Rarities Unlimited 04 - The Color of Death

together, we brought to justice one of the most vicious gangs it has ever been my misfortune to discover on American soil.”
    “The Teflon gang,” Tawny said eagerly. She knew a good sound bite when she had it in her mouth.
    “Exactly.” Kennedy gave her the kind of smile a man gives a dog that does tricks on cue. “This evil gang wasn’t content with robbing couriers and hardworking businessmen. When the crime strike force started closing in on them, the Teflon gang began murdering people who had information the gang wanted kept secret.”
    “Is that what happened to the Purcells?” Tawny asked.
    “I’m not at liberty to say for fear of prejudicing any future jurors.”
    Annoyance flashed over Tawny’s face. “I understand that there is a connection between the Teflon gang and two recent murders in Los Angeles, those of José de Santos and Eduardo Pedro Selva de los Santos.”
    “Yes. We believe that the Teflon gang overlapped with the South American gangs that have been preying on couriers.”
    “Is that true?” Kate asked, turning to Sam.
    “It is now.”
    “…investigating multiple leads that show cross-connections among the gangs,” Kennedy continued.
    “But really?” Kate insisted.
    Sam hit the mute button. He’d heard enough self-serving bullshit for one evening.
    “The whole point of a press performance like this,” Sam said, “is to define what is real for public consumption now and in the future. Kennedy was forever publicly baying after South American gangs. He can’t just suddenly admit this crime spree was completely home-grown, now can he? Wouldn’t look good.”
    “And that’s what it’s really all about,” she said, waving her hand at the TV. “Looking good.”
    “Everyone up there will get an ‘attaboy’ letter from the president within a month. Promotions soon to follow.”
    “But you were the one who did most of the work!”
    “So what?”
    Kate opened her mouth. Nothing came out.
    “I bet you were going to say something about ‘fair,’ ” Sam said, giving her a hooded look.
    “Um…”
    “I cut a deal with Kennedy that I’m happy with,” Sam said. “That’s all the ‘fair’ I care about.”
    She sat up straighter. “What deal?”
    “I wouldn’t give interviews about Ted Sizemore’s murderous daughter who only brought along one pair of exam gloves, slit the fingertip on a sharp piece of trunk, and ended up leaving some partial prints on a car rented by Lee Mandel.” Sam took a sip of coffee. “I wouldn’t talk about how she milked Sizemore Security Consulting of information, used it to fatten up several overseas accounts, and stole the Seven Sins to frame her lover Peyton Hall for everything, including Lee’s murder.”
    Kate’s mouth opened.
    Sam kept talking. “I wouldn’t tell any reporter how John ‘Tex’ White admitted that Kirby received orders from a mechanical voice, including the orders to kill the de Santos men. I wouldn’t tell reporters about the voice distorter, blonde wig, and gel bra the cops found in Sharon’s L.A. condo. I wouldn’t tell anyone how Peyton Hall was humping Sharon and at the same time taking information off her computer screen, information he used to beef up his own overseas account by cutting deals with the damned South American gangs, including money laundering. And that was as close as the whole mess got to Kennedy’s wet dream.”
    “Sharon and Peyton. What a pair.”
    “They deserved each other.”
    Kate frowned and watched the politic words crawl across thebottom of the TV screen. “Why did she do it? Did she hate her father that much?”
    Sam appeared to consider the idea. “I think she hated the old-boy club as much as she hated her daddy. She wanted to prove she could make fools of them.”
    “She did, for a while. And then they made a fool of her.”
    “Did they?” Sam asked. “Left on his own, Kennedy would have booted this case to the far side of the moon. It took a stubborn, gutsy, and very bright woman to bring down Lee’s murderer. That’s you, darling.”
    “And a stubborn, gutsy, very bright FBI man with her.”
    Sam laughed humorlessly. “Not very bright or I’d be lined up on the TV with Kennedy’s pets.”
    “That was the rest of the deal, wasn’t it?” she said after a moment of silence.
    “What was?”
    “You don’t get any credit, public or private, for breaking the case.” Her voice rose angrily and she swiped her hair away from her face. “That stiff son