The Inquisition by Marc Olden

Author:Marc Olden [Olden, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-5985-6
Publisher: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
Published: 2012-06-26T16:20:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

REVENGE

DESSALINES SWITCHED OFF THE small tape recorder. “Okay, now we’ve all listened to this thing twice. Before that, we done talked about it, so by now everybody’s hip to what it says and what it means. Ain’t nothing left to talk about now. What we gotta do is let the people hear it and let William Clarke hear it, ’cause he’s the one what’s gotta decide. It’s between him and his daughter, and he’s gonna tell us which one.”

He stopped. The final part of his revenge. This tape, to be released to the San Francisco FBI office, would give Dessalines the vengeance he had wanted for three years. It contained the terrified voice of Mary Baron Clarke telling her father that in three days he must appear for trial by the Inquisition on charges of crimes against the people.

If he didn’t, she would stand trial in his place. Along with the tape, Dessalines was sending Mary’s driver’s license and a ring given her by the Baron when she was twenty-one years old.

“Clarke or his daughter,” said Dessalines. “One of them two is gonna be in front of us standin’ trial. And you know what that means.” His smile was evil, and the brightness in his eyes, from a hidden, painful sickness, made him appear extremely alert. He was telling them what they already knew, that the trial of either father or daughter meant certain death for a Clarke. “One of ’em,” he said softly, “one of them two.”

Swahili shrugged. He didn’t care who died. Dessalines was his leader, and as far as Swahili was concerned, death was something that happened to other people. He could not comprehend it ever happening to him.

Some who listened to this tape thought it might make Clarke hold up on the money, but Dessalines had said it wouldn’t. “That’s easy enough to handle,” he said. “The note that goes with this is gonna say a couple things. It gonna say the minute he stop the money, she gets executed. The note is also gon’ say that her release is always gon’ be tied up with that money. Ain’t no way Clarke can stop the money from gettin’ to the poor if he want that young woman in the next room to go on breathin’. No way, Jack, no way.”

Heads nodded, agreeing quietly, keeping further reservations to themselves. Renee told herself that the bad vibes she felt over dragging William Clarke, the President, closer into their lives, was just her imagination. Again and again she told herself that, but the uneasiness wouldn’t leave her.

Corley Zachery told himself that they might be asking for a mess of trouble, that the law, which had hung back up until now, might come down hard on all their asses when the old man himself was on the firing line. But he kept quiet. Dessalines had a wild-eyed look on his face whenever he talked about Clarke, and Corley felt it stone dumb to stand in his way when he looked like that.

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