for years walked the delicate line between relations with the Mob for which armed response was highly unlikely and those for which it was far too likely for comfort. Karp remained silent, and after a long moment, Guma breathed out a sigh and said, 'Okay, you rat, I'll see what I can do.'
'How was your trip?' asked Bishop. His voice over the phone seemed to come from far away, although he could have been in the next room in the Alexandria motel.
'It's fucking cold here, Bishop,' said Caballo. 'I hate the cold. I'm a sunshine soldier.'
'It's only about forty.'
Caballo ignored this. 'What's the deal?'
'You need to pick up a package.'
'Black bag?'
'No, our contact will collect the necessary material and give it to you.'
'I can't believe this! You brought me up here to be a fucking courier?'
'No, of course not! They made a copy of the film. The other items, the documents, are neither here nor there and can be explained away. Not the film. So…'
'That's the black bag.'
'Yes,' said Bishop. 'A man named Karp. It should be easy.'
THIRTEEN
'What do you mean he won't allow a contempt citation?' Karp shouted.
Bert Crane, in whose office Karp had shouted this, recoiled, and then flushed with anger. 'Could you keep yourself under control, please!' he snapped.
Karp resumed his seat, from which he had sprung when Crane informed him that George Flores had point- blank refused to cite Paul Ashton David for contempt of Congress.
'Did he give you any reason?' Karp asked in a tight voice, but at a lower volume.
'Not as such,' said Crane. 'The congressman and I do not have a cordial relationship. 'Witch-hunt' was the word he used to describe your citation. It's irrational. I simply don't understand what's going on.'
Which was just the problem, thought Karp uncharitably. He asked, 'What about Dobbs? He's on our side, isn't he? Can't he get it moving?'
'I spoke with him this morning,' said Crane. 'He's rallied a minority of the Select Committee over to the way we see things, but he can't oppose Flores openly yet. And you need a clear majority to vote a contempt citation, and you'll never get that as long as Flores is recalcitrant.'
'So what do we do, give up?'
'We wait for a break. Maybe something will turn up that'll give Hank the leverage he needs to roll a majority in spite of Flores. Meanwhile…' He left it hanging, like, it seemed, the investigation itself.
That subject being dead, Karp asked, 'Any word on the budget?'
'Yeah, the word is no. Not until this cockamamie comptroller general investigation is finished. It shouldn't be too long.'
There was a blitheness in the tone of this last remark that annoyed Karp. Crane was independently wealthy and had besides just come from a lucrative private practice, which he still spent a good deal of his time tending.
'It's been too goddamn long already!' snarled Karp. 'I have no money. I'm cashing in CDs. We've been paying for consultant services out of our own pockets. If there's no closure within the next week or so, I'm going to have to start looking for another job, one with a paycheck.'
Crane seemed taken aback by this outburst. 'I'm sorry,' he said, 'I hadn't realized that you were so pinched. Would a loan help?'
Karp shook his head, suddenly embarrassed for both Crane and himself. 'No, no, I'll survive. The main problem is the consultants and the travel. We may be assholes, but the labs and the docs and the airlines aren't.'
'Well, I'm sure it's just a matter of days,' said Crane soothingly. 'This crisis can't continue indefinitely. Flores can't want the public to see him as an obstructionist, and Hank will keep up the pressure on him to get the project rolling. Honestly, I think time is on our side.'
Karp had his doubts. Later in the morning, these were confirmed when he received an unexpected call from Hank Dobbs-unexpected because Dobbs usually dealt officially with the staff through Crane, and unofficially through his minion, Charlie Ziller. The congressman came quickly to the point.
'I understand you've had a breakthrough,' said Dobbs. 'This mobster, Guido Mosca.'
'I don't know about 'breakthrough,' ' said Karp cautiously. 'It's an interesting lead.'
'But you're pursuing it?'
'Yeah, right now we're looking into the best way of getting Mr. Mosca to talk to us. Speaking of which, Bert tells me that you're pushing Flores for a contempt citation on David.'
'He does, huh? I wish Bert would learn that he's supposed to run the staff, and not speculate on, or involve himself in, the politics of the Select Committee. My God! The man is a bull in a china shop. And he hasn't cleared up this Philadelphia Mob connection business yet either.'
'But that's nonsense!' protested Karp.
'Of course it's nonsense. Bert Crane is as honest as a brick. But it hasn't been laid to rest, and obviously, if there's even a hint of an organized-crime angle to the assassination, as it now appears to be with this Mosca character, we're in deep trouble unless it is resolved, permanently. Also, he's still spending a couple of days a week in Philadelphia on private issues, and that doesn't look good either. Sometimes I wonder whether he really wants the job.'
'This is pretty awkward, Hank, you telling me stuff like this. Why don't you tell it to Bert?'
'You think I haven't? I have, again and again. I'm on his side, and believe me, if I wasn't, he would have been out of here weeks ago. Look, I have a quorum call and I have to run. But I want to get together with you soon, or a long talk. Maybe a dinner at my place; God knows, the girls are thick as thieves lately, you're the only one who's missing. And one more thing: I appreciate the work you've been doing over there under very stressful conditions. And I'm going to see that you get proper recognition for it.'
'I could use some actual money,' said Karp, but Dobbs seemed to ignore this remark and got off the line before Karp was able to ask him what he imagined proper recognition to be. Also left unresolved was the relationship of Dobbs and Crane; the congressman was obviously not the staunch ally Crane thought he was. Karp wondered what Dobbs wanted to discuss at the intimate dinner he was planning.
He turned his mind with an effort to more concrete maneuverings. Guma was out, or feigning absence, when Karp called him in New York, so Karp left a message: 'Tell him it's about my trip to Miami; he'll understand.'
A few hours (spent on desultory paperwork) later, Karp's phone rang.
'It's all set up, wiseass,' Guma said without preamble.
'He'll talk to us?'
'He'll sing 'La Donna e Mobile' in the key of C-whatever. Don't say I don't come through for you.'
'I'd never say that, Goom. My only problem is how to pay for getting him up here. We're having a little problem with our budget. You don't think Tony would spring for a couple of round trips?'
'Ask him yourself, you're such a buddy of his,' snapped Guma, and he broke the connection.
Karp was therefore actually musing on travel budgets, and budgets more personal, when the phone rang again a few minutes later and it was the columnist, Blake Harrison, and thus when Harrison asked him how he was he said, flippantly, 'I'm flat broke.'
Harrison chuckled briefly. 'Still haven't been paid? That's what happens when your boss is an unskillful, rather than a skillful, peculator in the public fisc.'
'Is that going to be the subject of your next column: the great Select Committee paper clip and stationery rip-off?'
'Hardly. Have you thought any more about what I said?'
'Some,' said Karp. 'But I think it's sort of moot at this point. I've just about made up my mind to quit.'
