Chapter 55
The Last Piece of the Puzzle
On Friday morning, December 23, Steve and Skip took the Metro Liner to Penn Station and then walked to the Manhattan office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where they had a 10 a.m. appointment. The weather was crispy, but not cold enough for overcoats with the sky sunny. Steve was wearing an ill-fitting suit he had borrowed from Phyllis’s father, even a felt tie from the ‘50s, but he looked good, even lawyerly. Skip, still wearing his baseball cap, was dressed in his best khakis and a pressed shirt. Together they reviewed their strategy, to-wit:
First, no names and only unknown places, except it’s going down in New York City, while we outline what we will provide details on, after we get his promise not to prosecute any “good guys,” then we provide the details.
Second, we bring up our last demand first, saying, “Oh, before we tell everything, one more minor item, once you bust these guys – we need to be at the press conference and you give us credit for having:
- One, broken up a terrorist ring just in the nick of time to prevent the worst terrorist attack in NYC since 9-1-1;
- Two, cracked an international sex trafficking operation;
- And three, provided the information likely to lead to the indictment of the Jefferson County, Montana, Sheriff, on conspiracy charges for intentionally not busting the sex trafficking operation, and maybe including his D.A. for ineptness conducting that murder trial, resulting in the acquittal of one very bad dude, Charles Furbush.”
As they got in the elevator, Steve reminded Skip, “Remember they get no details until I high five you. I know how these immunity things work.”
“Yeah, and I always admired your abilities as a lawyer, that swagger bestowing confidence. Today we’re gonna make everything right with the world, now that we have ALL the goods on the bad guys,” Skip said.
And they did.
Apparently having convinced her SLA/Jihadist/Posse Comitatus compatriots that she was all in (this time on board with killing people) – or perhaps just to test her resolve – the Posse had decided Jane (name not to be mentioned to the D.A.) should be the one to bring the bomb into St. Patrick’s Cathedral (in a large handbag) right at the beginning of the Christmas Eve Children’s Mass, while precisely at the same time Jamie (aka Dougherty) was bringing a bomb disguised as a Christmas present to the foot of the Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree. They were to leave the handbag and the “gift” and walk away with detonation time set for 5:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This is the plan that Jane had told Gordy, and Gordy said could be trusted to be the truth – a twin bombing to happen in just under 32 hours.
We had it all.
“But remember,” Skip said, “we promised Ken and Gordy, and Jane, not one word about what Jane said she was going to do instead, her plan to break-away the minute before the cops swoop. I hope she can pull it off, but I have a hard time imagining it.” (Jane had called Ken the night before and provided all the last details about the twin bombings, as well as her escape plan: drive straight to the Hudson River, have her car roll off the pier so the bomb explodes, if at all, only under water; and then grab a taxi to JFK for a flight to Mexico City.)
“Yeah, like I said,” Steve responded, giving his mustache a twang. “I really don’t give a rip whether she makes it or not. I just hope it doesn’t go down some totally different way. All we tell the D.A. is that the person we planted inside the terrorist cell, who supplied the inside information, is one of the good guys, should he or she eventually be charged.”
“Why don’t you leave out the ‘she’ part,” Skip suggested.