The White House Connection by Jack Higgins Page B

just a handful of guys, four or five of them. Nothing special about it except for the Senator.'
     
     
'The Senator?'
     
     
'Sure, Senator Michael Cohan. Real nice guy.'
     
     
'Hey, that's very interesting. Who were the others?'
     
     
'Oh, let's see now... Patrick Kelly, he ran a lot of construction work near here... Tom Cassidy, he had a string of Irish pubs... Who else?' He frowned.
     
     
'Have another?'
     
     
'Well, thank you. Don't mind if I do.' He poured the drink, drank half of it, and nodded. 'Brady - Martin Brady. Teamsters' Union guy. Say, I heard he got knocked off the other week.'
     
     
'What do you mean?'
     
     
'Wasted. Someone made a hit when he was coming out of the union gym one night.' He leaned closer. 'I heard he had mob troubles. Know what I mean?'
     
     
'Yeah, sure... So, tell me, when do the Sons of Erin meet? I mean which night?'
     
     
'Oh, it isn't some kind of regular thing. Just now and then. They haven't had a meet here in months.'
     
     
'Really?' Blake slipped a twenty over the bar. 'Guess I missed my chance then. Nice talking to you. Keep the change.'
     
     
'Well, thank you.'
     
     
Outside, in the car, he called Alice on his mobile. 'Take this down.' He gave her the names of the members of the dining club. 'Check the New York Police Department computer for details of the murder of Brady. I'm on my way to the Pierre now. I'll check back with you in an hour.'
     
     
'Why don't 1 ever get the Pierre? Why you?'
     
     
'Because I'm a very important man, Alice.'
     
     
'You know, it's your overwhelming ego that makes you so attractive.' She put down the phone.
     
     
He was having coffee and sandwiches in his room when she phoned back. 'Are you sitting down?'
     
     
'That bad?'
     
     
'You could say that. You wanted me to check out Brady's murder?'
     
     
'That's what I said.'
     
     
'Well, I decided to put them all through the NYPD computer, in case this Sons of Erin thing provided a link.'
     
     
'And did it?'
     
     
'You could say that. There's no mention of the group as such, but Brady, Kelly and Cassidy are all in there.'
     
     
'Go on.'
     
     
'They were all shot to death, Blake. Brady first, some kind of mob street shooting. Cassidy three nights later, rumours about a protection racket, Kelly three days after, a robbery while he was out for a run at his place in Ossining.'
     
     
'My God,' Blake said, stunned. 'And not a word.'
     
     
'There were newspaper reports, but they were all separate — nothing to link them together. If you didn't know about the Sons of Erin, you'd have no reason to think they weren't what they seemed to be.'
     
     
'That's true.'
     
     
'Are you going to tell the police?'
     
     
'I'm not sure. What about Senator Cohan?'
     
     
'He's not on the NYPD computer, but then again, he's still alive. He was on Larry King Live! last night.'
     
     
'What for?'
     
     
'Oh, Irish peace as usual. Everyone's into it at the moment. He's going to London to put his six cents worth in to stay hot with his Irish-American voters. What do you want me to do?'
     
     
'Those presidential warrants we keep in the office, the blank ones with the President's seal and signature. Fill one out in the name of Captain Harry Parker, fax me a copy here.' He gave her the room fax number.
     
     
'Who is this guy?'
     
     
'A product of zero tolerance on the streets of good old New York. He runs a special homicide unit - top detectives, fancy computers. I knew him when I was in the FBI.'
     
     
'So he owes you one?'
     
     
'It doesn't matter. Once I present him with that warrant, he's mine. I'll be in touch.'
     
     
Next he phoned Ferguson at the Ministry of Defence in London. As it was eight o'clock in the evening there, he was rerouted to the Cavendish Square flat.
     
     
'You're not going to like this,' he said to Ferguson, and gave him the bad news, including the Sons of Erin background.
     
     
Ferguson said, 'Someone would appear to mean