“Think I’ve heard of him. Something about a movie being made.”
“I’ve been on panels with him twice and he never remembers me or any of the other panelists, never reads our books ahead of time. Last year he promised he’d give me some advice about selling my books overseas. I emailed him twice. Never heard back. I want to use him.”
“Okay with me, lass. I don’t like him already.”
“Now, I’ll need somebody inside the Federico operation. Somebody to be a confidential informant.”
“I’ve got a guy already. Stan Walker. Nobody in Federico’s crew has any idea he’s on my payroll.”
“Good.” And then she’d laid out her plan.
Walker, the CI, would approach Bradley Reynolds with a proposal to take down Federico. Because the man had proved so difficult to catch, Walker would suggest that maybe an author he liked, Alan Seybold, could come up with a plot to take him down.
As with all of her books, Daye had researched the hell out of Federico and shared the relevant information with Walker. He, in turn, would sit down with cops and Seybold and feed them selected facts that would inspire, she hoped, the author to come up with a plot to nail the man. She thought using the son, Raine, was a good approach, since Seybold had written a potboiler about a father who sacrifices himself for his kid. And, it turned out, this was the tack that the author took.
As to Reynolds, Daye had an idea for that too. Much simpler than the Federico scam. Walker would tell Reynolds that the drug buy was for a half-million dollars more than it really was. When the cash was seized, it would turn out to be $1.5 million, not the $2 million that Walker reported. Internal Affairs would get an anonymous tip that Reynolds had planned to steal the $500K. An IA detective would set up an operation to find out, using Seybold, whom Reynolds trusted, to get inside Reynolds’s garage, where one of Kelley’s men had hidden a half million from the gang’s operating fund. Kelley declared that the expense was a good business investment.
And, yep, both plots had worked like a charm.
Hence, the toast between Kelley and Daye . . . and the celebratory dinner his wife was cooking that evening.
The gangster now said to her, “I heard that Seybold’s disappeared.”
“I heard that too.”
“Can’t blame him. His name was on the news, you know, reporting he was the guy who brought down Federico.”
“On the news,” Daye repeated absently. “That was bad luck. Federico’s in jail. So’s Angel Ramos. But they have friends on the outside. I’d guess a lot of them’d love to pay Seybold a visit.”
“Maybe some friends of Reynolds’ too.”
They sipped their drinks in silence for a few minutes.
Kelley said, “Wonder how the reporters heard about him.”
“Hm,” she replied. “Wonder.”
Kelley said, “Guess he’s going to have to give up writing.”
Maggie Daye considered this for a moment. She shrugged. “Probably. But frankly, no great loss to the world of literature. See, the thing about Alan Seybold is, sure, he tells a pretty good story, up to a point. But his books always fall apart in the last few pages. He couldn’t come up with a surprise ending to save his soul.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © Jerry Bauer
Jeffery Deaver is a former journalist, folk singer, and attorney whose novels have appeared on bestseller lists around the world, including the New York Times, the Times of London, Italy’s Corriere della Sera, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Los Angeles Times. His books are sold in 150 countries and have been translated into twenty-five languages.
The author of thirty-nine novels, three collections of short stories, and a nonfiction law book, as well as a lyricist of a country-western album, he’s received or been short-listed for dozens of awards.
His book The Bodies Left Behind was named Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers association, and his Lincoln Rhyme thriller The Broken Window and a stand-alone, Edge, were also nominated for that prize, as was a short story published recently. He has been awarded the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Short Story Dagger from the British Crime Writers’ Association, and he is a winner of the British Thumping Good Read Award and the Nero Award. The Cold Moon was named the Book of the Year by the Mystery Writers Association of Japan. In addition, the Japanese Adventure Fiction Association awarded The Cold Moon and Carte Blanche their annual Grand Prix award. His book The Kill Room was awarded the Political Thriller of the Year by Killer Nashville. And his collection of short stories Trouble in Mind was nominated for best anthology by that organization as well.
Deaver has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention and the Raymond Chandler Award for lifetime achievement in Italy. The Strand Magazine also has presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Deaver has been nominated for seven Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America, as well as an Anthony, a Shamus, and a Gumshoe. He is currently the president of the Mystery Writers of America.
His audiobook The Starling Project, starring Alfred Molina and produced by Audible, won the Audie Award for best original audiobook of the year in 2016.
He contributed to the anthology In the Company of Sherlock Holmes and Books to Die For, which won the Anthony. Books to Die For recently won the Agatha as well.
Deaver’s most recent novels are The Burial Hour; The Steel Kiss; a Lincoln Rhyme novel, Solitude Creek; a Kathryn Dance thriller; and The October List, a thriller told in reverse. For the Dance novel XO, Deaver wrote an album of country-western songs, available on iTunes and as a CD; before that, he wrote Carte Blanche, a James Bond continuation novel and a #1 international bestseller.
His book A Maiden’s Grave was made into an HBO movie starring James Garner and Marlee Matlin, and his novel The Bone Collector was a feature release from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. Lifetime aired an adaptation of his book The Devil’s Teardrop. And, yes, the rumors are true: he did appear as a corrupt reporter on his favorite soap opera, As the World Turns. He was born outside Chicago and has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University.
Readers can visit his website at www.jefferydeaver.com.
Surprise Ending Page 5
