The Legacy (26 page)

Nine years ago Walsh had taken a sabbatical from his Charlotte law practice to run Richard Jamisons successful campaign for the governorship of North Carolina. Jamison was a real estate mogul and one of Walshs clients. After the victory Walsh had left the law practice permanently and become Jamisons chief of staff in the governors office. Five years later Walsh had directed another victorious Jamison campaign. This time the prize was the presidency. Again, Walsh had stayed on to be chief of staff. Now they were after one last victory so Jamison could spend four more years in the Oval Office.

But Walsh wouldnt stay on as chief of staff during the second term. After the election he would put his services up for bids. He had already informed Jamison of that decision. It was better to move into the private sector riding a wave of success. Walsh would be able to name his price at that point. The investment banks would offer him five, maybe even ten million dollars annually just to make the high-level introductions. Hed be able to retire a wealthy man after only a few years of work.

Jamison was understanding. He had made only one request: that Walsh remain with him through this last campaign. And Walsh understood why. Jamison needed him to remain the point person with the Bianco family until after the election. He couldnt risk letting anyone else in on the administrations dark secrets.

Walsh glanced around the empty office furtively, wondering if he was being watched. The Bianco family controlled the largest unions and thirty percent of the illegal drug trade in the United States. Over the last decade the Biancos had gained immense power in the underworld, and at the same time had maintained an extremely low profile. The FBI had nicknamed the Bianco family Crime Inc., and calculated that if the businesses they controlled were consolidated on paper by a Big Six accounting firm, the entity would rank well up in the Fortune 100.

Walsh checked his watch. It was after two in the morning and they were late, but that wasnt unusual. Unlike some Mafia families, the Biancos were fanatic about making certain that their Chairman, as they called him, was not being followed by the press, which was constantly trying to snap his picture. The Chairman had no interest in having his picture splashed all over the newspapers or being tagged with dapper nicknames, as John Gotti had. So Walsh would cool his heels patiently and accept the imposition. He would wait as long as it took, because the Chairman could destroy Jamisons administration with one phone call.

Ten minutes later the office door swung slowly open. The office was buried deep inside a building located on Interstate 95 halfway between Washington and Baltimore and owned by one of Jamisons real estate companies. Two large men dressed in conservative gray suits entered the room and nodded to Walsh. He stood up immediately, holding his arms straight out. One of the men frisked Walsh carefully while the other searched the office. Satisfied that Walsh and the office were clean, the man who had frisked Walsh returned to the office door and said something quietly to those waiting in the hall. Two more large men then entered the room, followed by a short man dressed in his traditional three-button charcoal suit.

Anthony Bianco a.k.a. the Chairman, was arguably one of the most powerful men in America, but few people in the country would recognize him as such. Few would recognize him at all, which was exactly the way he wanted it.

Walsh shook Biancos hand respectfully. He had known the man for nine years. They had first met shortly before Jamisons opponent for the governorship of North Carolina had met with an untimely death in a tragic plane crash only a few weeks before the election. Since that time, Walsh had been Jamisons messenger, transacting their business face to face with Bianco, because of course the president couldnt.

Good evening, Mr. Bianco.

Good evening, Mr. Walsh, Bianco replied in his gruff voice.

In nine years, Walsh couldnt ever remember them addressing each other by anything but their last names. Please sit down. Walsh motioned toward the couch.

Bianco gestured toward his men, then followed Walsh to the couch. Three of the men exited the room while one took a chair just inside the door.

How are the attorney general hearings going? Bianco asked.

Very well, Walsh replied. The woman President Jamison had nominated to head the Justice Department was Biancos personal selection. The woman had allowed Bianco to run Atlantic City with little interference during her tenure as New Jersey attorney general, and now Bianco was elevating her to a much more important position through Jamison. After some initial problems, we believe her approval is a lock at this point. We have polled the senators on the committee and we have the votes. They will recommend to Congress that she be confirmed, Walsh said confidently.

Good. Bianco unbuttoned his suit coat. What about the tape? he asked abruptly. When I was at William Sewards cabin in Virginia with General Zahn, Seward said something about the possibility of a second one.

We are following up on that possibility, Walsh assured Bianco. We have someone very close to Cole Egan. If there is a second tape, we will find it.

Bianco stared at Walsh for several moments. Perhaps it would help to have some of my people involved. He nodded at the man sitting in the chair across the room.

Let us take care of this, Walsh urged gently. Jamison didnt want Biancos people nosing around when the government was following Cole so closely. There was no reason to have the two organizations both on the scene in case things got nasty. That might create the possibility of a link between the Mafia and the Jamison administration, which was something both parties had to avoid at all costs. Please let us handle it.

For now, Bianco conceded. He was naturally uneasy about anything not under his direct control, but he also understood the need to keep the two organizations as far apart as possible.

Why do you have such an interest in the tape, Mr. Bianco? Walsh had never asked the question before, though hed always been tempted to.

Bianco made a face, as if the answer should be obvious. This country has been fascinated with President Kennedys assassination for thirty-five years. People still want to know who killed him today as badly as they did in 1963. They dont believe it was Oswald, at least not acting alone. Lyndon Johnson didnt. Why should anyone else? If that tape became public, the investigation would be reopened immediately. Id have federal agents crawling all over my fucking empire trying to get answers. I still have people around who knew Jack Ruby. People would have to start turning up dead. I dont want to have to go through that. Not after weve spent years toning down our profile.

