At the moment, he didn’t care if his power went off completely. A deranged killer had left evidence on his porch, and he wished Slipper would hurry up and e-mail Trooper Truth. Andy got up and shoved a chair halfway across the dining room. He angrily snatched another beer out of the kitchen refrigerator and returned to his computer.
Words began to flow through his fingers as he composed a pithy essay and posted it on the website. Slipper e-mailed Trooper Truth, and Andy answered and then fell asleep at the keyboard. When the telephone woke him up, he was slumped over with his head on the dining-room table.
“Oh, shit,” he groaned, looking around, dazed and stiff as the phone continued to ring.
“Hello?” he answered, hoping it was Hammer, and that she’d already read his new essay and liked it.
“Is there somebody there named Andy Brazil?” a vaguely familiar female voice inquired over the line.
“Who wants to know?”
“This is First Lady Crimm.”
“Yes, First Lady!” Andy said, startled. “What an unexpected surprise . . .”
“You’re to report to the mansion at six for drinks and a light supper. That’s six tonight.”
“Thursday?” Andy asked, confused about what day of the week it was.
“Why, I guess it is Thursday. I don’t know where the weeks go. We’re in the big pale yellow house in the middle of Capitol Square on Ninth Street, right before you get to Broad. I know you’re relatively new to the city and were suspended for a year and therefore might not know your way around.”
First Lady Crimm handed the phone back to Pony and smiled with satisfaction as her daughters looked on from the antebellum breakfast table.
“I still think you should have discussed this with Papa first.” Grace nodded at Pony to please add more butter to her grits as wind gusted in from the north and a hard rain began to fall.
“He liked the young man. I could tell,” Mrs. Crimm replied. “Your father has a lot on his mind. My goodness! One minute the sun’s out, and it’s raining the next!”
“He notices more than you think he does. And if he’s suddenly flying around with some blond-haired former city cop who’s now a trooper who’s been suspended before, Papa might remember he had nothing to do with it,” Faith said as rain pummeled the old slate roof.
“Do with what?” the First Lady asked.
“With him suddenly flying us.”
“Nonsense. We need more pilots. I don’t know what’s happened to all our pilots unless they’re busy with the speed traps and don’t have time for us anymore. And you heard what the young man said. He has something important to discuss with your papa, and I, at least, want to know what it is.”
Pony was searching for the portable phone base unit. He could never find anything in the mansion and its guest houses when the Crimms lived here, and on especially trying days, he wasn’t sure the prison officials had done him a favor by assigning him to the mansion’s domestic staff. Other inmates who worked for the First Family were outside repairing things, doing the gardening, raking leaves, and polishing the state cars.
“I don’t mean to intrude,” Pony said without looking anyone in the eye. “I can’t seem to find the base unit for the phone.”
Constance, Grace, Faith, and the First Lady were momentarily distracted, just as they always were when someone couldn’t find something. Regina was the only member of the First Family who preferred to eat unassisted. If Pony served her, it took too long. She helped herself to toast, grits, eggs over easy, another banana, and sourwood honey that the governor of North Carolina had sent last Christmas to slyly remind the Crimms that the Tar Heel state was far superior to the Commonwealth of Virginia.
“It was here a minute ago.” Faith was getting frustrated, her horse-shaped face pale and scarcely visible because she had not colorized it with heavy make-up yet.
The First Family had learned the art of searching all over the house without ever moving from their chairs. Pony had never understood how people could pull this off, but then if he were so special and smart, he wouldn’t be wearing a white jacket and waiting on the Crimms morning, noon, and night.