The Amendment Killer (Brooks/Lotello Thriller) Read online

  ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE AMENDMENT KILLER

  “THE AMENDMENT KILLER is tense, timely, and terrific!”

  –Lee Child, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of the Jack Reacher novels

  “From the vantage point of one who has spent many years in Washington, D.C., I recently had the pleasure of reading an advance copy of Ronald S. Barak’s latest political and legal thriller, THE AMENDMENT KILLER, a terrific, timely and remarkably accurate portrayal of modern day political dysfunction centered in our capital. Blurring contemporary reality with his own brand of fiction, Barak cleverly intertwines the kidnapping of the 11-year-old diabetic granddaughter of a Supreme Court justice to control the outcome of Congress’ attempt to persuade the Court to invalidate a constitutional amendment criminalizing political abuse and corruption. I have read many of John Grisham’s bestselling novels. Barak matches Grisham step for step. He had me turning the pages of THE AMENDMENT KILLER from the first page to the last. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.”

  —Dennis DeConcini, United States Senator, Ret

  “Ron Barak’s THE AMENDMENT KILLER might well serve as a primer for the commercial legal thriller. The concept is high, the pacing supersonic, the characters well-drawn and sympathetic. The novel should come with a warning: addictive reading ahead. It’s as good a legal thriller as I’ve read this year.”

  –John Lescroart, author of a dozen New York Times bestselling novels

  “With an unparalleled sense of terror forewarned on the opening page, Ron Barak’s THE AMENDMENT KILLER is a high-speed, tense political thriller about one of today’s most fundamental issues, the integrity of our Supreme Court.”

  –Andrew Gross, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The One Man “Blurring moral and legal lines while gripping every parent by the throat who journeys into THE AMENDMENT KILLER, Ron Barak delivers a captivating, chilling and clever read.”

  –Sandra Brannan, award-winning author of the Liv Bergen Mystery Series

  “Set among the hallowed chambers of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ron Barak’s THE AMENDMENT KILLER is a high stakes legal thriller easily the best we’ve read this year. Beautifully staged, Attorney Barak expertly tells the story from alternating points of view. Fresh, fast and furious. And highly recommended.”

  –Best Thrillers Magazine

  “Ron Barak’s THE AMENDMENT KILLER is a contemporary political thriller benefitting from heavy research, a chilling villain, and a timely message. The text message that starts this book off is a fantastic hook, and the narrative rapidly rotates between a large cast of characters, resulting in a page-flipping thriller. THE AMENDMENT KILLER combines a legal thriller with a tense drama where the stability of the government hangs in the balance . It’s timely, tense, and a perfect read in these uncertain times.”

  –John M. Murray (Foreword Reviews)

  “From its electrifying opening line to its powerful conclusion, THE AMENDMENT KILLER is a ripped-from-tomorrow’s headlines story of law and politics set against the backdrop of the Supreme Court. But more so, it’s a story about the lengths we will go for the ones we love. Timely, fast-paced, and heartfelt, you’ll mourn the turning of the last page. Ron Barak is a writer to watch.”

  –Anthony Franze, author of The Outsider

  “Ron Barak’s finely honed legal skills bring a refreshing authenticity to THE AMENDMENT KILLER a fast-moving, tense, power-charged thriller where the life of a young girl with diabetes and the foundations of American democracy are both at stake. Combining contemporary, timely themes with a classic moral dilemma, this novel entertains and educates.

  –K.J. Howe, author of The Freedom Broker

  “THE AMENDMENT KILLER is a high concept, hybrid blend of a political, psychological and action thriller all rolled into a smooth, savory, and suspenseful mix. Ron Barak manages to channel the best of John Grisham, David Baldacci and even Steve Berry in this amazingly timely tale cast with a Supreme Court backdrop. As prescient as it is thought-provoking and as much fun as it is factual, this is reading entertainment of the highest order. I’d be shocked if this book doesn’t become a bestseller.”

  –Jon Land, USA Today bestselling author of Strong Light of Day

  “Ron Barak has the mind of a legal scholar, the fight of a bareknuckle litigator, and the determination of the former Olympic athlete that he is. Add to those distinctions now, in THE AMENDMENT KILLER, the imagination of a natural born storyteller.”

