Call to Treason

EIGHTEEN

Darrell McCaskey came by to see Rodgers after the meeting with Hood. He invited Rodgers for a drink but the general declined. He said he needed to be alone, to think about the job offer from the senator. In fact, Rodgers did not feel like socializing with anyone from Op-Center. It was nothing personal, but the odor of disloyalty hung about the place and its people. Rodgers hoped it would pass. He liked McCaskey and Bob Herbert. But he needed to get away from it now. He spent a few hours cleaning his office, deleting personal files from his computer, and storing them on disks.

He reached his ranch-style home in Bethesda, Maryland, at seven-thirty. He removed his jacket and dropped it over the arm of the sofa. Then he poured a drink and sat down at the small dining room table. As he went through the mail, he sipped the small “medicinal dose” of Southern Comfort, as his grandfather used to call it. It was exactly what he needed to heal his wounded soul.

The mail was all catalogues and bills, no letters. Not that Rodgers was surprised. He could not remember the last letter he received. He remembered what it meant to get letters in Vietnam, to read words that had made a journey from hand to hand. It was immediate and intimate, like looking over someone’s shoulder as they gave something of themselves. Opening an envelope that contained an offer for a 0 percent credit card or discount coupons from the local strip mall did not have the same effect.

Then something nearly as good happened. Rodgers got a call from Kat Lockley. She was not calling about business.

“I’m sorry I did not get to see you before,” she said. “It was a very press-intensive day. And it’s not over. We’ve got Nightline coming up.”

“I understand completely,” he said. “Are you going with the senator to the Nightline broadcast?”

“Actually, I’m not. I had a meeting outside the office about the convention. He went with his attorney, David Rico. Dave had some concern about what Koppel might ask and wanted some ground rules about the homicide.”

“Understandable.”

“So, since I’m free, and since it looks like we’re going to be working together, I was wondering if you felt like grabbing dinner or a snack or a drink,” she said.

“Actually, dinner is a good idea,” he replied. “I didn’t have time for lunch. Where are you?”

“In my car, on Delaware Avenue.”

Rodgers thought for a moment. “How about Equinox, 818 Connecticut Avenue NW?”

“Perfect,” she said. “American cuisine.”

“That’s why I suggested it,” Rodgers said. “I’ll be there in thirty-five or forty minutes.”

“I’ll be at the bar with a vodka martini,” she said. “By the time you get there, it will be my second.”

“I hear that,” Rodgers said.

He hung up, left his own unfinished glass in the sink, snatched his jacket from the sofa, and headed out. The call from Kat was more healing than the Southern Comfort. It was reassuring to feel part of a team, especially when a woman was right there in the huddle. It occurred to him that he did not even know if she was married, engaged, dating, or straight. Right now, the camaraderie was more important.

The roads to D.C. were lightly trafficked, and Connecticut Avenue NW was virtually empty. Rodgers made the drive in a half-hour flat. The dark bar was crowded with staffers from the White House, which was nearby, along with a cross section of Washington power brokers. Kat was at the end of the bar, talking to a slender, very attractive woman. The woman was holding a small beaded purse in her left hand and a glass of red wine in her right.

“Mike, I’d like you to meet Lucy O’Connor,” Kat said as he approached. It was loud in the bar, and Kat had to shout to be heard. No wonder nothing ever stayed a secret in Washington.

The woman put her drink on the bar. “Delighted,” she said as she shook Rodgers’s hand.

“Lucy writes about the Hill for the American Spectator and has a syndicated radio show,” Kat said. “How many markets now?”

“Forty-seven,” she said.

“Impressive,” Rodgers said.

“Not compared to what you have done,” Lucy said.

Rodgers rolled a shoulder. “I was in the wrong places at the right time.”

“A true hero, taciturn and modest,” Lucy remarked. “But since you’ve very happily fallen in my lap, General Rodgers, tell me, in as few words as you like. Is Op-Center busy redefining its mission?”

“If having your budget whacked is redefining, I suppose the answer is yes,” Rodgers replied.

“I heard about the cuts, but that isn’t what I meant. I’m talking about the Wilson investigation.”

“Wow, that’s really the talk of the town, isn’t it?” Rodgers asked.

“Everything is the talk of this town,” Lucy said.

“The Wilson investigation is a fluke,” he said.

Rodgers leaned past the reporter and ordered a Samuel Adams. He hated being pushed, and he hated being pushed by journalists even more. They attacked the front door, the back door, the windows, and when that did not work, they crawled under the front stoop and waited like snakes.

“Is that what you two are here to discuss?” Lucy asked.

“Good guess, but no,” Kat told her.

