Chapter 10
Pasadena, California
For all his power, Judge Daniel Holt was a curiously solitary man. He chalked it up to being too intimidating to others. That was their problem, not his. A perk of being a judge for the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals was to have his pronouncements, both public and private, obeyed without question.
It was evening as he left his office in the Federal Courthouse, a tall building with a Spanish-colonial zigzag tiled dome, and headed for his personal parking space. His cell phone began to vibrate.
He wondered if his daughter was calling again. Kira had already tried to reach him a couple of times that day. She knew he didn’t take personal calls at work. He would return her call tonight from home when he felt like talking to her. He found her impatienc