I

But Bianco wasnt finished. That operation in the DIA blamed it on us thirty-five years ago. People would remember that. I dont need people fishing around. He smiled. Nobody in the government needs it, either. Not with the suspicions most Americans already have about senior officials conspiring to keep sensitive information away from them.

Youre right, Walsh agreed.

Bianco tapped the arm of the sofa. I have some information I want you to give to the president.

What is that?

After careful analysis, I believe we can deliver New York, Illinois, Texas and Florida to him in the election next November. Thats well over one hundred electoral votes. That ought to make him feel pretty good about his chances.

Walsh smiled, but not because he knew that would make Jamison feel very good. It was General Zahns comment about the irony of it all that brought the smirk to Walshs face. Kennedy had been accused of using the Mafias help to win the 1960 presidential election, specifically of winning Illinois thanks to a few crime bosses and their influence over the unions. And here was Jamison, in deep with the Mafia himself, doing his best to keep the tape of Kennedys assassination away from the public.

GOD, ITS DESOLATE out here. Tori gazed through the windshield of the rented Jeep Cherokee at the dense northern Wisconsin pine forest, which seemed to be closing in around them at the edge of the headlights glow. We havent passed a house for thirty miles, much less a town. And I cant remember seeing a car coming the other way. Are you sure we didnt take a detour to Siberia?

Cole laughed. Its not that bad.

Yes, it is.

Whats the matter? he asked. Does all this isolation make you nervous? He knew the forest did that to some people.

Youre darn right it does. Im a city girl. I grew up in Los Angeles and now I live in New York. Those are places where people can get to you in the winter without needing a snowmobile or a team of huskies.

You dont have much of that pioneer spirit, do you?

None at all. If it had been up to me to explore, wed all still be back in Europe ruled by monarchs.

Wheres your sense of adventure, Tori? Cole teased.

I dont have one.

Why not?

I dont like being alone, she admitted quietly, looking apprehensively into the pitch-black night outside.

Cole nodded. If you kept peeling away the layers long enough, you could always make it to the heart of the matter.

Are there bears here? she asked.

Cole shook his head. No. He hesitated only long enough for her to feel a slight sense of relief. Just wolves.

Wolves?

Well, Ive heard there are, Cole said. Ive never actually seen any wolf packs around here. But I have seen them in Minnesota, up on the Boundary Waters near Canada. People around here say those packs have migrated into Wisconsin over the last few years, but I dont know if thats true. Wolves wont hurt you, Cole assured her.

Cole, I think its time you tell me what this is all about. If she was going to deal with wolves, she was going to know why they were here.

Cole checked for stars, but they were hidden by an ominous cloud cover hanging low over the territory. The forecast was for heavy snow tonight and it wasnt even December. But that didnt matter here. Hed seen storms dump a foot of snow in a single November day in northern Wisconsin. Not yet.

What do you mean, not yet? She was irritated. So far Ive purchased airline tickets and rented a Jeep for who knows how long. I deserve answers.

When the plane landed in Minneapolis four hours ago, Cole had decided to drive straight to the town of Hubbard and the Lassiter River instead of staying at his aunt and uncles house in Duluth tonight. It would be too easy for his pursuers to stake out that housemaybe they already hadand he didnt want to endanger his aunt and uncle in any way. Plus, he didnt want the extra fifty-mile drive early tomorrow morning from Duluth if the snow turned out to be heavy tonight.

Cole reached in front of Tori and opened the glove compartment. Here. He pulled out a Wisconsin map he had purchased when they stopped for gas an hour ago and handed it to her. Turn on the map light and entertain yourself. Ill show you where were headed.

I dont really care.

Thats not a very good attitude.

Tori smiled for the first time in a while. Youre really good at that.

At what? He knew what she was about to say.

At changing the subject.

What are you talking about? He continued to deflect.

You want me to become interested in the map and forget that Ive asked you what on Gods green earth were doing here. She too checked the sky for stars. Or white earth, as the case may soon be. She had heard the weather forecast as well. But Im not going to be distracted this time. Now, what are we doing here? What is this all about?

Ill tell you later, promise.

Now, she said firmly. Or Ill stop paying for everything, Cole.

Look, theres a couple of deer. He pointed at two does standing like statues on the side of the road, mesmerized by the Jeeps high beams.

Im not looking, she said defiantly.

Youre missing them.

Cole!

Okay. The time to explain the situation had come. There was no getting around it now, but that was all right. He was convinced at this point that she was trustworthy. Look, you were right on the button at lunch the other day, he began. My father did take a film away from a woman named Andrea Sage in Dealey Plaza the day President Kennedy was shot.

I knew it! Tori slapped the dashboard.

Cole jerked the steering wheel left, taken off guard by her violent reaction to the news. Easy, he warned.

Sorry.

Cole smiled. Its all right, but please, lets demonstrate a little control.

I did get a little excited, didnt I? she asked sheepishly. But can you blame me?

No. Heres another interesting piece of information for you, Cole volunteered.

Whats that?

Andrea Sage and Mary Thomas were the same person.

Youre kidding!

No. Cole quickly explained how Jim Egan had ultimately married the woman from whom hed taken the movie camera.

Thats incredible.

It really is, Cole agreed. Anyway, at some point my father made a tape copy of the film, then hid it in a safe-deposit box in New York City. A man named Bennett Smith gave me an envelope with a key to the safe-deposit box inside after I found out my father had died. In fact, Bennett was the one who informed me of his death. Bennett was my fathers best friend. Cole shook his head. I had my hands on that tape last week in Manhattan, but someone took it away from me at gunpoint after I retrieved it from the box.