Balance of Power

THIRTEEN

The next morning, before meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister, Kerry had Senator Chad Palmer of Ohio to the White House for breakfast.

The two men ate alone in the family dining room. For Kerry, the breakfast was both a pleasure and one of the harder things he had done. A Republican and a military hero, Chad had been Kerry's closest friend in the Senate despite their differences in philosophy and a clash of ambitions. Chad, too, had been considered a prospective President, and Kerry admired Chad's candor and independence, enjoyed his iconoclastic wit. Among politicians, Chad Palmer had always cut a dashing figure: his aura of unquestioned courage was accentuated by blond good looks so distinctive that his enemies on the Republican right had satirically dubbed him "Robert Redford." But the Palmer who sat across the table was far sadder and more subdued, his face newly etched with suffering.

That this in part had been Kerry's doing, however unintended, made this morning's task more difficult. When Kerry had nominated Caroline Masters, Palmer, then Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had helped Kerry conceal from her opponents a private matter which they both felt should remain so. For both men, principle was commingled with complex calculations of political advantage; for Palmer, the decision had led to tragedy. Masters's secret was discovered, Chad's role in protecting her exposed. In reprisal, Palmer's right-wing enemies within his party had leaked a secret of his own—that his only child, Kyle, had become pregnant as a teenager and, despite Palmer's public opposition to abortion, had terminated her pregnancy. Humiliated by her exposure, Kyle had become intoxicated and driven off Rock Creek Parkway to her death.

Filled with anger and remorse, Chad had played a decisive role in helping Caroline Masters win her narrow confirmation. Then, with his wife Allie, he had retreated into a reclusive, silent mourning. That this was Chad's first visit since the fateful dinner in which he had agreed to protect Judge Masters was, Kerry felt certain, no more lost on Chad than it was on him. And so, after observing the amenities, Kerry asked directly, "How are you, Chad?"

Palmer gazed at the white tablecloth, the silver service set in front of them. "It's been four and a half months," he said at last. "Some days I can forget it for an hour, mostly when I'm doing the job that killed her. Then, in an instant, Kyle's with me again—in a quiet moment, or maybe because some Senate page, a young girl, evokes her in the smallest way. And the ache is as deep, almost debilitating, as it was the day we buried her. I don't think that ever gets better."

The painful honesty of his words left the President without an adequate response. He recalled his mother, staring at the face of her murdered son before they closed the casket. "And Allie?" Kerry asked.

Chad looked up at him. "I have work. But Kyle was Allie's life. Now all she has is me."

To Kerry, this last quiet phrase conveyed far more than Chad's feelings of inadequacy. For Allie Palmer, it would always be Chad's world which had consumed their daughter, Chad himself who would remind her of all she loathed about public life. "What does she do now?" Kerry asked.

"Very little." Palmer toyed with his napkin ring. "She's too unselfish to ask me to retire—she knows the work she's come to hate at least serves to distract me. But we rarely go out. Some nights I find her staring at old photo albums."

Once more, Kerry wondered at the propriety of his request. "I wish," he said at length, "that there were anything I could do or say." He paused, choosing his words with care. "For me, it's complicated by the knowledge that—whether you want to or not—you'll always associate our friendship with Kyle's death."

There was a moment's silence, and then Chad looked at Kerry directly. "I've thought about our dinner a thousand times. So, yes, what you say is true. Because now I know what happened, and wish I'd never come.

"But you didn't know Kyle's secret. I did. You simply did what presidents do—play to win."

For an instant, Kerry thought of his and Lara's secret, their wish to believe that they somehow could avoid the humiliation, and worse, which had happened to so many others. No doubt the man across from him had once believed the same.

"It's far too high a price," Kerry said, "for winning."

Chad's smile was faint and bitter. "And yet we come here, knowing the rules: that our enemies don't simply want to beat us, but destroy us. That anyone close to us is fair game for a media which has no limits. We know that, and still we enter politics." Chad shook his head in wonderment and, it seemed to Kerry, self-disgust. "Some even want to be President. So what does that say about us, Mr. President?"

Kerry shrugged. "A lot of things, I expect. None of which justifies a culture which sees us not as fallible humans, doing our best in a complex world, but as targets of opportunity, accountable for every private mistake we ever made. Or which saw Kyle not as a lovely young woman, but as a pawn to use against you."

"Maggots." Chad's voice was quiet with contempt. "All that breastbeating in the media. We'll see how much this town has learned from Kyle's death. If anything." He paused, seeming to redirect his thoughts through a sheer act of will, and then summoned a smile, which, while brief, appeared genuine. "Anyhow, I wish you and Lara all the happiness you deserve. Or, at least, can steal."

