" It's a conspiracy." " A conspiracy?" "A conspiracy reaching to the highest levels of federal authority." "Look to the CIA." "Look to the Cubans." "Follow the money." "Check the grassy knoll." " The grassy knoll?" " I'm speaking in metaphor." "You're speaking in tongues." "Think about it, a DC bureaucrat, Janine McBride, relocates to Baltimore and is murdered." "She was deputy director with the Social Security Administration." "Then her body's made to look like a suicide." "Most of the blood is still inside her." " She was dead when she was shot." " Suffocated." "I got an anonymous call from a man." "He told me that Janine was a lesbian." "We were friendly." "Doesn't mean there was anything weird." "Diligent, conscientious and gifted police investigators identify and arrest one Chesley Purcell." "Everybody down now!" "Who has in her possession a phone number listed to the White House." "But before our noble detectives can question this Chesley, she is herself shot dead by the demoralised, deranged, and totally Jack Ruby-like ex-boyfriend of Janine McBride." "She took her from me!" "Wow, I pick up the phone, I get a drug murder in the projects." "He picks up the phone, he gets one of them LP Everett novels." " Who's gonna play Munch in the movie?" " James Woods." "Don't think I won't be peddling movie rights." "If it shakes out." "Now Purcell is dead, you ain't got no case." "As we speak, the best prosecutorial minds in New York and Baltimore are calling for answers, demanding we delve deeper into the shocking scandal to be." "William Dell, the Independent Counsel, wants to see us." "I'm told that you are relying on a statement and an identification by one of Ms McBride's friends." " I'd like a look at that statement." " Why?" "It's relevant to my investigation." " So the lawyers are talking?" " Yeah." "I got it." "A gunfight, a couple of car chases, you got a movie deal, but Ed Danvers and his pals waving their briefcases at each other?" "Yeah." "Who's gonna line up to pay theatre prices for that?" "That ain't a movie." "That's Court TV." "So that McBride case turned out to be a hell of a ride, huh?" "Danvers is still up in New York sifting through the pieces." "Heard you went through a door on this one." "Looking to arrest your shooter." " No big deal." " No big deal?" "Yeah, I don't know." "Working with Munchkin there, how did that work out?" "Munch is OK." ""Munch is OK." That's three words I never expected to form a sentence." "Actually, I've been partnered up for most of the case with this New York detective, Curtis." " Curtis, huh?" " Good looking creature, too." "Yeah, well, and he's very, very, very, very married also." "With the look of the dog about him." " You're a home-wrecker now, huh?" " Just window shopping." "So I guess you..." "Guess you're not hurting for partners now, huh?" "Me?" "I'm fine." "Sorry." "Had to take that phone call." "Trouble in Baltimore?" "Only if you have any regard for American jurisprudence." "What's going on?" "The Judicial Nominating Committee just named me to the bench." "I still need to be approved by the legislature, but..." "Your Honour." "I've seen you in black." "You'll carry the look." "Well, sure beats working for a living." "So where were we?" "Well, we got one killer dead, and another one in custody." "Not in our custody." "The feds are holding Ned Burks." "Even though he's charged with a murder?" "The Counsel's Office got a US judge to issue a writ and pull him out of Rikers." "He was transported to DC this morning." "Why is William Dell interested in this?" "The whole case is lumpy." "Who is this Chesley and why is she killing bureaucrats?" "You don't think a pick-up in a lesbian bar can go wrong?" "If it's a bar pick-up, why drive the body to New York and stage a suicide?" "With questions like these, it's not time to close the file." "I can get Baltimore to work back on Chesley Purcell, look at her connections in Baltimore and Washington." "Curtis and I can run down what we can find on that White House number." "We can talk to Mr Dell about Ned Burks." "If our suspect is saying anything worth hearing, I intend for us to be in the room." "That private White House number is a cellphone." "One of a pool of 40 leased to the West Wing last year." "Any way to pin it to anyone?" "There's no way to connect an individual with a number." "One staffer might use the cellphone one day." "Another might use the same one two days later." "What about the LUDs from that cell number?" "Anything to Baltimore?" "Only one." "Incoming from a law firm, Brown and Epstein." "No connection to McBride." "Not to Purcell either, for that matter." "So we're still left to wonder how the hell this Chesley Purcell has an unlisted White House number in her phone book." "I knew it was a mistake, your asking to be this department's FBI liaison." "What?" "It was a mistake to let a investigator from another agency into our