Child, Lee – Without Fail

and filing cabinets and shelves loaded with three-ring binders

and piles of loose memos. There was a portrait of the current

President on the wall and a furled Stars and Stripes in a corner.

A coat rack next to the flag. Nothing else. Everything was

tidy. Nothing was out of place. Behind the secretary’s desk was

the fire exit. It was a stout door with an acetate plaque showing

a green man running. Above the exit was a surveillance camera.

It stared forward like an unblinking glass eye. Opposite the

secretarial station was a single blank door. It was closed.

‘Stuyvesant’s office,’ Froelich said.

She opened the door and led them inside. Flicked a switch

and bright halogen light filled the room. It was a reasonably

small office. Smaller than the square anteroom outside it. There

was a window, with white fabric blinds closed against the night.

‘Does the window open?’ Neagley asked.

‘No,’ Froelich said. ‘And it faces Pennsylvania Avenue, anyway.

Some burglar climbs up three floors on a rope, somebody’s

going to notice, believe me.’

The office was dominated by a huge desk with a grey composite

top. It was completely empty. There was a leather chair

pushed exactly square against it.

‘Doesn’t he use a phone?’ Reacher asked.

‘Keeps it in the drawer,’ Froelich said. ‘He likes the desktop

clear.’

There were tall cabinets against the wall, faced with the same

grey laminate as the desk. There were two visitor chairs made

of leather. Apart from that, nothing. It was a serene space. It

spoke of a tidy mind.

‘OK,’ Froelich said. ‘he mail threat came on the Monday in

80

the week after the election. Then, on the Wednesday evening,

Stuyvesant went home about seven thirty. Left his desk clear.

His secretary left a half-hour later. Popped her head in the door

just before she went, like she always does. She confirms that

the desk was clear. And she’d notice, right? If there was a sheet

of paper on the desk, it would stand out.’

Reacher nodded. The desktop looked like the foredeck of a

battleship made ready for inspection by an admiral. A speck of

dust would have stood out.

‘Eight o’clock Thursday morning, the Secretary comes in

again,’ Froelich said. ‘She walks straight to her own desk and

starts work. Doesn’t open Stuyvesant’s door at all. Ten after

eight, Stuyvesant himself shows up. He’s carrying a briefcase

and wearing a raincoat. He takes off the raincoat and hangs it

up on the coat rack. His secretary speaks to him and he sets his

briefcase upright on her desk and confers with her about something.

Then he opens his door and walks into his office. He’s

not carrying anything. He’s left his briefcase on the secretary’s

desk. About four or five seconds later he comes back out. Calls

his secretary in. They both confirm that at that point, the sheet

of paper was there on the desk.’

Neagley glanced around the office, at the door, at the desk, at

the distance between the door and the desk.

‘Is this just their testimony?’ she asked. ‘Or do the surveillance

cameras record to videotape?’

‘Both,’ Froelich said. ‘All the cameras record to separate

tapes. I’ve looked at this one, and everything happens exactly as

they describe it, coming and going.’

‘So unless they’re in it together, neither of them put the paper

there.’

Froelich nodded. Fhat’s the way I see it.’

‘So who did?’ Reacher asked. ‘What else does the tape show?’

°The cleaning crew,’ Froelich said.

She led them back to her own office and took three video

cassettes out of her desk drawer. Stepped over to a bank of

shelves, where a small Sorry television with a built-in video

nestled between a printer and a fax machine.

Fhese are copies,’ she said. The originals are locked away.

81

The recorders work on timers, six hours on each tape. Six in

the morning until noon, noon until six, six until midnight,

midnight until six, and start again.’

She found the remote in a drawer and switched the television

on. Put the first tape in the mechanism. It clicked and whirred

and a dim picture settled on the screen.

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