The Kill Room

area.”
    She paused before nearly every sentence. Was she picking thoroughbred words? Or assessing liabilities if the wrong one left the gate?
    “Now, I’m not going with a murder charge against the perps. It’s difficult to make a case in state court for a crime that occurs in a different country. That could be done but it would take too long.” Now a denser hesitation. “And it’s important to move quickly.”
    Why? Rhyme wondered.
    Intriguing…
    Laurel continued, “I’m seeking other, independent charges in New York.”
    “Conspiracy,” Rhyme said, his instantaneous deduction. “Good, good. I like that. On the basis that the murder was planned here.”
    “Exactly,” Laurel offered. “The killing was ordered by a New York resident in the city. That’s why I have jurisdiction.”
    Like all cops, or former cops, Rhyme knew the law as well as most lawyers did. He recalled the relevant New York Penal Code provision: Somebody is guilty of conspiracy when—with intent that conduct constituting a crime be performed—he or she agrees with one or more persons to engage in or cause the performance of such conduct. He added, “And you can bring the case here even if the killing took place outside the state because the underlying conduct—murder—is a crime in New York.”
    “Correct,” Laurel confirmed. She might have been pleased he got the analysis right. It was hard to tell.
    Sachs said, “Ordered the killing, you said. What was it, an OC hit?”
    Many of the worst organized crime bosses were never arrested and convicted for the extortion, murders and kidnappings they perpetrated; they could never be tied to the crime scene. But they often were sent to prison for conspiring to cause those events to happen.
    Laurel, however, said, “No. This is something else.”
    Rhyme’s mind danced. “But if we identify and collar the conspirators the Bahamians’ll want to extradite them. The shooter, at least.”
    Laurel regarded him silently for a second. Her pauses were beginning to border on the unnerving. She finally said, “I’ll resist extradition. And my chances of success I put at over ninety percent.” For a woman in her thirties Laurel seemed young. There was a schoolgirl innocence about her. No, “innocence” was the wrong word, Rhyme decided. Single-mindedness.
    Pigheaded was another cliché that fit.
    Sellitto asked both Laurel and Myers, “You have any suspects?”
    “Yes. I don’t have the identity of the shooter yet but I know the two people who ordered the killing.”
    Rhyme gave a smile. Within him curiosity stirred, along with the sensation a wolf must feel catching a single molecule of a prey’s scent. He could tell Nance Laurel felt the same, even if the eagerness wasn’t quite visible through the L’Oréal façade. He believed he knew where this was going.
    And the destination was far beyond intriguing.
    Laurel said, “The murder was a targeted killing, an assassination, if you will, ordered by a U.S. government official—the head of NIOS, the National Intelligence and Operations Service, based here in Manhattan.”
    This was, more or less, what Rhyme had deduced. He’d thought the CIA or Pentagon, though.
    “Jesus,” Sellitto whispered. “You wanna bust a fed?” He looked at Myers, who gave no reaction whatsoever, then back to Laurel. “Can you do that?”
    Her pause was two breaths’ duration. “How do you mean, Detective?” Perplexed.
    Sellitto probably hadn’t meant anything other than what he’d said. “Just, isn’t he immune from prosecution?”
    “The NIOS lawyers will try for immunity but it’s an area I’m familiar with. I wrote my law review article on immunity of government officials. I’ve assessed my chance of success at about ninety percent in the state courts, and eighty in the Second Circuit on appeal. We get to the Supreme Court, we’re home free.”
    “What’s the law on immunity?” Sachs asked.
    “It’s a Supremacy Clause issue,” Laurel explained. “That’s the constitutional provision that says, in effect, when it comes down to a conflict, federal law trumps state. New York can’t prosecute a federal employee for state crimes if the employee was acting within the scope of his authority. In our situation, I believe the head of NIOS has gone rogue—acting outside what he was authorized to do.”
    Laurel glanced at Myers, who said, “We pivoted on the issue but there’re solid metrics leading us to believe that this man is