shop." "Can I ask you what this is about?" "You can't serve two masters, Michael." "And what's becoming clear to me is that you're only answerable to your bosses at the bureau." " Oh, man!" " You pimped us." "You watched us put a case against the murderer of Janine McBride!" "You told your bosses we were about to arrest Chesley Purcell, and what evidence we had." "I talked to a supervisor in Washington, informally." "Informally!" "He told everything to the Independent Counsel's Office!" " How was I to know?" " We could have turned the shooter." "Found out what this case was really about." "Instead, your ham-fisted friends at the bureau snatched her up and then got her killed." "The guy I talked with." "He's a big suit from national headquarters." "He asked me how the case was going, I told him." "That's all it was." "And you never thought to ask him why he called you?" "You never thought about that?" "Why he's so interested in our little murder?" "You wanted to see us?" "We're finished here." "I didn't know." "I said we're done." "I want you to find out everything you can about this Chesley Purcell." "Background, associates." "Anything that's connected with this Ned Burks." "You got it, Gee." "Mr Burks waived his right to counsel." "He'll testify before our jury." "He hasn't contested extradition." "Burks is unhinged and unable to contest anything whatsoever." "You have a nerve dragging him 250 miles without counsel." "Mr Burks is being given a grant of limited immunity." "What he says to my grand jury will not be used against him." "What kind of railroad are you running?" "Burks talks to your grand jury, and he's still vulnerable in state court." "You have him bargaining his testimony, for which he gains nothing." "He's not much of a horse trader, I'll admit." "Access to counsel might have helped him to do better for himself." "Maybe." "Now, what can I do for you two gentlemen, seeing as how you've both come so far, so quickly?" "Duelling writs, Mr Dell." "One member of the federal appellate bench thinks the state of New York has a right to be present when a defendant agrees to answer questions about his crime." "You talk to Ned Burks about the murder of Chesley Purcell with us present or not at all." "Chesley Purcell. 34 years of age." "Well, she's gonna stay that way." "What else have we learned?" "She was in that '80s DC party scene." "One of Marion Barry's hangers-on." "Somewhere around '93, her name starts popping up on DEA wiretaps." "Reports link her to major traffickers in the Baltimore-Washington corridor." "In '94, she's suspected of the killings of two Nigerians in Prince George's County, execution style." "Street talk credits her with nine kills, four of them for Little Walter Boyce's Westside crew." "Little Walter?" "He's locked up." "Federal racketeering charges." "Still running his organisation from the inside." "Let's talk to Little Walter." "If he's got life, he might just be bored enough to want to chat about the recently departed Chesley." "Can I say something?" "What was used in that arrest warrant was used without my knowledge." "If I get a call from a Bureau supervisor," "I am gonna have to talk." "So from now forward, it's best I know nothing more about the McBride case." "Sheppard, doing that warrant the other day, how did it make you feel?" "Routine." "It was er... street work." "How did it make you feel?" "Police, don't move!" "Like I had no choice." "Are you saying you shot Chesley Purcell out of grief and grief only?" "She killed Janine." "What she did to her, what they're saying about Janine, it's not true." "She wasn't..." "We..." "She was gay, Mr Burks." "A lesbian." "No." "You don't know her." "That's why she was killed." "You're lying about that." "OK, then, if it wasn't just some bar pick-up that went bad, what was it?" "Did it have to do with who she knew in Washington, with the administration?" "Who did you talk to in Washington, Mr Burks?" " Who were you in contact with?" " What?" "You didn't stumble into that precinct on your own because a reporter called you and let slip where Chesley Purcell was being held." "You were sent for." "You were used." "No, it was for Janine." "Are you gonna let them use you in that way?" "No one used me." "Not Janine." "Not anyone." " You're a fool." " End game, Counsellor?" "You're more than a fool, Mr Burks." "You killed her because she wouldn't marry you, not cos she was a lesbian, but cos she knew you were an imbecile!" "Purcell was a potential federal witness." "By killing her, you violated her civil rights." "I'm gonna see that you die an old man in a federal correctional facility." "Get ready for a federal subpoena." "What are you talking about?" "They laid one on us in New York." "Took the evidence we had on this case." "I figure you folks are next." "You drove 200 miles to tell us that?" "Good job, Paul Revere." " I'm on my way to Washington, anyway." " What's going