"And, doctor, in your research into the expunged records, did you turn up anything that indicated that the Reverend LaFontaine had anything to do with it?" Rottingham asked, placing a hand on his client's shoulder.

Aronberg looked down at his hands. "No, I saw nothing to indicate he was involved."

Rottingham smiled. "Thank you, no more questions."

As Aronberg stepped down and pa.s.sed between the defense and prosecution tables, Karp glanced at LaFontaine, who was looking at him with a slight smirk on his face. Pride before the fall, Karp thought, and turned away.

26.

KARP WAS STILL THINKING ABOUT LAFONTAINE'S SMIRK, AND ego, when he hurried into the reception area of his office, where Darla Milquetost told him, "Your visitors are already here." She pointed to the larger room where Nadya Malovo and company waited before adding, "That woman gives me the creeps."

Karp laughed. "She has that effect on a lot of people."

"Oh, by the way, I'm not exactly sure where this came from, it was on my desk after I let them into the meeting room and got them coffee," Milquetost said, handing him an envelope, "but it's addressed to you."

Walking into the room, Karp quickly took in the scene. Seated at the conference table were Nadya Malovo, her attorney Bruce Knight, Espey Jaxon, and Mike Rolles. Marshal Jen Capers was standing behind her prisoner, talking quietly to Clay Fulton.

Malovo spoke first. "It is my good friend Butch Karp," she said. "Apparently we will have yet another conversation that does not involve a witness stand."

Karp, tight-lipped, ignored her as he made his way around the table and took a seat. He looked at Jaxon. "So I got your message; what's up?"

Jaxon pointed. "h.e.l.lo, Butch. I'll defer here to Agent Rolles, who called me just before I called you this morning and asked for this meeting."

Karp raised an eyebrow and looked at the other agent, who said, "As you know, Nadya has been hearing from her sources for months now about a possible terrorist attack aimed at the parade in the Village on Halloween night. She's been in contact with these people in the past week and the threat has gained credibility."

"It has gone from the planning to implementation stage," Malovo said.

"We've been worried for some time about the possibility of this particular attack," Rolles added. "Think about it. The parade draws two million spectators and fifty thousand partic.i.p.ants, almost all of them wearing costumes, and all crammed into a one-mile stretch of Sixth Avenue. Although the NYPD tries to control entrance to the parade itself from the side streets, it's nearly impossible, not to mention there are several subway stops in that immediate area."

"It's a security nightmare," Jaxon said. "With everyone in costume, the police can't check beneath each robe and look in every backpack or behind every mask."

"Osama bin Laden could have come as himself," Malovo interjected, "and everybody would have congratulated him on his costume."

"So where do we go from here? Call off the parade?" Fulton asked.

The room went quiet until Rolles cleared his throat and spoke. "National security policy has been to keep these threats quiet," he said. "While we believe that this particular threat is very credible, if we stopped events every time there was a credible threat-meaning we are aware that some lone wolf or group is planning something-there would be no football games or World Series or concerts."

"There is something else," Malovo interjected. "Along with a desire to strike a major blow against America, those behind this operation have one very specific target."

"And that is?" Karp asked.

"You," she replied with a smile. "Apparently, they have tired of your ... interference with their plans and want to repay you for the downfall of my former colleagues Amir al-Sistani and the imam Jabbar. These are people who believe in revenge."

"That does it; whatever happens with the parade, you're out," Fulton snarled, glaring at Malovo. "We'll make up some excuse ... work or illness or-"

Karp held up his hand. "Hold on, Clay," he said. "I don't see how I can live with saving myself while agreeing to allow this parade to go forward."

"It might actually work against us," Malovo said. "If they don't see you, they will a.s.sume that their plan has been discovered. But they have a separate Plan B."

"And what is that?" Fulton scowled.

Malovo shrugged. "I haven't been able to find out yet. But if they stay with the original plan, we have a better chance of stopping them. I think they may even be growing suspicious of me ... after the ferry attack was thwarted, they have been more circ.u.mspect, though they have still needed Ajmaani-me of course-to supply them with their materials and financing. They are expecting me to be at the parade, too."

