their motives be?”
“The only one I can think of is, those who were close to Goldsmith, those who know what he was doing, who were complicit in what he was doing, would be worried I might come forward. But they’d also know that such an action on my part would be political suicide.”
Howard concurred. “Do you think, in the early stages of this, before Barton took his own life, he might have had people watching you and, I don’t know, maybe even Bridget?”
“Why the hell would they be watching me or Bridget? Is something going on I don’t know about?”
“Of course not. You know I tell you everything.”
“That’s never been true, Howard. You tell me everything I need to know, and don’t tell me the things it’s better I not know.”
Howard had to agree with that, too. “All I’m saying is, before you get back in the game, we have to imagine certain scenarios, as unlikely as they may be, and develop strategies for dealing with them.”
“Agreed, but this is crazy talk. Look, forget about the business with Goldsmith. It’s going to be okay. And the thing is, while we sit around waiting to be sure the problem’s gone away, we’re wasting valuable time. We need to sit down now and plot out our next move. We need to decide on key people, who we’re going to use. We need to start studying our opponents’ weaknesses. Jesus, Howard, I hardly need to be telling you this. You wrote the playbook.”
“I know.”
“Let’s get together tonight.”
Howard knew what that meant. It had been their routine, over the years, to get together after midnight and work through till dawn, drawing up battle plans. It was when they got their best work done, when there was no fear of interruptions.
“Yes,” Howard said. “That’s what we’ll do.”
“Good. Talk to you later, my friend. Lace up those boxing gloves.”
Morris hung up.
Maybe, before tonight’s meeting, Howard hoped, there’d be some answers from Ray Kilbride.
LEWIS was about to board his short-haul flight north when his cell rang.
“Hello,” he said.
“I understand you’ve been trying to reach me,” a man said.
“Victor,” Lewis said. “Thank you for calling.”
“What can I do for you?”
“It’s about a former employee of yours.”
“Living or dead?”
“Living.”
That narrowed it down for Victor. Very few people left his employ. “Okay,” he said.
“I engaged her services, and she made a very big mistake.”
“Really.”
“It’s reflected badly on me. She’s rectifying the problem she created, but when the matter is resolved, I have to make this right. For my own reputation.”
“I understand.”
“But I felt I owed you the courtesy of letting you know about the course of action I want to pursue. If you object, I won’t do it.”
“I should have done the same thing myself, but I was weak,” Victor said. “I took her in, treated her like a daughter. How does she thank me? She leaves. You won’t get any trouble from me on this.”
“Thank you. How are things in Vegas?”
“Too many people are bringing their children.”
Lewis said good-bye, put his phone away, and got on the plane.
FIFTY
Back at the house, I said to Julie, “Let’s take a walk.”
We headed out the back of the house and down the hill, to the creek.
“I’ve got some calls in to the cops in Tampa,” Julie said, tapping the cell phone bulge in the front pocket of her jeans. “See what else I can find out about Fitch.”
I nodded.
“You’re kind of quiet,” she said.
“I’m thinking about some things Harry said. About Thomas.” I told her about his speculation, that Thomas might be making some of this stuff up. Doctoring the image online, making up his chat with the landlord.
“You think that’s what he’s doing?” she asked.
I hesitated. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I mean, he believes things we know are not true, but he really believes them. Like the online map meltdown, and talking to Clinton. But some things aren’t made up at all. It was you who found out about what happened in Chicago, and now Florida.”
“Would Thomas deliberately lie to you?”
I’d never really thought about that. “I guess it’s possible. But when I asked him about this thing that happened with Dad, about pushing him on the stairs, he admitted it. Although it wasn’t like he volunteered the information.”
“He pushed your Dad down the stairs?”
I shook my head, like I didn’t have the energy to get into it now. “When there’s something Thomas doesn’t want to tell you, or own up to, he just keeps quiet. He clams up.” I stopped, watched the creek water trickling past. “Well, he lied to Dr. Grigorin. He told her he’d watched a movie with me when he hadn’t, trying to get her off his back, I guess. God, I just don’t know.”
“Are you going to talk to him?”
“I’ll try. In the meantime, like I told you, Harry knows a guy, a detective with the Promise Falls police. He’ll bounce all this off him so I don’t have to worry about making a fool of myself with another call to the cops.”
“That’s good,” Julie said. “Duckworth is a good guy. He doesn’t instinctively hate reporters.”
I said, “Some other stuff’s nagging at me.”
“Like?”
I opened my arms, gesturing to where we were standing. “This is where it happened. This is where my father died.” I pointed to the hill. “That was where the tractor rolled. Stopped about here. This is where Thomas found him.”
She looped her arm into mine. “I’m sorry.”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about him. About Dad. And about Thomas. He told me when they had this incident on the stairs, it was about something that had happened to him when he was thirteen. Something he didn’t want to talk about. And Dad, according to Thomas, was trying to tell him he was sorry, that he’d understand if Thomas didn’t forgive him.”
“He didn’t say what it was about?”
“He wouldn’t tell me. But”-and I hesitated-“there’s something more.”
Julie looked at me and waited.
“I haven’t talked to anyone about this, but there was something kind of weird on Dad’s laptop.” I told her about what I’d found in the search history.
“Child prostitution?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s kinda strange.”
“Yeah,” I said.
Julie shook her head strongly. “I didn’t know your dad, Ray. Why’s this got you worried? You think he was into something weird?” Then the implications started to sink in further. “God, you don’t think your dad assaulted Thomas when he was a kid, do you? You think that’s what he was talking about when he said he’d understand if
