Copp In The Dark, A Joe Copp Thriller (Joe Copp Private Eye Series) by Don Pendleton Page A

kitchen. But after all, it's a common name and...
           Judge White had been in the news quite a bit lately. He was hearing a red hot case—a racketeering case loaded with political fireworks and ...
           I told the judge's daughter, "I'm afraid there's already been an intervention, kid."
           Yeah. And five of her associates were dead.
           How many more would it take?
     

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
     
    That little bolt of light cast the events of the past few days in a totally new perspective. Since the talk with my friend in the FBI, I'd been proceeding under a false presumption. I'd assumed that the guy had leveled with me—even while wondering about his willingness to do that. Friendships are nice and trust is beautiful but some things simply cannot be included in the package—and I'd been wondering all along, at the back of the mind, why a Special Agent of the FBI would say anything to anyone that might endanger the security of a federal witness. Why had he told me that?
    It seemed obvious now that he'd merely dragged a red herring across the scene, and he'd done it skillfully. I'd been staggering around in the dark ever since.
    I had leaped to the conclusion that Dobbs and Harney were Deputy United States Marshals assigned to protect a federal witness and that the witness was Craig Maan . Nobody had told me that but it was a natural conclusion in context with the other developments.
    Then a simple, innocent statement by one whom I'd thought to be only peripherally involved changed the
    entire picture. I was stunned by that, and I instantly saw Dobbs and Harney in a totally new light.
           Those guys had been there to protect Judith White.
           So where were they now?
           I had not seen them since early the previous evening— before my meeting with Elaine Suzanne, before discovery of the murder of Craig Maan , before any of that. They'd chased me outside during the overture and hastily cancelled a confrontation with me outside the theater upon learning that Craig Maan was not appearing that night. I'd naturally assumed that they were concerned about Maan's safety. If not that, then what? Where had they gone? And where were they now?
           Obviously Judith had known nothing about any of it. Even after I'd outlined the case for her...
           Unless...
           I asked her, "Have you been straight with me?"
    She frowned as she replied, "What do you mean? Straight about what?"
    "About everything, all of it. You've actually believed all this time that Larry Dobbs and Jack Harney were here to take La Mancha on the road? You never had a clue that they were anything else?"
           She said, "Well. . . sometimes it's easier to take Craig at face value and let it go. But I've wondered—sure, I've wondered about it. We're closing La Mancha next week in any event, so ..."
           "When was the last time you talked to your dad?"
           "My dad? I talk to him often. Why?"
           I said, " Dammit , let me ask the questions for now. When did you last talk to him?"
           She screwed her face in search for the answer, told me,
           "I guess it was Monday. We're dark Mondays—I mean, no show. We had dinner. I was trying to remember if we'd talked on the phone since then, but I guess not. It was Monday."
           "And he told you... ?"
           She smiled. "The same thing he always tells me. Find a nice man. Make babies. Live like a human being. Mom died when I was sixteen. I keep turning the advice back on him. He's still a young man, he's handsome, successful. I tell him to find a nice woman. What is this, Joe? What does my father have to do with any of this?"
           I didn't want to scare her. At the same time, I felt that she had a right to know if her life may be in danger. So I told her, "Your dad is hearing a very sensitive case. Vincent DiCenza is up on racketeering and bribery charges.