They both remembered the Pena inquiry ended in an ash heap. After the media shit storm, DOJ pulled the plug and abruptly terminated the inquiry. Instead of prosecuting Landry, DOJ sent him a letter of apology and exonerated him.
“It was a sham,” Stone said.
“Landry used that reporter,” Carr said bitterly. “None of those stories was true.”
Stone got up from the bench where they were seated, walked over to one of the remaining food trucks, and bought two cups of coffee. The crowds passing through the park had been reduced to a trickle. The pigeon atop Farragut’s head was joined by several relatives. In the distance, a siren blared as night descended on the city.
She brought the coffee back to the bench and handed Carr one of the cups. She reached in her pocket and removed a plastic bag. In the bag was a sock, which she casually let drop to the ground. She slid the plastic bag back into her pocket. Carr’s eyes followed her movements but he said nothing. “You probably aren’t too unhappy about the news of Landry’s death,” Stone said.
“I’m not ashamed to admit it,” he laughed. “The man deserves to go down in history as an evil son of a bitch.”
Stone nodded in agreement. “Did you know Landry ginned up a plan to create a phony terrorist plot to kill innocent victims?
“Say what?”
“Yeah,” she said. “And Ahmed was one of his victims.”
“My Ahmed? How do you know something as crazy as that?”
She smiled. “He was a kid when you were sent up. I remember him in court on the day of your sentencing.”
“Really?”
“You don’t remember?”
“Can’t say as I do. And you’re saying Landry was going to set him up for a kill?”
“That’s right. Ahmed and a woman named Maria Pena.”
Carr sipped his coffee. He studied her. “Is this going somewhere, Officer Stone?” he asked.
Stone ran a fingernail through her hair and around her hoop earring. She curled her fingers around the coffee cup. The Olmsted streetlamps in the park were aglow. She bent her head and stared into the coffee cup. “Yeah,” she whispered, “It’s going somewhere.”
They lowered their voices. Buses, scooters, cars and taxis moved down Connecticut Avenue and across K Street. Pedestrians cut diagonally across the park’s sidewalks. No one paid any attention to the couple on the bench; they might as well have been two homeless people sharing stories about life on the street.
When they finished, Stone picked up the sock from the ground using the plastic bag like she was scooping up dog shit, wrapped the sock in the bag, and threw it in the trash.
Mann Up/Newsmaker Sunday Night
THOMAS MANN: “Good evening. I’m Thomas Mann and this is Mann-Up Newsmaker Sunday Night. I want to thank everyone who’s watching us online. Our virtual guest this evening is Senator Abraham Lowenstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Welcome, senator, and thank you for being available on such short notice.”
Sen. Abe Lowenstein: “Thanks, Tom. It’s good to be with you this evening. And the trip over was no bother at all.”
Mann chuckled. One of the benefits of the online programming was the convenience of pressing a button and appearing on the show. There was no commute these days and no studio time prepping for the appearance.
Mann: “It’s been quite an eventful day in Washington. A terrorist scare in the midst of the Memorial Day weekend here in the nation’s capital. It brought a chill to my spine. For a moment, it seemed like January 6 redux. Fortunately, that’s not looking like it’s the case. What can you tell us about what transpired earlier today?”
Lowenstein: “First and foremost, we can rest easy knowing that there is no threat of any sort posed to residents of the District of Columbia or people enjoying the Memorial Day weekend. It’s worth repeating, given all we’ve been through these days. I want to repeat that, Tom. No imminent threat exists.”
Sadness creeped over Lowenstein’s face. The wound to his psyche caused by the January 6 rioters remained open and bleeding. And the security measures implemented afterwards — including construction of a barbed wire fence around the perimeter of the Capitol, referred to as the “Green Zone” as though it was a secure area in Kabul or Baghdad — broke his heart and made him yearn for the good ole days when such barriers did not exist.
