"Because I'm not going to write it, and if it's written by someone else here, then we lose the girl. It's that simple. She's debating right now about whether to jump on a plane and leave the country, and one mistake by us and she's gone."
"But she's already spilled her guts," Keen said.
"I gave her my word, okay? I will not write the story until it's pieced together and Mattiece can be named. It's very simple."
"You're using her, aren't you?" Keen asked.
"She's a source. But she's not in the city."
"If the Times has the brief, then they know about Mattiece," Feldman said. "And if they know about Mattiece, you can bet they'ie digging like hell to verify it. What if they beat us?"
Krauthammer grunted in disgust. "We're going to sit on our asses and lose the biggest story I've seen in twenty years. I say we run what we've got. It's just the surface, but it's a helluva story right now."
"No," Gray said. "I won't write it until I have all of it."
"And how long might that take?" Feldman asked.
"A week, maybe."
"We don't have a week," Krauthammer said.
Gray was desperate. "I can find out how much the Times knows. Give me forty-eight hours."
"They're running something tomorrow or Sunday," Feldman said again.
"Let 'em run it. I'll bet money it'll be the same story with probably the same mug shots. You guys are assuming a hell of a lot. You're assuming they've got a copy of the brief, but its author doesn't have a copy of it. We don't have a copy of it. Let's wait, and read their little story, then go from there."
The editors studied each other. Krauthammer was frustrated. Keen was anxious. But the boss was Feldman, and he said, "Okay. If they run something in the morning, we'll meet here at noon and look at it."
"Fine," Gray said quickly and reached for the door.
"You'd better move fast, Grantham," Feldman said. "We can't sit on this much longer."
Grantham was gone.
The limousine moved patiently in the Beltway rush hour. It was dark, and Matthew Barr read with the aid of a reading light in the ceiling. Coal sipped Perrier and watched the traffic. He had the brief memorized, and could have simply explained it to Barr, but he wanted to watch his reaction.
Barr had no reaction until he got to the photograph, then slowly shook his head. He laid it on the seat, and thought about it for a moment. "Very nasty," he said.
Coal grunted.
"How true is it?" Barr asked.
"I'd love to know."
"When did you first see it?"
"Tuesday of last week. It came over from the FBI in one of their daily reports."
"What'd the President say?"
"He was not that happy with it, but there was no cause for alarm. It's just another wild shot in the dark, we thought. He talked to Voyles about it, and Voyles agreed to leave it alone for a while. Now I'm not so sure."
"Did the President ask Voyles to back off?" Barr asked the question slowly.
"Yes."
"That's awfully close to obstruction of justice, assuming of course the brief turns out to be true."
"And what if it's true?"
"Then the President has problems. I've got one conviction for obstruction, so I've been there. It's like mail fraud. It's broad and wide and fairly easy to prove. Were you in on it?"
"What do you think?"
"Then I think you've got problems too."
They rode in silence and watched the traffic. Coal had thought through the obstruction angle, but he wanted Barr's opinion. He wasn't worried about criminal charges. The President had one brief little chat with Voyles, asked him to look elsewhere for the time being, and that was it. Hardly the work of felons. But Coal was terribly concerned with reelection, and a scandal involving a major contributor like Mattiece would be devastating. The thought was sickening-a man the President knew and took millions from paid money to have two Supreme Court Justices knocked off so his pal the President could appoint more reasonable men to the bench so that the oil could be harvested. The Democrats would fall in the streets howling with glee. Every subcommittee in Congress would hold hearings. Every newspaper would run it every day for a year. The Justice Department would be forced to investigate. Coal would be forced to take the blame and resign. Hell, everyone in the White House, except the President, would have to go.
It was a nightmare of horrific proportions.
"We've got to find out if the brief is true," Coal said to the window.
"If people are dying, then it's true. Give me a better reason for killing Callahan and Verheek."
There was no other reason, and Coal knew it. "I want you to do something."
"Find the girl."
"No. She's either dead or hiding in a cave somewhere. I want you to talk to Mattiece."
"I'm sure he's in the yellow pages."
"You can find him. We need to establish a link that the President knows nothing about. We need to first determine how much of this is true."
"And you think Victor will take me into his confidence and tell me his secrets."
"Yes, eventually. You're not a cop, remember. Assume it's true, and he thinks he's about to be exposed. He's desperate and he's killing people. What if you told him the press had the story and the end was near, and if he is inclined to disappear, then now's the time? You're coming to him from Washington, remember? From the inside. From the President, or so he thinks. He'll listen to you."
"Okay. What if he tells me it's true? What's in it for us?"
"I've got some ideas, all in the category of damage control. The first thing we'll do is immediately appoint two nature lovers to the Court. I mean, wild-eyed radical bird watchers. It would show that down deep we're good little environmentalists. And it would kill Mattiece and his oil field, etc. We could do this in a matter of hours. Almost simultaneously, the President will call in Voyles and the Attorney General and Justice and demand an immediate investigation into Mattiece. We'll leak copies of the brief to every reporter in town, then hunker down and ride out the storm."
Chapter Twenty
Barr was smiling with admiration.
Coal continued. "It won't be pretty, but it's far better than sitting back and hoping the brief is a work of fiction."
"How do you explain that photograph?"
"You can't. It'll hurt for a while, but it was seven years ago, and people go crazy. We'll portray Mattiece as a good citizen back then, but now he's a madman."
"He is a madman."
"Yes, he is. And right now he's like a wounded dog backed in a corner. You must convince him to throw in the towel, and haul ass. I think he'll listen to you. And I think we'll find out from him if it's true."
"So how do I find him?"
"I've got a man working on that. I'll pull some strings, and make a contact. Be ready to go on Sunday."
Barr smiled to the window. He would like to meet Mattiece.
The traffic slowed. Coal slowly sipped his water. "Anything on Grantham?"
"Not really. We're listening and watching, but nothing exciting. He talks to his mother and a couple of gals, but nothing worth reporting. He works a lot. He left town Wednesday and returned Thursday."
"Where did he go?"
"New York. Probably working on some story."
Cleve was supposed to be at the corner of Rhode Island and Sixth at exactly 10 P.M., but he wasn't. Gray was supposed to race down Rhode Island until Cleve caught him, so that if anyone was indeed following him they would think he was simply a dangerous driver. He raced down Rhode Island, through Sixth at fifty miles per hour, and watched for blue lights. There were none. He looped around, and fifteen minutes later barreled down Rhode Island again. There! He saw blue lights and pulled to the curb.