Shadows and Lies (7 page)

“‘Sea of uncertainties’? The ‘planet hangs on a web’? You have a way with words, Mr. Lawyer.”

The man sighed. “This is no time for games. I need to know what you’ve learned. I don’t want to risk sending someone connected to the White House into that apartment, that is the entire reason you were asked to do this favor for a friend or have you forgotten that already?”

Powers didn't trust Karp, not for one instant, and found his use of emotion to manipulate him confirmation of this instinctive judgment, but much of what he said made too much sense to ignore. "I was only in the apartment a few minutes. It's a shambles. There is blood in the living room, a trail to the bathroom, more blood there. I found no body."

"And tapes?"

"There were some scattered on the carpet in the living room but they appear to be regular films. I didn't take the time to check them out. I've not searched the place so I can only speculate, but it's safe to assume anything someone was looking for has been taken."

"Then what you're telling me is that Marei is dead?"

Powers shrugged. "Perhaps. Probably. But I saw nothing to confirm it."

"Oh, sweet Jesus," Karp muttered. "That fool. I warned him and warned him." He removed his glasses, extracted a folded white kerchief from his suit pocket and slowly wiped his face. "Anyone could have done this. She’ll have been forced to talk before they killed her. The tapes are almost certainly gone. Oh, sweet Jesus."

The men sat in silence for several long moments broken only by an occasional sniff from Shanken. Karp slowly finished his cigarette and pondered the misty glass of the window nearest him. "You are to stay in contact," he finally directed. "Shanken and Lily will always be available in the event you need help. I’ll give you a number to reach Shanken. He's been with the President for some years and is more in your line of work. You just keep doing what Mrs. Tufts asked. That's the best way to serve your President and country. Don't be concerned about the rest of it, but watch your step. We don't know who's done this but if what you say is true about blood and violence, they aren't going to stand for interference. They will be very dangerous people. You understand? Remember your objective here. Find the Marei woman, dead or alive, because either way we have to know. And we must have all papers and tapes taken from her apartment if humanly possible. Go back and search the place thoroughly, then call Shanken. He'll arrange to have it sanitized." Karp nodded towards the man who reached into his pocket.

"Here's a key to the apartment," Shanken said with a know-all smirk. "No need for you to pick locks. And this is information on the broad and her associates that might help." The key was in a plastic baggie along with a small black dime store notebook. "A number for me is on the first page. You've got a cellular, so just use it. This way now."

Shanken and Lily slipped Powers from the limousine as easily as they had abducted him and they were scarcely on the sidewalk before it sped off. Shanken pulled a battered fedora from his worn raincoat then removed a pink and white peppermint from his other pocket, twisted off the wrapper then popped the candy into his mouth. He stared thoughtfully at the clouds, belted his worn raincoat, and said, "Fuckin' rain." He pulled a wadded handkerchief from his pants pocket and honked into it before turning to Powers, as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him. "I'd give my left nut for a cigarette. I don't suppose you've got a pack?" he asked with a warm smile. "Didn't think so. All right. Me and Mr. Talkative here will be around. Come on," he said to Lily, "you drive. Let's grab a bite and let this guy go to work." He looked upward again and in a fading voice Powers heard him say, "Damn I hate these late nights. The missus is gonna give me hell."

~

Powers stepped quickly to his meeting with Alta Fort, scanning M Street for a cruising taxi. What had been presented to him as relatively straight forward blackmail had quickly turned into something for which the permutations were almost endless. He had to assume there was no direct proof that Marei was an actual agent. Surely even a President as licentious as Tufts would refuse to see a known spy. Karp had suggested the woman's loyalties were suspect. The President sounded confident of her, but Karp had said he wasn't.

Not that Powers trusted Karp – or Tufts for that matter. He understood the type and was leery of Tuft’s account as he was Karp's version of events. Shanken and Lily didn’t make it any easier. The last time Powers had seen someone like Lily had been when the Chicago outfit had sent an out-of-town specialist to St. Louis to clean up loose ends after a turf fight with the Russian mob. He'd been efficient and low key. They'd never found a body resulting from his handiwork.

The reality was that almost anyone could have attacked Marei and now had the tapes. He couldn't rule out Iraqis, or any group for that matter which was opposed to the looming war. Run with it long enough and Powers could come up with reasons why someone in favor of a war would be after the tapes. It was all a question of exercising power over the President and directing American foreign policy. That was going to be a long list.

He might not even have to go that far, Powers realized. Most murders were a lot simpler than they appeared and strangers rarely killed other strangers, despite the impression given by the media and films.

Alta had warned him that the President was obsessed with Marei. What if she told him what she'd set in motion and he flipped out, killed her then took back his own tapes? Becky wouldn't know and had asked Powers to step into a quagmire.

Tufts hadn't acted like a man with blood on his hands but Powers had investigated or observed enough killers over the years to know they weren't all drunks or lunatics. A politician as skilled at masking his true feelings as the President could be expected to hide a little murder between friends.

This placed Karp’s actions in a very different light. What was he really up to? Covering for Tufts? Or maybe he was running his own game and wanted his suspicions confirmed. Then again, maybe what Karp told Powers in the car was the truth.

A warning had been nagging at him since before leaving the limousine. Something in what Karp said, or in his voice, or manner. Powers posed the thought as a question.

What if he were the patsy?

SIX

The Tidal Basin, 10:42 p.m.

The wind was kicking up and there were intermittent drops of rain by the time Powers arrived at the Tidal Basin rendezvous. Alta Fort was wrapped in a lightweight charcoal raincoat and stood in the shadow of the last cherry tree which lined the adjacent walk. She lifted a casual hand to Powers though he had spotted her some distance away where he told the taxi driver to drop him. As soon as he approached she scowled and spoke in a sharp voice. "You're late! You call and say you've got trouble, then you keep me waiting. You're supposed to be a professional!"

