The Judge’s List
- Автор: Гришэм Джон
- Серия: Lacy Stoltz #2
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: Doubleday/Random House
- ISBN: 978-0-385-54602-7
- Жанр: Триллеры
Электронная книга - «The Judge’s List». Краткое содержание книги:
Then she meets a mysterious woman who is so frightened she uses a number of aliases. Jeri Crosby’s father was murdered twenty years earlier in a case that remains unsolved and that has grown stone cold. But Jeri has a suspect whom she has become obsessed with and has stalked for two decades. Along the way, she has discovered other victims.
Suspicions are easy enough, but proof seems impossible. The man is brilliant, patient, and always one step ahead of law enforcement. He is the most cunning of all serial killers. He knows forensics, police procedure, and most important: he knows the law.
He is a judge, in Florida — under Lacy’s jurisdiction.
He has a list, with the names of his victims and targets, all unsuspecting people unlucky enough to have crossed his path and wronged him in some way. How can Lacy pursue him, without becoming the next name on his list?
The Judge’s List is by any measure John Grisham’s most surprising, chilling novel yet.
“Just go ahead and kill me.”
“Listen to me, you stupid woman. I’m not going to kill you, not now anyway, maybe never. I want Lacy here. We’ll talk, and once I know everything there’s a good chance I’ll simply disappear, go to some exotic village by the sea or in the mountains, someplace where no one speaks English. They’ll never find me. I’ve already been there, you know? It’s all planned.”
She breathed deeply as her heart raced.
“Which phone?” he asked.
She took one of them without looking at it. From nowhere, he produced a pistol, a rather large one, and set it beside him on the stool. “You tell her to meet you at the Bayview Motel near Crestview, just off the interstate. Has she ever seen your car?”
“Yes.”
“Good. It’s still there in the parking lot. Tell her to park beside it. Your room was 232. I’ve reserved it for another night, in the same name of Margie Frazier, so when she checks she’ll see you’re staying there. I told the manager not to clean the room. Maybe your stuff is still there.”
“I don’t care.”
“Do you care about your 9 millimeter? It was on the nightstand.”
“I wish I’d grabbed it in time.”
“So do I.”
There was a long pause as she stared at the fire and he stared at the floor. Slowly, he picked up the gun but did not point it at her. “Make the call. You will meet her tonight at nine at the Bayview Motel. And sell it, okay?”
“I’m not a very good liar.”
“Bullshit. You’re a gifted liar, just a lousy poet.”
“Promise me you won’t hurt her.”
“No promises, except that if I return here without Lacy, I’ll use this.” He grabbed a strand of rope and tossed it on her. She shrieked and tried to slap it away.
37
The game began at nine, an awful hour to expect ten-year-old boys to be in uniform, properly stretched, warmed-up, and ready to play. The Royals took the field in the top of the first, and a handful of parents clapped politely from the bleachers. A few shouted words of encouragement that the players didn’t hear. The coaches clapped their hands and tried to create excitement.
Diana Zhang sat alone in a lawn chair on the first-base side, a quilt tucked over her legs, a tall coffee in hand. The morning air was crisp and surprisingly cool for late April in the Panhandle. Across the way, down the third-base line, her ex-husband leaned on the fence and watched their child jog out to center field. Their divorce was too recent for any effort at civility.
From behind her, a female voice said quietly, “Excuse me, Ms. Zhang.”
She glanced to her right and confronted an officious-looking badge in a black leather wallet. A woman held it and said, “Agent Agnes Neff, FBI. Got a minute for a quick word?”
Startled, like anyone would be, Diana said, “Well, I was planning to watch my son play.”
“So are we. Let’s just move down the fence line there and have a word. Won’t take ten minutes.”
Diana stood and looked at the bleachers to make sure no one was watching. She turned around and saw what could only be another agent. He led the way and they stopped near the foul pole.
Neff said, “This is Special Agent Drew Suarez.”
She shot him a look of irritation and he nodded in return.
Neff continued, “We’ll be brief. We’re looking for your boss and can’t find him. Any idea where Judge Bannick might be right now?”
“Well, uh, no. I assume he’s at home on a Saturday morning.”
“He’s not.”
“Well, then, I don’t know. What’s going on?”
“When did you last see him?”
“He stopped by the office Thursday morning, two days ago. Haven’t talked to him since.”
“We understand he’s undergoing treatment.”
“He is. Cancer. Is he in trouble or something?”
“No, not at all. We just have some routine questions regarding allegations from another investigation.”
That was vague enough to mean nothing, cop-speak at its best, but Diana decided this was no time to push. She nodded as if she understood completely. Neff said, “So, no idea where he might be?”
“I’m sure you’ve checked the courthouse. He has a key and comes and goes at all hours.”
“We’re watching it. He’s not there. He’s not at home. Any idea where else he might be?”
Diana watched the game for a few seconds, not sure how much to say. “He has a bungalow at Seaside, though he rarely goes there.”
“We’re watching it too. He’s not there.”
“Okay. You say he’s not in trouble, so why are you watching everywhere?”
“We need to talk to him.”
“Obviously.”
Suarez took a step closer, gave her a hard look, and said, “Ms. Zhang, you are talking to the FBI. May I remind you it’s against the law to be untruthful?”
“Are you calling me a liar?”
“No.”
Neff shook her head. No. She said, “It’s important that we find him as soon as possible.”
Diana glared at Suarez, then looked at Neff. “There’s a chance he went back to Santa Fe. He’s undergoing treatment there for colon cancer. Look, he’s very private and makes his own travel arrangements. He’s taken leave and he doesn’t discuss things with anyone.” She looked at Suarez and said plainly, “Honestly. I have no idea where he is.”
Neff said, “He’s booked no flights in the past forty-eight hours.”
“As I said, I don’t handle his travel.”
“Do you know the name of the treatment center in Santa Fe?”
“No.”
Neff and Suarez looked at each other and nodded as if they believed her. Neff said, “I’d like to keep this conversation between us, okay, off the record.”
Suarez chimed in with, “In other words, don’t mention it to the judge should you hear from him. Okay?”
“Sure.”
“If you tell him about us you might be held for aiding and abetting.”
“I thought you said he’s done nothing wrong.”
“Not yet. Just keep it quiet.”
“Got it.”
She knew only that Allie was somewhere in the Caribbean, watching, stalking, intercepting. He had let it slip that it was a joint effort with the DEA. Something big was happening, but then she’d heard that for almost three years now. All that mattered was his safety, but he had been gone for eight days with hardly a word. She was growing tired of his job, as was he, and she couldn’t imagine being married to a man who was constantly disappearing. Their summit was growing closer, weeks now instead of months. The big conversation in which nothing would be held back. Complicated, yet simple. Either we commit ourselves to each other and a different future, or we call it quits and stop wasting time.
She was in pain, stretching in some form of mixed yoga and physical therapy, a thirty-minute routine she was supposed to check off twice a day, when the phone rang at 10:04. Probably Jeri, looking for an update.
Instead, it was the not too pleasant voice of Clay Vidovich, her new pal from yesterday at the FBI meeting in Pensacola. Sorry to bother on a Saturday morning, he went on, but didn’t really seem concerned with the interruption.
“We can’t find this guy, Lacy,” he said. “You have any ideas?”
“Well, no, Mr. Vidovich—”
“It’s Clay, okay? I thought we dropped the formalities yesterday.”
“Right, Clay. I don’t know this guy, never met him, so I have no idea where he hangs out. Sorry.”
“Does he know you’re involved, that BJC is investigating?”
“We haven’t contacted him directly, we’re not required to until after our initial assessment, but he probably knows about us.”