by Joseph Flynn
The Good Guy with a Gun
Joseph Flynn
Stray Dog Press, Inc.
Springfield, IL
2014
Praise for Joseph Flynn’s novels
“Flynn is an excellent storyteller.” — Booklist
“Flynn keeps the pages turning.” — Houston Chronicle
“Flynn propels his plot with potent but flexible force.” — Publishers Weekly
The President’s Henchman
“Marvelously entertaining.” — ForeWord Magazine
Digger
“A mystery cloaked as cleverly as (and perhaps better than) any John Grisham work.” — Denver Post
“Surefooted, suspenseful and in its breathless final moments unexpectedly heartbreaking.” — Booklist
“An exciting, gritty, emotional page-turner.”— Robert K. Tannenbaum, New York Times Bestselling Author of True Justice
The Next President
“The Next President bears favorable comparison to such classics as The Best Man, Advise and Consent and The Manchurian Candidate.” — Booklist
“A thriller fast enough to read in one sitting.” — Rocky Mountain News
The full list of Joseph Flynn’s titles.
The President’s Henchman, A Jim McGill Novel [#1]
The Hangman’s Companion, A JimMcGill Novel [#2]
The K Street Killer A JimMcGill Novel [#3]
Part 1: The Last Ballot Cast, A JimMcGill Novel [#4 Part 1]
Part 2: The Last Ballot Cast, A JimMcGill Novel [#4 Part 2]
The Devil on the Doorstep, A Jim McGill Novel [#5]
The Good Guy with a Gun, A Jim McGill Novel [#6]
McGill’s Short Cases 1-3
Nailed, A Ron Ketchum Mystery [#1]
Defiled, A Ron Ketchum Mystery Featuring John Tall Wolf [#2]
Impaled, A Ron Ketchum Mystery [#3]
Tall Man in Ray-Bans, A John Tall Wolf Novel [#1]
War Party, A John Tall Wolf Novel [#2]
Super Chief, a John Tall Wolf Novel [#3]
Kill Me Twice [#1]
The Concrete Inquisition
Digger
The Next President
Hot Type
Farewell Performance
Gasoline, Texas
Round Robin, A Love Story of Epic Proportions
One False Step
Blood Street Punx
Still Coming
Still Coming Expanded Edition
Hangman — A Western Novella
Pointy Teeth: Twelve Bite-Sized Stories
Copyright
The Good Guy with a Gun
Joseph Flynn
Published by Stray Dog Press, Inc.
Springfield, IL 62704, U.S.A.
Copyright © kandrom, inc. 2014
All rights reserved
Visit the author’s web site: www.josephflynn.com
Flynn, Joseph
The Good Guy with a Gun / Joseph Flynn
133,178 words eBook
ISBN 978-0-9887868-8-2
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Publisher’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously; any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Book design by Aha! Designs
Cover type effect courtesy of www.obsidiandawn.com
Dedication
This book is dedicated to David Coates, who rescued Jim McGill for me,
and all the people at Amazon who have made writing novels a paying proposition.
Acknowledgements
When I write I’m in my right mind. Well, the right hemisphere of my brain anyway. That’s where creative activity takes place. Things like spelling, grammar and punctuation come from the left side of the brain. So after I complete a manuscript there’s a good deal of housekeeping to do. Helping me with those chores are Catherine, Caitie, Anne, and Susan. Any clutter that remains is strictly my fault.
Author’s Notes
As just one measure of the gun violence that occurs in this country, during the four months — January-April 2014 — it took to write and publish this novel, one student at Purdue University (IN) shot and killed another student; a gunman at The Mall in Columbia (MD) killed two people before killing himself; and a soldier at Fort Hood (TX) killed three other soldiers and wounded 16 more before killing himself.
As regards the convening of a second Constitutional Convention, three times in the past fifty years, thirty-two states have petitioned Congress to hold such a convention as called for by Article Five of the Constitution, only two states short of the required number of thirty-four states. Just last month, March, 2014, the legislature of Michigan applied to Congress to call for a convention. If the Supreme Court were to rule that a state may not rescind a prior application to Congress, and the aggregated number of previous applications remain valid (of all the states only Hawaii has yet to file such a petition) then the required threshold has already been met.
