Cold Pursuit

Three

Thomas Asher folded the Washington Post and set it to the side of his table with a chuckle of amusement after reading a rip-roaring, tongue-in-cheek op-ed on the Jo Harper incident. It focused on her and the vice president’s beloved, unruly family-the point being, how could anyone expect the Secret Service to keep track of such incorrigible rascals?

The furor over Jo’s encounter with Charlie Neal should have abated by now, but it went on because politicians and media hounds wanted it to.

And because there was that video, of course.

To Thomas-and to most people, he had no doubt-Jo came across as a competent professional who hadn’t lost control but had simply, finally, done what the vice president or his wife should have done a long time ago: take their one and only son by the ear and read him the riot act.

Thomas settled back in his upholstered chair. The restaurant was on the first floor of an elegant, historic hotel a few blocks from Lafayette Park and the White House. He’d walked from his office where he worked as a political scientist for a respected think tank. Alex Bruni had called late yesterday afternoon to ask Thomas to breakfast. Of course, Alex was late. It was an annoyance, but not a surprise.

Thomas thought about Jo again. He suspected she was finished in the Secret Service, if only because it prized anonymity and discretion and both had gotten away from her after Charlie Neal’s prank.

Unfair, perhaps, but he was secretly glad. She was capable of doing more with her life than working for the Secret Service. An elitist position on his part, he supposed, but an honest one. He’d met Jo in February on a long weekend in Vermont with his daughter. The trip was against his better judgment, but Nora, then a high-school senior, had pleaded with him to go. He was still licking his wounds after his wife-his ex-wife-had married Alex, one of Thomas’s closest friends, and Nora was desperate to find a way for them to make peace with each other. She’d wanted beautiful Black Falls, Vermont, to be their common ground. It wasn’t that simple, of course, but Thomas would do anything for his daughter. They’d gone snowshoeing in an apple orchard one morning, and he’d spotted an attractive woman battling her way up an icy, treacherous incline-Jo Harper, as it turned out. He remembered his surprise at discovering she was not only a Black Falls native but a federal agent with an impeccable reputation.

When he returned to Washington, he’d debated asking Jo out, but she hadn’t shown an interest in a romantic relationship. In the end, he hadn’t risked more rejection.

Now he realized his hesitation had worked in his favor. In April, when he’d gone back to Black Falls with his daughter, a lovely woman had asked to share his table at a bustling, popular village café. She’d introduced herself as Melanie Kendall and said she was taking a few days to get away from New York and her work as a self-employed interior decorator.

Thomas’s life hadn’t been the same since. With Melanie, he finally understood how dull and routine his first marriage had become. He wouldn’t have ended it if Carolyn hadn’t made the first move, but now, in retrospect, he could see how tedious their relationship must have become for her, too.

His waiter had left him a heavy silver pot of strong coffee and a small, chilled silver pitcher of cream-Thomas knew he should request low-fat milk, but he didn’t. Go with the real stuff. He was, after all, meeting the man who’d stolen Carolyn from him, and passing on cream in his coffee struck him as something that Alex would seize upon as a sign of weakness.

When he’d called yesterday Alex claimed he wanted to discuss Nora, but Thomas couldn’t imagine that Alex really cared that she’d dropped out of Dartmouth and moved to Black Falls to work in a café. The same café, in fact, where Thomas had met Melanie seven months ago.

He suspected Alex’s motives for inviting him to breakfast weren’t that simple-nothing with Alex ever was.

And everything, Thomas thought with a fresh surge of annoyance, was always on Alex’s terms. When to meet. Where. What they’d discuss. But not only would Thomas do anything for his daughter, he also had to admit he was curious about what else was on Alex’s mind-something, certainly. He had called instead of e-mailed and insisted on speaking directly to Thomas, refusing to leave a message with his secretary.

“We need to talk about Nora and Vermont,” Alex had said. “It’s complicated. I’ll explain when I see you.”

Alex had obviously assumed Thomas would drop everything and show up, which was exactly what he’d done. He’d also kept their meeting to himself, not out of paranoia, he told himself, but habit and discretion.

And because it was Alex. He had recently ended a stint as the U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. Speculation about what he’d do next was rampant. Persistent rumors put him in consideration for a very high-level appointment, possibly even Secretary of State. Washington thrived on gossip and scandal, turning the innocent into the sensational. Alex Bruni was born knowing how to play such games; Thomas had never quite learned.

He opened up another section of the Post, flipped through it, studied the ads, read the commentaries and drank his coffee.

Ten minutes ticked by. Where the hell was Alex?

Thomas glanced at his watch. Fifteen minutes late. Any lingering amusement over the op-ed on Jo faded. Although he’d cleared his calendar for the entire morning, he was a busy man-as busy in his own way as Alex. But Thomas knew better than to compare himself to Alex, a lesson learned twenty years ago when he and his ambitious, overachieving friend were law students at Yale-long before Alex had taken up with his best friend’s wife.

In spite of that blinding act of betrayal, Thomas couldn’t hate Alex, and there was no gain to such negativity and strong emotion, anyway. Alexander Bruni was a respected diplomat on everyone in Washington ’s short list of “good people to know.”

And if his longtime friend had any fresh insights into what to do about Nora and her behavior, Thomas was willing to listen. He was convinced the combination of the early northern New England winter and limited funds would nip her sense of romance and adventure about life in Vermont in the bud. Alex and her mother had decided to help Nora out with cash and a car, a source of friction, but Thomas doubted it was what had prompted Alex to arrange this meeting. At least Carolyn, an expert on emerging markets, was in Hong Kong at a conference and wouldn’t be there.

