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“Good evening,” said the good-looking male talking head with dark hair and a bright smile. “Welcome to the nine-o’clock edition of tonight’s newscast at CrimeFreePhilly-dot-com. I’m Dusty Meyers.”
“And I’m Jessi Sabatini,” said the attractive redhead with a dazzling display of teeth who was sitting beside him. “Tonight’s top news: This weekend’s Halloween Homicides continue to mount in Philadelphia.”
Matt saw that the image behind her on the upper-right flat-screen studio monitor was of Francis Fuller standing at a lectern.
Matt hit the FAST FORWARD button, causing the audio to go temporarily silent and the two talking heads to begin bobbing as if on coil springs. They made very fast gestures.
Then the camera zoomed in on Jessi Sabatini. As she jabbered, a box popped up beside her bobbing head. In the box appeared a progression of photographs, mostly mug shots, of all the pop-and-drops with their names shown beneath them. Then there was a picture of Francis Fuller with his name underneath, and Payne hit the NORMAL PLAY button on the remote.
Jessi Sabatini was saying: “Corporate titan Frances Fuller, whose Lex Talionis has been very busy this weekend, gave a press conference earlier at which he presented ten-thousand-dollar rewards to some heroic citizens of Philadelphia. Our own Michael J. O’Hara was there and has the story.”
The image of Fuller filled the entire television screen.
“And so the circus continues,” Matt said to Amanda. “Hell, it was inevitable Five-Eff, my favorite Puritan, would make an appearance.”
There was a text box to the right of Fuller’s head reading: FRANCIS FULLER, C.E.O. LEX TALIONIS, DISTRIBUTES $10,000 REWARDS.
Along the bottom of the screen was a line of text that moved from right to left reading: BREAKING NEWS . . . MAYOR CARLUCCI ANNOUNCES POLICE DEPARTMENT EMERGENCY TASK FORCE AS HALLOWEEN HOMICIDES CONTINUE TO RISE . . . BODY COUNT IN OLD CITY NOW UP TO FIVE. . . .
The voice of O’Hara, who was off-screen, came from the television speakers: “This is Michael J. O’Hara reporting from Lex Talionis in Old City, where Frank Fuller has just made some Philly residents much richer for having helped make the city much safer.”
The camera pulled back and showed more of the room.
Francis Franklin Fuller the Fifth was in what appeared to be a conference room of his Richard Saunders Holdings office building. The short, portly forty-four-year-old, wearing his customary Benjamin Franklin outfit, stood behind a solid black lectern, both hands gripping its top. The front of the black lectern had a bronze plaque bearing the Lex Talionis logotype with the stylized-eyeball “o.”
The camera then pulled farther back and showed a line of people standing to the side. Between them they held three ceremonial bank checks fashioned from heavy white plastic sheeting three feet high and six feet long. Each had in the upper left-hand corner a large red representation of the Lex Talionis logotype. And each had been filled out in handwritten lettering with a fat-tipped black permanent marker.
Payne immediately recognized one of the women who held the reward checks. She was the first on the left, closest to the lectern.
“And look who he’s with,” Matt said. “That’s the mother of one of the dead pop-and-drops.”
It was confirmed by the name written in her check’s payee field: Shauna Mays.
Matt added: “We think that my mystery shooter popped her son, and then she and a gypsy cabbie dropped the body at Five-Eff’s.”
Matt thought: Women really can be the more ruthless of our species.
Despite her face and hand being deeply bruised, and still looking malnourished and dirty in the torn clothing she’d been wearing when Payne interviewed her earlier in the day, Shauna Mays stood there beaming.
She held—barely, as it was bigger than she was—a ceremonial check made out in the amount of ten thousand dollars. To her right—behind another ten-thousand-dollar ceremonial check that was written out to: Paco Ramirez, Yvette Iglesia, et alii, for Sasha Bazelon—stood a small pack of teenagers. Holding the check at each end were a tough-looking Latin male wearing baggy jeans and an oversize jacket, and a pretty, petite Latina with fiery eyes.
Matt said, “Those in the middle must be the crowd Javier told me about. The ones who caught the punk responsible for Principal Bazelon’s death. And that pretty teen girl looks like she is probably Javier’s baby sister.”
Matt did not recognize the woman holding the third oversize reward check, but like Shauna Mays, she appeared rough-looking and underfed. Judging by the name on the check, it was most likely Michael Floyd’s mother.
Then Matt noticed the two extra legs standing beside her, and when the check moved, Michael’s head appeared around its right end.
Matt turned to Amanda and said, “That’s the kid I was going to tell you about. Very strange.”
Hanging on the wall behind them was a white banner emblazoned with: YOUR HOME FOR HELPING CLEAN UP YOUR HOMETOWN:
WWW.LEXTALIONIS.COM
AND
WWW.CRIMEFREEPHILLY.COM
The camera went back to Fuller. And the voice of O’Hara said: “Let’s now go directly to Fuller’s press conference. . . .”
