A Northern Thunder Read Online Free PDF Page B

than an hour before, District Attorney Will Parker had been in the final stages of a big criminal trial. Now, he would be stepping into another world. It didn’t matter when they sent the airplane. With a visit by two strangers to his office and his resignation to the governor shortly thereafter, Vienna would have plenty to talk about for years to come. A private jet landing at the local airport at midnight should finish the stories off nicely.
    A knock sounded on the office door, and Will opened it to find Connie. “Will,” she said, “the jury’s back and they’re waiting for you.”
    “Thanks, Connie. Tell the deputy I’ll be there in half a minute.”
    Will turned back to his two guests. “Admiral, I take it I will get a full briefing this weekend.”
    “I take it, Parker, that you have accepted our offer.” Krowl stuck his hand out and Will grabbed it. The grip was like a vice for both men, but ever so subtly, Will’s hand consumed Krowl’s grip.
    “Yes, sir. As they say in law school, we have reached a meeting of the minds, consideration has passed, and we have a contract.”
    “Yes,” Krowl said, “indeed.” He had a sly smile that Will had already come to dislike.
    Will turned toward the hallway and bounded down the stairs to the courtroom. At the back door, Judge Roamer was smoking a cigarette, his black robe open and unzipped. He wore a white shirt, blue jeans with an oversized western buckle, and pitch-black alligator boots.
    “Judge, you look like you’d rather be on the farm today than trying this case.” No matter the response, Will knew he was right.
    Roamer was a man Will had great respect for. A linebacker at Georgia on one of the early teams Vince Dooley coached, Andy Roamer slept under red and black sheets at night—a Georgia bulldog whose loyalty ran deep. He was a man who looked you in the eye and gave you an iron grip of a handshake.
    “Yeah, Will,” he said, “and I understand you had a visit from some DEA agents.”
    It didn’t take the town long to put a spin on this , Will thought. But he actually liked the idea.
    “Yes, sir, but please don’t tell anyone. The U.S. attorney general wants me to help prosecute a major drug case against a Colombia drug cartel. It probably means I’ll have to resign.” Will liked the “don’t tell anyone” touch. As much as he liked Anderson Roamer, he knew the news would be all over town in less than an hour. The judge would call his wife while his secretary listened through the cracked door. It’s the nature of small towns. The opportunity to share gossip was a special treat for a resident of a sleepy little place like Vienna.
    “What do you think, Judge?”
    “Well, I don’t want to lose you, but I can’t think of anyone better to do a job like that.”
    “I told ’em I’d think about it. And I appreciate that comment.”
    Roamer turned and pushed the half-smoked cigarette into the sand of an old, dented ash can. It was full of half-smoked cigarettes he’d put there during prior trial breaks. He thought back to his many and long experiences with Will, recalling the time he accompanied Will, a skilled outdoorsman, on a southern quail hunt. The hunters would walk through the scattered brush of a pine tree forest, following trained dogs that shifted back and forth over a field, hoping for a sniff of the birds. Occasionally, a dog would jump the covey, causing the quails to fly up in several directions. In an instant, the hunter had to pick a target and fire. The judge would hear a single shot from a shotgun, but two birds would fall. The accuracy required to fire one shot to down two crossing birds was like that of a golfer sinking a hole-in-one, but Will did it several times that day.
    Following the loss of his parents, Will became more of a loner, and Roamer, on more than one occasion, tried to change that.
    “Well, let’s get this case finished.” He zipped up the robe and strode into the courtroom as the deputy sheriff