“Ouch! As the daughter of a wheat farmer, I know those harvesters. Thank goodness they’re not too maneuverable.”
“Actually, I was six-foot-nine before this one got me.”
“Well, no wonder you look a little peaked.”
Lou loved her laugh.
“Under normal circumstances, I’m a certified, dues-paying nonsleeper,” he said, “but there’s
“I’m working on a pretty endless day, myself. I promise we won’t be long, but I want to hear about everything.”
“Don’t worry about that,” he said. “I’m tough.”
“My daughter, Lisa, is locked into me like a Patriot missile, just like Emily is to you. She has a tougher time getting a read on her father, but as you might have discerned if you’re at all political, not many people do, if any.”
Darlene’s expression was enigmatic, and Lou wondered if the statement was calculated or had just slipped out. He suspected it was spontaneous. This was not a woman who measured her words.
“I vote,” he said. “Does that count as being political?”
“It counts more than everything else put together. Good answer. Hey, Victor, this guy comes as advertised. I like him. Let’s go to Plan B.”
“You got it.”
Keyed by Victor, the window between the front and backseats glided shut. As the Lincoln eased away from the curb, Lou turned to look behind them, but never made it past Darlene. He was stunned to realize that the First Lady was staring at him as well.
She made no attempt to look away.
He could not remember ever being so immediately attracted to a woman who was not Renee, and warned himself to remember he was compromised by stress and exhaustion, and she was more than compromised by the obvious.
He felt a slight burning in his cheeks and suspected he no longer looked pale.
Darlene spoke first. “Do you need anything to drink?” she asked. “Water? Soda?”
“I’m fine, thanks.”
He wondered if she knew that he didn’t drink alcohol. He could see the car had a small well-stocked bar. She could have offered him a cocktail. Victor knew about his boxing. Had she been studying up on other aspects of his life? She said he came as advertised. They had to have done some homework on him.
“Before we begin,” she said, her directness not at all surprising, “You should know, if you don’t already, that my chief of staff and I did a little research on you when I knew we two might meet. Nothing too elaborate-mostly a little background checking, some phone calls, and Google and Yahoo, plus a dab of LexisNexis.”
“You wouldn’t be the first. What did you learn?”
“Let’s see. From several sources, we learned that you don’t get along all that well with the head of the Physician Wellness Office. We also learned that the poor doctor who went crazy in Virginia was back at work because you felt he was ready.”
“That about summarizes it. Anything else?”
“From Google, I learned that you dug yourself out of a hell of a hole about nine years ago, and have helped a lot of other troubled doctors over the years since then. From Google Images, I learned that you don’t photograph well and that your eyes are your best feature.”
“My dentist, Dr. Moskowitz would say it was my teeth, except he worries that I grind when smart, terrific- looking women say nice things to me.”
“Thanks. Are you grinding now?”
“Down to the nubs.”
That smile.
“I won’t say stuff like that again, Lou,” she said. “Sorry. I can be a little flip and flirty at times, and I have a tendency I’m not proud of to fish for compliments.”
“Not to worry, I have dental insurance. So … you checked me out, you emailed me, I’m here. What can I do for you?”
“Well, first of all, I wasn’t the one who emailed you.”
“No?”
“It was a man my chief of staff, Kim Hajjar, and I call Double M. It’s short for
“And who is your mysterious Double M?” Lou asked. “And more importantly, what’s his connection to Kings Ridge, Virginia?”
“Believe it or not, I don’t know. Our guy is either extremely cautious or absolutely paranoid. He has made it clear to me that his life may be in danger if his identity becomes known. He contacted me because of my friendship with Russell Evans-”
“The Secretary of Agriculture?”
“Former. He and I played in the Kansas dirt together when we were children. It was through me that he became friends with Martin. I’m sure you heard about the scandal involving him and a young woman, and his subsequent resignation.”
“Of course. I’m glad to hear that he’s not guilty, but I tend not to judge people, so I hadn’t formed any opinion.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. Double M wants me to convince my husband to reinstate Russ and get him back to work. He said the secretary was framed because of certain of his policies, but he didn’t say which ones.”
“Do you have any thoughts about that? I had heard that the FDA and the Department of Agriculture were at war over lots of things.”
“Because the food manufacturers don’t have to tell people precisely what goes into the food they’re eating. For example, the way the current legislation is set up, most products that are GMOs are exempt from the label saying they’re a genetically modified product. Their argument is that foods developed using new genetic methods don’t differ from the real-deal foods in any meaningful way. For instance, cows that are fed on GMO grain-are they GMO cows or not? The problem is that the government hasn’t made it clear who is in charge of what.”
“Go on.”
“I’ve recently been given new information from Double M. It’s that information I’ve come here to discuss with you.”
“Do you trust him?”
Darlene sighed. “Alas, my best quality and worst shortcoming are the same. I trust everyone-at least until they’ve given me serious reason not to.”
“In that case, I can’t think of a worse game for you to be in than politics,” Lou said.
“Amen to that. But don’t forget, I didn’t choose politics. I chose Martin.”
“I voted for your husband,” Lou said, “partly because I have the same problem you do with trust, and I read more about you as a doc than I did about him as a politician.”
“Well, then, you’ll want to listen to this.”
Victor continued driving as Darlene handed Lou an envelope containing the materials Double M had compiled regarding the call girl he knew only as Margo. Using a set of headphones Darlene provided, Lou listened to the audio of the girl prepping to entrap Russell Evans and being obliquely threatened should she fail to perform up to expectations.
“The man’s voice, whoever it is, is digitally altered,” Lou said, pulling the headphones away as if they were burning his ears. “Whoever your Double M is, he is an expert in electronics or has one on his payroll.”
For a time, they rode on in silence.
