“I guess I still don’t know what you’re talking about, David.”
She was about to plump an elegant blue cloth napkin down on the table when he took her wrist again. This time, there was some pain.
“You heard everything, didn’t you? The other night? Through your bedroom window?”
She sighed. “They all look alike, don’t they, David?” She spoke softly. Wearily. “You’re probably not even aware of it. If you put them all together in a line, you’d see what I’m talking about. Now let go of my fucking wrist, you understand me?”
He let go of her wrist.
“I keep trying to figure out what it’s all about, this thing with teenage girls. Is it because of Mary Claire Riley, the girl who dumped you in tenth grade? Is that what you’re doing? Trying to win her back through these girls? I don’t know what else to think, David. They’re very sexy, I have to give you that, but they’re so stupid. That’s what I can’t understand. How you can spend so much time with people who are so stupid?” Then she smiled. “But it’s not their minds that attract you, is it?”
“She has pictures of me.”
“I know. I went over to her house today.”
“You what?” Panic again. Poor David. Crumbled so easily. Wept and wept and wept when he was given his cancer diagnosis. Begged her and begged her and begged her to believe in an afterlife.
He was going to die and she was going to fill out his term and then she was going to run for her own Senate seat. She had the party connections. She had the voter appeal. She had the skills and the knowledge.
Up until a few nights ago, it had all looked so simple. David would die and she would step into his office.
But she hadn’t counted on Darcy and her photos. Darcy and her photos could destroy David before he had a chance to die. And if that happened, if the voters were to learn of David’s penchant for young girls, then the Senate seat would be gone for good.
She had to get the photos and the negatives.
“Go get us a nice bottle of wine from the cellar,” Helen said.
“I want you to tell me what you were doing out at Darcy’s today.”
“You go pick us out a nice bottle of wine — red, of course, something with real body — and I’ll put dinner on the table and then we can have a nice, leisurely conversation.”
Among the many things David didn’t understand was wine. Without Helen’s guidance, he’d serve everybody their pint of Mogen David grape.
“I can’t believe you went out there.”
“Just go get the wine, David.”
He started to argue. She pointed toward the door leading to the kitchen. “Go on, David. Go on.”
He started to argue again but then stopped himself.
When Helen was in this particular kind of mood, there was no hope of dissuading her. No hope at all.
“Maybe you should’ve sent Steve Arnette instead of going yourself,” David said later.
Helen shook her head. “I don’t want to use Steve unless we absolutely have to. He’s a little crazy.”
Steve Arnette was their younger cousin whom they’d gotten a job on the police force. He was always in some kind of trouble with Chief Hadley. Lately, he was in trouble for roughing up Richie McGuire. Excessive force. Arnette did them discreet favors sometimes. But because Steve was the son of the neurotic Cathy Beth, Helen’s least favorite niece, using him for a job was always a last resort.
“You’re sure Lilly Swanson didn’t recognize you?”
“Positive.”
“God, if she did—”
“She didn’t.”
“So you didn’t find the photos?”
“No.”
“She’s probably got them hidden someplace.”
“You need to see her one more time, David.”
“I don’t want to go near her. After she told me she had those photos—”
“You have to find out how much she wants.”
“I don’t think you understand her, Helen.”
“Meaning what exactly?”
He sipped his wine. He’d chosen well and Helen had been sure to compliment him. Positive reinforcement.
“Meaning she doesn’t care about money. Hell, her father’s rich.”
“Then what does she care about?”
“Power.”
“What kind of power?”
He thought a moment. God, he looked positively presidential when he was thinking, the sleek, fabulously masculine face, the sweep of white hair...
“She likes to see me scared. That’s the only way I can explain it. When she told me about the photos... she saw how scared I was and she loved it. Couldn’t quit smiling.”
“They’re all such a pleasure, your little nymphets.” She paused. “Maybe you should’ve stayed married.”
His fork had been halfway to his mouth. His hand froze in position. “You drove them both away, Helen. You. Not me.”
“That’s a nice thing to say.”
“But true.”
“We had our little disagreements, your wives and I, I don’t deny that, but—”
“Little disagreements? God, Helen, you really are blind to yourself. You pushed those women out of my life. They didn’t have a prayer up against somebody like you. You even alienated my own daughter from me.”
“If I’m such a terrible person, why are you and I still together, David?”
He spoke without rancor. “Because you’re the smart one. And you always have been.”
They didn’t speak for a time, finishing their meal.
Then he said, “I don’t mean to sound unappreciative, Helen. I really don’t.”
“That’s all right.”
“I wouldn’t even have been elected to the state legislature if you hadn’t been there.”
“Let’s not get maudlin.”
“I don’t know why I do it. The young girls, I mean.”
“You picked a doozy this time.”
“You really think she’ll take money?”
“I guess we’ll find out,” Helen said. “If she calls you tonight, make sure to make it clear that you want the photos back and that you’re willing to pay for them. If you get the negatives.”
“And what if that doesn’t work?”
“Then I’ll talk to her.”
He looked up from the last of his food. “What’ll you say to her?”
“That she’s destroying a good man. That she’s destroying somebody this country needs. And that if this thing ever goes public, she’ll be destroying herself in the process. Girls who get involved in these scandals, they carry it with them the rest of their lives.”
“I’m not sure it’ll work with her.”
“It might not work with her but I’m sure it’ll work with her parents.”
“Her parents?” He seemed startled. “You’d go to her parents?”
“As a last resort.”
“That seems like a real risk.”
She reached across the table and touched his hand. In the flickering candlelight, he looked more handsome than ever.
“You’ve got our backs against the wall, David,” she said. “You’ve made it necessary to take a real risk.”
“I’m just so damned scared,” he said.
He looked as if he were going to be sick to his stomach.
“Just so damned scared,” he said.
Six
1
She was going to go, she wasn’t going to go.
That’s how Amy spent the hours between seven and eight o’clock, sitting in the living-room recliner, watching the two guests on Crossfire argue about a new drug law that the White House had proposed, a law Amy was against. Much as she hated drug dealers, and the ruins they’d brought to America, she hated the loss of liberty more, especially in the area of wiretaps.