on there?" "The Independent Counsel shanghaied Chesley Purcell's shooter." "When they found out he had nothing to say, they got bored." "They're returning him to our custody." "McCoy wants me to transport him back to Rikers, put him on suicide watch." "So Ned Burks killed Chesley Purcell over a lesbian's love lost?" "And Jack Ruby was a grieving patriot." "A cancer-ridden grieving patriot." "Amazing how all those years on the mean streets of New York have had little effect on your childlike brain." "Detective Munch, Agent Faistrap, assigned to the Independent Counsel's Office." "I have a subpoena for all the evidence collected by your agency in the McBride-Purcell investigation." "What does the Independent Counsel plan to do with it?" "Collect the stuff." "You couldn't track a bleeding elephant through snow." "Welcome back, Lennie." " Bayliss, right?" " Yeah." "So you can only cross the Mason-Dixon line if you bring a screwed-up case with you?" "If it doesn't make sense, it belongs in Baltimore." "How did you make out with Little Walter Boyce?" "We're working through Boyce's attorney." "I've been told he's at the Lewisburg Pen." "He'll be happy to help us in whatever way he can, as long as we write a letter to his file indicating he was fully cooperative." " Who's his attorney?" " Morton Epstein of Brown and Epstein." "What did I say?" "That's the firm with a telephonic connect to the White House." "Coincidence or conspiracy?" "Why ask a sweet, innocent rube like me?" "You already know the answer." "Guys, I gotta go." "Come on, Lennie." "A little joie de vivre." "Wanna tag team on this interview?" "You guys handle this yourselves." "I'm already late for DC to pick up Burks." "Mr Boyce?" "Oh, my!" "You are a sight for any man who's been away from home too long." "Rene Sheppard." "This is John Munch." "We're both Baltimore Homicide." "Call me Walter." "We want to talk to you about Chesley Purcell." "Get some background on her." "Chesley Purcell?" "Pretty." "Likes to run with men and women both." "Sounds like I should know her." "Sounds like I want to know her." "She took some of your contracts." "She was a hitter." "Now she's dead." "Contracts?" "Hitters?" "What are you tryin' to say?" "We need background on Purcell." "Right now, we're looking past your part of the story." "I don't know no Chesley whatever, and I don't know nothin' about no contracts." "But you're welcome to stay a spell." "Talk about more pleasant things." "Your law firm, Brown and Epstein." "You called that firm from this penitentiary." "The call lasted 46 minutes." "I can talk to my attorney any damn time I please." "So what?" "On the same date and time, someone from that law firm dialled a White House cellphone." "That call also lasted 46 minutes." "Someone at Brown and Epstein conferenced you into that number." "It's all in the logs." "The same number Chesley Purcell had when she was arrested in New York." "We'll be in touch, Mr Boyce." "You might want to take a little more time and think about your answers." "Conspiracy to murder can become a death-penalty case." " We shook him." " We'll let him stew for a few days." "From what I hear, you won't have to go back to Lewisburg to do that." "From what you hear?" "Talk around the federal courthouse is Little Walter's being transferred to our detention centre, where he's being held for reconsideration of sentence hearing." "Reconsideration hearing for Little Walter?" "How does a gangster like that rate a hearing on his petition?" "That's what a friend of mine said who called me." "Back-room deal." "Somebody owes Little Walter a favour." "But for what?" "How's Sheppard been lately?" "I got a big problem there." "I'm not saying that it wouldn't happen to me..." "Once you pull your gun, you've gotta be able to use it." "Right." "Otherwise don't pull it at all." "What was she gonna do?" "Shoot the guy?" "He was a witness." "But still." "We've both been on some corner alone, outmanned, outsized." "You know how tempting it is to go for your gun." " So that's it?" " I don't know." "Cos when it happened, you know, you got all wired up." ""No one beats down my partner." "No one takes her gun."" " And you got her gun back for her." " Yeah, but that was adrenaline." "You know, the next morning, I'm home alone, I'm shaking in my shoes." "When it happened, I told Rene I'd have done the same thing." "But, you know, you've got to carry this job on attitude." "Those two mopes come at Rene, it is her moment." "You make that moment on attitude more than force." "Or you don't make it at all and you get your ass whipped." "You got shot at with me." "Junior Bunk blew the windows out of that Cavalier." "You'd still work with me, right?" "But that wasn't behind no move you made on the street." "I ain't got no question working with you." " But you do about Sheppard?" " I just want to go home at night, uh?" "The bottom line is Rene lost control out