He left his card. If his card had had a GPS transmitter on it, he wouldn’t have been surprised if it landed in the nearest dumpster about two minutes after they left the café.
—
AT THE TRUCK, Rae said, “Five perfectly good hours we’ll never get back.”
“You think they’re clear?” Lucas asked.
“If they had a website, it’d probably be as dumb as 1919, I gotta give you that. But, I didn’t get a guilty vibe from them;nothing there,” Rae said. “I kinda feel sorry for them. But, you know, as a woman, they were distinctly creepy.”
“I didn’t feel anything,” Bob said. “Though, I gotta say, I’d like to hear that rape theory. That’s gotta be some interesting theory, right there. Some guy out there is like the Isaac Newton of rape? I bet...”
“Shut up,” Rae said.
Lucas said to Bob, “Why don’t you ride up front?”
“Well, you’re the big boss. Why would you want to ride in the back of the bus?”
“Careful,” Rae said.
“Because I want to think,” Lucas said. “I can think better in the back when I don’t have Rae to talk to.”
“What are you thinking about?” Rae asked.
“About what Stapler said.”
Lucas sat in the back and thought. Bob and Rae chatted about the landscape, about boats they saw from the bridge going back into Annapolis, about the traffic and weather and tourism possibilities within walking distance of the Watergate that they hadn’t seen on their previous trip to Washington, and when they got back to the hotel, Bob turned and asked Lucas, “Where’d all that heavy thinking get you?”
“Not where I wanted to go,” Lucas said. “I need to go see a rich kid.”
—
LUCAS WENT UP TO HIS ROOM, washed his face, and called Mary Ellen Winston. “I need to talk with Blake. Is he around?”
“He will be,” she said. “Is something wrong?”
“Something worries me. I would best explain it face-to-face. When will he be home?”
“He usually gets home around four, unless he stops with friends... you don’t think he’s done something?”
“No, I don’t. Actually, I need his help,” Lucas said.
“I’ll call him and tell him to come home.”
“Great. Listen, ask him not to say anything to any of his friends.Anyof them. Not even Audrey.”
“I’ll tell him.”
—
LUCAS GOT A QUICK SANDWICHand a Diet Coke, collected the Cadillac, and went back across the Potomac to McLean and the Winston home. Mary Ellen Winston’s assistant was nowhere to be seen and Mary Ellen came to the door herself, said, “Blake’s on the way, he should be here... here he is.”
Blake Winston rolled into the driveway in a black-and-white Mini Cooper. He left it in front of the garage doors and climbed out, hustling, looking concerned. “What happened?” he asked.
Lucas said, “Why don’t we go sit?”
—
THEY WENT BACK TO THE ROOMoverlooking the tennis court and Lucas took a long look at Blake Winston and finally said, “I want to ask if you could do something for me, something really tough, that you might not like, at all, but could be a huge help.”