Mann: “I can see it in your face, Senator. I’m sure viewers can as well. It’s been a tough six months.”
Lowenstein just shook his head. Mann thought he saw the elder statesman wipe a tear from an eye beneath his glasses.
Mann: “Do you have any specific intel that you can share with us to put everyone’s mind at ease?”
Lowenstein: “I’ve been briefed throughout the day in my capacity as chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Of course, some of the information shared with me is secret and I can’t disclose it. But much of the information about today’s events is unclassified and has been disclosed by the media. Based upon the information available to the general public, we know the following.
First, there was a report of some kind of disruptive activity planned to take place at Lafayette Square. That plan never materialized.
“Second, there was an explosion at the GreyStone Hotel. The investigation is ongoing. There is no link to terrorism. In fact, preliminary findings point to construction materials left behind by a crew refurbishing the ninth floor.
“Third, a train was stopped over the Potomac River headed in the vicinity of Capitol Hill. There were no explosives on that train and reports to the contrary have proven to be wrong. In fact, the train incident was being closely monitored by law enforcement and an effort is currently underway to apprehend Hugh Spates, who is also being sought in connection with a fatal shooting that occurred in Northern Virginia at Four Mile Run.
“Fourth, and finally, there was an explosion at Roaches Run. A national security expert named Phil Landry reportedly died, although no positive identification has been made and some of the circumstances surrounding the incident are still being evaluated by investigators.”
Mann: “Was there a connection between the train incident and the explosion at Roaches Run?”
Lowenstein: “There very well may be, Tom. As you’ve reported, both events may have been coordinated by Landry and Hugh Spates. I’m embarrassed to say I knew both of them, and once considered Landry a personal friend.”
Mann: “We all make mistakes from time to time in judging others, senator. I know you’ve always tried to see the good in others. It’s a hallmark of your personality as one of our nation’s leaders. No one should think the less of you because you once trusted Phil Landry.”
Lowenstein: “That’s kind of you to say, Tom, and it means a great deal to me hearing that from someone of your caliber. You’re a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist with impeccable credentials. A lot of people in this town and around the country trust your judgment. As for Landry, I would only add that, in addition to being deceptive and conniving, he was one of the most, if not the most, manipulative people with whom I’ve ever been associated. He betrayed my trust and the trust of our entire national security community.”
Mann: “I’m hearing rumors about some of Landry’s other criminal dealings.”
Lowenstein: “Phil Landry was a monster.”
Mann: “Did you say mobster?”
Lowenstein: “No, I said monster, but I might just as well have said mobster. He was a thug who preyed on the innocent and caused nothing but pain and misery to many, many people.”
Mann: “If you’ve just joined us, I’m Thomas Mann and this is Mann-Up Newsmaker Sunday Night. Our guest this evening is Abraham Lowenstein, chair of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, who’s sharing with us some of the inside information about today’s terrorist-related events and the men behind the chaos. We’ll be right back. Stay with us.”
The screen showed a logo of Mann’s show while new age music played in the background.
“We’r
e off-line,” Mann said. Although their age differential was stark — Lowenstein was hitting 70 while Mann was in his early 40s — they both understood the ways of Washington. They were unabashed in slinging mud at their enemies and throwing accolades to their friends, as evidenced by the ongoing interview.
“I appreciate your fitting me into the program on short notice,” Lowenstein said.
“No problem,” Mann replied. Mann’s scheduled guest for tonight’s program was a retired military leader who had resigned in disgrace from a prior administration and was trying to reestablish his reputation in Washington. He was bumped as a favor to the senator. As between the chair of the Senate Intel Committee and a guy trying to remake his career, the man with the power won every time. “When we come back live, I’d like to delve more into Landry,” Mann said.
“Fine with me.”
“In fact, have you heard about Landry allegedly assaulting a young woman in a parking garage six years ago?”
“That’s news to me.”
