrest’s storage room—without revealing that you and Garrity had been at Valhalla and done what you did there, which allowed Garrity to find the storage locker.”
“I’m listening.”
“After some discussion, we decided that Colonel Mackiever would say he’d discovered the key at Forrest Knox’s house during a legitimate search. He was actually searching Knox’s house while you were driving to Valhalla. He found the derringer, but there’s quite a bit of other evidence against Forrest, too. We have a video of Knox’s SWAT guys carrying out a multiple murder during Hurricane Katrina. Using that, I forced one of the snipers in the video to turn state’s evidence. And last night, when I was questioning Double Eagles about Sonny’s death, I actually turned one of them.”
“Are you serious?”
Kaiser nods. “Will Devine. The guy was scared to death, especially after what happened with Sonny. Devine’s the oldest Eagle left alive. He’s haunted by things he did. A bit like Glenn Morehouse, I imagine. That’s why I let those guys out this morning, to protect him. He couldn’t have kept up a front while I worked out his plea deal. That’s what I was hinting about at the funeral. Anyway, taken in toto, all that gave us quite a bit of power to shape the narrative that would emerge in the wake of Forrest’s and Ozan’s deaths.”
“Your code of ethics seems to have relaxed a bit since yesterday.”
The FBI agent sighs deeply. “I’d rather not discuss that just now. What matters for you is the new narrative. The official story. Now it’s Mackiever—not Walt—who discovered the key, hunted down Forrest’s storage unit, found the evidence, and contacted me about the Oswald letter.”
“Okay. But I still don’t see how that gets me out of here. Sheriff Ellis from Athens Point has game camera photos of me at Valhalla right around the time of death.”
Kaiser gives me a strange smile. “Does he? Well . . . the significance of those photos is all in the interpretation, isn’t it?”
“Come on, man. Out with it.”
“This is where another friend of yours proved to be a great help. Carl Sims? The former marine sniper?”
“How did Carl help?”
“Once Sheriff Ellis issued the APB on you for killing Knox, Carl decided he had information I might need to know. And he was right. Carl told me that if I poked my hand into certain holes, I’d find evidence tying Sheriff Ellis and his department to the Knox family and Valhalla. Turns out Ellis went on all-expenses-paid hunts in Alaska and Canada every year, on the Knoxes’ dime. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. A lot of drugs move through that county, and a lot of murders have gone unsolved. Turns out, I didn’t have to work very hard to convince Sheriff Ellis that a double murder in his county involving endemic police corruption wasn’t something he wanted me looking into too closely. He was perfectly willing to take my word that your presence at Valhalla was wholly unrelated to the crime.”
This statement leaves me almost breathless. “How the hell is that possible? Who killed Forrest, then?”
A self-satisfied grin animates Kaiser’s face. “As a novelist, you’ll appreciate this. Captain Alphonse Ozan is now the hero of this revised opera. Ozan was the brave internal affairs officer assigned by Colonel Mackiever to infiltrate Forrest Knox’s cabal of corrupt cops. Earlier today, Forrest discovered that Ozan had been working against him for months, and the two men killed each other in a vicious hand-to-hand struggle.”
I can hardly get my mind around this revision of reality. “Mackiever’s going to stand by that?”
“He’s drafting his statement as we speak. Spear-versus-sword makes pretty compelling news. The media’s going to eat it up.”
My brain has gone into overdrive. “Okay, but . . . even if Dad and Walt are cleared of the Dunn killing, and I go free as well, that still leaves Dad charged with the murder of Viola.”
Kaiser nods with somber deliberation. “Mackiever’s got no control over that, Penn. Neither do I. Your father was always going to have to face that on his own. That’s why attacking Shad Johnson wasn’t the best idea you had today.”
“Oh, but I enjoyed it.” I sigh heavily, then lay my hands on the scarred table. “How soon can I get out of here?”
“It shouldn’t be long. I’m about to go downstairs and give Billy Byrd a heads-up on what to expect. He won’t like it, but I’ll make him take it. Also, Mackiever tells me that he may have some leverage against Shad Johnson.”
This takes me by surprise. “What kind of leverage?”