  –David Corbett, award-winning author of The Art of Character and The Mercy of The Night

  “THE AMENDMENT KILLER by Ron Barak is a provocative and savvy, bold and exciting, political-legal thriller that instantly hooks, thoroughly captives, and resonates wildly, long after the final page has been devoured. Ron’s keen eye, expert knowledge, and dramatic flair conspire to render this explosively timely tale the next big read.”

  –Benee Knauer, Editor/Book Doctor

  “In THE AMENDMENT KILLER, Ron Barak has crafted an entertaining and engaging novel that captures and reflects the current American political landscape.”

  –Ron Galperin, Los Angeles City Controller

  “THE AMENDMENT KILLERis a brilliant and timely novel about a Supreme Court challenge to a constitutional amendment enacted by ‘we the people’ to end corruption on the part of their political representatives, and demonstrate that their government is meant to serve rather than be served. More than just a page turning political and legal thriller, Barak demonstrates an impressive and thought provoking command of real world politics, constitutional law reduced to its basics, and the ins and outs of lawyering at its best.”

  –Donald Earl Childress III, Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law

  “In THE AMENDMENT KILLER, an engaging and entertaining suspense thriller about an enchanting 11-year-old type 1 diabetic youngster kidnapped by those who would control the swing vote of her Supreme Court justice grandfather in a pending case of immense Constitutional importance to the future of our country, Ron Barak has merged the worlds of political and legal intrigue and diabetes reality with the same precision, skill, sensitivity, and enthusiasm he demonstrates every day in managing his own real world diabetes, and his efforts to support diabetes research.”

  –Anne Peters, M.D. internationally recognized diabetologist and author of Conquering Diabetes

  The Amendment Killer is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Except as otherwise noted in the Author’s Note, any resemblance to actual events or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2017 by Ronald S. Barak

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be produced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning, or by any other information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and in certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Printed and published in the United States of America by:

  Los Angeles, California

  www.ganderhouse.com

  ISBN

  Hardcover: 978-0-9827590-5-9

  Paperback: 978-0-9827590-9-7

  eBook: 978-0-9827590-7-3

  First Edition

  Publisher’s Cataloging-In-Publication Data

  (Prepared by The Donohue Group, Inc.)

  Names: Barak, Ronald S.

  Title: The amendment killer / Ronald S. Barak.

  Description: First edition. | Los Angeles, Californi
a : Gander House Publishers, [2017] | Series: A Brooks/Lotello thriller

  Identifiers: ISBN 978-0-9827590-5-9 (hardcover) | ISBN 978-0-9827590-9-7 (paperback) | ISBN 978-0-9827590-7-3 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Constitutional amendments--United States--Fiction. | Judges--United States-Fiction. | Detectives--United States--Fiction. | Abuse of administrative power--United States--Fiction. | United States. Supreme Court--Fiction. | Kidnapping--Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3602.A73 A45 2017 (print) | LCC PS3602.A73 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6--dc23

  To my Goosers, who helps me to manage in all ways, and then some.

  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed . . .

  With certain unalienable Rights . . .

  That . . . Governments . . . derive[e] their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of [its] ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to instruct new Government, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its Powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

  —Thomas Jefferson in The U.S. Declaration of Independence, Paragraph 2, 1776

  Justice Douglas, you must remember one thing. At the constitutional level where we work, ninety percent of any decision is emotional. The rational part of us supplies the reasons for supporting our predilections.

  —U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes quoted by U. S. Supreme Court Associate Justice William O. Douglas in his 1980 autobiography The Court Years, 1939-1975

  Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.

  —Charles Lamb in his 1823 essay “The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple”

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PART ONE: The Run Up

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  PART TWO: The United States Supreme Court Day One Argument and More

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  PART THREE: The Next Day

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  PART FOUR: The United States Supreme Court Day Two Argument and More

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  PART FIVE: More Stuff and The Decision

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Chapter 104

  Chapter 105

  Chapter 106

  Chapter 107

  Chapter 108

  Chapter 109

  Chapter 110

  Chapter 111

  PART SIX: The Announcement

  Chapter 112

  Chapter 113

  Chapter 114

  Chapter 115

  Chapter 116

  Chapter 117

  Chapter 118

  Chapter 119

  Chapter 120

  Chapter 121

  Chapter 122

  Chapter 123

  Chapter 124

  Chapter 125

  Chapter 126

  Chapter 127

  EPILOGUE

  PART ONE

  The Run-up

  CHAPTER 1

  Tuesday, May 6, 6:30 am

  WE HAVE YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER. Here’s what you need to do.