there." "She got her gun took." "All of us are taking hard looks for it." "And you blame her for that?" "A little." " Celebrating already, huh?" " Governor announced it today." "I'm number two on the nominating list, and they're taking the top three." " Congrats." " Thanks." "Now all I need to do is not step in any brown mess before the State Senate approves the nomination." "We spoke with Little Walter Boyce in Lewisburg." "Did he give you anything?" "On this one, Your Honour, you better watch where the hell you step." "It looks real wrong." "Boyce files a routine reconsideration of sentence motion." "The kind that gets turned back without coming close to a hearing." "But in this instance," "Baltimore's newest member of the federal bench, Robert Prevain, specifically requested his clerk pull Boyce's file, and he grants a new hearing." "What can Boyce do for Prevain?" "The man's already been appointed to the federal bench." "Accusing a US magistrate of corruption is not somewhere I want to go." "It screws your nomination to the bench?" "Well, it can't help me." " So what are you suggesting?" " I'm not suggesting anything." "No." "Do you really think I'd broker a special deal with some sort of narcotics trafficker?" "I picked up Boyce's motion and granted a hearing because the legal issues had merit." " Of course." " So why are you here?" "There's an investigation ongoing." "A murder in New York." "Boyce may be connected to that." "Boyce is under active investigation?" "A lot of people will be watching your reconsideration hearing." "If Boyce were to get any kind of sentence reduction, a lot of eyebrows get raised." "That's all I'm saying." "I thought you'd want to know." "Thanks." "And congratulations again on your nomination." "Motion denied." "The defendant is returned to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons to serve life without parole." " So your drug lord is talking?" " Oh, he's singing a full aria." " He's waiting for us at headquarters." " What's his story?" "Little Walter, through his attorney, gets a message to call Theodore Dawkins." "He's told not to contact Dawkins but to route the call to Dawkins' phone." "An effort to avoid leaving a trail on any long-distance logs." "Dawkins served eight years on the DEA's Baltimore field office, and records confirm he was in contact with Walter in several cases." "Dawkins went into business as a private investigator, doing defence work in Baltimore and Washington." "Why is this name Dawkins even vaguely familiar to me?" "He's been working for the president's attorney for the last four months." "His job is to dig up dirt on Dell and his people." "Tit for tat." "A war of mudslinging." "We're in the White House on a murder case." "So Dawkins contacts you, and tells you what exactly?" " He needs a hitter." " A contract killer." " For some dyke who lives in Baltimore." " Janine McBride." "That'd be the name, yeah." "Does this strike you as strange?" "This Dawkins, he's ex-DEA." "Did anyone from our side come looking for this work from you?" "It's different, I know." "But Dawkins and me go back a way, so, hey, I'm listenin'." "He wants this woman to get aced and wants it to look like an accident or like it was a messed-up one-night stand." "Did he tell you why he wanted Janine McBride dead?" "No." "And I don't ask." "He just says she got to be got." "What do you get out of it?" "Dawkins tells me how he's workin' for the White House." "That he can get things done." "He's talkin' about how he can get my sentence knocked back." "Talkin' about how there are federal judges owing' favours to the president for their jobs and all." "But you never talked to anyone in the White House?" " You talked to Dawkins." " Who else gonna take my call?" ""Put the president on the line." "Little Walter Boyce want to rap with the man."" "Please." "I guess he ain't never talked to no judge for me." "A magistrate did grant you a hearing for a reconsideration motion that was pretty thin." "Maybe Dawkins got the horse to water." "Couldn't make him drink, though." "You used Chesley Purcell because the target was a lesbian, and her approach would be easier, but tell me, Mr Boyce, why did you have Purcell take the body to New York?" "Why not just leave it in Baltimore?" "When someone at the White House tells you they want some bitch to be aced, the drama's gonna be thick." "I got business interests in Baltimore." "You know that." "I figured I'd drop the body somewhere else." "Besides, Chesley wanted to see some show on Broadway." "Musical thing with the lion." "Part of the contract was I got a hold of some seats for her." "You paid a hitter with tickets to "The Lion King"?" "Third row, orchestra." "Are you willing to testify against Theodore Dawkins, Mr Boyce?" "What I got to lose now?" "Little Walter Boyce told you I took a murder contract to him?" " Why would he lie, Mr Dawkins?" " Why would he tell the