“Don’t worry about me. I’ve been more people in my life than Shirley
MacLaine, and I’ve got the papers to prove it.”
“Then were all set.”
Lee looked down at Max, who had settled his big head in his lap. Lee
gently stroked the dog’s nose.
“How long?”
Faith shook her head. “I don’t know. A week, maybe.”
Lee sighed. “I guess I can have the lady downstairs take care of
Max.”
“Then you’ll do it?”
“Just so long as you understand that while I don’t mind helping
somebody who needs it, I’m not playing the world’s greatest sucker
either.”
“You don’t strike me as someone who would ever play that role.”
“If you really want a laugh, tell my ex-wife that.”
CHAPTER 11
OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA was located in northern Virginia next to the
Potomac River, about a fifteen-minute drive south of Washington, D.C.
The waters were the primary reason the city had been established, and
it had flourished as a seaport for a very long time. It was still an
affluent and desirable place to live, although the river no longer
played a prominent role in the town’s economic future.
It was a setting of both old wealth and freshly monied families nestled
within the graceful brick, stone and wood-frame structures of late
eighteenth and early nineteenth century architecture. A few of the
streets were covered in the very same rolling cobblestone that had
supported the treads of Washington and Jefferson. And of the young
Robert E. Lee at his two boyhood homes, which were set across from each
other on Oronoco Street, itself named after a particular brand of
long-ago Virginia-grown tobacco. Many of the town’s sidewalks were
brick and had buckled up around the numerous trees that had shaded the
homes, streets and inhabitants for so long. A number of the
wrought-iron fences that encircled the courtyards and gardens of the
homes were painted the color of gold on their European-inspired spikes
and finials.
At this early hour the streets of Old Town were quiet except for the
drizzle of rain and the rush of wind among the branches of the aged,
knobby trees whose shallow roots clutched at the hard Virginia clay.
The street names reflected the colonial origins of the place. Driving
through town, one would pass King, Queen, Duke and Prince Streets.
Off-road parking was scarce here, so the narrow avenues were lined with
virtually every make and model of vehicle. Placed against the
two-hundred-year-old homes, the chrome, rubber and metal hulls seemed
oddly Out of place, as though a time warp had whisked the automobile
back to the era of horse and buggy.
The narrow four-story brick townhouse that was wedged among a line of
others along Duke Street was by no means the grandest in the area.
There was a lone, tilting maple in the small front yard, its split
trunk covered with leafy suckers. The wrought-iron fencing was in good
but not superb condition. The home had a garden and courtyard out
back, yet the plantings, dripping fountain and brickwork there were
unremarkable when compared with others located but a few steps away.
Inside the home, the furnishings were far more elegant than the outside
of the place would have led the observer to expect. There was a simple
reason for this: The outside of the home was something Danny Buchanan
could not hide from curious eyes.
The first traces of the pink dawn were just starting to nudge at the
edges of the horizon as Buchanan sat, fully dressed, in the small
oval-shaped library off the dining room. A car was waiting to take him
to Reagan National Airport.
The senator he was meeting with was on the Appropriations Committee,
arguably the Senate’s most important committee, since it (and its
subcommittees) controlled the government’s purse strings. More
importantly for Buchanan’s purposes, the man also chaired the
Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, which determined where most foreign
aid dollars went. The tall, distinguished senator with the smooth
manners and confident tones was a longtime associate of Buchanan’s. The
man had always enjoyed the power that came with his position and he had
consistently lived beyond his means. The retirement package he had