“What would you do?”
“I’d talk to him. Ask him why he did it. See what he says. See if I believed him. If he gave me a line of bullshit, I’d forget him. But if he seemed honest, I’d try to make some kind of sense of the whole incident.”
“I have to call him anyway,” Judy said. “He still hasn’t sent me that list.”
“So call. Get the list. Then ask him what he thinks he’s doing. You’re feeling embarrassed, but he has something to apologize for, too.”
“I guess you’re right.”
It was not yet eight o’clock, but they were both in a hurry to get to work. Judy paid the check, and they went out to their cars. “Boy,” Judy said, “I’m beginning to feel better about this. Thank you.”
Ginny shrugged. “What are girlfriends for? Let me know what he says.”
Judy got into her car and dialed Michael’s number. She was afraid he might be asleep and she would find herself talking to him while he was in bed with his wife. However, his voice sounded alert, as if he had been up for a while. “I’m sorry about your door,” she said.
“Why did you do it?” He sounded more curious than angry.
“I couldn’t understand why you didn’t answer. Then I heard a scream. I thought you must be in some kind of trouble.”
“What brought you here so late?”
“You didn’t send me that list of earthquake sites.”
“Oh, that’s right! It’s on my desk. I just forgot. I’ll fax it now.”
“Thanks.” She gave him the fax number of the new emergency operations center. “Michael, there’s something I have to ask you.” She took a deep breath. Asking this question was harder than she had anticipated. She was no shrinking violet, but she was not as brash as Ginny. She swallowed and said: “You gave me the impression you were growing fond of me. Why did you sleep with your wife?” There. It was out.
At the other end of the line there was a long silence. Then he said: “This is not a good time.”
“Okay.” She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice.
“I’ll send that list right away.”
“Thanks.”
She hung up and started the engine. Ginny’s idea had not been so great after all. It took two to talk, and Michael was not willing.
When she reached the officers’ club, Michael’s fax was waiting for her. She showed it to Carl Theobald. “We need surveillance teams at each of these locations, watching out for a seismic vibrator,” she said. “I was hoping to use the police, but I don’t think we can. They might talk. And if local people find out that we think they’re a target, they’ll panic. So we have to use FBI personnel.”
“Okay.” Carl frowned at the sheet. “You know, these locations are awful big. One team can’t really watch an area a mile square. Should we put on multiple teams? Or could your seismologist narrow it down?”
“I’ll ask him.” Judy picked up the phone and dialed Michael again. “Thanks for the fax,” she said. She explained the problem.
“I’d have to visit the sites myself,” he said. “Signs of earlier earthquake activity, such as dried-up streambeds or fault scarp, would give me a more precise fix.”
“Would you do that today?” she said immediately. “I can take you to all the locations in an FBI helicopter.”
“Uh … sure, I guess,” he said. “I mean, of course I will.”
“You could be saving lives.”
“Exactly.”
“Can you find your way to the officers’ club in the Presidio?”
“Sure.”
“By the time you get here, the chopper will be waiting.”
“Okay.”
“I appreciate this, Michael.”
“You’re welcome.”
She hung up.
It was a long day. Judy, Michael, and Carl Theobald covered a thousand miles in the helicopter. By nightfall they had set up round-the-clock surveillance at the five locations on Michael’s list.
They returned to the Presidio. The helicopter landed on the deserted parade ground. The base was a ghost town, with its moldering office buildings and rows of vacant houses.
Judy had to go into the emergency operations center and report to a big shot from FBI headquarters in Washington who had shown up at nine o’clock that morning with a take-charge air. But first she walked Michael to his car in the darkened parking lot. “What if they slip through the surveillance?” she said.
“I thought your people were good.”
“They’re the best. But what if? Is there some way I can get notified real fast if there’s a tremor anywhere in California?”
“Sure,” he said. “I could set up on-line seismography right here at your command post. I just need a computer and an ISDN phone line.”
“No problem. Would you do it tomorrow?”
“Okay. That way, you’ll know immediately if they start the seismic vibrator someplace that’s not on the list.”
“Is that likely?”
“I don’t think so. If their seismologist is competent, he’ll pick the same places I picked. And if he’s incompetent, they probably won’t be able to trigger an earthquake.”
“Good,” she said. “Good.” She would remember that. She could tell the Washington big shot that she had the crisis under control.
She looked up at Michael’s shadowed face. “Why did you sleep with your wife?”
“I’ve been thinking about that all day.”
“Me, too.”
“I guess I owe you some kind of explanation.”
“I think so.”
“Until yesterday I was sure it was over. Then, last night, she reminded me of the things that had been good about our marriage. She was beautiful, fun, affectionate, and sexy. More important, she made me forget all the things that were bad.”
“Such as?”
He sighed. “I think Melanie is drawn to authority figures. I was her professor. She wants the security of being told what to do. I expected an equal partner, someone who would share decisions and take responsibility. She resented that.”
“I get the picture.”
“And there’s something else. Deep down, she’s mad as hell at the whole world. Most of the time she hides it, but when she’s frustrated she can be violent. She would throw things at me, heavy things, like a casserole dish one time. She never hurt me, she’s just not strong enough, though if there was a gun in the house, I’d be scared. But that level of hostility is hard to live with.”
“And last night …?”
“I forgot all that. She seemed to want to try again, and I thought maybe we should, for Dusty’s sake. Plus …”
She wished she could read his expression, but it was too dark. “What?”
“I want to tell you the truth, Judy, even though you’ll be offended by it. So I have to admit that it wasn’t as rational and decent as I’m pretending. Part of it was that she’s a beautiful woman and I wanted to fuck her. Now I’ve said it.”
She smiled in the dark. Ginny had been half-right, anyway. “I knew that,” she said. “But I’m glad you told me. Good night.” She walked away.
