Page 88 of The 9th Man

“Rattling the cage?”

“You could say that. But he knows we’re onto him.”

He knew what that meant. The already high pressure would increase. “Hopefully, we’re about to learn what this is all about.”

“Luke—”

“I know. You’ll be the first to know, when I know.”

A MacBook Air bearing the stamp for the East Baton Rouge Parish Historical Society had been waiting on the kitchen table. While they both ate and enjoyed the cold beer, he popped in the flash drive from the vial and they studied the screen.

Five files. Not password-protected.

That was all?

One was labeledDIAGRAMS.

He clicked on it and three images appeared.

“The first is identical to the one from Benji’s lamp,” Jillian said.

“And the other two are the same from the pouch.”

He returned his attention to the screen and clicked on the file namedAUDIO. After a few seconds of silence, a tinny voice on a grainy sound track said—

“Your name.”

“I am Dr. Earl Rose, the Dallas County medical examiner. Who are you?”

“Roy Kellerman, special agent in charge of the White House detail of the Secret Service. This is the body of the president of the United States and we are going to take it back to Washington.”

“That’s not the way things are,” Rose said. “When there’s a homicide in Dallas, we must have an autopsy.”

“He’s going with us.”

“The body stays,” Rose declared. “There’s a law here. We’re going to enforce it.”

“The situation is bad,” Kellerman said. “Look, there’s been an accident, not a murder, so the law can be waived.”

Some steel had entered the voice.

In the background a door squeaked open, then shut.

“Let’s move,” Kellerman said.

A rattling, like wheels on a gurney.

“Get out of the way,” Kellerman demanded.

“You are not taking that body,” Rose said.

“Either you move or we run over you.”

“I’m not moving.”

A rustling sound, then the scuffing of shoes.

“Get your hands off me,” Rose said.

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