“I think you have your ass in a crack,” I said.
Stratton laughed professionally. But his eyes seemed very small and cold and flat, like the eyes of some small predator. He put his scotch down carefully.
“You got to be kidding, my friend. You have got to be kidding. I have been in some tight places before, and I know a tight place when I see one. I mean, I’ve been a United States Senator for twenty-three years, and let me tell you something, I have faced down some hard moments.”
“You sicked the Alton County Sheriff on me,” I said.
Stratton started to speak and then stopped and sat back in his chair and stared at me.
“And a couple of ex-federal shooflys,” I said. “And one of them hit me on the knee with a stick, and it’s still sore. And you either tell me what your interest in the Olivia Nelson case is, or I am going to raise a great ruckus.”
Stratton didn’t move. I waited. A broad, charming smile spread across Stratton’s face. He let it rest there for a while for full effect.
“Well, by God, I guess my ass is in a crack, isn’t it?” he said. “They were right about you; you are a guy doesn’t miss a trick. Not a damned trick.”
He laughed and shook his head. The waiter came over and asked if we’d care yet to order. Without looking at him, Stratton said, “Shrimp cocktail, steak rare, fries, a salad, house dressing.”
“Very good, sir,” the waiter said.
He turned to me. I ordered a chicken sandwich and a fresh beer.
“Would you care for another drink, Senator?” the waiter asked Stratton. Stratton shook his head and made a dismissive gesture with his hand. The waiter departed.
Stratton folded his hands and rested them on the edge of the table. He examined them for a moment after the waiter left. Then he raised his eyes and looked steadily at me, his face a mask of sincerity.
“Okay,” he said. “Here’s the deal. I was, ah…” He looked back at his knuckles. “I was…” He grinned at me, still sincere, but now a little roguish too. “I was fucking Olivia Nelson.”
“How nice for her,” I said.
“This is off the record, of course,” Stratton said.
“Of course,” I said.
“I got to know her at a few fund-raisers. Her husband’s one of those Beacon Hill old money liberals, and one thing led to another, and we were in the sack.”
Stratton winked at me.
“You know how those things go,” he said.
“No,” I said. “How?”
“Well, tell you the truth, it wasn’t even my idea, I mean, Livvie was a hot item,” Stratton said.
He leaned across the table toward me now, a couple of good old boys talking about conquests.
“You know there was the official versiongreat wife, perfect mother, charity, teaching, patron of the arts, all that public consumption bullshit. And Loudon, the poor, dumb bastard, probably believed it. He was one of those my- wife-this, my-wife-that guys, you know. Didn’t have a clue, the dumb bastard. And every time there’d be a party or something, she’d pick out some guest and…” Stratton shrugged and spread his hands slightly.
“She was promiscuous,” I said.
“The queen of the star fuckers,” Stratton said. “You haven’t had Livvie Nelson’s pants off, you simply aren’t important in this town.”
“Always stars?” I said.
“Sure, it was like belonging to an exclusive club; you fucked Livvie Nelson, you knew you’d made it,” Stratton said.
Was it a long affair?“
“Not really an affair. It was great for a guy like me, just wham bam, thank you, ma’am. Usually she’d come to my office, when I was here in town. Very discreet. Nothing in public.”
Stratton grinned at me again. “I’m a married man,” he said.
“I could tell,” I said.
He shrugged and grinned at me further.
“And you were afraid,” I said, “that my investigation would turn up this connection?”
“Exactly, my friend. Exactly right. At first, we thought you’d just go through the motions and take Loudon’s money-he’s got plenty. But then you went down there and we realized you were serious. And we figured maybe we lean on you down there, away from me, so there’d be no way to connect me to it, and off your home turf, you know, so you’d be a little more vulnerable? And we have a good friend in South Carolina, and he’s holding some markers on the Alton County Sheriff…” He spread his hands again. “It’s how things work.”
“Who’s the we?” I said.
“We? Oh, myself and my staff.”
“So you went to all that trouble to keep me from finding out about you and Olivia Nelson.”
“Yes. I told you, we had you checked out. We didn’t like what we heard. You seemed to us like trouble and we