Character List
[in alphabetical order by last name]
Ah-lam, dragon lady in charge of the yacht Shining Dawn
Richard Bergen, Democrat Senator from Illinois, assistant majority leader
Gawayne Blessing, White House head butler
Ellie Booker, Independent news producer
Philip Brock, Democratic Congressman from Pennsylvania
Rockelle Bullard, Metro PD homicide captain
Tyler Busby, American billionaire and art collector
Edwina Byington, the president’s personal secretary
Hugh Collier, CEO of WWN media empire
Celsus Crogher, retired Secret Service SAC
Father Inigo de Loyola, rouge Jesuit prints, McGill’s friend
Byron DeWitt, Deputy Director of the FBI
Deirdre “Didi” DiMarco, MSNBC news show host
Darren Drucker, American billionaire, art collector, co-founder of ShareAmerica
Carolyn [McGill] Enquist, first wife of Jim McGill
Lars Enquist, Carolyn’s second husband
Jordan Gilford, whistleblower, murder victim
Zara Gilford, Jordan’s widow, McGill’s client
Erna Godfrey, federal prisoner, woman who killed Andrew Hudson Grant
Patricia Darden Grant, President of the United States, second wife of Jim McGill
Andrew Hudson Grant (deceased), philanthropist, the president’s first husband
Jeremiah Haskins, Director of the FBI
Sen. Howard Hurlbert, founder of True South Party [deceased]
Bahir Ben Kalil, personal physician to the Jordanian ambassador to the U.S. [deceased]
Dr. Hasna Kalil, twin sister of late Dr. Bahir Ben Kalil
[SAC] Elspeth Kendry, head of the Presidential Protection Detail
Donald “Deke” Ky, Jim McGill’s personal Secret Service bodyguard
Leo Levy, Jim McGill’s personal driver
Auric Ludwig, CEO of FirePower America
Jim McGill, president’s husband, aka The President’s Henchman
Abbie McGill, oldest child of Jim McGill and Carolyn Enquist
Caitie McGill, youngest child of Jim McGill and Carolyn Enquist
Kenny McGill, middle child o
f Jim McGill and Carolyn Enquist
Marvin Meeker, Metro PD homicide detective
Roger Michaelson, (formerly Senator D-OR) Patti's foremost political nemesis
Galia Mindel, White House chief of staff
Dikran “Dikki” Missirian, McGill’s business landlord
Jean Morrissey, Vice President of the U.S.
Jeronimo “Jerry” Nerón, master tailor, hit man
Joan Renshaw, former director of The Andrew Hudson Grant Foundation
Putnam Shady, head lobbyist of ShareAmerica, Sweetie’s husband
Maxine “Maxi” Shady, orphan daughter of Putnam’s brother, Lawton, and LuAnne Jenkins
Margaret “Sweetie” Sweeney, McGill’s longtime friend and police partner; Putnam’s wife
Big Mike “Beemer” Walker, Metro PD homicide detective
Mather Wyman, Political consultant, the president’s first VP, Kira’s uncle
Kira Fahey Yates, Political consultant, Welborn Yates’ wife, Mather Wyman’s niece
Welborn Yates, the president’s personal (official) investigator, Air Force captain
Chapter 1
The Winstead School — Washington, DC, Saturday, March 8, 2014
The private high school in Georgetown had been founded a century earlier and was a feeder school to the Ivies and other elite colleges across the nation. Its alumni sat in both chambers of Congress, on the boards of directors of numerous Fortune 500 companies and were found among the top ranks of the military. Never content to rest on their laurels, the administration, faculty and student body of the school always looked for new worlds to conquer.
In two months, on May 8th in New York City, the school had every reason to expect it would collect a new accolade the likes of which few secular private high schools in the country could match. Hal Walker, Winstead class of 2010, Stanford class of 2014, starting quarterback of the Cardinal football team, was expected to become the first player selected in the National Football League draft.
An NFL contract measured in the tens of millions of dollars was sure to follow.
Product endorsement income would dwarf his football compensation.
Barring catastrophic injury, a Hall of Fame career was anticipated.
In the men’s locker room that morning, the first day of spring football practice for the Winstead Warriors, Head Coach Don Russell, who’d played three years as an NFL quarterback himself, had shown his players a video Hal Walker had sent to the Winstead team. To say the Warrior players were pumped up would be the understatement of the century. Hearts pounded. Adrenaline rushed. Nobody on the team could sit still as the video began to roll.
“Winning football games is pretty simple,” Hal Walker said. “You play smarter and harder than the guys across the line of scrimmage. You play with more focus and discipline. You work just as hard in the classroom as on the practice field because you have to develop good study habits to succeed at football — and everything else in life. You respect everyone who’s trying to make your life better: your parents, your teachers, your coaches, your teammates. You never underestimate or belittle your opponents or they’ll hand you your ass gift wrapped.”
The team laughed at that, until Walker followed with, “And if I ever hear any of you aren’t living up to Coach Russell’s expectations, doing all the things I just told you, I’ll be paying you a visit with some of my new NFL teammates. You won’t be happy to see us because we’ll be coming to knock heads. Now, get out there on the practice field, work as hard as you can, learn as much as you can, do what your parents, teachers and coaches tell you, and one more thing. Never back down from any challenge you face on a football field or anywhere else.”
Coach Russell threw open the locker room doors and forty-two high school boys — Warriors in their minds — roared out onto the gridiron.
Chief Assistant Coach Bill Eccles patted Russell on the back.
He said, “I think this’ll be a year nobody here will ever forget.”
He was right, but not in a way anyone ever could have imagined.
