The Fifth Assassin Read Online Free PDF

Clementine’s coming back. She knows about the Culper Ring. So if she’s still going after the President—”
    “She didn’t
go after
him. She was blackmailing him for information about her dad.”
    “And you believe that? Didn’t she also say she was dying of some newly discovered cancer, and that your own dead father is actually alive?”
    “She was lying about my father!”
    “I know she was, and I also know how much that one hurt. Clementine isn’t just a manipulator, Beecher—she’s a hunter, no different than her dad. She went after the President, she killed Palmiotti, and she’ll happily do it again. The only reason she reached out to you is because she needed a fall guy. Just like now,” Tot says, his gray beard glowing in the darkness of the stacks. “C’mon, you knew it was just a matter of time. Clementine wasn’t blackmailing the President for money. She wanted information about her own dad, which you know she’s still craving. So if she’s trying to offersomething to the President, or simply to take a crack at you for stopping her last time, wouldn’t this be the perfect way to do it: help the President get you caught up in a murder that you can’t get out of? All she has to do is connect with her old friend Marshall—”
    “They’re not old friends,” I say.
    “They didn’t know each other?”
    “If they did, they weren’t close.”
    Tot thinks on this, digesting the information. “You do realize that your hometown is full of crazy people, right?”
    I nod, still holding Tot’s phone and staring down at Marshall’s mugshot. From the puttylike texture that makes his face droop, to the way his right eye sags, Marsh looks at least ten years older than me. And the victim of ten times the suffering.
    “So if Clementine doesn’t have a hand in it, you think the President put Marshall up to this?” Tot asks.
    “I have no idea. All I know is, two minutes after you tell me the President’s about to kick me in the face, I’m suddenly being accused of a crime that should be handled by the D.C. Police, but is magically in the hands of the Secret Service. And did you hear what those agents said? The cops arrested Marshall for murder, but he’s somehow already out on the street? Doesn’t that seem a little smelly to you?”
    “Maybe he posted bail?” Tot offers.
    “He didn’t post bail,” a robotic voice says through Tot’s phone. Immaculate Deception.
    I shoot Tot a look. “You let him listen the entire time?”
    “There’s no record of bail being posted,” Mac interrupts. “All it says is
released
. Either they had nothing on him, or Marshall’s got big friends who don’t mind calling in big favors.”
    Tot doesn’t have to say it. This is it. The President’s hitting back.
    When I started at the Archives, I learned that good archivists follow the rules, while great archivists follow their hunch.
    “They said he killed a preacher?” I ask, still staring down at Marsh’s mugshot.
    “Yeah, with your name in his pocket. Why?”
    “No reason.”
    Tot’s blind in one eye, but he still sees all. “Beecher, I know that look. And I know that brain of yours never lets anything go—it’s what makes you a great archivist. But whatever you’re thinking with Marshall, you need to stop remembering. This isn’t your childhood friend anymore.”
    Of course, Tot’s right. I look at Marsh’s burned face now, almost like a mask. Then my mind flips back to Wisconsin, scouring old memories and searching for connections. Maybe this is another trap by Clementine. Or the President, who wants to shut me up and still blames me for the death of his best friend. Or maybe he’s after the Culper Ring. But as Marsh’s dead eyes stare back at me—
    “I can get us into the crime scene,” Immaculate Deception announces through Tot’s phone.
    He acts like it’s good news. And it is. The more information, the better. But in my head, I’m still replaying Tot’s earlier warning: that