Something bad was bound to happen.”
The President shrugged. “Well, as I told you before, I’m not the first
man to hold this office to engage in those types of extracurricular
activities. Nor will I be the last.” He cupped her chin in his hand.
“You know the demands of the office I hold, Gloria, better than most.
There’s no other job like it in the world.”
“I know the pressures are enormous. I realize that, Alan.”
“That’s right. It’s a job that really requires more than is humanly
possible to deliver. Sometimes you have to deal with that reality by
relieving some of that pressure, from pulling yourself out from between
the vise occasionally.
How I deal with that pressure is important, because it dictates how
well I can serve the people who have elected me, who have placed their
trust in me.”
He turned back to his desk. “And besides, enjoying the company of
beautiful women is a relatively innocuous way of combating that stress.”
Gloria stared angrily at his back. As if he expected her, of all people,
to be swayed by the rhetoric, by a bullshit patriotic speech.
“It certainly wasn’t innocuous for Christine Sullivan,” she blurted out.
Richmond turned back to her; he was no longer smiling. “I really don’t
want to talk about this anymore, Gloria. What’s past is past–start
thinking about the future. Understand?”
She bowed her head in formal assent and stalked from the room.
The President again picked up the phone. He would deliver all the
necessary details about the police sting to his good friend Walter
Sullivan. The President smiled to himself as the call was being placed.
It sounded like it wouldn’t be long now . They were almost there. He
could count on Burton. Count on him to do the right thing. For all of
them.
LUTHER CHECKED HIS WATCH. ONE O’CLOCK. HE SHOWERED, brushed his teeth
and then trimmed his newly grown beard.
He lingered over his hair until it met with his satisfaction.
His face looked better today. The phone call from Kate had worked
wonders. He had cradled the phone in his ear playing the message over
and over again, just to hear the voice, the words he had never expected
to hear again. He had risked going to a men’s store downtown where he
bought a new pair of slacks, sports coat and patent leathers. He had
considered and then discarded the notion of a tie.
He tried on his new coat. It felt good. The pants were a little loose on
him; he had lost weight. He would have to eat more. He might even start
with buying his daughter an early dinner. If she’d let him. He’d have to
think about that one; he didn’t want to push it.
Jack! It must’ve been Jack. He had told her of their meeting. That her
father had been in trouble. that was the connection. Of course! He had
been stupid not to see it right away. But what did that mean? That she
cared? He felt a tremble start in his neck and it ended at his knees.
After an these years? He swore under his breath at the timing. The
fucking timing! But he had made up his mind and nothing could change
that decision now. Not even his little girl. Something terribly wrong
had to be set right.
Luther was certain Richmond knew nothing about his correspondence with
the Chief of Staff. Her only hope was to quietly buy back what Luther
had and then make sure no one ever laid eyes on it again. Buy him off,
hoping he’d disappear forever and the world would never know. He had
verified that the money had arrived in the designated account.
What happened to that money would be their first surprise.
The second surprise, though, would make them forget all about the first.
And the best part was that Richmond would never see it coming. He
seriously doubted that the President would actually do any time. But if
this didn’t meet the criteria for impeachment he didn’t know what did.
This made Watergate look like a third-grade prank. He wondered what
impeached ex-Presidents did. Withered in the flames of their own