truth?" "Well, it's your choice, guys." "Believe an imprisoned heroin trafficker with multiple convictions, or believe a twice-decorated former federal agent." "Phone logs and a statement by his attorney confirm Mr Boyce's account." "How would Little Walter even know this White House cellphone number?" "How would it be in Chesley's possession when she was arrested in New York?" "You got me." "His word against mine, gentlemen." "Just barely enough corroboration to indict Theodore Dawkins." "Not nearly enough for a jury verdict." "If we're crazy enough to indict an investigator working at the White House, all kinds of fresh leads will come through the door." " Scared?" " Hell, yes." " One more surprise." " What's up?" "Your victim, Janine McBride, she was in contact with the Independent Counsel's Office when she got killed." "I know because Dell requested a background check on her from the FBI." "She was a potential witness in a corruption investigation." " How did you find this out?" " They used me as a source." "I used a source or two of my own." "What goes around, comes around." "Dell's been holding out on us all along." "No wonder he's been so interested in this case." "McBride had already gone to him with whatever she knew." "Well, now he's our witness." "We're gonna subpoena Independent Counsel William Dell, make him testify as to motive in the murder of Janine McBride." "I got Ned Burks up here, and I specifically asked the shift commander to put him on suicide watch." "Unfortunately, at Rikers Island, that seems to mean they stand around and watch you commit suicide." "His wrists, yeah." "So no signs of foul play." "He has hesitation marks on both wrists." "Used a sharpened edge of a bed frame." "We found this underneath when we rolled him." " Suicide note?" " Yeah." "The usual white-boy angst." ""I gave her my heart and trusted her with it." ""But now I see that it was all a lie." Yadda, yadda, yadda." ""I took Katherine Raynor as Janine's friend," ""but it's clear she was more than that."" "Raynor, the one who got herself transferred to the Chief of Staff's Office, said it wasn't any affair with McBride." "A liar in the White House?" "Gee, what are the chances?" " Have you seen the suicide note?" " No, but Curtis read it to me." "And Ned Burks specifically named Katherine Raynor as Janine's lover?" "You should take the lead." "She might feel more comfortable girl-on-girl." " My, you're subtle." " Yeah, well, it's part of my charm." "Miss Raynor, Baltimore Police." "I need to talk with you." "I don't have anything to say." "Miss Raynor, Janine McBride's boyfriend, Ned Burks, he killed himself last night in a New York jail cell." "He named you as Janine's lover." "You were her lover, weren't you?" "We've uncovered evidence that Janine's murder may have been ordered by the White House." "Look, I came to Washington to work for the president, because I believe in his goals." "All this other nonsense is a distraction." "I don't have any other comment than that." "We're not reporters looking for a comment." "We're police officers investigating a homicide." "What the hell is it with this town?" "We're interested in knowing who Theodore Dawkins reports to in the administration." "Who supervises him?" "Mostly, he serves the president's private counsel doing investigative work to prepare his defence against the initiatives of the Independent Counsel." "He's not on the White House payroll?" "We're not going to fund a private investigator with public money." "His hours are billed to the president's legal defence." "Does he work for staffers other than the president's lawyers?" "At times, he checks in with my boss, the Chief of Staff." "He's worked on some projects with the press office." " What about you, Miss Bernardi?" " Me?" "No, I don't see all that much of Mr Dawkins." "Whatever he does goes well over the head of a Deputy Chief of Staff." "You said this had to do with the death of Janine McBride." " Yes." "You knew her?" " We met." "She used to be at the Council of Economic Advisors." "Is Mr Dawkins in any way connected to her death?" "We heard it was a suicide." "Then we heard that it was a, you know, sexual thing." "A murder, I mean." "A Baltimore grand jury handed up the indictment of Dawkins this morning." "The implication that could be drawn is that the administration had something to do with the murder of McBride in New York." " Is that what you're implying?" " We imply nothing." "The indictment names only Theodore Dawkins, a private investigator whose clients include persons in the White House." "Beyond facts stated in the indictment, we have no further comment." "Mr Abrams, what brings the Independent Counsel to Baltimore?" "We're obligated to go where the evidence leads." "Now the truth leads to Theodore Dawkins, and others yet unnamed in this administration." "We've only indicted Mr Dawkins." "That's the truth we're comfortable with