Kerry considered Chad across the table. "We have our hopes," he said at length. "Which brings me to what I wanted to ask.

"This comes with a lot of caveats. I know my timing's lousy. I know that being my friend makes you no friends among those who already think you're soft on liberals. But Lara and I hope that you and Allie will come to our wedding."

Chad looked honestly amused. "Attend a President's wedding? Is that what passes for courage these days?"

"Perhaps not in itself. But being in our wedding may." Though Kerry smiled, his eyes were serious. "Before Kyle's death, I'd have asked you without thinking. And there's no reason, on my part, to feel any differently."

Chad looked away, his thoughts unfathomable. Then, reaching across the table, he rested one hand on the sleeve of Kerry's suit coat. "We've been friends for thirteen years, twelve before you had this job. For most of that time you were stuck in an unhappy marriage—you never said that, I just knew. But now you've found this terrific woman. No matter what's happened, I'm happy for you. I wouldn't miss your wedding for the world."

For that moment, Kerry felt the shackles of the Presidency fall away, and he and Chad were young senators again, trusted friends amidst the tangle of ego and ambition which was the Senate. He could barely bring himself to speak.

Blessedly, he did not have to. As they had planned, Lara appeared at the entry to the dining room, looking from Chad to her fiancé.

"Am I interrupting?" she asked.

At once Chad smiled, and stood. "You are," he answered, "just in time."

Lara crossed the room, taking his hand. "For me, too," she told him. "I just finished a meeting with Connie Coulter and Francesca Thibault. Connie had some numbers on which of the networks promises the biggest ratings for a prewedding interview; Francesca is picking an undisclosed location for us to audition wedding gowns in secrecy. I feel utterly ridiculous."

"You aren't," Chad assured her. "Just everyone else."

"Including Chad," Kerry interrupted with a smile. "He's agreed to take a leading role in this extravaganza."

As Kerry watched, Lara embraced Chad Palmer and then, on tiptoes, kissed him on the cheek. "You don't know what this means to Kerry. And to me."

Smiling, Chad gazed down at her. "Me, too," he answered.

* * *

Convoyed through sun-baked streets by the Secret Service and police on motorcycles, Kerry's limousine approached the White House, returning from a mid-morning visit to See Forever, a pioneer charter school for at-risk teens. On a secure telephone, he talked with Marcia Harding.

"We're looking at a bail motion," Harding told him. "Bowden's got a public defender. We'll bring additional charges, of course, and he'll get a lecture from the Court. But usually the judge will kick him loose."

"What if you oppose bail?"

"We could, but that would be unusual. Another problem's Bowden's lawyer. He knows Joan is Lara Costello's sister—if we come down on his client, he's likely to complain of prejudicial treatment, and splash this all over the papers. Bottom line we probably lose, and Joan's tomorrow's headline."

"What if Bowden does this again?"

"Then it's jail, I'm pretty sure."

Kerry felt his frustration boil over. "Assuming it's not too late. This guy could kidnap Marie, or do far worse to Joan."

There was silence, as though Harding felt stymied by her lack of ready options. "Hopefully," she ventured, "Bowden's night in jail has cooled him off. And his trial for battery is coming up—unless he agrees to a program, he'll likely get some jail time. Until then, the police will come as soon as anyone calls."

As the motorcade slipped inside the East Entrance, the guard waved at Kerry's limousine. The iron gate closed behind him. "Assuming they can call," Kerry said.

* * *

At a little past seven p.m., Clayton and the President sat on the balcony of Kerry's private quarters, reviewing the status of budget negotiations as evening shadows spread slowly across the South Lawn. Both were in shirtsleeves; Clayton drank bourbon, Kerry two shots of Bushmills on ice.

At length they turned to Joan. "The counsel's office checked this out," Clayton told Kerry. "By law, you can't use the Secret Service to protect Lara's family—you'd have to go to Congress for permission."

"And make it a cause célèbre."

"Exactly. You could call the mayor, request twenty-four-hour police protection. But then what happens when some ordinary woman in the Mission District gets shot by her deranged ex-husband after five or six calls to the police? The San Francisco Chronicle charges you and the Mayor with favoritism and misuse of public resources." Finishing his drink, Clayton put it down. "You're in this one too deep already. I understand why, but your position's like no one else's."

Silent, Kerry let the peaty burn of whiskey slide slowly down his throat. "I can't tell you," he remarked, "what a heady thrill it is to wind up another workday as the most powerful man on earth."

Clayton smiled. "That's why the Founding Fathers created the federal system, and then gave us a free press. To tax your ingenuity."

But Kerry did not answer, or even return his smile. By now his thoughts were far away; Joan Bowden's home was more vivid than the majestic scene around them. "I'll talk to Lara," he said at length. "There must be something we can do."