“Jim,” she said, “that concert was absolutely thrilling. It was the Philadelphia Orchestra. The annual Founders Society affair. The First Lady was there, and all sorts of diplomats—all white tie and the best jewels dug out of the safety-deposit boxes. And Mozart.
You like Mozart.”
“I like a lot of Mozart,” Chee said.
He took a deep breath. “It was one of those members-only things, I guess,” he said. “Members and guests.”
“Right,” she said, smiling at him. “I was mingling with the
“I’ll bet your old law firm is a member,” Chee said. “Probably a big donor.” 46 of 102
15/03/2008 19:57
TheFallenMan
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Floop/Local%20Settings/Te...
“You betcha,” Janet said, still smiling. Then she realized where Chee was headed. The smile went away.
“You’re going to ask me who took me,” she said.
“No, I’m not.”
“I was a guest of John McDermott,” she said.
Chee sat silent and motionless. He had known it, but he still didn’t want to believe it.
“Does that bother you?”
“No,” Chee said. “I guess not. Should it?”
“It shouldn’t,” she said. “After all, we go way back. He was my teacher. And then I worked with him.” He was looking at her. Wondering what to say. She flushed. “What are you thinking?” she said.
“I’m thinking I had it all wrong. I thought you detested the man for the way he treated you. The way he used you.” She looked away. “I did for a while. I was angry.”
“But not now? No longer angry?”
“The Navajo way,” she said. “You’re supposed to get yourself back into harmony with the way the world is.”
“Did you know he’s out here again?”
She nodded.
“Did you know he’s hired Joe Leaphorn to look into that Fallen Man business?”
“He told me he was going to try,” she said.
“I wondered how he learned about the skeleton being identified as Harold Breedlove,” Chee said. “It wasn’t the sort of story that would have hit the
“No,” she said.
“Did you tell him?”
“Why not?” she said, staring at him. “Why the hell not?”
“Well, I don’t know. The man you’re going to marry is on the telephone reminding you he loves you. And you ask him about a case he’s working on, and so he sort of violates police protocol and tells you the skeleton has been identified.” He stopped. This wasn’t fair. He’d held this anger in for too many hours. He had heard his voice, thick with emotion.
She was still staring at him, face grim, waiting for him to continue.
“So?” she said. “Go on.”
“So I’m not exactly sure what happened next. Did you call him right away and tell him what you’d learned?” She didn’t respond to that. But she edged a bit away from him on the sofa.
“One more question and then I’ll drop it. Did that son of a bitch ask you to get that information out of me? In other words, I want to know whether he—”
Janet was on her feet.
“I think you’d better go now,” she said.
He got up. His anger had drained away now. He simply felt tired and sick.
“Just one more thing I’d like to know,” he said. “It would tell me something about just how important this business is to the Breedlove Corporation. In other words if you’d told him about the skeleton being found up there when you first got to Washington, it might naturally have reminded McDermott of Hal Breedlove disappearing. And he’d want to know who the skeleton belonged to.
But if it was already on his mind even before that, if he brought it up instead of you, then it would mean a higher level of—it would mean they already—”
“Go away,” Janet said. She handed him the videotape. “And take this with you.” 47 of 102
15/03/2008 19:57
TheFallenMan
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Floop/Local%20Settings/Te...
He took the tape.
“Janet,” he said. “Did you recommend that he hire Leaphorn to work for him?” He asked that before he noticed