right now." "It goes well beyond Mr Dawkins." "Our office has every intention of getting to the truth, and getting there faster than you can manage in a Baltimore courtroom." "Mr Dell is asking you to dismiss this indictment and turn your evidence to us." "A murder took place in Baltimore, Mr Abrams." "I'm a Maryland prosecutor." "I'm afraid I can't help you." "Well, then I'm afraid we can't be much help to you either." "We're here to inform you that the Counsel's Office will not be bound by Maryland's offer of immunity to Walter Boyce." "And if he testifies in your prosecution as to his involvement in the contract killing of Janine McBride, he will be prosecuted under the death penalty statute for killing a witness." "You can't be serious!" "We've informed Mr Boyce's attorney that cooperation with you places him at risk." "Boyce is already serving life without parole." "What's the point of targeting him instead of using him as a witness?" "The office of the Independent Counsel is not interested in Walter Boyce and Theodore Dawkins." "We're interested in the president and his aides." "What did they know?" "When?" "So Mr Danvers, I urge you once again to withdraw your indictment." "Go to hell." "People with a past usually learn to be more delicate with the world." "What's he talking about, Ed?" "What's he got?" "I need your help." "Danvers?" "I'm as amazed as you are, but at age 14," "Ed Danvers was a junior member of the Durham Street Raiders, an all-white Highlandtown street gang." "In 1972, he and six others were charged as juveniles in the beating of a black man, Roland Singletary, on the grounds of the Patterson Park pool." "The incident was racially motivated." "I spoke to Mr Singletary." "He remembers Ed Danvers." "He recalls that out of the six boys that were charged," "Ed Danvers was the only one to apologise and try to make amends." "What are you asking us?" "Danvers came to me with full knowledge that someone had gone to Central Records to pull his juvie card." "Most likely working on behalf of the Independent Counsel." "They're looking to trash him." "If he'd have backed away from that case, this wouldn't have surfaced." "I believe in Ed Danvers for who he is, not who he once might have been." "If we back him on this, then he can do his job, but if we react, whatever dirt they want to throw on him, it probably means his career." "He can't function as a prosecutor without the support of CID." "Do we need to put this to a vote?" " No." " Thank you for standing fast, and not letting the past get in the way of justice." "It's one thing to back Danvers as a prosecutor but there's no way he can be approved for the judgeship by the State Senate." "He knows that." "So you still got something to say to me?" "I need to get right with what happened to you." "The entire unit needs to get right with it." "OK." "So?" "You went for your gun right from jump." "Ballard and me, maybe we'd have done the same thing, maybe not." " But we're not judging you." " Everybody judges me." "Lewis, my partner, he tosses his brim down on my desk." "You know what he's saying?" ""Bitch, you almost got me killed."" "But not to my face." "Nobody says anything to my face." "Well, I'm standing right here in your face, Rene." "Congratulations." "I guess this makes you a stand-up guy." "You asked to speak further with us." "I've read the papers, your indictment." "The allegations of that drug dealer, do you think they're true?" "We don't indict people unless we feel the standard of evidence has been met, so, yes, we believe the allegations against Mr Dawkins are correct." "So do I." "I think that Mr Dawkins arranged to have Janine McBride killed." "I know why he did it, and I may be partly responsible in the matter." "I've been having an affair with Katherine Raynor." "She's a staffer in this office." "Now Katherine had previously been involved with Janine McBride." "Janine was not happy." "She started harassing Katherine." "After a few warnings, I took it on myself to see that Janine received a promotion out of Washington." "Were you aware that Ms McBride had contacted Independent Counsel Dell, and made allegations regarding you and Ms Raynor?" "She told Katherine she might do that." "Miss Bernardi, did you ever discuss this problem with Theodore Dawkins?" "I asked Mr Dawkins to speak with Ms McBride, to offer the chance at other job postings, if the work in Baltimore displeased her and if need be, to offer her money." "Did you ask for Mr Dawkins to try to buy McBride's silence?" "Isn't that what it amounts to?" "She threatened to call the Independent Counsel and tell them that Dawkins had tried to bribe her." "How did Mr Dawkins react?" "He asked me what the administration could do to protect him if the allegations of bribery surfaced." "And what did you tell him?" "That I didn't know how any of us could be protected from anything any more." "This William Dell, he's