"I was picked up."

Her manner changed abruptly. "Who was it?"

"Let's stroll. We'll be less conspicuous." He turned back towards the Lincoln Memorial and Independence Avenue. Braced by the growing wind the water aggressively lapped beside them. "It was Karp and two thugs."

"Marty? Then the others would have been Mutt and Jeff. That's what we call Chesty Shanken, and that creep who hangs around with him. You didn't tell them anything, did you?"

"Did you know that Julie Marei was Lebanese? Her family moved to France during the civil war."

"I... I thought she was French."

"Karp claims there are national security issues at stake here. I allowed that he might have a point."

"Don't be too taken with that line. He uses it for his convenience."

"But I'm ahead of myself." Powers told Alta about meeting Yvette Dorat and what they had discovered at Marei's apartment.

Alta was stunned as the story unfolded. "Is she dead?"

"I don't know, but it's likely. We can assume the tapes are gone along with her body. I'm going back to make a detailed search. It's possible the tapes were concealed with regular movie videos or she had an especially ingenious hiding hole for them. Karp says after I’m finished Shanken will arrange to have the place cleaned up—‘sanitized' was his word. Is that what you want?"

Alta was shaken. "I don't know. If you think so." She turned her face up to Powers who saw that her heavy glasses were stained with rain drops. "Will this Dorat woman be quiet?"

"I think so. She was terrified. She's known about Tufts and Marei for some time and hasn't said anything."

"It's important she keep quiet, especially now that she knows so much. Marei's Arab, you say?"

"According to Karp. Mixed background but, yes, a lot Arab. Keep in mind that the only thing Dorat knows now that she didn't before is that Marei's apartment was searched, there's blood and Marei is missing. She believes the President is concerned and that I'm going to help her friend if I can find her."

"You told her you were from the President?" Alta was shocked.

"No. She doesn't even know my name. Let's just say we talked in code. She surmised who I am, but has nothing tangible if anyone asked."

"So you went ahead and told Karp all of this?"

“Almost everything. I didn't mention Dorat to him. I don't like Karp or his methods. I also don't like the looks of either Lily or Shanken."

She shuddered lightly. "The tall one gives me the creeps."

"What do you know about them?"

"Chesty is retired from the Army. He joined the Tufts' security staff about eight years ago so I’ve seen a lot of him. They were having trouble with the state troopers at the time. I know Mrs. Tufts believed they were procuring women for her husband and despised them for it. Whenever she learned about one of his women being on the staff she fired her. The last straw was when there was an article in the
Courier Tribune
, the state’s biggest paper, about something that Mr. Tufts believed could only come from one of the troopers so Mrs. Tufts found an outside security expert. I think Karp knew of Chesty. I can't be certain of that. I never dealt with him that much."

"What did he do for the Tufts?"

"A trouble shooter. I think primarily he spied on the troopers, kept them in line. Both Mrs. Tufts and the governor were very pleased with his performance. He's not really so bad, I guess, not when you look at the types they've got here. Very secretive but at least he's kind of funny and doesn't take himself seriously. Not like the other one."

"What about him?"

"He's pretty new. This is the first time I've even heard his name. These guys are really closed mouthed. He came on board a few months ago and I don’t think Chesty likes him very much. I have no idea what he does but you rarely see one without the other, so I guess it’s okay. I think he's on detached duty from the military, but I can't say for certain."

"See what you can find out. About both of them. Tell me about Karp."

“He was the managing partner at The Blue Ridge Firm. He's the one who hired Mrs. Tufts there and steered her career, so she owes him a great deal. She brought him onboard as her husband's chief counsel because she needed someone she trusts and who was a friend. He’s a bit of a maverick. None of us trusts the established instruments of government, but Marty makes it a passion. He has his own network he uses unless he has no alternative, and then he uses at least one intermediary, so the agency he wants something from doesn’t know it’s coming from him."

"Where are his loyalties today?"

Alta considered that a moment. "To both of them, I suppose, especially with Mrs. Tufts but I can honestly say I'm no longer certain. Everyone's changed so much since we came to Washington."

"It’s unfortunate Becky destroyed the note. Was it handwritten, typed, a paste up job?”

“It was handwritten. It looked normal to me. No exclamation points, nothing underlined or emphasized. Just a note.”

“I need to view the tape. If this had been as straight forward as initially presented that wouldn't be necessary but in light of developments I have to."

Her eyes grew wide. "Is that really necessary?"

"I'm afraid so. I need to know where it was filmed, if anyone was operating the camcorder, watch the President's demeanor. I also need to see him and Marei together, how they interact, her manner, listen to the kind of questions she asks. I can think off hand of a dozen details I could take from a viewing, things you and Becky aren't likely to have noticed."

"I have to check with Mrs. Tufts. Can it wait?”

“No." Powers listened to the water and wind for several steps. Wilbur Mills had ended his political career somewhere along this walk when his enthusiastic Latin companion, known henceforth as the Tidal Basin Bombshell, had frolicked in the water. "Are you certain Becky's told me everything about this?"

"I don't know what you mean." He could sense her withdraw. "Is there something she or you know that I haven't been told?"

"Of course not! What are you suggesting?"

"Only that this situation has spun out of control faster than I can move. I'm wondering if there isn't something else going on here."

Alta appeared stunned. "I... I don't know how to respond. She
trusts
you. Don't you see that? Have you any idea how many of her so called 'friends' have betrayed her these last four years? Just consider the number of books that have been written. Those vicious stories in the tabloids. She's
depending
on you!"