‘Just give it another forty-eight hours.’
‘No.’
‘This is one of the biggest decisions of your life.’
‘The biggest.’
‘See. You even agree with me. So what the hell difference will it make if you give it forty-eight more hours?’
‘No.’
‘Twenty-four.’
‘That’s too much like a bad movie. “I’m giving you twenty-four hours.”’
‘Jess, c’mon. Get serious here.’
‘I am “serious here,” in case you haven’t figured that out by now.’
‘Twenty-four hours.’
‘I suppose I can do that. But don’t call me unless you have somebody to arrest. And please get out of here now, because you are really pissing me off. You of all people I expect to be my friend and understand why I’ve made this decision.’
I was tempted to touch her in some way. Just a small human sense of contact, of caring. But I knew better.
‘That’s what I’m trying to be, Jess.’ I spoke as quietly as I could. ‘Your friend.’
But then she was crying. And I was leaving.
Twenty-Seven
Just before I slid the card that unlocked the door of my hotel room into the slot I heard a faint sound from inside. Or was it from inside? Though the hotel was new and well constructed, sounds still carried occasionally. Maybe what I heard was from one of the adjoining rooms.
But in case it had come from my room I stopped and put my ear to the door. I heard all those ghost noises from the giant entity that ran the place. Electricity, plumbing, the inner structure itself. Ghost whispers, but audible if you listened for a minute or so.
Ghost whispers but nothing more.
I wished I’d listened longer or listened more competently, because as soon as I stepped inside I faced the same pretty brunette I’d met at Jess’s and who had later followed me. Karen Foster.
She was wearing a fashionable gray business suit with a notched lapel and single button holding it together. The matching pants were flared slightly above gray leather two-inch heels. The small black-framed eyeglasses only enhanced the appeal of her dark eyes.
As a fashion accessory her right hand held a Glock. She kept it pointed directly at my chest. ‘Why don’t you close the door and come in?’
‘Very nice. I assume you have a search warrant.’
‘No, but I can get one in a few minutes if I need one.’
‘Retroactive search warrants. That’s quite a concept.’
She stood close to the end table next to the near end of the couch and carefully placed the Glock on the table.
‘Why don’t you sit down so we can talk?’
What the hell. Between her looks and her manner I was willing to be charmed.
I sat on the couch and she sat in the chair at the small table next to the window.
‘I don’t think Cory Tucker had anything to do with the so-called shooting the other night.’
‘Good for the first part. He didn’t. Not so good for the second part. The “so-called” shooting. We don’t know that yet.’
‘I’m on your side, so you don’t have to keep up the public-relations thing. The shooting was a fake and you know it.’
‘I’m willing to consider it, I guess.’
She nodded. ‘I want to help you find out who set Cory Tucker up.’
‘Why would you want to help me?’
‘I’ll tell you some other time.’
‘Why not now?’
She eased back in her chair and smiled at me. She wasn’t going to explain.
‘Maybe Grimes can help both of us.’
‘How do you know about Grimes?’
‘You led me to him.’
‘I knew you followed me to the Airstream but I didn’t realize you were following me before that.’
‘I changed cars a lot. And if I say so myself, I’m a very good tail.’ Then, ‘I got interested in you the night of the fake shooting. I knew right away that the whole thing was staged — I think a lot of people did. I assumed that since you were the congresswoman’s campaign manager you were in on it. I even thought that maybe you were behind it all. The sympathy vote. Poor little congresswoman and some big, bad assassin. So I started following you. I know about Grimes and his granddaughter, Cindy. I know that you’ve spent some time with them, that is. Unfortunately, I didn’t have Grimes’s house bugged, so I have to ask you what all three of you talked about.’
‘I may tell you later on.’
‘You’re sort of a bastard, aren’t you?’
I needed a cup of coffee and so, it turned out, did she.
There was sufficient in the coffeepot so I popped two cups in the microwave and brought one of them back to her.
‘This could all be a trap.’
‘Of course it could. Showalter could have sent me here to pretend I wanted to help you so you’d tell me everything you know and I’d run back and tell him.’
‘Showalter? If you’re going to help me that means you’re not going to help him.’
‘Let’s just say I don’t think much of him. I’ll tell you why some other time.’
I pretended to enjoy my coffee more than I did. I was trying to puzzle through this pitch she was giving me. She could be an exquisite liar. So good that she was able to make me think that she had some profound hatred for Showalter — just hinting at it, wisely not putting it into words — and thus making me believe her story absolutely.
I thought of a way to test her. ‘Showalter said he got a phone call tipping him to the fact that the rifle was in Cory’s trunk. You have any way of checking if there was such a call?’
‘The desk person that night might know.’
‘Would you check on that?’
‘My Girl Scout leader used to do stuff like this.’
‘Like what?’
‘Give us little tests to see if we were loyal to her. There was this other girl’s mom who wanted to be the leader. So we got all these loyalty tests.’
‘That was pretty heavy stuff for little girls.’
‘Prepared us for the real world. So I don’t mind.’
‘You’re pretty good.’
‘I’m better than “pretty good.”’
‘I’ll bet you are.’ Then, ‘You’ve been here longer than I have. Don’t you think it’s possible that they set this up knowing that it would look as if Jess and I did it and that it would backfire on us? And isn’t Dorsey likely behind it one way or another?’
‘Maybe.’
‘That’s all you’ve got? “Maybe.”’
‘I said maybe because I just don’t know. Not yet.’ Then, ‘Very good coffee, thank you. But now I need to go. I have another appointment.’
‘Wow. That’s kind of abrupt.’
‘Not much I can do about it. I really do have an appointment.’
I walked her to the door. The warmth of her body and the scent of her perfume dragooned me into saying, ‘We could always continue this at dinner. That way you could answer my question about why you want to take Showalter down.’
She wasn’t inclined to change her mind and explain herself. The dark eyes held mine for a long, pleasant moment. ‘How about the main dining room downstairs at seven or so?’
‘Sounds great.’
‘Are you a little bit afraid of me?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good. Because I’m a little bit afraid of you.’
Part Three
Twenty-Eight
I’d planned to catch up on my other races in my room but I was too distracted by the idea of working with Karen Foster to concentrate, so I headed back to the office.
‘Katherine’s in your office,’ Donna said. ‘I told her it would be all right for her to wait for you in there.’