“That would be a lot funnier if I hadn’t heard it before,” Porky replied.
“But then I realized you’re sort of a probationary member of the Merry Outlaws,” Roscoe went on, “so I guess you get a pass. That was J. William ‘Willy the Lion’ Leon. He’s the warden of the ADMAX prison in Colorado.”
“And?”
Roscoe told him what Willy the Lion had told him.
“So what are you going to do?”
Roscoe consulted his cell phone’s address book and dialed a number.
“Roscoe J. Danton of the Times-Post for the attorney general . . .
“Well, I’m sorry he’s not available at the moment. When he becomes available, will you be good enough to tell him I tried to call him before I went on Wolf News to tell J. Pastor Jones’s three million viewers the attorney general’s version of the story I’ve got that he personally just moved a guy doing life without parole in Florence ADMAX for killing three DEA agents to a country club in Texas . . .
“Yeah, I’ll hold for a minute.”
Roscoe met Porky’s eyes.
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Porky grinned knowingly as Roscoe, then said: “And how are you this afternoon, Mr. Attorney General?
“What have I got? I’ll tell you.”
He did so.
“You know I can’t tell you where I got that, Mr. Attorney General. That would be what they call revealing a source. I don’t do that . . .
“Whether you find it hard to believe or not, Mr. Attorney General, I know it’s true. I even have the prisoner’s name. One Félix Abrego . . .
“Will I do you a favor? That depends on the favor . . .
“Yeah, as a favor, you’ve always been straight with me, I can sit on this for a couple of hours—say, until Andy McClarren’s Straight Scoop goes on Wolf News at nine—while you get to the bottom of this. Let me give you my cell phone number.”
He broke the connection and turned to Porky Parker. “Whatever it is, Porky, I just touched a nerve.”
“Do you have to call me ‘Porky’?”
“If I didn’t, I’d have to kill you,” Danton said.
“Oh, shit,” Parker replied.
[FOUR]
1625 18 April 2007
“Warden Leon.”
“This is Stanley Crenshaw, Warden Leon. I’m glad I caught you.”
“You just barely did, Mr. Attorney General. I was about to call it a day.”
“Warden, have you been talking to Roscoe Danton?”
“To who, Mr. Attorney General?”
“Roscoe Danton. Roscoe J. Danton. The Washington Times-Post reporter. The one who’s always on Wolf News.”