To Alex’s experienced eye the place looked reasonably doable from a protection point of view. The single entry and exit for vehicular traffic was both bad and good for obvious reasons. Still, the president wouldn’t be here that long. Two hours tops.
As Alex drove back into Brennan, he looked around the small town. It had long been a Service myth that the best time to rob a bank was when the president was in town, because every cop within twenty miles would be watching him and not the townspeople’s money. Alex had a feeling that adage would be pretty accurate here. There were no cops anywhere.
Back in his hotel room Alex decided to go for a run. He’d gone through college on a track scholarship, and, despite his neck injury, he ran whenever he could. It was one of the few things keeping him from feeling totally washed up physically. He hit the main street and headed east, passed the hospital and then turned left and picked up his pace as he headed north. A van passed him. He had no reason to look over and didn’t. He wouldn’t have recognized the woman anyway. Nor did Djamila look in his direction as she drove by with the three boys in the back.
Next Alex passed an auto repair facility with its blacked-out windows. Hidden behind them was a lot of work going on as a new vehicle was fashioned. If Alex had been aware of the plot, he would’ve charged into the garage and arrested everyone there. But he wasn’t aware, so he just kept jogging. Indeed, the downtown area of Brennan held little interest for Alex because the president would never be coming here. The ceremony at the dedication grounds would constitute the entire program.
After he had showered back at his hotel room, Alex went to volunteer for another chunk of work that night. Might as well do all he could to get back into the Service’s good graces.
While Alex was working away up in Brennan, Kate was busy too. She’d risen very early that day and eaten breakfast with Lucky. She asked the older woman a favor, which Lucky quickly granted.
After that, Kate had gone to the carriage house, sat down at her small desk and planned out her attack on Oliver Stone. Alex had said that he had run Stone’s prints through all the usual databases and come up with zilch. To Kate, that could only mean one of two things: Either the man had never held a position requiring a fingerprint check or else his identity had been erased from those databases so completely that whoever Oliver Stone really was had ceased to exist. She wrote down some possible lines of inquiries and then mapped out her strategy in the same manner she would a legal case. Satisfied, she quickly showered and headed out.
A little later she parked as close to Mt. Zion Cemetery as she could and then waited. It was only seven-thirty in the morning, but as she watched, Stone emerged from his cottage and headed off down the street. Kate ducked down in her car so he couldn’t see her. When he was almost out of sight, a surprising thing happened. Adelphia came out from behind some parked cars on Q Street and started following Stone. Kate thought for a moment and then put the car in gear. She quickly caught up to Adelphia and rolled down her window.
At first Adelphia pretended not to know who she was, but Kate persisted and Adelphia finally said self-consciously, “Oh, yes, it is you I know now.” Then she cast an anxious glance in Stone’s direction. He was almost out of sight.
“Do you have somewhere to go?” Kate asked, following her gaze.
“It is nowhere I have to go,” Adelphia said curtly. “I am free to do nothing.”
“Then how about I buy you a cup of coffee? Alex told me that you like coffee.”
“It is my own café I can buy. I earn living. I no need charity.”
“I was just being friendly. Friends do that, you know. Like when Oliver helped you in the park when that man attacked you.”
Adelphia looked at her suspiciously. “How is all this you know?”
“Adelphia, you’re not the only one worried about Oliver. Alex is too. And I’m trying to help him while he’s out of town. Now, please come and have a cup of coffee with me. Please.”
“Why you help Agent Fort?” she asked suspiciously.
“Woman to woman? Because I care about him. Just like I know you care about Oliver.”
At these words Adelphia looked once more in the direction of Stone, started to sniffle a little, got in the car and allowed Kate to buy her coffee at a nearby Starbucks.
“So what is it that you do?” Adelphia said.
“I work for the Department of Justice.”
“So that is what you do? Make the justice?”
“I’d like to think so. At least I try.”
“In my country, for years — no, for decades — we have no justice. We have Soviets telling us what to do. Whether we can breathe air or not, they tell us. It is hell.”
“I’m sure it was awful.”
“Then I come to this country, get job, have good life.”
Kate hesitated but then couldn’t help herself. “So how’d you end up in Lafayette Park?”
At first Adelphia got an obstinate look on her face, but that dissolved quickly. Her voice trembling, she said, “No one ask me that before. Just you now. All these years and just you now ask me this.”
“I realize you don’t know me very well, and you don’t have to answer.”
“It is good thing. I no want to talk about it. I no want to.”
They both sipped their coffees for a bit longer. Finally, Adelphia said, “You right. I worry sick about Oliver. He a troubled man. I know this.”
“And how do you know?”
Adelphia reached in her sleeve and drew out a handkerchief to wipe her eyes. “I watch the TV the other night. I never watch the TV. I never read the newspapers. Do you know why I never do these things?” Kate shook her head. “Because they are lies. Filled with lies they are.”
“But you said you did see the TV.”
“Yes, the news, it is on. And then I see it.”
“What did you see?”
Adelphia suddenly looked frightened, as though she had said far too much. “No, it is not thing I can say. It is not right for me to say. You are lawyer. You work for government. I no want to get Oliver in trouble.”
“Adelphia, do you think Oliver did something wrong?”
“No! No, it is not this I think. I tell you, he is good man.”
“Okay, then he has nothing to worry about from the government. Or me.”
Still, Adelphia didn’t say anything.
“Adelphia, if you’re really concerned about Oliver, let me help. You can’t follow him everywhere to make sure he’s okay.”
Finally, Adelphia sighed and patted Kate’s hand. “It is right what you say. I will tell.” Marshaling herself, she said, “On TV I see that there is body of a man found on that island in river.”
“Roosevelt Island?” Kate said quickly.
“That is one.”
“But what does that have to do with Oliver?”
“Well, you see . . . I want to take the café with Oliver, but he has meeting to go to.”
“Meeting, what sort of meeting?”
“Ah, that is what I say. What sort of meeting in middle of night? But off he go. Now, me, I am angry with this. Meeting and no café? So I pretend to go away, but I see him get in cab. And I get in cab too. I have money, I too can take cab.”
“Of course, of course,” Kate said. “What happened next?”
“I follow him to Georgetown. He get out, so I get out. He walk to river. I walk to river. And then I see his friends he meet with. I see what they do.”
“What!” Kate said it so loudly that she startled Adelphia.
“They get in old boat and they row out to island, that is what they do.”
“And then what did you do?”