“I got lipstick on your face.” I wiped a smudge off his jaw.
“Oh, you should leave it so my colleagues have something to talk about.”
“I suspect they have plenty to talk about anyway.”
“Kay, it’s wonderful to see you,” he said, escorting me into the dining room.
“You may not think it’s so wonderful,” I said.
“Of course I will.” We picked a table before a stained-glass window of George Washington on a horse, and I did not look at the menu because it never changed.
Senator Lord was a distinguished man with thick gray hair and deep blue eyes. He was quite tall and lean, and had a penchant for elegant silk ties and old-fashioned finery such as vests, cuff links, pocket watches and stickpins.
“What brings you to D.C.?” he asked, placing his linen napkin in his lap.
“I have evidence to discuss at the FBI labs,” I said. He nodded.
“You’re working on that awful case in North Carolina.”
“Yes.”
“That psycho must be stopped. Do you think he’s there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Because I’m just wondering why he would be,” Lord went on.
“It would seem he would have moved on to another place where he could lay low for a while. Well, I suppose logic has little to do with the decisions these evil people make.”
“Frank,” I said, “Lucy’s in a lot of trouble.”
“I can tell something’s wrong,” he said matter-of factly
“I see it in your face.” He listened to me for half an hour as I told him everything, and I was so grateful for his patience. I knew he had to vote several times that day and that many people wanted slivers of his time.
“You’re a good man,” I said with feeling.
“And I have let you down. I asked you for a favor, which is something I almost never do, and the situation has ended in disgrace. ”
“Did she do it?” he asked, and he had scarcely touched his grilled vegetables.
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“The evidence is incriminating.” I cleared my throat.
“She says she didn’t do it.”
“Has she always told you the truth?”
“I thought so. But I’ve also been discovering of late that there are many important facets to her that she has not told me.”
“Have you asked?”
“She’s made it clear that some things aren’t my business. And I shouldn’t judge.”
“If you’re afraid of being judgmental, Kay, then you probably already are. And Lucy would sense this no matter what you say or don’t say.”
“I’ve never enjoyed being the one who criticizes and corrects her,” I said, depressed.
“But her mother, Dorothy, who is my only sibling, is too male dependent and self-centered to deal with the reality of a daughter.”
“And now Lucy is in trouble, and you are wondering how much of it is your fault.”
“I’m not conscious of wondering that.”
“We rarely are conscious of those primitive anxieties that creep out from under reason. And the only way to banish them is to rum on all the lights. Do you think you’re strong enough to do that?”
“Yes.”
“Let me remind you that if you ask, you also must be able to live with the answers.”
“I know.”
“Let’s just suppose for a moment that Lucy’s innocent,” said Senator Lord.
“Then what?” I asked.
“If Lucy didn’t violate security, obviously someone else did. My question is why?”
“My question is how,” I said. He gestured for the waitress to bring coffee.
“What we really must determine is motive. And what would Lucy’s motive be? What would anybody’s motive be?” Money was the easy answer, but I did not think that was it and told him so.
“Money is power, Kay, and everything is about power. We fallen creatures can never get enough of it.”
“Yes, the forbidden fruit.”
“Of course. All crime stems from it,” he said.
“Every day that tragic truth is carried in on a stretcher,” I agreed.
“Which tells you what about the problem at hand?” He stirred sugar into his coffee.
“It tells me motive.”
“Well, of course. Power, that’s it. Please, what would you like me to do?” my old friend asked.