The Tenth Justice - Brad Meltzer [171]
“That’s Michael Burke,” DeRosa said, pointing to Claremont. “He’s a U.S. marshal.”
“You’re a cop?” Nathan asked.
“I’m a marshal,” Burke said.
“You’re a marshal, but you let Rick beat the shit out of us?”
“Sorry about that,” Burke said. “We wanted to wait until Rick bought the stock before we did anything.”
“Then where were you after he bought the stock?” Nathan asked, his voice growing louder.
“Don’t blame me for that,” Burke said. “That was your fault. We were ready to storm in, but Lisa bolted out the door.”
“Oh, and that’s my fault?” Nathan laughed. He walked to the empty chair next to Ben and sat down. “How the hell were we supposed to know you guys were out there?”
“Ben and Lisa knew,” Burke said.
“You knew?” Nathan turned to Ben.
“I swear I didn’t know,” Ben insisted. “I thought they gave up on me.”
“Hold on a second,” Nathan said. “I thought I was about to die a few hours ago! Now what the hell is going on?”
“Here’s what—” Ben began.
“I want the full story,” Nathan demanded. “From the beginning.”
“Drop that tone and shut up,” DeRosa ordered. Nathan put his ice back on his eye. Ben then took a deep breath and explained how he’d initially approached DeRosa and how he’d thought he’d been abandoned by the Marshals Office.
“Are you telling me they could’ve grabbed Rick weeks ago?” Nathan asked in disbelief. He looked back at DeRosa. “Why did you wait until now?”
“We wanted to get everyone Rick was involved with,” DeRosa explained. “From his broker to everyone else on his payroll.”
“And we wanted to catch Carl Lungen,” Burke added.
Nathan stared coldly at Burke. He then turned back to Ben. “Did you know he was a marshal?”
“Not at all,” Ben explained. “That’s why I smashed him in the face. I didn’t know he was on our side until he saved Lisa.”
“What about Ober getting fired?” Nathan asked. “Did anyone know—”
“We didn’t know Rick was going to get Ober fired,” DeRosa said.
“And if it makes you feel any better,” Burke added, “I didn’t know Rick was going to kidnap you. He decided that at the last minute when he thought Ben was turning himself in. Remember, we were counting on Ben handing over the decision early yesterday morning.”
“The kidnapping thing really messed us up,” DeRosa said. “We didn’t think—”
“No, you didn’t think,” Nathan interrupted. “The moment Rick grabbed us, you should’ve blown the whistle. Instead I got my face kicked in for no reason.”
“There was nothing I could do,” Burke said.
“That’s bullshit,” Nathan said. “You could’ve revealed who you were. That would’ve forced everyone to rush in the room and save us all.”
“I couldn’t do that,” Burke said. “It would’ve jeopardized all of our lives. I didn’t know where the backup was hiding. I just knew they would be there if things got out of control.”
“You don’t call this out of control?” Nathan yelled, pointing to his black eye. “And what about when Rick put a gun in Lisa’s mouth? That wasn’t out of control enough for you?”
Ben put his hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “Nathan, calm down,” he said. “If everyone came charging in at that moment Rick would’ve blown Lisa’s head off. As it is, we should consider ourselves lucky nothing else happened.”
Nathan pulled away from Ben and stood up. “What else could possibly happen? This was the worst weekend of my life!” Ben reached over to calm him, but Nathan continued to pull away. Eventually, Nathan was standing in the middle of DeRosa’s office. “When Ober lost his job, they already had Rick in their hands! And you didn’t say a word! You could’ve blown the whistle on all of this! You could’ve—”
“I did what I thought was best for everyone,” Ben said. “If I had blown the whistle early, Rick would’ve disappeared. The only way to deal with Rick permanently was to catch him.”
As his fists tightened, Nathan could no longer contain his rage. “YOU SELF-CENTERED SON OF A BITCH! THE ONLY THING YOU DEALT WITH PERMANENTLY WAS OBER!