Page 118 of The Accomplice
Seong stood over Peltier’s dead body, bent low to look at the gunshot wounds. Then looked at the empty gun in Lake’s hand.
‘A struggle ? Are you shitting me ? This guy’s been shot like ten times.’
‘Well, there was a lot of struggling,’ said Eddie. ‘Come on, look in the depot office.’
Kate watched Eddie go inside the office where she and Lake had hidden earlier that morning to wait for Peltier. She knew what was in there. The jars of eyes. Unblinking.
Never to sleep again.
Kate got down on her knees and wept. Bloch knelt beside her. Lake too. And they huddled together as she cried.
‘Thank you,’ said Bloch.
Lake, nodded, said, ‘You found this place. You saved Kate. We did this together.’
FBI agents swarmed around them. The fire burned low in the pit.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ said Kate. ‘I have a client that needs me.’
BREAKING NEWS – SHOCKING SCENES IN MANHATTAN COURTROOM.
CNN NEWSHOUR
DANIEL MILLER IS INNOCENT. LAWYER OTTO PELTIER NAMED AS THE SANDMAN.
The New York Times
DISTRICT ATTORNEY WITHDRAWS ALL CHARGES AGAINST CARRIE MILLER.
The National Enquirer
FBI ISSUES PUBLIC APOLOGY FOR NAMING DANIEL MILLER AS THE SANDMAN.
The Washington Post.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
GABRIEL LAKE
He was already late when he left his apartment.
The delay had been caused when he had to tape up the pocket of his suit jacket, after he had caught it on the door handle and ripped the fabric. Six months of rehab to recover from the gunshot wounds he’d suffered in a shootout in a heroin stash house had caused him to lose forty pounds. He still hadn’t bought new clothes, even a year after finishing his physiotherapy. Lake liked his clothes, even though they no longer fit. And in truth, his medical pension didn’t give him a lot of spare cash to throw around.
He took the subway, exited at Grand Central and found the little Irish bar two blocks away, just off the corner of Lexington Avenue.
They were huddled around a table in the back of the bar. They’d kept him a seat.
Kate looked good. After taking a little time off, she was back in court. Back in the office and she had regained a little of the color in her cheeks. The haunted look that sometimes comes with trauma was still there, just in the corner of her eye. He caught it as she looked at him coming through the door. He hadn’t seen her since that day in the old bus depot, but Eddie had kept him informed of her progress over the past month.
Beside her, Bloch stretched out her legs. She sat close to Kate. Eddie had told him Kate was staying with Bloch in her house in New Jersey, temporary, while she looked for a new apartment. Bloch and Kate were drinking beers.
Harry Ford had a bottle of bourbon in front of him, and two glasses. Beneath his feet was a friendly looking dog. Lake couldn’t tell the breed.
Eddie said hello, took a drink from a glass of cola.
‘I didn’t think they allowed dogs in bars,’ said Lake.
‘They do if you buy bourbon by the bottle,’ said Harry. ‘Besides, this is an Irish pub. There has to be a dog in here somewhere.’