Mann wasn’t surprised by the response. The first he’d heard of it was when he opened the envelope that Page delivered to him. In addition to being shocked by the report’s findings, he felt partially responsible for the whole thing.
“Are you aware that Landry was investigated years ago for fabricating convictions in Alexandria Circuit Court?” Mann asked.
“Vaguely,” Lowenstein answered. “I asked Landry about it. He assured me it was a false accusation leveled by people who wanted him removed from the department. And his version was confirmed by DOJ, which exonerated him from any culpability.”
“What about the woman who initially raised questions about Landry’s activities? Are you familiar with her? Do you know what happened to her a couple of years after the Pena Inquiry ended?”
“Don’t know anything about any of that.”
“A woman by the name of Ruth Hammond was badly assaulted in a parking garage in Crystal City. She never recovered from the attack. Suffered permanent brain injury and is confined to a wheelchair to this day.”
“So horrible,” Lowenstein said.
The conversation ceased. The producer said the show was about to resume. “And we’re live in five. Four. Three. Two. One.”
Mann: “We’re back with Senator Abraham Lowenstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, discussing today’s events and the men responsible for the chaos that has engulfed the nation’s capital. One of those men was Phil Landry, a disgraced national security official who has been the cause of controversy for years. And now we’re learning that Landry may have been responsible for a brutal assault that occurred in Virginia. It’s a cold case. No one was ever charged with the crime and it remains unsolved to this day. The details are still being assembled, but let me share with listeners the facts as they’ve been relayed to me.” He opened a folder and removed a document with notes and highlights he had made earlier in the evening.
“The victim’s name was Ruth Hammond. She was a whistleblower who exposed Phil Landry for pressuring penny-ante criminals into pleading to felony offenses in Alexandria Circuit Court. In other words, she exposed him for sending innocent people to jail. This was when he worked for the Alexandria Police. The allegations were investigated in an effort known to people who followed the story as the Pena Inquiry, after the man who headed it, Fernando Pena. Landry was exonerated of any wrongdoing. But, as I’ve already written on my blog, in my tweets, and in the Chronicle online, Landry never should have been acquitted of his misdeeds. I bear partial responsibility for that terrible miscarriage of justice because I was fooled by Landry into writing a series of articles that raised questions about Pena. Those articles turned the tide against Pena. I won a Pulitzer for my reporting. But if ever there was an instance where an award was undeserved and should be returned, it was that award.
“According to information that I have in my possession, Landry visited the building where the assault occurred a few hours before it happened. He left after the assault occurred. Based upon surveillance records and deductive reasoning, a forensic analysis concluded that Landry committed the crime. The forensic analysis has never been made public, until tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll be writing about this newly uncovered evidence in The Chronicle. I hope to redeem myself for my own faulty reporting in the past, and I hope you’ll join me in my quest to get to the truth about the role of Phil Landry in manipulating the criminal justice system, assaulting a whistleblower, and, this past weekend, spreading fear and panic through the city before killing himself.”
Lowenstein sat silently during Mann’s exposé. He had expected the show to serve as his opportunity to disassociate himself from Landry. But that was not Mann’s intention. Mann was using Lowenstein as a prop to begin a discussion about Landry’s involvement in a brutal assault, employing the studio at times as his own confessional.
**
WITHIN MINUTES, Arlington County officials contacted the police department to dig up the old records about Hammond’s assault. Much of it had been converted digitally. A few scraps of paper remained, held together by rubber bands that disintegrated when they were touched and by paper clips that had rusted and left imprints on the faded paper. Everything needed to be reexamined.
Mo Katz listened to the show. He had only a vague recollection of the Hammond case. Yet it resonated in his mind. It was important, he felt.
**
MANN: “Okay. Let’s go online for some reactions and comments. Hello, you’re on Mann Up: Newsmaker Sunday Night with Thomas Mann and Senator Abe Lowenstein. What’s your comment?”
