Ill-Gotten Games Read Online Free

in why we’re playing this game to begin with.”
    “If you play the game right, you’ll find out. As a matter of fact, I’m counting on it.”
    Truitt hung up again, and Drayco sighed to himself. “Very well, Truitt. On with the show.”
    Since the clues were coming at one-hour intervals, it was time to check e-mail again. And there it was, quatrain number three.
    By surging into World War One,
    And waiting ’til the battle’s done,
    He helped the Allies to squeak by,
    And formed the Treaty of Versailles.
    So much for the physics theory. Or as far as Drayco could recall, President Woodrow Wilson didn’t have a science degree. There weren’t many Wilson monuments in D.C., though that would fit Truitt’s pattern. One possibility was Woodrow Wilson High School, but if he were Truitt, he wouldn’t have picked that site—too many curious kids with their cell phone cameras. Bury it there, and you’d end up on YouTube the next morning. Likewise, the Wilson Bridge with thousands of cars, bad choice. But there was the Wilson House Museum.
    He found parking as fast as he could and raced toward the museum, wondering how to inconspicuously look for holes in the yard. He didn’t have time to take the docent-led tour, but was in luck—a group of twenty or so tourists were heading back to the gardens.
    Making his way through the adjoining yard, he joined the group, lagging a little behind. It wasn’t a large yard, and he found what he was looking for easily. Behind a retaining wall, under the boughs of a tree, lay the cylindrical hole. It was newly dug, empty of water.
    Drayco smiled disarmingly at his new tour mates as they glanced over at him in confusion, saying to them with a wink, “Great tour, huh?” He followed them back through the house and out the front. By the time he reached his car it was noon, and he knew he should call Baskin again, but what did he have to impart? “Well, Benny, I have some nice holes to show you and I’ll throw in a few bad poems for good measure.”
    Just yesterday, he’d observed the normally über-confident attorney grinding his jaw back and forth, the only way to tell he was nervous. “This is one hell of a case, Drayco. I can handle the pressure, but Odom Senior’s a real piece of work. He’s playing nice publicly but let it be known through certain channels if his son’s arrested, he’ll make those associated with the case pay—witnesses, me, you.”
    “You’ve been threatened before. So have I. Comes with the territory.”
    “But my daughter just gave me a new grandson. Odom’s got a lot of connections and I don’t know how far he’d go.” Baskin sighed. “Right now, doesn’t look like his hit list will be necessary.”
    Drayco tried to reassure him they’d come up with something. Of course, he didn’t have Truitt’s wild-verse-chase in mind. Grateful for the protein-crammed omelet he’d allowed himself this morning, he stopped briefly at Murky’s for a large cup of black coffee, which would have to suffice as lunch.
    Ten minutes later and he was outside the courtroom as the spectators started streaming out. The prosecutor, Taynter, breezed by Drayco without so much as a glance. Drayco poked his head in the doorway and moved back to prevent being steamrolled by a grim-faced dynamo, black clouds hovering over his head. Drayco held out an arm to stop him. “Here you go, Benny.”
    Baskin took the proffered cup of coffee and shot Drayco the look of a drowning man thrown a life ring. “Okay, so you bought yourself a few brownie points, kid.”
    Drayco held out another hand, which held a paper bag. Baskin stared at it, his eyes lighting up. “Red velvet cupcake?”
    Drayco nodded and Baskin snatched the bag from his hand. “And here I was thinking it was peanut M&Ms from the vending machine again.”
    Baskin started shuffling down the hallway in his customary penguin walk, amazingly fast for someone of his stature, and waved for Drayco to follow. They ended up