Lucy frowned. “You’re not going to tell me it’s purely social.”

“Actually, it is,” Rodgers said as the bartender handed him his beer. “I was at the senator’s party last night. Ms. Lockley wanted to meet me and called. Here I am.”

“Why were you at the party?”

“Free food,” Rodgers said.

Lucy smiled. “All right, General. I won’t press. But Kat? I want a half-hour window if there’s any news. That will give me time to put it on my web site.”

“And give you bragging rights for being the first,” Rodgers said.

“That’s what gives a reporter heft,” Lucy replied. “You remember those days, don’t you, Kat?”

Kat said she did and agreed to give Lucy a scoop if there was one to be had. The reporter left the bar to scout for leads elsewhere. Kat picked up a shopping bag that was beside the stool, and Rodgers escorted his date and his beer to the restaurant atrium for dinner.

“Sorry about all that,” Kat sat as they were seated. “She got there right before you did, so there was no time to disengage. I hope it wasn’t too painful.”

“Define ‘too.’ ”

“Enough to make you not want to work with us,” Kat said. “We have to be much more accessible than the key people at Op-Center.”

“It will take getting used to, but I’ll survive,” Rodgers said. “All I need to do is keep up that Gary Cooper facade.”

“That may be even more appealing,” Kat pointed out.

“Maybe, but at least there are only two words to the script,” Rodgers said. “ ‘Yup’ and ‘nope.’ I can handle that. But how about we do what we told Ms. O’Connor. Keep this social.”

“Good idea,” she said, just ahead of a smile that was the first one he could recall seeing.

“Anything interesting in the bag?” Rodgers asked.

“A present and my Nikes,” Kat said. “Heels get tiring.”

“I can imagine,” he said. “You want to change? I won’t say anything.”

“Not appropriate in here. When I leave.”

“So tell me. How did you come to work with the senator?” Rodgers asked.

“Well, as you probably gathered from Lucy, I used to be one of them,” she said. “I graduated from Columbia and was hired by the Wall Street Journal as a reporter for the Washington Bureau.”

“Were your folks reporters or politicians?”

“They were New York City cops. Both of them. So was my older brother. The Lockley family defined the word tough.”

“Was there any pressure for you to go into law enforcement?”

“Not directly.” She laughed. “Unless you consider taking martial arts and gun safety classes instead of ballet and playing with dolls to be pressure. I didn’t mind, though. We did it as a family.”

“Sounds pretty well-adjusted,” Rodgers said.

“It was.”

“Then where did journalism come from?”

“Our other family activity was watching the news on TV,” Kat said. “The local news always had a lot of police stories, and I loved watching the reporters. They got to hang with police officers and firefighters and soldiers, so I started doing my own newscasts with our video camera and interviewing my folks and their friends. I loved it, and it stuck.”

The waiter came over, and they took a moment to look at the menu. They decided to order several appetizers and share.

“So,” Rodgers went on. “Did you go directly from the Journal to becoming the senator’s press secretary?”

“Pretty much,” she said. “I made some stabs at getting into TV, but you need connections, fangs, or both. All I had was an interest in reporting news. Dad and the senator were old buds. When I was assigned to cover Don Orr’s last campaign, he offered me a job. He said it wasn’t nepotism. He told me I had ‘the goods.’ ”

“You do,” Rodgers said.

“Maybe.” She shrugged. “I figured if nothing else, I’d pick up TV connections for the future.”

“Smart. Looks like you anticipated everything.”

“Not quite,” she said. “In a high-profile position like this one, you have to watch everything you say and everything your boss says.” She gestured toward the bar. “As you saw back there, self-censorship is a constant process, and you suffer a complete loss of privacy. I did not appreciate the degree to which that would happen.”

“Maybe you need to come up with an alter ego,” Rodgers suggested. “Get a wig, a pair of sunglasses, black lipstick.”

“I have all of those.” She laughed. “It’s my Goth side.”

“Pardon?”

“Goth. Gothic. You know — vampires, black lace and leather, sharpening your teeth with a file and dying your skin white.”

“People do that?” Rodgers asked.

Kat nodded. “It’s a large and growing subculture.”

“I had no idea.”

The age difference of some twenty years suddenly became very apparent to Rodgers. He still thought the rock group KISS was over the top. At the same time, Rodgers’s respect for Senator Orr grew. The Texan was even older, yet he had dared to hire a twenty-something who brought different ideas to the staff. Though it was alarming to think of vampires as a potential voting bloc.

“It’s funny,” Kat said as the food arrived. “I’m the journalist, yet you’re the one asking the questions.”