  Thomas T. Thomas III reviewed the language. Again. He closed the phone without hitting send. Yet.

  He stared through high-powered binoculars from atop the wooded knoll. As always, the girl hit one perfect shot after another.

  Cassie Webber. Age 11. He’d been tailing her for three months. It seemed longer.

  She was chaperoned everywhere she went. Two-a-day practices before and after school. Her dad drove her in the morning. He watched her empty bucket after bucket and then dropped her off at school. Her mom picked her up after school, ferried her back to the practice range, and brought her home after daughter and coach finished. Mom and daughter sometimes ran errands on the way, but always together. Even on the occasional weekend outing to the mall or the movies, the girl was constantly in the company of family or friends. Having someone hovering over me all day would have driven me batshit.

  His childhood had been different. When Thomas was her age, he walked to school on his own. And he lived a lot farther away than the girl. His daddy had never let his driver chauffeur him around. Wasn’t about to spoil him. Spare the rod, spoil the child. Didn’t spoil me that way either.

  He kept telling himself patience was the key. But his confidence was waning. And then, suddenly, he’d caught a break. The girl’s routine had changed.

  She started walking the few blocks between school and practice on her own. Dad dropped her off at morning practice and Mom met her at afternoon practice instead of school. Only a ten minute walk each way, but that was all the opening he needed.

  Everything was finally in place. He would be able to make amends. He would not let them down.

  This time.

  She completed her morning regimen, unaware of Thomas’s eyes trained on her from his tree-lined vantage point. No doubt about it, he thought to himself. She was incredibly good. Driven. Determined.

  And pretty.

  Very pretty.

  He relieved himself, thinking about her. A long time . . . coming. Haha! As the girl disappeared into the locker room, he trekked back down the hill, and climbed into the passenger side of the van. He returned the binoculars to their case. He removed the cell from his pocket, and checked the pending text one more time.

  Moments later, the girl emerged from the locker room, golf bag e
xchanged for the backpack over her shoulders. She ambled down the winding pathway, waved to the uniformed watchman standing next to the guardhouse, and crossed through the buzzing security gate. She headed off to school.

  Without taking his eyes off her, Thomas barked at the man sitting next to him. “Go.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Tuesday, May 6, 7:00 am

  ELOISE BROOKS STARED at Cyrus and shook her head. After more than 50 years of marriage, she understood everything about him there was to understand. Still: “I take the time to make you a nice breakfast. The least you could do is eat it while it’s hot.”

  She held the warm cup of tea in both hands. “And can’t you talk to me, Cyrus? Why do you treat me like I’m not here? Like I’m some kind of a potted plant.”

  Cyrus moved the eggs around on his plate. Speared a bite of fruit, swallowed it, but showed no visible pleasure in it. “I’m eating. What do you want to talk about? You think the couple cut from Dancing With The Stars last night deserved to be sent packing?”

  “Should have got the hook weeks ago. You dance better than he does. Even with your two left feet.”

  He didn’t answer. She knew why. “What’re you thinking about? Esposito? Whether 50,000 is enough? Your two left feet?”

  “All of the above.”

  She gazed at him but said nothing. Notwithstanding his apparent disinterest in the plate of food in front of him, his appetite—and his imagination—were never-ending. He loved upbeat music and dancing. And sports. He couldn’t carry a tune or dance a lick. Except for an occasional round of golf, his sports these days were mostly played out in front of the television. But that didn’t stop him from daydreaming. He danced like Fred Astaire. He sang and played guitar and harmonica like Bob Dylan. He moved around a tennis court like Roger Federer.

  However, Eloise knew his real passion in life was the law. He had enjoyed a distinguished legal career, first as a trial lawyer and then as a D.C. Superior Court judge. Now retired from the bench, writing and teaching, and occasionally trying a case that got his hackles up, when it came to the law, those who knew Cyrus Brooks knew he was second to none. Amazing how sometimes he exuded that—with confidence bordering on arrogance—but at other times did not. More so since Frank Lotello had been shot, and barely survived.

  Brooks sat there fidgeting restlessly with the newspaper. Eloise reached over and put her hand on his. “You’ll be great, Cyrus. I need to walk Ryder and get dressed, so we can drive into Court together. Please make sure Maccabee’s dishes have enough water and dry cat snacks.”