McGill Investigations, Inc. — Georgetown
McGill sat in his office alone. He’d worked his way through the print edition of the Washington Post and was now reading the Chicago Tribune online. The White Sox and Cubs were at spring training in Arizona. No serious sportswriter gave either team a chance of making the playoffs in the coming season, much less going to or winning the World Series. McGill, who followed the home teams for story content more than exhibitions of sporting prowess these days, thought it was possible the Sox could surprise. The South Siders had good pitching and had acquired some young power hitters who just might pan out. And Boston had gone from worst to first over the previous two years. If the Cubs were to win the World Series, their first in over a century and counting, that just might be the precursor to the Second Coming.
He’d have to check with Sweetie to see if there was any scriptural reference.
McGill had been circumspect about the cases he’d taken so far that year. They were all routine matters easily resolved. Neither the celebrity media nor the president’s political opposition had been able to work themselves up about any of them. The work was too mundane; the clients were too obscure.
That didn’t mean adversarial motormouths couldn’t have embroidered dull facts or lied outright to stir up trouble, but the fact was McGill scared most of Washington’s chattering class. They’d all seen the video of him taking on Harlan Fisk as the militia leader stood at the head of his ragtag army. He’d waded in barehanded and left the bully writhing on the ground.
Getting on the wrong side of someone like McGill was not to be chanced lightly.
On the other hand, if the payoff, professionally or politically, was big enough there would always be those willing to take the risk.
Several times during the cold, snowy doldrums of the past several weeks he’d wondered if he shouldn’t … he’d be damned if he was going to say the word retire. Maybe go on hiatus. That was what a former movie star like Patti would have said, right? But he wasn’t sure he could twiddle his thumbs for the remaining thirty-four months of his wife’s presidency, and he didn’t know what else he could do besides being some sort of cop.
Sweetie was out of the office much of the time these days. She was embarking on the great challenge and adventure of being a good mother. As McGill knew she would, Sweetie was winning over little Maxi Shady bit by bit. Some name that kid had. Just thinking about it made McGill smile. Almost as much as seeing Sweetie and Maxi walking hand-in-hand down the street.
Sweetie had told him she would have taken over the business, if he’d really intended to stay away for the remainder of Patti’s time in the Oval Office. But she would have kept things going by hiring other good coppers and letting them carry most of the load. She’d have done much of the case management from home.
Not that she foresaw such a necessity.
Sweetie had told McGill, “You’ll figure it out, how to keep working without embarrassing Patti.” McGill had lent a gun to Odo Sacripant when he and Yves Pruet had been in town last year, and wound up spending a weekend in jail as a result. But as Sweetie had also said, “You’re not ready to let go or even slow down yet.”
Too true, McGill thought.
He’d even started coming into the office for a half-day on Saturdays.
Something he’d never done before.
Something completely unproductive, too, until that morning.
A woman named Zara Gilford had called, saying she needed his help urgently.
But she was already fifteen minutes late for her appointment.
Then Deke, who was manning the outer office, poked his head in. McGill thought it would be to announce Ms. Gilford’s arrival. He put the sports section of the Trib into his computer’s dock.
“Ms. Gilford?” McGill asked.
Deke shook his head. “Roger Michaelson.”
McGill heard Michaelson say, “Good manners call for the use of my former
title, Special Agent. Senator Michaelson.”
Deke rolled his eyes.
Winstead School Football Field — Georgetown
Don Russell, in addition to being the football team’s head coach, was also the team’s offensive coordinator. Bill Eccles, who’d played middle linebacker at Boston College, was also the defensive coordinator. The Tripartite Athletic Conference (TAC), composed of Winstead and McKinley in DC and four other private high schools in neighboring Maryland and Virginia suburbs, allowed their football teams to have five coaches and a scout.
The additional slots were quarterback and special teams coaches. George Knox handled special teams at Winstead.
As a former NFL quarterback, Russell took on the quarterback coaching job, too. He was paid an additional 50% for doing three jobs. Nobody begrudged him the money. He was the man who developed Hal Walker into a star quarterback — and it looked like the new kid at the position, Jarius Niles, a recruit from a District public school, had even more raw talent.
Truth was, Jarius, though only a sophomore, might be an even better bet for the U.S. men’s track and field team at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He had speed that was already being compared to that of Usain Bolt. But he also had an arm like a cannon, and he longed to learn the most important position on the football field.
When Russell had talked to Jarius and his mother about coming to Winstead, the precocious athlete told him, “I don’t just want to run, Coach. I want to be a leader.”
Mrs. Niles said, “I told him leaders have to be smarter than followers. He raised his grades from a C to a B average, but I know he can do better. My son can make A’s. But will he get the help he needs at your school or will all you have him think about is football?”
Russell took his phone out of his pocket and called Hal Walker. “Hal, would you mind talking to a mom who has a few questions about sending her son to Winstead.”
The coach explained that the young man was a Winstead graduate, quarterback and captain of his high school team and now attended one of the finest universities anywhere.
