Staff. That simply did not happen. But it had happened to Agent Tim
Collin. They had planned to see each other tonight as well. They had to
be careful, but they were both.cautious by nature. Where it would lead,
Collin did not know.
Born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, Collin had igood set of Midwestern
values to fall back upon. You dated, fen in love, married and had four
or five kids, strictly in that order.
He didn’t see that happening here. All he knew w t as he wanted o be
with her again- He glanced across and eyed her where she stood behind
and to the left of the President. Sunglasses On, wind lifting her hair
slightly; she seemed in complete control of everything around her.
Burton had his eyes on the crowd, then glanced at his partner in time to
see the latter’s gaze riveted for an instant on the Chief of Staff.
Burton frowned. Collin was a good agent who did his job well, maybe to
the Point of overzealOusness.
Not the first agent to suffer from that, and not necessarily a bad trait
in their line Of work. But You kept your eyes on the crowd, everything
out there. What the hell was going on?
Burton made a sideways glance at Russell, but she stared straight ahead,
seemingly Oblivious to the men assigned to protect her. Burton looked at
Collin once more. The kid now scanned the crowd, changing his pace every
now and then, left to right, right to left, sometimes up, occasionally
he would stare straight ahead, no trace of a pattern a potential
assailant could count on. But Burton could not forget the look he had
given the Chief of Staff. Behind the Sunglasses Burton had seen
something he did not like.
Alan Richmond finished his speech by staring stonily out at the
cloudless sky as the wind whipped through his perfectly styled hair. He
seemed to be looking to God for help, but in actuality he was trying to
remember if he was meeting the Japanese ambassador at two or three that
afternoon. But his faraway, almost visionary look would carry well on
the evening news.
On cue he snapped back to attention and turned to Walter Sullivan and
gave the bereaved husband a hug befitting someone of his stature.
“God, I am so sorry, Walter. My deepest, deepest condolences. If there
is anything, anything that I can do. You know that.”
Sullivan held on to the hand that was offered to him, and his legs began
to shake until two of his entourage invisibly supported him with a quick
thrust of sinewy arms.
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
“Alan, please, Walter. Friend to friend now.”
“Ibank you, Alan, you have no idea how much I appreciate your taking the
time to do this. Christy would have been so moved by your words today
Only Gloria Russell, who was watching the pair closely, noticed the
slight twinge of a smirk at the corner of her boss’s cheek. Then, in an
instant it was gone.
“I know there are really no words I can say to do justice to what you’re
feeling, Walter. It seems more and more that things in this world happen
for no purpose. Except for her sudden illness, this never would’ve
happened. I can’t explain why things like this occur,- no one can. But I
want you to know that I am here for you, when you need me. Anytime,
anyplace. We’ve been through so much together. And you’ve certainly
helped me through some pretty rough times.”
“Your friendship has always been important to me, Alan. I won’t forget
this.”
Richmond slid an arm around the old man’s shoulders. In the background
microphones dangled on long poles. Like giant rods and reels, they
surrounded the pair despite the collective efforts of the men’s
respective entourages.
“Walter, I’m going to get involved in this. I know some people will say
it’s not my job and in my position I can’t become personally involved
with anything. But goddammit, Walter, you’re my friend and I’m not going
to just let this slide away. The people responsible for this are going
to pay.”
The two men embraced once more as the photographers popped away. The