D.C. Dead

21

They got into the elevator. “Why on earth do you think Milly Hart is a hooker?” Stone asked.

“Stone, sometimes you are so fucking naive.”

“What?”

“We go to see a woman without an appointment. She walks in clad in Hollywood lingerie, then, while we are questioning her, she suddenly remembers another appointment.”

The elevator doors opened, and, standing before them was Muffy Brandon’s husband. They got off, and he got on.

“Are you getting the picture now?” Dino asked.

“I believe so,” Stone said. “I’m sorry to be so slow on the uptake.”

“The No,y ze="3">“question is, how did Brixton Kendrick afford a high-priced hooker like Milly Hart? He was a government employee, for God’s sake.”

“Private income?” Stone asked.

“Not according to his son. Remember meeting him?”

“Ah, yes, and he was terribly concerned about getting the max out of selling the old man’s house.”

“And we’ve gotta be talking about at least a grand a pop for an hour of Milly Hart’s time.”

“I don’t have any experience with rates for hookers,” Stone said.

“Well, you’ve gotta admit that Milly is a rare beauty, especially in a town full of women like Betty Trask and Muffy Brandon.”

“I can’t argue with that. I don’t suppose Brix Kendrick would have any trouble wanting her. Except that his days already seemed pretty full.”

“Yeah,” Dino said, “he must have been short of time with Muffy waiting for him in the afternoons, and he couldn’t have been seeing somebody else in the evenings, because he was busy being an ideal husband. The question is, how could he get it up that often, at his age?”

“How old was he?” Stone asked.

“According to the FBI report, both he and Mimi were fifty-one, the age at which half of American men have what is politely called ‘erectile dysfunction.’”

“Well, Brix was obviously not having those problems, because he was keeping at least two ladies happy on a regular basis.”

“Maybe his wife had cut him off, for one reason or another,” Dino suggested. “And believe me, they don’t really need a reason.”

“Horniness is not a motive for murder, especially when he couldn’t possibly have been horny.”

“Shame is a motive for suicide, though,” Dino pointed out.

“I guess,” Stone said.

They got into the car.

“Where to?” Dino asked.

“Home, James. We’ve got nobody else to talk to, except each other.”

Teddy Fay and Lauren Cade finished cleaning their hangar apartment and got into a shower together.

“You know,” she said, soaping Teddy’s back, “this place isn’t half bad.”

“Have I ever asked you to live in a place that was half bad?”

“No, you’ve done very well by me in that regard. Tell me, what are we going to do with ourselves in D.C.?”

“Well,” Teddy said, starting to soap her front, “I’ve got some work to do on a couple of gadgets.” Teddy had made a fortune inventing kitchen tools that were sold on late-night television. “Gotta keep the money tap running.”

“I won’t argue with you about that,” Lauren said. “I want to see the National Gallery and the Smithsonian. I’ve never been to Washington before.”

“There are enough museums and galleries to keep you busy for a year,” Teddy said. “Not that I think we’ll be here for a year. I know you get antsy if you’re too far from a beach for too long. I just want to be here long enough to throw Todd Bacon and his crew off the track.”

Todd Bacon, at that moment, was in San Diego fielding phone calls from his team, and he was baffled by the result. They had found three instances of Cessna 182 RG landings at West Coast general aviation airports, but each of them had been traced to owners who were obviously not Teddy Fay.

“You look puzzled,” his number two said.

“Aren’t you? Where the hell did he go?”

“Well, if he isn’t on the West Coast, that leaves forty-five other states where he could have landed. Oh, and did I mention Canada?”

“Don’t be a smart-ass,” Todd said.

“Todd, if we don’t get a solid lead soon, they’re gonna pull the plug on us,” number two said. “We’re going to find ourselves in some South American jungle looking for drug factories, and I don’t like bugs and snakes.”

“I’m thinking,” Todd said, “I’m thinking.”