A third frame appeared on the screen beside the images of Mann and Lowenstein. There was no face depicted on the screen; the caller had chosen not to turn on the video.
Caller: “My comment is that Phil Landry was the spark behind the plan to blow up a train near the U.S. Capitol yesterday. Hugh Spates is being reported as the one who basically planned the attack. I know Spates and I don’t think he had the guts to do it alone. The mastermind behind it had to be Landry.”
Mann: “My thinking exactly. What’s your name, caller?”
Caller: “My name isn’t important and if it’s alright with you I’d just as soon not provide it on-air. What is important is I worked with Hugh Spates on Capitol Hill after 9/11 writing the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. At the time, I joked about someone buying real estate near a potential terrorist target to cash in financially if an attack ever took place. Everyone thought it was funny at the time. Apparently, Spates didn’t.”
Mann: “Any comment, senator?”
Lowenstein: “From everything we’re learning, it’s entirely possible that Spates and Landry were acting in unison. Of course, we’ll know for certain once Spates is apprehended, which is only a matter of time.”
Mann: “Thank you, caller. Let’s go to our next call. Hello, you’re on the air with Thomas Mann and Abe Lowenstein. This is Mann Up: Sunday Night Newsmaker.”
The message line was instantly flooded. Phil Landry was suddenly complicit for everything that had gone bad in the past five years. Someone even mentioned he might have had something to do with the novel coronavirus.
**
RUTH HAMMOND turned off the laptop and wheeled herself into the foyer. She saw the luggage on the wooden floor. She spun around. She was sad, but hardly surprised. Although he hadn’t said anything, she sensed he would be departing. She reminded herself to be grateful. After all, he’d been with her two weeks. Two whole weeks.
Hammond moved her wheelchair into the living room. She pulled the plaid blanket tighter around her knees and thighs. How she missed an active life. All of the things that others took for granted had been robbed from her. The ability to walk, for starters. The ability to speak in coherent sentences. And the basic dignity of being able to care for herself, to take showers, stretch her limbs, perform day-to-day tasks.
She never complained. How could she? After all, she knew she was in danger the moment she became a whistleblower. Yet it did not
deter her. She always suspected Phil Landry. Based on the program she just heard, he had been the one who attacked her. She wondered about the origin of the report that Mann mentioned, and whether Ari had anything to do with it.
So it was Landry lurking in the shadows behind a pillar in the parking garage, leaping out, grabbing her, throwing her to the ground, and stomping on her body and head until she was unconscious. He must have assumed she was dead. And she would had died if there had not been another late-night worker who found her. She sometimes wondered whether she would have been better off dead.
Hammond wheeled herself to a window and looked out at the black night. She closed her paper-thin eyelids and felt the void.
“Tomorrow.”
She started.
Ari’s hand fell on her shoulder. “I’m leaving tomorrow. I’m returning to Paris. When I return, I plan to stay with you indefinitely.” His fingers applied pressure to her frail, bony shoulder.
Hammond recalled the news item she’d heard earlier in the day. Phil Landry’s dead. Blown to pieces and burnt like a piece of trash.
“I know,” Ari said softly. “Finally, closure.”
Hammond put her hand on top of her brother’s, her fingertips resting on his knuckles. It felt as though she had slid her hand inside of a glove. It was a knight’s glove, protective and comforting.
“He got what he deserved,” Ari said. “What he had coming.”
And his reputation is destroyed along with the rest of him. That’s the most important part, to me. He destroyed everyone associated with the allegations leveled against him. Allegations which were true! It’s only right that his reputation as a “disgraced” and… Oh, what was that other word that I heard or read? No matter. It’s enough that his epitaph reminds the public that he was a monster, like they were just saying on that program.
Ari got behind her and took control of the wheelchair, pushing it into the kitchen. “Let’s make you some tea,” he said. “And I got a couple of pieces of chocolate cake. Let’s celebrate.”
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