My storytelling talents hold them spellbound, and for an hour they pepper me with questions. I slog through the answers, and when I start to repeat myself, I get irritated. Give a bunch of lawyers the rich details of a mystery they've lost sleep over, and they can't help but ask the same question five different ways. My low opinion of Victor Westlake is raised somewhat when he says, "That's it. Meeting's over. I'm going to the bar."

I suggest the two of us have drinks alone, and we return to the same table by a pool. We order beers and gulp them when they arrive. "Something else?" he asks.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, there is something else. Something almost as big as the murder of a federal judge."

"Haven't you had enough for one day?"

"Oh yes, but I have one parting shot."

"I'm listening."

I take another swig and savor the taste. "If my time line is correct, Judge Fawcett was accepting and hiding pure gold in the middle of the uranium trial. The plaintiff was Armanna Mines, a consortium of companies with interests around the world. However, the majority partner is a Canadian company based in Calgary, and this company owns two of the five largest gold mines in North America. The uranium deposits in Virginia alone are worth an estimated $20 billion, but no one really knows for sure. If a corrupt federal judge wants a few gold bars in return for a payoff of $20 billion, why not do it? The company gave Fawcett his jackpot; he gave them everything they wanted."

"How much gold?" Westlake asks softly, as though he doesn't want his own hidden mike to hear.

"We'll never know, but I suspect Fawcett received around $10 million in pure gold. He cashed in here and there. You have the informant in New York, but we'll never know if it went elsewhere and traded on the black market. Nor will we ever know how much cash was in the safe when Nathan finally got to it."

"Nathan might tell us."

"Indeed, but don't count on it. Anyway, the grand total is beside the point. It's a lot of money, or gold, and for it to travel from Armanna Mines into the somber chambers of the Honorable Raymond Fawcett, someone had to be the bagman. Someone arranged the deal and made the deliveries."

"One of the lawyers?"

"Probably. I'm sure Armanna had a dozen."

"Any clue?"

"None whatsoever. But I'm convinced a massive crime has occurred, with serious implications. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case this October, and given the pro-business leanings of the majority, it's likely Fawcett's gift to the uranium miners will stand. That would be a shame, wouldn't it, Vic? A corrupt opinion becomes a law. A huge mining company bribes its way past the statutory ban and is given carte blanche to wreck the environment of southern Virginia."

"Why do you care? You're not going back there, or so you say."

"My feelings are not important, but the FBI should care. If you launch an investigation, the case could be seriously derailed."

"So now you're telling the FBI how to run its business."

"Not at all. But don't expect me to remain quiet. Have you heard of an investigative reporter named Carson Bell?"

His shoulders sag as he looks away. "No."

"New York Times. He covered the uranium trial and has followed the appeals. I would make an incredible unnamed source."

"Don't do that, Max."

"You can't stop me. If you don't investigate, I'm sure Mr. Bell would love to. Front page and all that. FBI cover-up."

"Don't do it. Please. Give us some time."

"You have thirty days. If I hear nothing of an investigation, then I'll invite Mr. Bell down for a week on my little island." I drain my beer, smack the table with my glass, and get to my feet. "Thanks for the drink."

"You're just getting revenge, aren't you, Max? One last shot at the government."

"Who says it's my last?" I say over my shoulder.

I leave the hotel and hoof it down the long drive. At the end, Vanessa appears in the Beetle and we race away. Ten minutes later we park outside the private terminal, grab our light bags, and meet the Maritime Aviation crew in the lobby. Our passports are checked, and we hustle toward the same Learjet 35 that brought me to Antigua a week earlier. "Let's get out of here," I say to the captain as we climb on board.

Two and a half hours later, we land at Miami International as the sun dips below the horizon. The Lear taxis to a Customs office for reentry, then we wait half an hour for a cab. Inside the main terminal, Vanessa buys a one-way ticket to Richmond, through Atlanta, and we hug and kiss good-bye. I wish her good luck, and she does the same. I rent a car and find a motel.

At nine the next morning, I'm waiting outside Palmetto Trust when the doors are unlocked. My carry-on bag has wheels and I roll it into the vault. Within minutes, I extract $50,000 in cash and three Lavo cigar boxes containing eighty-one mini-bars. On my way out, I do not mention to the vault clerk that I will never return. The lease for the safe-deposit box will expire in a year, and the bank will simply re-key and rent it to the next guy. I fight the early traffic and eventually make it to Interstate 95, going north in a hurry but careful not to get stopped. Jacksonville is six hours away. The tank is full and I plan to drive without stopping.

North of Fort Lauderdale, Vanessa calls with the welcome news that her mission is accomplished. She has retrieved the bullion hidden in her apartment, emptied the three lockboxes in the Richmond banks, and is already headed for D.C. with a trunkful of gold.

I get stalled in construction traffic around Palm Beach, and this ruins my plans for the afternoon. The banks will be closed when I arrive at the Jacksonville beaches. I have no choice but to slow down and go with the flow. It's after six when I get to Neptune Beach, and for old time's sake I check into a motel I've used before. It accepts cash and I park near my room on the ground level. I roll the carry-on inside and fall asleep with it on the bed with me. Vanessa wakes me at ten. She is safely tucked away in Dee Ray's condo near Union Station. Quinn is there and they are having a delightful reunion. For this phase of the operation, Dee Ray has broken up with his live-in girlfriend and moved her out. In his opinion, she cannot be trusted. She is not family, and she's certainly not the first girl he has cast aside. I pass along my request to hold the champagne for twenty-four hours.

