Terry raised his hand to shut Ridge up. “Annie already told me. So, I called Dan. He worked weekend shift, and he’s off tomorrow and Friday. He agreed to moonlight with me.”
Ridge rubbed at his right temple. “OK. Give me details… slowly.”
“Remember Gimuldin pulled that permit—to have three additional bedrooms built?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, Dan and I will show up as building inspectors. You know, we’ll say we’ve been ordered to make a surprise inspection for permit enforcement purposes. That should get us inside the fence, even the house.”
“Isn’t that bending the law a teeny bit?”
“When did that ever bother you—especially when it’s the right thing to do?”
Ridge rolled his eyes. “You sure Dan’s okay with this?
“It was his idea.” Ridge pinned him with a skeptical look. “OK, it was my idea, but he said it was brilliant.”
“Brilliant,” Ridge said with a chuckle. “And what’s the next part of this brilliant plan?”
“We do what we do best.” Terry shrugged. “We ad lib. Take it a few minutes at a time.”
“It’s risky. I mean, do you really think it’s necessary?”
“Sometimes unnecessary risks are necessary. You’ve said that yourself.”
Ridge groaned. “I hate it when you use my own words against me. Tell me what the goals are here?”
“Goals? To find out what’s going on inside the house. To see if there’s any connection to Censkey’s tormentors, the barn, the attacks on you and Jayne, the forced landing in that Torrance field, or anything else we’ve been hit with or dug up so far.”
“Like what?”
“Like why those judges—Gimuldin’s brethren—were gung-ho for insurance companies during their presentations and why four other judges have ended up dead.”
“OK, OK. Good goals.”
“And a good plan?”
Ridge nodded. “And a good plan.”
“All right then. Tomorrow, Dan and I will take a little trip to Montecito. If things go well, drinks on you, when we return. Deal?”
“Deal. Just be careful.” After Ridge’s dream last night, he was feeling a little tender and sentimental toward the skinny little Tee Pao from Laos.
“Always,” Terry said, with a big smile. “What could go wrong?”
“Plenty. And you damn well know it.”
“You worry too much, Kemosabe.”
CHAPTER 56
On Wednesday evening, Hess met with five Watchmen, including Two, in the Great Room. Hess sat in His Eminence’s chair at the head of a long, ornately carved wooden table that looked like it’d been at home in some Medieval castle. One, Two and Three were on his right in high back wooden chairs, just as ornate as the table itself. The other two Watchmen sat to his left in like chairs. Six remained with the trainees at the Camp.
Hess told Two he was at the meeting because of his “decent job” readying the four recent captives for disposal. But Hess, being Hess, tempered his praise. “As you can see,” he’d said to the others, “Two is once again joining us at official briefings because he finally did something right. We got decent money for the one boy and one girl, and something less for the other two girls, but that was because of their bruising. Two’s efforts were somewhat clumsy, but effective, nonetheless. After he was done with them, both girls were submissive enough to be purchased as sex surrogates by the Dubai underground. At a hundred thousand each. His Eminence was pleased, and we’re all glad to be rid of them.”
Hess is a fucking shit, Two thought as Hess went on. I worked wonders with those little bitches. Record time. Transformed them into something they weren’t. And he calls it somewhat clumsy. Fuck him. Then, feeling heat from Hess staring at him, Two looked up, put on a big smile, and said, “Thank you, Herr Hess, your praise is undeserved.”
Hess ignored Two and turned to the others. “Moving on, except for Two, we’ll all be returning to Camp for the next two days. I want to conduct even more rigorous exercises to ensure the trainees will impress everyone at the Summit on Sunday.”
Two, who couldn’t help himself, broke in. “What about me?”
“You,” said Hess, “will not speak unless spoken to. Directly. Understand?”
“Yes, Herr Hess.”
“You’ll stay here on security detail. His Eminence will not be back until Friday evening, and we won’t return until late Friday afternoon. Until then, you are in charge of the house. The place will be empty, so there’s little chance of screw up.”
“Yes, Herr Hess.”
Hess went on. “I spoke with His Eminence late last night. He thinks things are going well. Before Censkey gave us his list, we had eight judges in the Raven Society. His Eminence has now taken it upon himself to make contact with seven others in Censkey’s network. Six have committed to join us. Only one declined, a Judge Stevens in San Francisco, who had a bit of a pornography problem. One and I eliminated that problem last Thursday. Poor guy fell in front of a BART train. Tragic. And the ironic thing was Stevens was a friend of His Eminence. They had met years ago at a judicial conference in San Francisco. In fact, Stevens was the one who first told His Eminence about Censkey and his judges list. Once we got it, however, Stevens wanted off the list as a reward. Not smart. But there are still eighteen other names on the list, and His Eminence has tasked the Executive Committee of the Raven Society to contact each of them.”
“That’s exciting,” said One. “Exactly what we’ve been working for all along.”
“That right,” Hess said. “Imagine thirty or more judges across the country in the Raven Society—all with authority, autonomy, essentially unbridled power in cases before them, and sworn allegiance to the Society. And then, thirty will become forty, and forty will become fifty. You get the idea. That’s the future, gentlemen. And we’ll be part of that—if we are ready.”
One raised his hand. “What do you mean, if we are ready?”
“We must complete the training of the next squad of Watchmen by Friday, so they all graduate on Saturday. Time is short. His Eminence wants them to impress our new allies during the Sunday Summit. And in the longer run we need them to operate the larger network—keep order. Assist with enforcement when necessary. That’s our mission, gentlemen. Questions?”
