Pannick tried to defend himself by saying everybody in the system took money. North cut him off. A corrupt crowd, he said, does not make a man less guilty.
Then he offered the investigator a way to stay alive. Pannick would walk into the prosecutor’s office and confess. He would hand over every scheme, every payoff, and every name tied to Victor Grayson.
The next day, shaking badly, Pannick delivered a thirty-two-page statement naming names and listing amounts. In exchange for cooperating, he later received six years.
Now Grayson’s immunity and political protection were hanging by a thread. The commissioner sat in his wooded estate surrounded by armed guards and expensive security systems. He drank too much and watched the walls of his empire begin to crack.
He understood that if North truly wanted him, motion sensors and hired men would not be enough. Then his phone rang, and North’s calm voice came through the line.
He told Grayson to come outside alone and have a serious conversation. Grayson tried to threaten him, but even he could hear how weak it sounded.
Shaken, he ordered his guards to stay put and stepped out onto the front walk. North stood near an old pine tree, alone, unarmed, and perfectly still.
He reminded Grayson about the old veteran he had ordered beaten over a piece of lakeside property. Grayson shouted back that North had no moral standing to lecture anyone. He was a criminal himself.
North said that was true enough. He had done plenty wrong. But he had never beaten defenseless old men or humiliated the weak.
Then he dropped copies of the signed confessions at Grayson’s feet. He told him there would be a public case, press coverage, and prison time. Then he turned and disappeared into the dark trees…
