Salvasan stood up. “My position’s clear, gentlemen. You pursue this matter with my agreement.”
Elliot looked with his sharp eyes at Salvasan.
“Tex, I want you to keep O’Connor under control. He’ll see this as a divine miracle for his people.”
Salvasan smiled. “I doubt it, Judge. They’ve got too many wounds to lick of their own. But I’ll lean on him just to be sure.”
Harper looked at his watch in the light from the car’s headlights.
“It’s a quarter past one. I couldn’t face another bloody office. Let’s go to that dump on 9th Street. Gino’s or whatever they’re calling it this week.”
They all piled into one car and were silent with their thoughts until the car pulled up at the neon sign that still said “Gino’s.”
The pianist was playing “September Song” as they settled at an alcove table and ordered drinks.
Morton Harper’s face looked as drawn as a face with treble chins can look.
“Well, what did you think of that lot?”
Nolan answered. “I was surprised that Elliot was prepared to put his head on the block with us.”
“What else surprised you?”
“Salvasan. I thought he’d raise real hell.”
“Yes, that surprised me, too. I’ve been trying to work out the catch but I haven’t got it yet, if there is one. Elliot, of course, was first-class. In fact Sam Bethel wasn’t bad once he’d got over the shock. What do you want to do now, Nolan?”
“I want to check out a few names from Kleppe’s diary and I want to interview Oakes and maybe go back to Haig. After that I shall have to spend time on Dempsey.”
Harper nodded. “And what do we do about our friend here?” He waved towards MacKay.
“I’d like him to stay with me, sir. He’s got the smell of this now, and he’s less suspect with that English accent. He could be useful to me here in Washington.”
“What sort of cover?”
“Journalist, magazine writer, if you could fix that with London.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Any doubts about anything, and you check with me.”
Morton Harper’s eyes were closed, and when MacKay and Nolan were silent he spoke without opening his eyes.
“You know this whole thing makes me sick.” He opened his eyes and looked at them both. “The whole bloody nation is excited that they’ve got a new kind of man. Somebody who isn’t a lifetime professional politician. The man who’s going to lead them to the American dream. By now I should be used to it all, but this …” and he waved his hand, disgust on his face “… this is really obscene. I find this more disgusting every time my mind steps back from the details. Those bastards in Moscow planning this abuse.” He wagged a podgy hand at Nolan. “You remember that, Nolan. Even if we can stop it and Powell’s impeached, those bastards have won. The American people won’t ever be able to trust the system any more, not just the politicians but the whole bloody set-up.”
Nolan nodded but said nothing, and Harper creaked his big frame upright.
“Let’s go.” He turned to Nolan, his face serious. “Whatever you want, Nolan. Let me know. Anything.”
“Right, sir.”
CHAPTER 11
Logan Powell sat on the edge of his hotel bed, his hand still resting on the telephone. He pulled his hand away slowly and reached for the glass of whisky. She was a bitch, and he wondered what he had seen in her that led him into marriage. He had been lecturing at Yale when they first met, and they had married a year later. She had been one of his father’s students and was taking one of those hotchpotch humanities courses that lead to jobs in the United Nations in New York or Geneva.
She had cooled towards him when he gave up his university job and set up the business consultancy in Hartford. And the coolness became coldness from the moment when he was nominated for the State Governorship.
He sat thinking, his drink forgotten as his mind went back to the night when the committee had nominated him as the Republican candidate. He had used the telephone in the hotel foyer and he had pressed the buttons and waited as the telephone rang and rang.
It was just after ten o’clock so she wouldn’t be in bed. Finally, there had been a response.
“Hello.”
“Hi, Laura. Everything OK?”
“Yes. Mother’s gone to hospital for a check-up. Dad’s up here with Sammy and me.”
“I’ve got great news, kid. Guess what?”
“I’ve no idea.”
“I’ve got the nomination. It’ll be officially confirmed and announced tomorrow night.” He waited but there was no response from the other end.
“Aren’t you pleased?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“Honey, at least you’ll be the Governor’s wife.”
“Don’t be so childish, Logan. I shall just be me.”
“You don’t think it’s an achievement?”
Her voice had been cold, almost venomous. “You’ve gone a long way, Logan Powell—down. And now you’ll be right where it’s all at, and your new friends can get the road contracts, the building work, and the jobs they’re all hanging on for.”
“You think that’s all it is?”
“Why do you think it is? Your big brown eyes or your non-existent political experience? You’re kidding yourself my friend. But you’ll find out.”
“You know, you said I wouldn’t make it when I started up the consultancy.”
“Wrong, my dear, wrong. I didn’t say you wouldn’t make it. I said you shouldn’t try. You should have stayed at the university when you had the offer.”
“Why, for heaven’s sake, why only that?”
“Because you had something to say. Like your father had something to say.”
“But the consultancy is successful.”
“Oh for Christ’s sake, Logan, you’re just a kind of business call-girl …”
“… that’s not true, Laura, and you know it … the work I …”
There was a click as she hung up and he crashed down the receiver in anger. “You lousy bitch,” he had said through clenched teeth. And as he turned he had seen Dempsey at the door. He knew that he must have heard the last
