Cut and Thrust

56

Stone got home to find Ann sitting naked in bed, watching the Republican convention. Stone got naked and joined her. “I’d forgotten it was on,” he said.

“They’re balloting, and Henry Carson is well ahead. No excitement here.”

They watched listlessly while the balloting continued, and the TV guys gave the nomination to Carson. So did the convention, a short time later.

“Tell me about Carson,” Stone said.

“Somebody said he makes Mitt Romney look like a hippie. Is that enough?”

“Is he smart?”

“About as smart as the average Republican senator.”

“Is he a veteran?”

“Yes, of what, in his day, was called the draft-dodger program of the Air National Guard. He flew tankers. Around the Southwest.”

“Well, at least he’s a pilot.”

“Yeah, he is — flies his own airplane, like you, except it’s not a jet, it’s a little one.”

“What kind?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long has he been in the Senate?”

“Four terms. He’ll be up for reelection in two years if he doesn’t win the election.”

“Who’s his VP nominee going to be?”

“Probably Max Post, of Texas, whose sobriquet is ‘Thick as a post Post.’”

“Is he the guy who suggested that Texas should secede from the Union?”

“One of them.”

“You think we should let them?”

“In my heart, yes, but the good news is that the Hispanic population there is growing so fast that the Republicans soon won’t be able to elect a candidate to statewide office.”

“Has Kate told you whether she’s pregnant, yet?”

Ann clasped her belly. “Oh, God, every time I hear that word my stomach does a backflip. Soon, I’ll be having morning sickness myself.”

“You’re not...”

“Of course not. I have been a religious observer of the pill-a-day routine.” She looked at him slyly. “What would you do if I were pregnant?”

“What could I do? I’d be helpless.”

She laughed.

“Are you worried about your biological clock?”

“I never consult it,” she replied. “I gave up the thought of having a family when Kate got the nomination. By the time she’s out of office I’ll be withered and sere.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“Absolutely. I was born without the mother gene. I’m a working girl, through and through.”

“Dino’s appointing a woman chief of detectives.”

“Good for Dino! Who is she?”

“Her name is Stephanie Walters, she’s captain at Dino’s and my old precinct, the Nineteenth. A ravishing redhead, divorced, mother of two, both in law school, one at Harvard, twenty-two years on the force.”

“That’s a pretty good résumé,” Ann said. “Does she have a law degree?”

“I believe so.”

“Maybe I’ll suggest her for head of the FBI, or something.”

“I think she’s worth keeping track of.”

“Don’t worry, her name is already etched on my frontal lobe.”

Stone turned off the TV. “Listen, as long as we’re both naked...”

“You, too? I hadn’t noticed.”

He snuggled up to her. “Notice that?”

“Hard to miss,” she said, turning over and embracing him.

Half an hour later, she said, “Did I tell you Ed is a go on 60 Minutes Sunday night?”

“I had assumed he was.”

“Morley Safer loved Ed. I have that from the horse’s mouth.”

“And it doesn’t hurt that he’s married to Susannah Wilde?”

“Not a bit.”

“You know what Dino said to me at dinner?”

“What?”

“He said, out of the blue, ‘What would happen if Kate got pregnant?’”

“Oh, God, does he know something?”

“Nothing — he just said it. I had to shut him up before a waiter overheard him and passed it to some gossip columnist across the dining room.”

“You think Dino has a sixth sense about things?”

“Only about who committed a homicide.”

“Pretty soon I’ve got to ask her,” Ann said. “I can’t stand it much longer.”