Conspiracy

140

Discovering Amanda Rauci’s body in Chief Ball’s freezer changed everything. Ball was now formally a murder suspect, and obtaining warrants to gather information about him would be child’s play.

Which bummed Gallo big-time. He would have much more enjoyed hacking into the different databases and taking what he needed, rather than having to deal with the bureaucracy.

Still, there was something to be said for the bureaucracy.

A search of FAA flight records showed that a C. Ball had purchased tickets in Cleveland for Chicago and Houston, in Chicago for LA and New York, and in LA for Pittsburgh and Miami. The car that Amanda Rauci’s credit card had been used to rent was found at the Cleveland airport after the plane manifests were checked, so it was a pretty good bet that C. Ball was the police chief.

The question was where was he now?

“These are only the lists of the people who bought tickets,” Gallo told Johnny Bib. “We’re still working on the final lists, the people who actually showed up. Those come from the airlines themselves. My bet is on Pittsburgh,” he added.

“It’s the smallest city — doesn’t really go with the others.”

“Ha!” said Johnny Bib. His voice was shrill enough to echo off the noise-dampening ceiling of the computer lab.

“Ha?” asked Gallo.

“Ha!” repeated Johnny Bib.

“Each time he lands, he buys two tickets,” said Gallo.

“When he reaches his final destination, he doesn’t buy any.

Both the Miami and the Pittsburgh plane landed yesterday afternoon. So he’s in one of those cities — Pittsburgh, I think.”

“Why does he buy two tickets?” Johnny Bib asked. He sounded like a philosophy professor lecturing a freshman class on Plato and the Socratic method.

“He doesn’t want us to know where he’s going,” said Gallo.

“Ha! ” said Johnny Bib.

“Maybe Pittsburgh is too close to Cleveland,” Gallo said.

“If he was going there, he could have driven. That would be harder to trace.”

“Ha!” said Johnny Bib.

“I give up,” said Gallo, completely baffled by his boss.

“He… knows… we… are… watching,” said Johnny Bib, pausing between each word.

“He never left LA!” said Gallo, finally getting it. “He just wants us to think he did.”

“Ha!”

Rubens listened quietly as Gallo laid out what he had found and surmised from the FAA passenger lists. The security tapes at Los Angeles International Airport were being scruti-nized; Chief Ball had not been spotted yet.

“It’s possible that we’re overthinking this,” Telach said.

“One of the other candidates is in Florida this weekend. I think it’s Winkler.”

“No, it’s Dalton,” said Gallo. “And, like, there hasn’t been one attempt on another candidate, despite the threats.”

“Maybe Ball made the threats to throw us off the trail,” said Jackson over the phone speaker. He was with the FBI liaison in Washington.

“I very much doubt that it was Ball who made the threats,” said Rubens. “I don’t believe Ball had anything to do with the assassination attempt, either.”

“It doesn’t fit the pattern,” explained Gallo. “It’s an anomaly.”

“You mean there’s another killer?” said Jackson.

“A would-be killer, Mr. Ambassador,” said Rubens. “The question is whether he will attempt to improve on that status.”

“Ball may know who it is,” said Gallo.

“Yes,” said Rubens. “Unfortunately, we’re going to have to find Chief Ball before we can find out.” 1 4 1

“what do you think, Jimmy Fingers? Can we blow off Paley?”

“Sure, if you’d like to kiss off about $350,000 worth of donations. That’s what he’ll be worth in general.”

“All right,” said McSweeney wearily. “All right. And who’s after the Paleys?”

“That would be Mr. and Mrs. Davis. They gave a lot of money to the last campaign. They’re going to try talking you out of going to the Getty tomorrow.”

“Why would they care? No, wait, that’s fine. I don’t really need to know. Tell me again what movies Paley has produced.”