—
THE YUKON’S DRIVER was a serious young agent with a Caucasian-colored earbud in one ear, which made Lucas wonder whether the feds had other ethnically correct monitors. The man said, “Franklin’s leaving Heracles, and McCoy is with him . . . They’re talking . . . They’re splitting up. Ben’s on Franklin, Clark’s on McCoy.”
Chase said to Lucas, “McCoy’s meeting his personal attorney at the Corner Bakery Café. He made the appointment this afternoon, and he made it walking down the street from his office, like he didn’t want to be overheard. We plan to approach both men at the same time. We arrest McCoy and give a National Security Letter to his attorney.”
“I don’t know what that is,” Lucas said.
“It’s like a gag order. It’ll keep him from tipping off Heracles, should he be inclined to do that. We can do it administratively, but the director herself has to approve. That’s why we’re running late today. It took a while to get that done. The lawyer—his name’s Roy Bunch—can challenge it in court, but by the time he does that we’ll be all over Heracles. Bunch has a general practice that has included some criminal law, and we’re hoping he’ll agree to come along with McCoy when we take him in.”
“Where’s this café?” Bob asked.
Chase gestured over her shoulder with her thumb. “On the corner . . . There’s a Dunkin’ Donuts on the other side of the street, around the other corner . . . You’ve got time—you know, being cops and all.” Second hint at a sense of humor.
“I could go for a couple of those powdered jellys,” Bob said.
Rae: “You probably will.”
The young agent muttered, “McCoy’s in his car. He’s headed this way.”
Chase: “There’s no parking. As soon as he gets to the corner, one of our cars will pull out and leave a space for him. When he gets out of his car, we take him. Then we’ll go down to the corner and fetch his lawyer. If he’s not there yet, we’ll wait. But his office is across the street, so he should be on time.”
“Still got time for donuts?” Bob asked.
Chase: “Seriously?”
“Seriously. I’ll get a bag and wait on the corner. You can wave when he gets close. Rae can wait down at the other end of the block. In case he runs and gets past your guys. He’s supposed to be tough.”
“He won’t get past our guys,” Chase said.
“He sure as shit wouldn’t get past me or Rae,” Bob said.
Chase said, “Whatever,” and Bob and Rae got out of the car, and as she was getting out, Rae said to Bob, “Get me a chocolate cake donut.”
“’Kay.”
They split up and hurried away from the Yukon. Chase watched them go, and said, “It’s a little hard to take them seriously.”
Lucas said, “If there’s a problem, McCoy won’t get past them. They do this for a living. Rae was a starter in basketball at UConn. She has a degree in art history. Bob wrestled for Oklahoma State and finished third in the NCAA tournament his senior year, which means he lost just once. He has a degree in social work.”
“All right,” she said.
* * *
—
THEY SAT IN SILENCE for a few minutes, saw Bob walk around the corner with a bag of Dunkin’ Donuts in hand. He walked far enough down North Veitch that he couldn’t be seen by a car coming up Wilson, and he waited. At the other end of the block, Rae perched on the hood of a Mustang.
The young agent said, “He’s here.”
Two cars ahead of them, a sedan pulled out of its parking space. Chase said, “Here we go.”
A Toyota 4Runner turned the corner, moving slowly, and Chase said, “That’s him.”
McCoy spotted the parking space, rolled ahead of it, backed in. A moment later, as he was getting out of the car, FBI agents climbed out of the cars ahead and behind him. McCoy saw them and did exactly what Lucas had done during the attempted mugging outside the tailor shop: he sprinted away.
A burly FBI agent tried to step in front of him in the street, but McCoy juked, juked again, stuck out a fist, and smacked the agent in the face—just as Lucas had during his almost mugging—and without hesitating, ran back toward Wilson Boulevard, and Bob, with a string of FBI agents chasing after him.
Bob was standing there, a ring of powder on his upper lip, a jelly donut in his hand, and McCoy, paying no attention to him, tried to blow on by.
Bob stuck out his other, empty hand and clotheslined him. McCoy went facedown in a heap on the sidewalk, and Bob put one heavy foot on his head.
In the front seat, Chase said, “Indeed.”
A few seconds later, the scrum of FBI agents arrived, and two of them squatted over McCoy’s body, bent his arms behind his back, cuffed him, and pulled him to his feet.
Bob still had a half-eaten donut in his hand. Chase said, “Wouldn’t want to fight the guy who finished first.”
“Got that right,” Lucas said.
* * *
—
LUCAS, CHASE, RAE, and the young agent walked around the corner to the café, Rae finishing her chocolate cake donut, the young agent carrying an envelope. They looked inside, and Chase said, “That’s him. In line.”
McCoy’s attorney was a thin man, balding, the remaining hair, gone white, cut tight. He wore gold-rimmed glasses, a rumpled gray suit, and was carrying an attaché case. He was waiting patiently behind two young women, who were discussing the menu with the counter clerk, and Chase took his arm, held up her ID, and said, “Mr. Bunch? I’m Jane Chase with the FBI. Could we speak to you for a minute?”
She guided him out of line, and Bunch asked, “What’s going on?”
Chase said, “We’ve arrested your client John McCoy. We’re holding him around the corner in a car. We are serving you with an NSL, a National Security Letter.” The young agent handed him the envelope.
“I know what an NSL is,” Bunch said, as he took the envelope. “But why?”
“Because your client is being held on a national security issue. We’d appreciate it if you could walk around the corner with us and advise your client of his rights and consult with him about what he should do this evening. We are taking him in for questioning.”
“How did you know we’d be meeting? Have you wiretapped me?”
“We have a warrant to cover Mr. McCoy’s phone calls. One of his calls went to you. But we were not monitoring you specifically.”
“Better not have been,” Bunch said. Then, “Where’s John?”
“Right around the corner,” Chase said, “like I said. Would you like to get a cup of coffee before you talk to him?”
Bunch looked down at his shoes, thinking, eventually nodding. “All right. I better get the coffee.”
23
McCoy and the other three Heracles employees arrested that evening were interrogated in four separate oversized FBI interview rooms by four separate interrogation teams, with Jane Chase moving among them.
Lucas, Bob, and Rae were not invited to the interrogations themselves, but each of the rooms was equipped with a discreet video camera, and they watched McCoy’s interview on a high-resolution screen in a separate observation room.
McCoy had been checked by a doctor for physical injuries after being decked by Bob, but the doc found only a few developing bruises, and McCoy agreed that he wasn’t badly injured. The interviews were two-part, with the interrogation teams first asking a series of questions, then Bunch and McCoy adjourning to a secure conference room to talk privately.
McCoy was willing to confirm some of the information in the documents hidden by Ritter but volunteered no further information, denying knowing anything about the attack on Smalls and Weather or the related murders of Whitehead and Last. When asked about Ritter’s death, he said, “Everybody knows that the marshal did it—Davenport. Jim was waterboarded and executed because Davenport thought Jim attacked his wife.”
The FBI interrogator said, “Mr. Ritter wasn’t interrogated. He wasn’t waterboarded. He was shot twice, in the heart, a few minutes after talking with Mr. Parrish.”