The Governor's Lady (45 page)

She was visiting with Nolan when Wheeler appeared at her elbow.

“Can you take a break? Somebody needs a word with you.”

He led her to an office in a far corner of the building, opened the door for her, then went away.

Plato looked wretched, the skin of his unshaven face sagging, a haunted, defeated look in his eyes.

“There’s something you need to know,” he said. “I’m Wheeler’s source.”

She took an instant to collect herself. “I had no idea.”

“Call it part spite, part grief. Pickett got rid of me because of what I am.”

“Surely, he knew that.”

“Of course he did. But now, all of a sudden, it matters. He starts looking legitimate. The big boys show up. They’ve been down the road before. They tell Pickett he can’t afford to have somebody so close to him with my kind of baggage. Maybe some sordid little relationship all these years? Somebody plants a rumor, and it goes viral. It could destroy him. So I’m a liability. That’s the word he used. Me, the one he always called indispensable, a liability.” Eyes watering, he turned away.

“That was a terrible thing to do,” she said.

“You should know, I put together the land deal for Jake and the others. And the understanding with Woodrow. That and all the times before—all the messy details, the dirty work—I was always the guy.”

”How did you know Wheeler was digging into the land deal?”

“The guy in Virginia, Vincente, he called me. The Secretary of State’s Office told him somebody was snooping around. He had a description. Wheeler Kincaid.” He stared at the floor. “Cooper, I’m a sonofabitch, and I pretended I wasn’t, because that’s what it took. But now, I don’t
have the luxury of pretense. I thought back over the years, all the things I did for him. Pickett used me, and I gladly let him.” His voice went soft. “I loved Pickett. I gave up myself for him because I loved him. But the price of loving him made me rotten, and when I finally saw that, it made me sick of myself. When he told me I had to go, he offered to cut me in on the land deal, but I couldn’t do it. Then, when I figured out Kincaid was on to it, I called him.”

“He said you gave him an affidavit.”

“Yes. If you ever have to use it …”

“Probably not. I don’t think I will,” she said. “What are you going to do now?”

“Be quiet, be as invisible as possible, somewhere else. Wheeler knows how to contact me. And if anything should happen to me …”

“Are you in danger?”

“I’ve got somewhere to go, out of state. With a friend.”

She understood how it must have been for him all these years.
A friend out of state
. Maybe that helped, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

He seemed very small now, and much older. A castoff. She started to say she was sorry for what was happening to him, but there was too much history, too much of taking Pickett away from her and helping him become something she no longer recognized.

Instead, she said, “Thank you for helping Wheeler.”

“Good luck,” Plato said.

“I imagine I’ll need it.”

“Even with the hand you’re holding, it won’t be easy.”

“I understand that. I don’t fool myself, not anymore.”

He nodded, and was gone.

Toward the shank of the day, as the crowd was thinning, Carter
pulled her aside. “I talked to the Registrar’s Office. Classes have started, but they’ll let me in, and I can work hard and catch up. They’ve got my schedule worked out.”

“I’m sorry for you. About what’s happened.”

He shrugged. “It’s not what I thought it was. It’ll break your heart.”

“It doesn’t have to be that way. Give it some time.”

Allison’s car was packed and waiting at the Executive Mansion. She would head back to Atlanta in the evening. Cooper understood they had a lot of baggage and hoped they would find a way to deal with it together, but there were no guarantees.

She thought about the journey she and Carter and Allison were facing, the wrenching changes, their need to cherish each other, to survive by clinging to each other for dear life. She had a long, difficult road ahead of her in the capital, but that was a job, not a reason for being. They were.

Finally, it was over, and they went out into the waning day. Clouds had moved in—thickening, lowering. The temperature had dropped. The air bit their cheeks. It was January, after all.
She got her wish. She didn’t die in February
.

Ezra was waiting by the car. Carter and Allison climbed in, but Cooper stood for a moment outside, looking toward the dome of the Capitol in the distance. And then she thought of the house in the upstate, the quiet pond beyond the pasture. She had told Fate Wilmer she planned to keep it. It would be the place where she might, when she needed it most, rest her soul. It would be home.

She smiled at Ezra and ducked into the backseat.

“It may snow again,” Carter said.

“It may,” Cooper said. “I can handle that.”