“I told him to get out of the service, of course.”
“What would you tell him now?”
“The same thing, Elizabeth. The same thing I’m telling you. The Cold War is over. We won it. There’s no compelling reason any longer to maintain such a large intelligence service.”
Elizabeth wanted to hate her mother, but she could not. She couldn’t even feel sorry for her, because from her mother’s point she was correct. She decided not to say anything about Grandma and Grandpa.
“Until last year your father was involved with a woman here in Washington. She’s a lobbyist for the airline industry. Her name is Dominique Kilbourne. She might know something.”
“Was she involved with Daddy’s last assignment?”
“I believe so.”
“Will she know who I am?”
Kathleen smiled. “I can’t imagine your father not talking about you.”
“One more favor, Mother,” Elizabeth said. “I’d like to borrow one of your credit cards for awhile. I want to get to Paris without leaving a track.”
Kathleen hesitated.
“I’ll pay you back, Mother, I promise.”
“Of course I’ll give you one of my credit cards. It’s not that, darling. You’re my only child and I want you to be safe.”
“None of us are safe, Mother.”
“Your father says that.”
“I know,” Elizabeth said.
Elizabeth called the reference desk at the public library from a pay phone and had the woman look up the address of Dominique Kilbourne’s office in the list of registered lobbyists. It turned out to be an entire floor of a solid five story building off Thomas Circle, a few blocks from the Russian Embassy.
It was past 11:30 A.M.” by the time she presented herself to the receptionist.
“Do you have an appointment?” the woman asked.
“No. But I just need a few minutes of her time. It’s important.”
“I’m sorry, but Ms. Kilbourne’s schedule is completely full today and for the remainder of the week.” The secretary touched a few keys on her computer. “I can fit you in next week. Wednesday at two in the afternoon.”
“Tell Ms. Kilbourne that Elizabeth McGarvey is here.”
Something crossed the secretary’s expression. “Just a moment, please,” she said, and she got up and went inside.
Elizabeth stepped around the desk so that she could read the computer screen. Dominique Kilbourne’s schedule was tight. She was scheduled to be at lunch with a congressional group at the Senate dining room in twenty-five minutes.
The receptionist returned a minute later. “She’ll see you now. It’s the last door at the end of the hall.”
Elizabeth didn’t know what to expect, but she wasn’t disappointed. Dominique Kilbourne was pretty, with a pleasantly narrow face, short dark hair, coal-black eyes and a slight figure. She looked like a decisive, take charge woman.
“Thank you for agreeing to see me, Ms. Kilbourne,” Elizabeth said.
Dominique motioned her to a seat in front of a starkly modern brass and glass desk. The office was of moderate size, “but extremely well furnished, with a couple of Picasso prints on the walls, a large luxurious oriental rug on a marble tiled floor, and large windows with a good view toward the White House. “You come as something of a surprise.”
“I’m trying to locate my father. My mother thought you might know where he is.”
Dominique stiffened. “The last I heard your father was going to Paris. That was more than a year ago. Beyond that I can’t help you, or your mother.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to have it come out like that. This has nothing to do with my mother. I simply want to find my father, and I was hoping that you might know something.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. McGarvey, I don’t,” Dominique said. She picked up her telephone. “Sandy, get me a cab, please. I’ll be leaving in a minute or two.” “Ms. Kilbourne, I work for the Central Intelligence Agency. I think I could get an FBI Counterespionage unit down here to bring you in for questioning about a national security matter.”
“Go ahead,” Dominique said, unperturbed, hanging up.
“I work for Mr. Ryan, and I think he could pull a few strings.”
“Howard Ryan is an ungrateful son of a bitch whose life your father saved,” Dominique blurted angrily. “I was there, I saw it. So you can go back to Langley and tell him that if he wants to find Kirk McGarvey he can do it on his own. I certainly won’t help him. Or you.”
Elizabeth was a little embarrassed, but she didn’t let it show. “I don’t know why I should be surprised by your reaction, Ms. Kilbourne. My father has terrible luck with women, but the ones he’s attracted to are as strong willed as they are beautiful.”
I “Thank you for the compliment, if that’s what it is, but I still can’t help you,” Dominique said coolly. “Now if you’ll excuse me I have a luncheon appointment.”
Elizabeth glanced at the wall clock. “You have fifteen minutes to get to the Senate dining room, so you should have Sandy call over there and tell them you’ll be late for lunch because something else has come up. It’s a family emergency.”
“Get out of here.”
“You’re going to help me find my father for the same reasons I have to find him before Ryan does. You’re in love with him, or at least you were.”
Elizabeth had been guessing, but Dominique reacted as if she’d been shot, some of the light fading from her eyes. “My father has a habit of walking out on the people he loves most, not because he wants to be mean, but because he wants to protect us. “Being around him can be dangerous.”
“You’re telling me.”
“This time his life is on the line. I have some information that he has to have. Without it he could be walking into a trap.”
“Your father is an amazing man,” Dominique said.
“Yes, he is, Ms. Kilbourne,” Elizabeth said. “But he’s just that. Only a man. Will you help me?”
Dominique thought a moment, then picked up the phone again. “Sandy, cancel that cab. Then call Senator Dobson and give him my apologies, but I won’t be able to have lunch with him today. See if we can reschedule for later in the week.” Dominique looked at Elizabeth. “Everything is fine. But cancel my appointments for the remainder of the afternoon as well.”
“All that isn’t necessary,” Elizabeth said when Dominique hung up. “I don’t need your entire afternoon.”
“I do,” Dominique said bitterly. She went to a sideboard where she opened a bottle of white wine from a small refrigerator, poured two glasses, and brought them back.
“Thank you, Ms. Kilbourne,” Elizabeth said, taking one of the glasses.
“We better start using first names, otherwise it’s going to become awkward,” Dominique said. She gave Elizabeth a bleak look. “I can see a lot of your father in your face, and in your voice. But I thought you were working for the United Nations.”
“I just started with the Company about six months ago. My father doesn’t know yet.”
Dominique managed a faint smile. “I have a feeling he’ll go through the roof when he does find out.”
Elizabeth couldn’t help but laugh. “I think you’re right. But first I have to find him.”
Dominique’s face had sagged, but she picked herself up. “Your father hurt me very much.”
“I’m sorry.”
Dominique waved her off. “It has nothing to do with you, except that he said the same thing to me last year that you just said. Being around him is dangerous. There are a lot of people from his past who could be gunning for him. There are a lot of old grudges on both sides of the Atlantic. Now you.”
“Have you heard from him in the past year?”
“No.”
“That’s not like him.”