"You're not going to any parade," Capers argued.

Malovo looked at Rolles, who shook his head. "I'm afraid that she has to," he said. "Not only would her absence warn them that something isn't right, she can identify at least some of the partic.i.p.ants."

"If you know who these people are, why not just intercept them now?" Fulton said.

"It may have to do with their distrust of me," Malovo explained, "or they've learned not to put all of their eggs in one basket-that is the saying, no?-but I have only been able to meet with the two main leaders. There has been no contact with their teams."

"Then take down the leaders and the plan falls apart," Fulton said.

"It is my understanding that if the two are captured or killed, the others will carry out Plan B," she replied. "It may not be as dramatic as attacking the parade and trying to kill our friend Butch, but I am convinced it will be deadly and I have no idea how to stop it."

"Nadya meets with these guys the night before Halloween. We'll be tracking these two and we'll try to intercept them before the parade if we can get them all together," Rolles said. "But I think we need to be thinking in terms of making these guys think that their plan is working."

Malovo turned from Rolles to Karp. "So, I guess you will be the bait to catch these fish. So what will your costume be, Butch? I am going as Little Red Riding Hood; perhaps you should be Big Bad Wolf, no?"

Karp mused. "The world is truly upside down."

Laughing, Malovo left with Rolles and Capers. When they were gone, Fulton sat down at the table. "You know she's egging you on to be at the parade," he said. "And it's not so she can help catch terrorists."

"I know, Clay," Karp replied. "But I don't see any other choice." He looked at his legal pad and saw the envelope that Milquetost had handed him stuffed in the pages. He opened it and read a note inside, then looked at his watch. "I have to be back to court in fifteen minutes. But I want to go get a newspaper."

Fulton frowned. "I'll go get it," he said. "You got enough on your plate."

Karp smiled. "Nah, I can use a breath of fresh air, too. Something about that woman; she's truly the queen of darkness."

Fulton laughed. "I know just what you mean."

27.

AS KARP TURNED TO WATCH, A SIDE DOOR IN THE COURTROOM opened and a frightened-looking man timidly entered. He stood for a moment as if debating whether to try to turn and run despite the imposing presence behind him of the large black detective who escorted him from the witness waiting room.

"Please approach the stand to be sworn in," Judge Temple directed the man, who swallowed hard, adjusted his tie, nodded, and walked toward the low swinging gate between the spectator section and the well of the court. He glanced once at the defendant, who sat looking at him with an eerie smile plastered to his face, and then at Karp before fixing his eyes ahead on the court clerk who waited.

The phrase "stuck between a rock and a hard place" comes to mind, Karp thought as the man swore to tell the truth and took a seat in the witness box alongside the jury rail. He wondered if the red flush on the man's cheeks was due to fear, shame, or embarra.s.sment-or likely all three. It was certainly not the nip in the October air outside. Dr. Maury Holstein had not spent much time outside at all since his arrest that past April for his partic.i.p.ation in the grand larceny/fraud case still pending against him and LaFontaine in Tennessee.

At Marlene's suggestion, Detective Winkler had called Holstein following the shooting and asked if he could come in to talk to him about "the Reverend John LaFontaine and some irregularities in hospital patient records." As expected, the doctor panicked and called LaFontaine in New York City to ask what he should do.

LaFontaine was smart enough not to say much. "I don't know what you're talking about," the crafty con man responded. "And don't call here again." But scared, and now alone, Holstein had persisted with several more calls.

That was enough to link Holstein to LaFontaine and to get the Memphis judge, who had sufficient probable cause, to issue a wiretap order and authorize a subpoena for hospital telephone and computer records. The hospital records revealed numerous calls from Holstein's office to cell phones registered to the Holy Covenant Church of Jesus Christ Reformed when LaFontaine was still in Memphis. And while the computer records had been wiped clean of references to Micah Ellis and Natalie Hale, a forensic computer expert had been able to determine that the records had existed and had been deleted from a computer in Holstein's office.