“I don’t have access to a dossier of your entire life,” Rodgers pointed out.

“Touché,” she said, smiling again.

The two talked a little about Rodgers and then about the problems of mounting a national campaign. It was an open, intelligent talk. Rodgers did not know if it had been part of Orr’s plan, but by the time they were finished, the general had decided to accept the employment offer.

While they were having coffee, Lucy O’Connor returned. She was making notes in a PalmPilot as she weaved through the crowded restaurant and made her way directly to the table. Upon arriving, she fixed her eager eyes on Kat.

“There’s been another killing,” she said breathlessly.

“Who?” Kat asked. She seemed unusually alarmed. Or maybe she was tired of talking to reporters.

“A big shot Southern realtor named Robert Lawless,” Lucy said, reading from the PalmPilot. “A woman went to his hotel room — at the Monarch, this time — and left a few minutes later. Sometime between, she apparently poked him under the tongue with a hypodermic. The only difference between the Wilson and Lawless incidents is that this killer went up with him.”

“Did the security cameras get anything?” Rodgers asked.

“Same as yesterday,” Lucy replied. “A woman whose features were hidden, this time by a scarf and sunglasses.”

“How did you hear about it?” Kat asked.

“Someone in hotel security saw the woman in the elevator, thought she looked suspicious, and decided to check on Mr. Lawless. I was in the bar, networking, heard the fuss.”

“But they didn’t hold the woman,” Kat said.

“They were a few steps too late,” Lucy said. “She got off on the mezzanine, not in the lobby, and walked out a side door. The good news, I guess, is that it seems to take your soiree out of the spotlight. Lawless wasn’t on the invite list.”

Kat looked at her watch, then excused herself. She said she was going outside to call the senator. This was something he should know before he taped the show. “I owe you,” she said to Lucy as she left.

“I’ll want a comment from the senator,” Lucy said.

Kat nodded as she walked away. The reporter smiled and took the seat across from General Rodgers. The thirty-something woman had short blond hair, pale skin, thin red lips, and a hungry look.

There were all kinds of vampires in Washington.

“Lucky you were there,” Rodgers said.

“My middle name is Kay,” the reporter said. “My folks gave it to me so I could add it to Lucy whenever I wanted.”

“Cute,” Rodgers said.

“So, General,” Lucy said. “What about these rumors that Op-Center is being phased out?”

“Intelligence fund reapportionments are cyclical,” Rodgers said. “Op-Center got a boost five years ago, now they’re being cut back. They’re still beefier than they were when they started.”

That was longer than “nope.” Mike Rodgers was proud of himself — but only for a moment.

“They?” Lucy said.

That was a slip. Rodgers should have been more careful.

“General, are you going to work for Senator Orr and the USF?” Lucy asked. “Is that why you were at the party last night?”

“Nope,” he said.

“Nope?” Lucy said, her mouth twisting.

“Nope.” Words were a reporter’s oxygen supply. Cut it off, and they died.

“Sir, I am on your side, their side. I can help. The more leads I get, the more credibility I have, the more favorable press the senator gets. Are you sure there’s nothing you want to tell me?”

“Yep,” he said.

She frowned. She reached into the PalmPilot carrying case and handed him a business card. “When you feel like talking, call me first.”

He tucked the card in his shirt pocket. He said nothing, though he did smile politely.

Kat returned then and said that the news had reached the senator right after he left.

“How did he hear about it?” Rodgers asked.

“From Nightline,” she replied. “They wanted him to know that they were going to go easy on the questions about Wilson because of this.”

Lucy got up to give Kat the seat. “Well, I’m going to get online and coin a name for our serial killer before someone else does. It will make an incredible book title one day.”

The reporter left while Rodgers and Kat finished their coffee.

“Well, that was a strange end to a very unusual day.”

“Strange in what way?”

“It started with me denying that Op-Center would ever fake evidence to get publicity and ended with me sitting here wondering if a reporter would kill people to get a book deal.”

The woman laughed. “Lucy is aggressive. But I don’t think she’s a killer.”

“Was she at the party last night?”

“Yes,” Kat said. “That was why she came over to me at the bar. To guarantee continued terrific coverage of the USF for continued A-list status.”

“Will you give it to her?”

“I said I’d talk to the senator,” Kat said. “But I’ll probably give it to her. Otherwise, she might become homicidal.”

Kat insisted on picking up the tab, after which Rodgers walked her to her car. There was no sexual tension, which was fine with him. It had been a long day. He was looking forward to catching Nightline and going to bed.

And for the first time in his life, General Mike Rodgers realized how utterly, sadly accurate the maxim about old soldiers truly was.