“I didn’t mean to be the bad angel,” I said.
“You weren’t,” Keith said. “I just realized that one of the last things I want to lose is the chance to have a drink with you.”
Keith sat on the loveseat that looked out on the bird feeder as I poured the drinks. “I’ve always been partial to kitchens,” he said. “Mine’s all chrome – it’s about as welcoming as a surgical unit – doesn’t matter since I don’t spend any time there. The couch is a nice touch.”
“It was Maddy and Lena’s idea. When I’m cooking, they like to curl up there and give me a blow-by-blow account of what’s happening in the world of birds and bugs.”
I handed Keith his glass and sat down beside him. A soggy robin flew towards the crabapple tree where it was building its nest. “So how’s the campaign going?”
“Federally, we’ll probably squeak through with a minority. But Ginny’s going to lose Palliser.”
“Are you sure?”
Keith swirled the Scotch in his glass. “Not a doubt. You can overcome a lot in a campaign, but not the suspicion that your candidate is a murderer. The people campaigning for Ginny are getting doors slammed in their faces – and they’re the lucky ones. The unlucky ones get to listen to a litany of Ginny’s sins.”
“I’m sorry, Keith. I know you thought Ginny was the one who could bring your party back to its roots.”
“She was. She still is. She’s smart, she’s progressive, and she’s pragmatic. She’s got that roaming ambition politicians have to have, and she’s cool. She has a way of suggesting to voters that they need her more than she needs them – just the right mix for an electorate that’s long on irony and short on information.” Keith sipped his Scotch. “The perfect candidate, but it’s not going to happen.” He sighed. “God, it’s good to talk. Everyone around Ginny’s campaign is so despondent, I find myself in the role of cheerleader.”
I smiled. “Not a good fit for a man with your disposition. Where’s Crispy Crunch boy in all this?”
“Trying to put the genie back in the bottle. Milo is a true believer, and as you know in politics, true believers always get their hearts broken. Looking on the bright side, Milo’s lucky it happened sooner in his career than later.”
“Do you regret what you’ve done with your life?”
Keith sipped his drink. “Too late now for regrets, and I’ve had a lot of fun, especially in the last couple of weeks.”
“Fun for me too,” I said.
“Think you might get back into politics?”
I took his glass to the sink. “No, I like my life the way it is. I’ve had enough glimpses of the dark side of politics to remind me of why I left.” I filled two bowls with gazpacho, pulled a baguette out of the oven, and fetched a plate of cheeses from the counter.
Keith’s eyes widened. “I just called twenty minutes ago. How did you manage to conjure this up?”
“I rerouted some of the gazpacho that’s headed for the lake. River Heights bakery is two minutes away by car, and Peter’s new girlfriend, Dacia, works in a cheese shop.”
Keith smeared some Gorgonzola on a heel of baguette and bit in. “You know, I’d forgotten eating can be a pleasure.”
“Life’s full of pleasures,” I said. “Every so often you just have to turn a blind eye to the rest of reality.”
“Not so easy these days. Jo, I hate to louse up a great lunch, but what’s Zack doing to get Ginny out from under all this?”
“He’s ruled out trying to prove that Ginny couldn’t have killed Jason. She had motive and opportunity, and she was the one who called 911. So he’s focusing on exploring other possibilities.”
“Any star candidates?”
“Sean Barton’s looking into Jason Brodnitz’s business dealings. It looks like Jason was involved with Cristal Avilia.”
There was a pause. “Then I owe Sean an apology,” Keith said. “I tore a strip off him for fuelling that particular rumour during the campaign. But if it wasn’t a rumour…”
“It’s not that simple,” I said. “The rumour was that Jason was involved with the business of prostitution. So far, it looks as if he was just acting as a kind of broker for Cristal’s real estate dealings.”
Keith’s laugh was short and humourless. “Of course, our boy Sean was smart enough not to lie. All he ever said was that Jason Brodnitz had financial dealings with prostitutes. He didn’t correct the media when they inferred that Jason was a pimp.”
“You don’t like Sean, do you?”
“You don’t think I’m being fair?”
“Putting a potentially damaging statement out there and leaving it open for interpretation is an old political trick,” I said. “You’ve done it in the heat of a campaign. So have I.”
Keith sighed. “I’ll give Sean a call. Incidentally, what’s his status with Falconer Shreve these days? Things were a little iffy there for a while, weren’t they?”
“More than iffy. Sean was disappointed when he wasn’t named partner. Zack thought he’d leave, especially when the firm brought in another trial lawyer. But apparently Sean’s decided to stick around, and so far it’s smooth sailing.”
“Just to satisfy my curiosity, why wasn’t Sean named a partner?”
“Zack thought he cared more for the game than for the people in the game.”
“That was exactly my take on the way Sean approaches politics.”
“Maybe he just has to grow up.”
“Still the same old Jo. Everybody’s perfectible.”
“Still the same old Keith,” I said. “There are three decent people in the world: thee, me, and some other guy whose name I can’t remember.”
Keith laughed. “I’m just jealous because Sean is young and smart and studly and I’m none of the above.”
“You’re two of the above,” I said. “Now stop feeling sorry for yourself and eat your gazpacho.”
For the next hour we reminisced about the old days. It was pleasant talk and Keith seemed reluctant to leave. “I’d better be getting back to what we still refer to as headquarters, although with no candidate and no campaign, I’m not exactly certain what we’re all doing there.” He took out a cigarette, looked at it longingly, and placed it beside his plate. “Jo, when do you think I should tell Ginny that it’s over.”
“I imagine she already knows,” I said. “Give her the weekend. We’re all going to the lake. Why don’t you come up on Sunday? You can visit with Maddy and Lena, and then when the moment’s right, you can talk to Ginny.”
He shrugged. “Who knows? There may be good news by then.”
I laughed. “Political people are the last adults on earth who believe in miracles. Let me get you one of our maps.” When I came back from Zack’s office with the sheet of directions to our cottage, Keith had moved from the kitchen table and was standing at the back door looking out at the garden. His cigarette, still unlit, was between his fingers.
“How long has it been since you had one of those?” I said.
He looked at his watch. “An hour and a half.”
“Do you want it?”
He sighed. “There are a lot of things I want,” he said. “This is just the only one that I have any chance of getting.”
“In that case, why don’t we go outside and have a cigarette together.”
Keith grinned. “You too?”
“It’s been more than twenty years, and I’ll probably throw up, but it’s the least I can do for a friend.”
CHAPTER 14
When we drove through the gates at Lawyers’ Bay that night, Ginny and her daughters were shooting hoops on the court that Blake had built for Gracie. As soon as they spotted us, they stopped their game and came over to help us unload the cars. The three women had obviously been playing hard; their faces were pink with exertion and damp with perspiration, but they no longer looked like accident victims, and when Chloe took the other end of a