Given the nature of the fraudulent schemes, Holstein was arrested. He'd immediately cracked under questioning from Winkler and Fulton and then gave a comprehensive, incriminating recorded statement to Guma.

When Guma asked what could have possibly driven him to become part of such an evil plot, the doctor began to cry. He had a gambling problem and was in the hole for fifty thousand dollars to LaFontaine's thugs, who had approached him with a deal: "I could wind up in the Mississippi with a bullet in my head, or I could go along with the program. My debt would be forgiven, and I'd get paid."

However, the threat wasn't the only thing that sealed the deal. He'd been having an affair with a stripper named Sarah at the Gentleman's Club. "They got some photos of me with her at a motel and said that if I ever told, they'd give them to my wife and put them on Facebook."

Holstein had turned over the photographs, one of which Karp showed him on the witness stand after establishing that the doctor had been blackmailed into getting involved in a plan to identify seriously ill children being treated at the hospital. "Is this the woman you knew as Sarah?" he asked.

The doctor looked up and then quickly back down. He nodded his head.

"You're going to have to answer yes or no loud enough for the court reporter and the jurors to hear you," Karp said.

"Yes, that's her ... and me," Holstein said.

Karp entered the photograph into evidence and then showed it to the jury before continuing his questioning. "Do you see the man who approached you about this plan sitting in the courtroom?"

"Yes, that's him," Holstein said, pointing.

"Let the record reflect that the witness identified the defendant," Karp said. "And what did he ask you to do?"

"He wanted me to identify children who were being treated for illnesses that if untreated would result in their deaths," Holstein said.

"Did he say why?"

Holstein shook his head. "Only that he had a plan to make money."

"What else did he ask you to do?"

"He said I had to erase their patient records."

"He say why?"

"No, only that I had to do it or my wife would get those photographs and I'd be killed."

"Did he ask you to do anything else?"

"Yes, he wanted the personal-information packet that the families fill out when the patient is admitted to the hospital."

"Did he want to know anything else?"

"Yes. He asked me about the diseases the kids were being treated for ... how they would respond to treatment ... how long they would live without medical intervention."

Karp walked over to the jury box and looked at the jurors' shocked faces before turning back to the witness. "Doctor, why didn't you go to the police with this?"

Holstein looked down at his hands and appeared to be crying, but he finally lifted his head and said, "I was afraid. And embarra.s.sed."

"So you were willing to let children go untreated, children that you knew would die without medical help, because you were afraid and embarra.s.sed?" Karp said, not bothering to hide the disgust that he felt in his heart.

Covering his face with his hands, Holstein let out a sob. "Yes. I was that bedeviled."

Karp gave Holstein a few moments to recover and then resumed his questioning. "Doctor, how often did you meet with the defendant?"

Holstein shrugged. "Only a few times. Sometimes he'd call, or I was supposed to call him."

Karp nodded and turned to the judge. "Your Honor, at this time I'd like to show the witness this file marked People's Exhibit Twenty-five for identification."

"Go ahead," Temple said.

Handing Holstein several sheets of paper, Karp asked, "Doctor, do you recognize the information contained on these papers, People's Exhibit Twenty-five for identification?"

"Yes, they are telephone records of calls I made to LaFontaine or from him to me."

"But those are just numbers," Karp noted. "How do you know they're to the defendant?"

Holstein shrugged. "That's who I called. Or sometimes his man Frank."

Karp took the telephone records back from Holstein and offered them into evidence. "You mentioned someone named Frank. Did you know Frank's last name?"

"No."

"Did you ever see Frank and can you describe him?"

"Yes. Big guy, about as big as LaFontaine. He had a beard, kind of rough-looking ... dark hair, brown eyes ... he had a scar below one eye."

"You mentioned that in addition to your gambling debt being forgiven, you were paid. How were you paid?"

"In cash."

"Who gave you the cash?" Karp asked.

"Frank," Holstein said. "He'd bring it in an envelope. And once Sarah brought it to my home and handed it to me in front of my wife."

"How did you explain that?"

"I said it was a payment from a patient," he said. "I don't think my wife believed me."

"Doctor, are you still married?" Karp asked.