The Gods of Guilt

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The Gods of Guilt Page 36

by Michael Connelly


  The U.S. Marshal’s Office is primarily focusing its search for Marco in southern Mexico, where it is believed he may have escaped to with the aid of the cartel leaders who long ago corrupted him. But I am pretty sure they will never find him. Hector Moya told me once about how his enemies disappear, never to be found. Two weeks ago I received an e-mail from an address unknown to me but with a subject line that simply said Saludos Del Fuego. I opened the e-mail to find an embedded video and nothing else. It was only fifteen seconds long, but the video provided a lifetime’s worth of horror. It depicts a man hanging by his neck from a tree. He is obviously dead, his badly beaten face swollen and bloody, his skin and clothes burned black in places.

  I am pretty sure the dead man is Marco. I forwarded the video to the deputy marshal heading the search for him. Once it is authenticated, I expect there to be an announcement that Marco is believed dead, though it is unlikely they will ever find a body.

  I have deleted the video from my computer but it will never be erased from my mind. I have no doubt that it came from Moya and no doubt that he wanted me to know what became of Marco. When I think about the rogue agent’s fate, I remember the night in June at the loft when I was surrounded by my team and raised a glass to justice for Gloria Dayton and Earl Briggs. Some forms of justice are more horrible than others. But in this case I think justice has been rightly served.

  Officially, Gloria Dayton’s murder remains open because no one has been or will ever be convicted of the crime. The memory of Glory Days now resides in a city’s consciousness as she takes her place in the pantheon of public victims.

  In the meantime, not so much attention has been paid to Earl Briggs. His case remains open and the subject of the grand jury’s ongoing investigations. But I mourn him more than Gloria or any other. I often think of the miles we rode together, the ground we covered on the road and in life.

  Everybody has a jury, the voices they carry inside. Earl Briggs sits on my jury, Gloria Dayton, too. They are there with Katie and Sandy, my mother, my father, and soon Legal Siegel as well. Those I have loved and those I have hurt. Those who bless me and those who haunt me. My gods of guilt. Every day I carry on and I carry them close. Every day I step into the well before them and I argue my case.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The starting point for this story came alive during a discussion with Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi, producers of The Lincoln Lawyer. To them the author will always be grateful.

  The author also relied upon the help of many others in the research and writing of this book. They include Asya Muchnick, Bill Massey, Daniel Daly, Roger Mills, Dennis Wojciechowski, John Romano, Greg Kehoe, Terrill Lee Lankford, Linda Connelly, Alafair Burke, Rick Jackson, Tim Marcia, John Houghton, Jane Davis, Heather Rizzo, Pamela Marshall, and Henrik Bastin. Many, many thanks to all.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Michael Connelly is the author of twenty-five previous novels including the #1 New York Times bestsellers The Black Box, The Drop, The Fifth Witness, The Reversal, The Scarecrow, The Brass Verdict, and The Lincoln Lawyer, as well as the bestselling Harry Bosch series of novels. He is a former newspaper reporter who has won numerous awards for his journalism and his novels. He spends his time in California and Florida.

  ALSO BY MICHAEL CONNELLY

  Fiction

  The Black Echo

  The Black Ice

  The Concrete Blonde

  The Last Coyote

  The Poet

  Trunk Music

  Blood Work

  Angels Flight

  Void Moon

  A Darkness More Than Night

  City of Bones

  Chasing the Dime

  Lost Light

  The Narrows

  The Closers

  The Lincoln Lawyer

  Echo Park

  The Overlook

  The Brass Verdict

  The Scarecrow

  Nine Dragons

  The Reversal

  The Fifth Witness

  The Drop

  The Black Box

  Non-Fiction

  Crime Beat

  E-books

  Suicide Run

  Angle of Investigation

  Mulholland Dive

  The Safe Man

  Copyright

  First published in Australia and New Zealand in 2013 by Allen & Unwin

  Copyright © 2013 by Hieronymus, Inc.

  All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act.

  ISBN: 978 1 74 331 753 2

  eISBN: 978 1 74 343 573 1

  Allen & Unwin

  83 Alexander Street

  Crows Nest NSW 2065

  Australia

  Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100

  Email: [email protected]

  www.allenandunwin.com

 

 

 


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