“Hey, this all probably happened ten years ago. It didn’t occur on our watch,” Berman said.
“Gee, Lou, that’ll go over real big with John Q. Public. All of your butts are on the line here and you know it.”
Masters banged his fist down on the table. “Do you realize what would happen if it becomes public that the lottery was fixed?” Masters said hotly. “Can you imagine the lawsuits, the investigations, the scandals, the blow it would give the old U.S. of A. right in the gut? It would almost be like the country defaulting on its debt. It cannot be allowed to happen. It will not be allowed to happen.”
“So what’s your suggestion, George?”
Masters rapidly calmed down and ticked off the points with his fingers. “You bring in Tyler. We question her, we get her cooperation. With that information in hand we bring in the people—”
“Person, George,” Riggs interrupted. “There’s just one of him, but let me tell you, he’s a very special one.”
“Okay, so with Tyler’s help we nail him.”
“And what happens to LuAnn Tyler?”
Masters spread his hands helplessly. “Come on, Matt, she’s got a state murder warrant out. She hasn’t paid taxes for almost a decade. I have to assume she was in on the lottery scam. That all adds up to a few lifetimes in prison, but I’ll settle for just one, maybe half of one if she’s real cooperative, but I can’t guarantee it.”
Riggs stood up. “Well, guys, it was nice talking to you.”
Berman was up in an instant and he slid over to the door, blocking Riggs’s exit.
“Lou, I’ve still got one good arm, and the fist attached to it is just itching like hell to plant one right across your face.” Riggs started to advance menacingly toward the door.
“Wait a minute, just hold it. Both of you sit down,” Masters bellowed.
Riggs and Berman engaged in a suitably lengthy stare-down and then slowly returned to their seats.
Riggs stared over at Masters. “If you think the woman’s going to waltz in here so she can risk her life in order to bring this guy down and then be rewarded by spending the rest of her life in prison, then you’ve hung around the Bureau too long, George. Your brains are gone.”
Riggs pointed a finger at him. “Let me fill you in on something. It’s the game of life and it’s called ‘who’s got the leverage.’ You call up the state of Georgia and tell them that LuAnn Tyler is no longer wanted for murder there, or for anything else. If she’s got a friggin’ parking ticket outstanding, then it’s wiped out. You understand me? Squeaky clean. Then you call up the IRS and you tell them that she’ll pay what she owes, but they can forget jail time. As far as being involved in any lottery scam, if the statute of limitations hasn’t already expired, then that goes away too. The tiniest infraction that could possibly put her in jail for even a second gets blotted out. Gone. She’s a free person.”
“Are you nuts?” Berman said.
“Or?” Masters said quietly, his eyes fixed on Riggs.
“Or, we go public with everything, George. What does she have to lose? If she’s going to go to prison for life, then she’s going to have to have some hobbies to fill up her days. I’m thinking appearances on Sixty Minutes, Dateline, Prime Time Live, maybe even Oprah. A book deal would probably be in the cards too. She can just talk her little heart out about the lottery being fixed, how the president and the A.G. and the FBI director wanted to cover it all up to save their jobs and how they were stupid enough to let a master criminal who’s been wreaking worldwide havoc for years walk away so they could put a young woman who grew up dirt-poor in prison for doing something all of us would’ve done in an instant!”
Riggs sat back and looked at both men. “That, gentlemen, is what I mean by leverage.”
While Masters considered this, Berman snorted. “One guy? I don’t believe that. We’re looking at a big organization. No way could one person do all the stuff I’ve been seeing on my radar screen. We haven’t been able to prove anything, but we know there are multiple players.”