The Last Justice Read Online Free PDF Page B

that she was working late; the other clerks could verify.
    "Did you know Parker's plans for last night?"
    "No. He left the office earlier than usual. I asked where he was going, but he avoided answering, so I backed off. I thought it might be a date."
    "He actually went to a function at Columbia. His old boss, Solicitor General McKenna, was giving a speech. Apparently Parker invited him to dinner afterwards."
    "That's a little surprising," Dakota said.
    "Why?"
    "I thought he and McKenna had a falling-out, so having dinner together just isn't something I would expect, though I guess Parker wasn't one to burn a bridge."
    "A falling-out?" Milstein said, "About what?"
    "Parker wouldn't say. All he'd ever tell me was that McKenna changed when his son got sick. His four-year-old was diagnosed with a terminal illness toward the end of Parker's clerkship, shortly before McKenna was confirmed as solicitor general. Something happened that made Parker think less of him."
    "He didn't tell you what it was?" Assad asked.
    "No," Dakota said. "Parker hated gossip and was a tight-lipped kind of guy generally."
    "Do you recall the last time you two discussed McKenna?"
    Dakota lifted her gaze to the ceiling as she considered the question. "I know we talked about all the press McKenna was getting after he was shot, but I don't remember anything specific. Before that, I kinda remember discussing him when McKenna's wife got killed in a car wreck last year. I remember because it was so sad that McKenna lost his only kid and his wife, too, in such a short time. Parker went to the funeral in D.C."
    "He went even though they had a falling-out?"
    "All McKenna's former clerks went-it would have looked bad if Parker didn't make an appearance. And like I said, Parker had high aspirations, and he would have seen it as a chance to possibly network with D.C.'s legal elite who were there."
    "Do you have any idea what Parker's problem with McKenna was?" Milstein asked.
    "Rumors, innuendo-we'll take anything," Assad added with a soft smile.
    Dakota sank back into the coach, and put a finger on her chin. "In the insular appellate bar, there's no shortage of rumors about McKenna, but nothing, I think, that would relate to Parker."
    "What type of rumors?"
    "Well, it's not too hard to find them if you just Google McKenna-there's a lot of talk about why the president nominated him to the bench and then for SG."
    "I thought McKenna worked for President Winter when Winter was governor of Ohio?" Assad asked.
    "Yeah, that might explain the Ohio judicial appointment. But solicitor general is different. the SG is essentially the dean of the Supreme Court and appellate bar, and McKenna wasn't part of the `club.' Lots of people wondered if the appointments were a quid pro quo for keeping quiet about the intern." Dakota didn't have to explain what she meant by "the intern"; stories about the alleged affair had dogged the president since his campaign. "The intern had worked for Winter and McKenna back in Ohio, and there's a lot of speculation that if anyone could corroborate the claims about the affair, it was McKenna. It's all just gossip, though. Partisan stuff."
    "You don't have any idea why Parker would ask McKenna to dinner?" Assad asked.
    "Really, no clue."
    "Could Parker have been meeting McKenna about Judge Petrov's Supreme Court nomination?"
    Dakota tensed.
    "Don't worry, Dakota, the judge already told us," Assad added.
    "I can't imagine why he'd do that. But I will say that Parker's been acting a little funny the last few days."
    "What do you mean?"
    "Nothing I can pinpoint. He just seemed ... off."
    "Any idea why Parker might be talking with a reporter?" Milstein asked, not mentioning the business card she had found in Sinclair's desk.
    "No idea," Dakota replied quickly. "That doesn't sound like him at all."
    Milstein's cell phone rang, and she moved to the other side of the room, out of earshot, while Assad continued to question Dakota. It was the medical examiner.