And that was before he received the anonymously delivered manila envelope bearing the photos of him and- that woman. In the teddy. Whoever she was. Thank goodness Jones hadn’t been around to receive the mail. Didn’t matter who the envelope was addressed to. He would’ve opened it just because it was marked PRIVATE and underlined twice. The pictures looked so…incriminating. What would happen if Christina saw them? How could he prevent her from seeing them? If she did, it would all be over, that much was certain. He would never be able to talk his way out of that one.
He hadn’t seen her in so long and missed her so much. Jones told him she was planning to go home tonight, so he had hoped that maybe, if he did everything right, there was still some small possibility…
He picked up the picture of her he kept on the coffee table so he could see it wherever he was in the room. It was taken on their wedding day, on the steps of the Supreme Court building, just after the disastrous “you may kiss the bride” incident. He cringed just thinking about it. What on earth had she ever seen in him? How could he think there was anything he could do to change her mind? Him, the loser who couldn’t even manage to get her away for a honeymoon.
It was hopeless. Christina had every right to be ticked off at him and she wasn’t going to stop being ticked off at him until “That you, handsome?”
Ben started. He rose to his feet. “Hello?” He paused another moment. “Christina? Is that you?”
She stepped slowly out of the bedroom wearing a shimmering blue full-length nightgown. “Who’d you think it might be? Your girlfriend in the black teddy?”
Jeez Louise. “Christina, you have to believe me. I don’t know who she was. She just-appeared. I did not have…anything with that woman. I promise you that-”
“I know, Ben.”
“Seriously, I never even-” He stopped short. “You know?”
“Of course I know.”
“How could you possibly know?”
“Because I know you.” She came closer. Standing before the window, he could drink in the entire lovely picture. The blue was perfectly matched to her eyes, just barely revealing the shoulders he loved so well…
She saw the roses on the counter and picked them up. “These for anyone in particular?”
“Huh? Oh!” Ben snapped to attention. “Those are for you. I mean, obviously they’re for you. Who else would they be for?”
“And the chocolates?”
“And the card. And the, um, Kisses.”
“Mmm,” she said, licking her lips. “No puppy?”
“Well, I didn’t-” He halted himself again. “You really do know me, don’t you?”
“Uh-huh. Like my nightie?”
Ben suddenly felt very hot under the collar. “Um, uh, yeahhhh…”
“I bought it for our honeymoon, but-”
“I am so sorry. I’ve told you-”
“Shhh.” She placed a finger against his lips. “No need. It’ll work tonight just as well.”
“It will?”
She drew him very close to her. “It will.” She leaned forward and kissed him on the neck.
“Uh, Christina,” he said, trying very hard to think about…something other than the obvious.
“Mmm,” she said, still kissing.
“All this stuff. The flowers and candy and…”
“Mmm.” Her left hand was unbuttoning his shirt.
“I-I need your help.”
“I know.”
“There-there are three senators who have put a-a legislative hold on-”
“Dawkins, Stringer, and Reneau.”
“You already know?”
“Yup.”
“How?”
She lifted her face from his chest only for a moment. “Ben, darling. Haven’t you noticed? I’m the best.” She resumed kissing.
Ben tried to keep his mind on the current political crisis, but it was becoming increasingly impossible. “Do you-d-do you think there’s any way we can get those names out? Like, um…”
“A front page article in The Washington Post?”
“Uhh…that would work.”
He could feel her smile against his chest. “Be sure to read the paper tomorrow morning then.”
“Christina.” He stopped her, taking her head between his hands, and gazed into her lovely face. “Does this mean you’ve changed your mind about the amendment?”
“No, you dodo. It means I love you. Now are you going to take me to bed or am I going to have to get out the handcuffs?”
As it turned out, the cuffs were not required.
32
Agent Zimmer couldn’t help but wonder why Director Lehman would be calling a press conference today. Didn’t they all have enough to do without pandering to the press? He knew that every available agent, everyone who wasn’t actively engaged in protecting a member of the president or vice-president’s staff, was investigating the April 19 attack. And Lehman had been unofficially but no less determinedly campaigning for the passage of the president’s proposed amendment.
There had been rumors swirling through the building the past few days, rumors that someone somewhere in Homeland Security had uncovered something big. Maybe that was the reason for the conference? Zimmer only hoped that were true. It would be a great coup for the department, not to mention a great morale builder, if the turning point in the case arrived not from the FBI, with their vastly greater law enforcement facilities, or from the NSA/CIA, with their vastly greater data collecting abilities-but from the humble old Secret Service. That would make him very happy.
And it would give him an excuse to worry less about Agent Gatwick. Ever since their confrontation a few days before, Gatwick had studiously avoided him. But Zimmer knew he had been talking. Stirring up trouble. Probably trying to get him fired. Maybe he imagined it, but he thought Director Lehman had been chillier toward him, too. Zimmer still hadn’t reported his suspicions to his superiors-he just didn’t have anything sufficiently concrete to report. But he was worried that his silence might have allowed a conspiracy to grow, or allowed Gatwick more time to cover it up…
At any rate, if Lehman was calling everyone together to announce that the case was solved, he would have a lot less to worry about.
Lehman had gathered the press on the steps outside the Naval Complex, the standard blue podium poised between Lehman, a few close advisors, and scores of journalists. The only person up there from Homeland Security that he recognized was Nichole Muldoon. Everyone in the department knew Muldoon, and it wasn’t simply because she was beautiful. Her rise in the department had been astonishing. Countless male colleagues had been passed over, including several who had been repeatedly decorated for bravery. Naturally rumors flew about who she knew or who she was doing as the left-behind grappled for some explanation for her success other than the obvious-that