in our closets, he's in our bedrooms." "This started as an investigation in the president's business affairs, policy matters." "This thing has become its own sick argument." "Did you ask Dawkins to arrange for Janine McBride's murder?" "If I thought for one moment that someone would die so I could keep this job, the president would be reading my letter of resignation." "In fact, it's on his desk now." "Subpoenaed as a witness in a criminal trial in Baltimore." " You'll testify to these matters?" " Yes." "Will that be all?" "I have to prepare a press statement." "Thanks for your help." "You'll be talking with Katherine Raynor, I imagine." " Of course." " Please... tell her I'm sorry." "Tell her that she doesn't deserve to be ruined over this." " He's been Mirandised." " Did he make any initial statement?" "That he's not committed any crimes and he's proud of all he's done for his nation." " He said that?" " As God is my witness." "Then he quoted Nathan Hale and Patrick Henry." "So Mr Dawkins, did you arrange this strange little murder by your lonesome?" "Mr Dawkins is in our custody." "He's being charged federally." "And Mr Stanton here is representing Mr Dawkins, who will be negotiating to provide the Independent Counsel's Office with testimony as a government witness." "Witness?" "He's a murder defendant." "A Maryland warrant is good anywhere in the US." "It's a lovely warrant, but in terms of the custody of this defendant, an investigation by the office of the Independent Counsel takes precedence." "Captain, my office will take custody of this prisoner." "You have five minutes." "I have a press briefing to get to." "You son of a bitch." "You offer Dawkins immunity to get whatever you can on the administration." "You refuse immunity to Walter Boyce who's already doing life in prison, so you can torpedo our case." "There are larger issues at stake." "This is more than a murder here." " More than a murder?" " Corruption at the highest level." "What proof do you have?" "Dawkins has no corroboration!" "All you've got is innuendo and allegation." "That's all he needs." "He set it up so this case never gets to court." "You don't want a jury trial, a chance to determine who's guilty." "The only case he can make in court stops with Theodore Dawkins." "But outside a courtroom, at a press conference or an impeachment report to Congress, he can allege about anything he wants." "And never have to prove a thing." "I remember when I was clerking at the Supreme Court, a justice asked me why it was that inside the Beltway the lawyering seemed so worthy and dignified, while outside the Beltway, the same kind of labour came off as savage and bitter." "I told him I didn't know." "He smiled and explained that the lawyers outside the Beltway seem so damn savage, because the stakes were so damn small." "It's been a pleasure, gentlemen." "What did I do that was wrong?" "I went to work every day." "I did my job." "I met someone." "I fell in love." " What did I do to deserve any of this?" " Nothing." " I'll have to testify." " Yes." "In public." "I'm gonna be in all the newspapers, on all the TV shows for the next year." "I'll be the joke on "Jay Leno"." "'The motive for this murder appears to be an attempt 'by high-ranking members of this administration 'to silence a witness who was prepared to testify about sexual improprieties 'at the office of the White House Chief of Staff.'" "$40 million worth of misinformation." "And we helped him dig up the dirt." " To hell with it." "I'm almost glad." " About what?" "You think I had the stomach to drag that girl up and down the courthouse steps, cameras flashing?" "Bernardi, Raynor, McBride." "That crazy boyfriend up in New York." "What's his name?" "Burks." "Ned Burks." "Are there any winners here?" "You want winners?" "Only Dell." "The weasel who peeps through keyholes and gets elected tomorrow will cover himself in the same scandal." "As long as the Republic stands, it'll never change." "What he said." " Uh-uh." "That ain't it." " What do you mean?" "You can't just say it's on the guys running the government, can you?" "We're the ones who set the game up, right?" "We make the rules, saying we want the truth but we don't really want the truth because the truth is a mess." "This world could do with a little less truth and a little more trust." "We've gotta trust people are entitled to screw up and not be destroyed for it." "We've gotta trust that the people we work with and work for and live with are gonna think that we're OK." "Until we really give them a reason not to think so." "I'm not talking about one or two bad moments." "We've gotta trust they're gonna judge us on everything, all of it, and not just some moment we can't get back." "That's what I'd want for myself." " Oh!" " Whoa!" " I gotta go home." " Well, you shouldn't be driving." "I'll take a cab." "What's the damage?" "Hell with it." "I'm too damn sober."