Chapter 12
1579 Words
“DID YOU SEE the interview?” asked the man. On the other side of the country, his associate stared at the top of the Washington Monument and said yes. “Does she know anything?” the man asked.
DID YOU SEE“She was a close friend of the Morgan woman. If CWN found her, there are bound to be other leaks.”
“No names.” The order was sharp, tinged with anger.
“Sorry.”
Silence, then the disconnect. The man had two more problems.
* * *
JANE RETURNED to the files and her long-distance stare. At the kitchen table, Linda held TJ while Fritz told her about the president, Alan Carter, and the trips to find Lee. “He asked me, Lin.”
“He"s as bad as you. I"m glad Ash stayed here.”
“Why?” asked Ashley, walking through the doorway.
“The three of you together would be out of control.”
“Me? I"m a reliable, quiet, stay-at-home kind of guy.”
“Shut up, Ashley” came from the dining room.
“And I always do what I"m told.”
Jane read and reread throughout the afternoon, looking for anything that would match the Caballeros list. Fritz looked through each of Koppler"s address books and compared each phone number to the list in front of him. In the fourth book, he spotted the name Boatman under H.
With the TV on in the next room, Fritz prepared lesson plans for the rest of January. With the presidential primaries beginning at the end of the month, the tournament only five-weeks away, and all the intrigue surrounding them, he wanted to be prepared as far ahead as possible. Engrossed in his work, he jumped when James tapped his shoulder.
“Sorry to startle you,” James said. “Can you get me home?”
Fritz set down his pen. “Sure. Every year when I read about the lead-up to the Civil War, I get sucked in. It seems so obvious now, but it"s hard to remember that the country was only fifty years old and still feeling political growing pains.” He had just reread his notes on John C. Calhoun, the Tariff of Abominations, States" Rights, Nullification, and the Tenth Amendment. “Where are we headed?”
“My car"s at the White House.”
“Are you coming back tonight?”
“Not tonight.” Catching Fritz"s eye, he said, “This is going to be harder, a lot harder, than Koppler.”
Already falling behind on another project and with three classes to prepare for, food for the multitudes wasn"t on Linda"s agenda. No new clues on the attacks had been found. To make matters worse, twelve inches of snow were predicted for the next day. Fritz, Ashley, and Tony had returned James and arrived home with dinner. Before they could remove their coats, Jane, with tears streaming down her cheeks, said, “TV.”
A report from New York showed a blanket-covered body surrounded by policemen and flashing lights. The anchor, Alan Carter, paler than usual, stated that the woman had been his guest earlier in the day. Penelope Wise had fallen or jumped eight floors. She had left a note declaring her misery at the loss of her friend and partner, Caitlin Morgan.
Stunned, Fritz said, “That doesn"t make sense.”
“They didn"t waste time. James has already sent a team to her apartment. I want to speak to anyone who knew her—parents, siblings, friends. Especially ex-boyfriends. I don"t think she was Caitlin"s partner. Wise said Caitlin had been involved with Boatman. I want to go myself and look.”
“Jane, let"s eat first,” said Ashley, sitting in front of the TV.
“Maybe Alan Carter can help,” said Fritz. Jane took her phone out and called the president. He told her he would set it up.
* * *
THEY MET CARTER at Penelope Wise"s apartment. Ashley went with Mel and Jane.
“What are we looking for?” Ashley asked.
“Some indication that she and Caitlin were more than friends,” Jane said. “Just in case the story about Caitlin and Hartmann was disinformation. Check especially for photos or other personal things.” She turned to Carter. “Mr. Carter, I"d like your reporter"s eye to see if you spot anything unusual.”
“You mean more unusual than the rest of today?” he sighed. “I don"t know what you expect to find.”
The spacious two-bedroom apartment was furnished with Persian carpets, antique furniture, and solid walnut dressers. The closets, which had been fitted with built-in drawers and shelves, housed expensive clothing. But not one picture of Caitlin Morgan sat on tables or hung on walls.
They found a photo album in a closet drawer. Jane placed it on the antique secretary and turned to the back, looking for the most recent pictures. Again, no picture of Jen Wise and Caitlin Morgan, although she had photos of vacations, parties, and holidays.
“This is very strange,” said Carter. “Not a thing. And it doesn"t look like anything has been disturbed. It"s like she flew out the window.”
Jane stared at Carter with the look that meant she was about to make a call.
“Mr. President, I know the M.E. is far from finished, but can you have the mayor ask if she was dead before she hit the sidewalk.” She listened. “Mr. Carter made an observation.” She turned to the anchor. “Yes, sir.” She closed the connection. “He said to say thanks.”
“Jane, no sign of forced entry, no struggle,” Mel said. “We have the security camera film. Let"s go.”
“How come I"ve never heard your name before?” Carter asked Jane as they headed for the door.
“Mr. Carter, I"m a forensic analyst. I thought you might have a sense of Ms. Wise given that you spent some time with her. You"re a pretty good interviewer.”
She smiled. Ashley could almost see ropes or tentacles extend to wrap up her prey. He watched the CWN anchor lean slightly forward and smile back.
She has him. Does he have a clue? Did she do that to me?
She has him. Does he have a clue? Did she do that to me?* * *
THEY SAW CARTER home and called Fritz to reopen the portal. Driving from the school, Ashley said, “With so many details floating right now, it"s almost impossible to sort them.”
“That"s why I make lists,” Fritz said, navigating slowly through the large snowflakes that had begun falling. Turning into the driveway, Fritz slid sideways. Jane bumped her head on the window. “I"m fine,” she said. Ashley told her again that she was accident-prone.
Fritz sat at the kitchen table telling Linda how crazy things were. She said she didn"t see normal returning any time soon. Leaning back, he sighed, longing for a cigarette, a feeling that had come more frequently in the past month. Ashley joined them. He asked if Jane could leave the papers on the table because they were going home. Mel and Tony were going with them. When Fritz opened the front door, the swirling snow had piled calf-deep on the walk. He hated to disturb it.
The house had a residual hum. Fritz brought his laptop and a yellow pad to the kitchen. Thumbing through the folders, he scribbled a new note for each class. Linda focused on the latest manuscript from her publisher, trying to speed up her review. Behind her on the counter, two stacks waited patiently for their turn. She looked like she was smoking her pen.
“Stop staring at me,” she said. “You"re distracting me.” They both remembered other times when they stared at each other and wouldn"t have stayed in the kitchen long.
“I"m not staring. I"m thinking.”
“If I didn"t have so much to do, I"d ask what you were thinking.” She smiled.
“I can tell you. I was thinking I love you and tomorrow"s Sunday.” They drifted into their own thoughts. Saying that he loved her was easy. It was true. He had fallen for her at their second cup of coffee, but he didn"t say it for a long time. He was afraid of chasing her away. She had felt his hesitance. She knew his stint with Teach for America would end, and then he"d be gone. But she didn"t give up easily. He was comfortable to talk to. And he was cute. This one had the potential to be a keeper.
He rose early when he heard the baby cry. On a clear day, the sky would be visible, but the snow reflected all available light back to the clouds. “Come on, buddy.” He changed TJ"s diaper, took him to the kitchen, and turned on the coffee. With TJ on his lap, he headed to a news website. A story about Penelope Wise quoted her parents. They said they had never heard of Caitlin Morgan and had no idea, as her father said, “that she liked girls.” Fritz looked for other stories, bookmarking them all. They sat in the window seat, watching the blowing snow.
- Writer
