He rolled the Porsche out of the garage, yawned, headed through the quiet city streets out to I-35Every, the car's exhaust burbling along, north to the Capitol. When he got there, he took a lap around it, to see what was going on, if anything. A speaker's shell had been set up on the Capitol lawn, for an antiwar rally later in the day. A few people in message T-shirts were wandering around, two of them smoking, and a kid was going through a garbage can, looking for something to eat. He drove back up the hill, parked in the state garage behind the Capitol and walked down to the building, flashed his ID at a Capitol guard, and continued up to Mitford's broom closet office. He knocked, tried the door, but it was locked, and he heard Mitford call, "Hang on."
"It's Lucas."
Mitford came to the door buttoning his pants, the belt undone. He was in a day-old undershirt and stocking feet, unshaven, beat up. He said, "Come on in," his voice creaking. He looked up and down the hall, then closed the door and locked it. A blanket lay on the floor next to the couch; he'd been asleep. "Got a big problem," he said.
Lucas nodded: "Yeah, I guess. It's not even six o'clock."
"I've been up all night'" Mitford walked around his desk and sprawled in his chair, pointed Lucas at the visitor's chair. "A hurricane is coming into New Orleans, probably going to flatten the place again. McCain may not come, the president and vice president have canceled, the whole thing is going up in smoke."
"Plus they're already pissed at your boss."
"There's that, but that's a good thing," Mitford said.
"So…"
"So three people got robbed at gunpoint in the High Hat last night," he said. "One of them's still in the hospital, one's a woman, she's still freaking out because the robbers threatened to take her with them, supposedly to gang-bang. The Minneapolis cops have all the information, but I want you to talk to them."
"How much did they get?" Lucas asked.
Mitford held up a finger. "They were violent, intimidating. Hats and masks and gloves. One white guy, one black, one undetermined- the white guy had swastikas tattooed on his wrists. In and out, and gone."
"How much?"
"Not much ' a few hundred dollars ' four-fifty, maybe."
Lucas waited for the rest of it. Mitford didn't call him in for a four-hundred-and-fifty-dollar armed robbery.
Mitford didn't get the reaction he expected, so he said, "Listen, you've been around. Political campaigns take all kinds of donations. Some of them, people don't want to know about. They tend to be in cash, for street-workers, canvassers…"
"Vote buyers…"
"Whatever," Mitford said. "But we don't really buy votes-it'd cost too much."
"How much?"
"I'm not sure exactly," he said. "I'd guess ' a million-two? A million-five? Depending on how much they'd already moved."
"In cash?"
"Mmm'"
"Small, used, unmarked bills?" Lucas asked. Of course they would be.
"Mmm. In Philly they call it street money."
"So what's the problem? Put the cops on it," Lucas said. "Hell, it's a bunch of Republicans. If the news leaks…"
"Nice thought, but I'm afraid that some of the people with, you know, this kind of cash, uh, might have been in Denver a couple weeks ago," Mitford said. The Democratic convention had been in Denver.
"Ah, man."
"And these guys can't really talk about it," Mitford said. He was all but wringing his hands. "Somebody, you know, could point out that moving this much money around might constitute some kind of infraction."
"Infraction? They'd be on their way to Club Fed if the word got out," Lucas said.
"Maybe. So they won't complain, they won't talk, they won't say anything to anybody they haven't been ' reassured about," Mitford said. "They filed robbery reports to cover themselves with their bosses, so nobody would think they skipped with the cash. One of the guys really got the shit beat out of him. But they won't talk."
"So, if they won't complain ' that's life," Lucas said.
"The problem is, there's probably twenty guys like this in town," Mitford said. "The robbers knew exactly where to hit, where to go ' one of them was wearing a High Hat room-service uniform."
"You think they'll do more?"
"Why not? If you've got the information, it's easy pickings," Mitford said. "These guys are like accountants, pencil-necked geeks with sugar money, ethanol money, oil money, automobile money, union money ' they don't know from robbery. They've got no security, because they can't afford to have other people know what they're doing. But these robbers, man-they're crazy. They must be coked up, cranked up, something. They beat the shit out of this one guy."
"Could be a technique," Lucas suggested.
"Yeah?" Mitford was interested.
"Get on top of people, intimidate them, scare them so bad that they won't resist," Lucas said. "Pro robbers'll do that, get on top and stay on top. Of course, some of them just like to hurt people."
"Can you take a look at it?"
Lucas shrugged. "Sure, I'll take a look. But I'm not going to jail. If somebody mentions big money, I'll make a note."
Mitford sighed and shook his head, turning, and looked at a blank wall, where, in most offices, there'd be a window. "When we went with you, there was an argument. We knew you were flexible, because you've always operated that way. But you've got so goddamn much money, the question was, were you flexible enough? Some guys, most guys, can't tell us to go fuck ourselves."
"I'm not telling you to go fuck yourself," Lucas said. "I can call you a confidential informant, that doesn't bother me. But I'm not a cover-up guy. There might come a time when I've got to go public with it. But not necessarily…"
"Not necessarily…" Mitford gnawed at a fingernail, spit a piece of nail at his wastebasket. "Well' take it easy. If you really get in a crack, and have to make a record, let me know ahead of time. Let me get a jump on the PR. But I'll tell you, I know for sure that none of these people will admit that they had the cash."
"So why do anything?"' Lucas asked. "Why not call it a day and go home?"
"Because they're some of us," Mitford said. He patted himself on the chest. "Us political guys. We're like cops. Everybody hates us, so we've got to take care of each other. And I really don't want to see anybody get killed by these assholes."
"If I get them, if there's a trial'"
"I'll worry about that when I get to it," Mitford said. "Prosecutors are politicians-plea bargains are out there, things can be done. But right now, Lucas: stop them."
Lucas just looked at him for a moment.
Mitford pushed some paper across his desk. "Names, room numbers, cell phones. Please?"
"I'll take a look," he said.
"And ' one more thing," Mitford said. "Keep it to yourself? Much as you can?"
Lucas went back home, got undressed, crawled into bed, and went back to sleep. He woke again when Weather got up. She pulled a drape halfway back, and a shaft of sunlight cut across the room. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Need to talk," he said, rolling onto his back.
"Uh-oh. What happened?"
"Get cleaned up, then I'll come brush my teeth and we can get some coffee."
Seven o'clock, and quiet, though they'd all be up soon enough. Weather usually got up at five-fifteen on weekdays, and was at the hospital by a little after six: sleeping to seven o'clock was a weekly treat. Lucas rarely got up before nine o'clock, rarely went back to bed before 1:30 or two o'clock. He got up with her Sunday so they could get an hour together with a little quiet.