Thomas’s newspaper moved, startling him, until he realized he’d put it on top of his cell phone, which was set on vibrate. He picked up the phone, flipped it open and saw that he had a text message.

Melanie.

Not Nora, of course. His daughter had stopped most communications with him after he had cut off her funds. He hadn’t been harsh-he’d hardly had a chance to say a word before she’d hung up on him. Nora was, technically, an adult. She’d made her decision to quit college on her own and only informed him, her mother and Alex after she’d already moved to Black Falls and gotten a job.

Thomas found his way to the text message and smiled as he saw that, indeed, it was from his fiancée.

Dinner set…c u tonite. Luv u. Mel.

After two tries, he managed to type in his reply.

Great. Love you, too.

He’d never get used to text-message shorthand, but Melanie was young, hip, beautiful and had no trouble whatsoever. She’d never have a YouTube moment like Jo or stick him with a fait accompli like his daughter.

A shriek jerked him half out of his chair.

More screams penetrated the quiet of the elegant dining room, and he leaped to his feet, his napkin falling onto the floor as his fellow diners responded in kind.

“Oh my God!” A woman’s voice, panicked, came from the adjoining lobby. “That car just ran him over! Call 911.”

“Get the license plate,” a man yelled. “Run…run, damn it!”

Thomas heard more urgent comments, orders, questions, exclamations. Once he was assured of his own safety-the hotel wasn’t under attack-he grabbed his cell phone and briefcase and joined a dozen or so people rushing from the restaurant to the lobby, where all the commotion was occurring.

A car accident? A hit-and-run?

In the glittering lobby, doormen and bystanders scurried, yelling, motioning wildly as they tried to come to terms with some kind of emergency outside on the sidewalk.

Thomas felt his step falter. He stood next to a polished round table with a massive vase of fresh flowers as its centerpiece and peered through the revolving doors.

People had gathered in front of the body of a man sprawled on the edge of the busy street. Thomas made out shiny black loafers and dark gray pants, but the man’s upper body was screened by two men crouched at his side, obviously trying to help.

I need to see his face…

But Thomas’s eyes fixed on a briefcase that lay, intact, on the sidewalk.

Bile rose in his throat. His heart pounded. No.

The scarred leather…the broken buckle…

“Alex,” he whispered. “No, no. No…please.”

A young woman with a long, tangled ponytail caught her breath in front of him. He’d noticed her burst into the lobby through the revolving door. She carried a messenger bag and wore bike shorts and shoes. “Do you know him?” she asked, gesturing outside at the street.

“I beg your pardon?”

“The guy who was hit-I can’t believe it.” Her entire body was shaking, her lips quivering as she held back tears. “This car came out of nowhere and just mowed him down. He went flying. I…” She seemed to gag.

Thomas pushed back his own panic. “Are you going to be ill?”

She shook her head. “I’m okay. I just want to get out of here. I heard people calling the police, and someone else must have seen-” She broke off abruptly, squinted tightly as if to gather her thoughts. “The car never stopped or hesitated. It was horrible.”

“You should wait and talk to the police-”

“Yeah. Yeah, sure. I’ll just go deliver this package upstairs first.” Clearly in shock, she clutched the strap to her bag. “It’s supposed to be there in five minutes. Not that anyone will care if it’s late given the circumstances. I just don’t know what else to do.”

“The victim-he’s dead?”

Her face paled to a grayish white. “There’s no hope. He wasn’t a friend, was he?”

Thomas thought quickly. Alex wouldn’t have mentioned the breakfast to anyone. It wasn’t a secret, but why give people a reason to chatter? He was a regular diner at the hotel. No one would question his presence outside its doors.

“No,” Thomas told the young messenger. “He’s not a friend. I’m just in shock. What a terrible thing.”

“Pretty awful.”

“Maybe the driver didn’t realize-”

“Oh, no. It was deliberate. I mean, that’s what it looked like to me. I’m sure there were other witnesses.”

“I’m so sorry you had to see such a thing.” Thomas tried to give her what he hoped was a reassuring look. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting I must get to.”

“Right. I’ll get this package upstairs. It’s so weird, to be flying down the street on my bike one minute, thinking this was the most important thing in the world, and then…” She blew out a breath. “Whatever. I have to go. Have a good meeting.”

She rushed toward the escalators, and Thomas fought back a choking sob.

Alex is dead. There’s nothing I can do now.

In Thomas’s place, Alex would protect himself, without question. He would protect Carolyn, protect Nora, protect his adult children from his first marriage. As difficult as he could be, Alex did care about the people he loved.

As do I.

Nora and even Carolyn, whom Thomas still cared about despite her betrayal, didn’t need the scandal, questions and scrutiny that his presence at the hotel would spark. The headlines screeching about this morning’s tragedy would be horrendous enough without mention of how the great Ambassador Bruni had been on his way to have breakfast with the longtime friend whose ex-wife was now his widow.

No, Thomas thought. He wouldn’t put any of them through such an ordeal.

Best just to melt into the crowd, go back to his office and pretend he knew nothing about why Alex was on his way into the hotel on that particular morning.

Thomas had lied to the young messenger. He had no meeting he needed to get to. His only meeting was his breakfast with Alexander Bruni, which had just been cruelly canceled.