We - Vanessa, Dee Ray, and I - expressed strong misgivings about Quinn including his estranged wife in our plot. A divorce looks likely, and it's best if she knows nothing at this point.

Once again, I find myself killing a few minutes in the parking lot of a bank, First Coast Trust. When the doors open at 9:00 a.m., I wander in, as nonchalantly as possible, pulling an empty carry-on and flirting with the clerks. Just another sunny day in Florida. Alone in the vault, in a private stall, I remove two Lavos cigar boxes and place them gently into the carry-on. Minutes later, I'm driving a few blocks to a branch of Jacksonville Savings. When that lockbox is empty, I make my final stop at a Wells Fargo branch in Atlantic Beach. By ten I'm back on Interstate 95, headed to D.C. with 261 golden bricks in the trunk. Only the five I sold to Hassan for cash have disappeared.

It's almost midnight when I enter central D.C. I take a brief detour and drive along First Street, passing in front of the Supreme Court Building and wondering what will be the final outcome of the momentous case of Armanna Mines v. the Commonwealth of Virginia. One of the lawyers, or perhaps two or three of those involved in the case, once defiled the chambers of a federal judge with their filthy bribes. Said bribes are now in the trunk of my car. What a journey. I'm almost tempted to park at the curb, take out a mini-bar, and toss it through one of the massive windows.

However, better judgment prevails. I circle Union Station, follow the GPS to I Street, then to the corner of Fifth. By the time I park in front of the building, Mr. Quinn Rucker is bounding down the steps with the biggest smile I've ever seen. Our embrace is long and emotional. "What took so long?" he asks.

"Got here as fast as I could," I reply.

"I knew you would come, bro. I never doubted you."

"There were doubts, lots of them."

We're both stunned at the fact that we've pulled it off, and at that moment our success is overwhelming. We embrace again, and each of us admires how thin the other looks. I comment that I'm looking forward to eating again. Quinn says he's tired of playing the lunatic. "I'm sure it comes natural," I say. He grabs my shoulders, stares at my new face, and says, "You're almost cute now."

"I'll give you the doctor's name. You could use some work."

I've never had a closer friend than Quinn Rucker, and the hours we spent at Frostburg hatching our scheme now seem like an ancient dream. Back then, we believed in it because there was nothing else to hope for, but deep down we never seriously thought it would work. Arm in arm, we climb the steps and enter the condo. I hug and kiss Vanessa, then reintroduce myself to Dee Ray. I met him briefly years ago in the visitors' room at Frostburg when he came to see his brother, but I'm not sure I would recognize him walking down a street. It doesn't matter; we are now blood kin, our bonds solidified by trust and gold.

The first bottle of champagne is poured into four Waterford flutes - Dee Ray has expensive tastes - and we chug it. Dee Ray and Quinn stick guns in their pockets, and we quickly unload my car. The party that follows would seem implausible even in a fantasy film.

With champagne flowing, the gold bars are stacked ten deep in the center of the den floor, all 524 of them, and we sit on cushions around the treasure. It's impossible not to gawk and no one tries to suppress the laughter. Since I'm the lawyer and the unofficial leader, I commence the business portion of the meeting with some simple math. We have before us 524 little bricks; 5 were sold to a Syrian gold trader in Miami; and 41 are now resting safely in a bank vault on Antigua. The total taken from our dear pal Nathan is 570, worth roughly $8.5 million. Pursuant to our agreement, Dee Ray gets 57 of the glowing little ingots. His 10 percent was earned by fronting the cash Quinn was caught with; for paying Dusty's legal fees; for supplying the four kilos of Nathan's cocaine, along with the pistol and the chloral hydrate I used to knock him out. Dee Ray picked up Quinn when he walked away from Frostburg, and he monitored Nathan's release from prison so we would know exactly when to start the project. He also paid the $20,000 deposit to the rehab center near Akron for Quinn's phony cocaine problem.

Dee Ray is in charge of the yacht. As he's getting drunker, he hands over an itemized list of his expenses, including the yacht, and rounds it all off at an even $300,000. We're assuming a value of $1,500 an ounce, so we vote unanimously to award him another twenty bars. No one is in the mood to quibble, and when you're staring at such a fortune it's easy to be magnanimous.

At some unknown and unknowable point in the future, the remaining 488 bars will be equally divided among Quinn, Vanessa, and me. That's not important now - the urgency is in getting the stuff out of this country. It will take a long time to slowly convert the gold to cash, but we'll worry about that much later. For the moment, we are content to pass the hours drinking, laughing, and taking turns telling our version of the events. When Vanessa replays the moment in Nathan's house when she stripped naked and confronted his buddies at the front door, we laugh until it's painful. When Quinn recounts the meeting with Stanley Mumphrey in which he blurted out the fact that he knew Max Baldwin had left witness protection and left Florida, he imitates Mumphrey's wild-eyed reaction to this startling news. When I describe my second meeting with Hassan and trying to count 122 stacks of $100 bills in a busy coffee shop, they think I'm lying.

The stories continue until 3:00 a.m., when we're too drunk to go on. Dee Ray covers the gold with a quilt and I volunteer to sleep on the sofa.

P/S: Copyright -->www_novelfreereadonline_Com

***